Bolt Action - Legaspi landing

Between our ongoing modern Africa campaign we have some Bolt Action games for a change. Last week we did one from the Pacific campaign book "Empire in flames". The game was the early war scenario where Japanese forces are attacking to Luzon and are doing landings on various places. The scenario is quite interesting since it's combining nicely many different spacial rules. It has amphibious assault and night fighting rules in one package. And it also has Japanese as a attacking force, something you don't normally see in Pacific news reels. And off course on of my Club mates had just painted new Japanese landing crafts, which we wanted to put in use.

At the start of the fight both forces had half strength in first wave and rest were left in reserves. US actually had first half on table waiting for attack. All battlefield was dark and there would be flares occasionally in the sky. Otherwise line of sight was very limited and firing proved to be dangerous activity. And because of that the Japanese were able to move in shore quite safely and US troops only started firing when the first wave was about to land. It didn't helped at all to have one US squad at the shoreline, they still didn't saw anything. And once they opened fire they were seen and got returning fire from every unit running ashore. The were annihilated quickly.

After initial wave Japanese moved in land with determination and while moving fired at their targets with surprising accuracy, even it was night time. US forces weren't that accurate. While Japanese second wave was running to shore more US troops joined the fight and tipped the balance. After some heavy firing from US reserves it seemed that Japanese push slowed. The second wave landed but at the same time flare illuminated the battlefield and advancing Japanese were caught in the open beach. This started last phase of the fight, the true fight for attrition from both sides. And the result was as such, both sides suffered heavy losses. At the same time when Japanese attacker lost it ability to run over US troops US line became very thin. So in the end the fight ended tactical draw.

The beach just before everything started.

US troops on the beach waiting.

First Japanese wave.

All quiet still.

After the ramp dropped close range firefight erupted.

Attacker reached barbed wire line.

First wave on the shore.

Near miss from a mortar.

US troops flanking.

More Japanese pour in.

US officer following situation with some concerns.

Two heroes meet, Japanese sergeant won.

Nice game. We liked the night element and thought that this could easily have been played with double size of troops. And we will do it some times near future.