{"id":13018,"date":"2022-03-12T12:10:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-12T12:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/?p=13018"},"modified":"2022-03-12T12:11:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T12:11:55","slug":"philippines-1942-for-recon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2022\/03\/12\/philippines-1942-for-recon\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines 1942 for Recon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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American infantry destroy a Japanese tank by close assault.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In preparation for Recon 2022 in Orlando, FL, in April, I have been play testing a scenario set in the Philippines prior to the surrender. \u00a0I have tweaked the scenario after each instance, and I think it will make a good fight at the convention.<\/p>\n

I have been interested in this period for a while. \u00a0Pulp Figures makes between-the-wars Americans<\/a>, and Brigade Games makes Philippine scouts<\/a>. \u00a0I (and a couple of others) commissioned several different poses from Steve Barber Miniatures<\/a>. \u00a0Together, these give me all the figures I need to game this period.<\/p>\n

The scenario involves an American infantry platoon defending a bridge across a stream. \u00a0The Japanese are advancing. \u00a0The Americans initially have three under-strength squads, an anti-tank gun, two .30 cal. water-cooled machine-guns, and a command element. \u00a0A fourth squad and an M3 Stuart arrive as reinforcements. \u00a0The Japanese have four full-strength squads, two Type 95 Ha-Go tanks, and a command element.<\/p>\n

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The American side of the table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Japanese side of the table. The Japanese forces start 18″ from the rear edge of the table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Japanese start 18″ from their table edge. \u00a0For every 18″ that they advance across the table, the Japanese receive five victory points. \u00a0The tanks do not accrue these points, only the infantry. \u00a0It is only necessary for one infantryman to advance 18″ to get the five victory points, but this is measured at the end of the game. \u00a0They cannot dash forward, get points, and then get killed. \u00a0They have to be alive at the end of the game. \u00a0The Americans receive five points for knocking out a tank. \u00a0Both sides receive one victory point for each enemy soldier who is incapacitated. \u00a0The thought is that giving the Japanese points for ground will encourage them to advance. \u00a0The game ends after three hours of play, which can be a variable number of turns.<\/p>\n

The first time I ran the scenario it was a blowout for the Japanese. \u00a0I thought that was because I didn’t leave enough fields of fire for the Americans. \u00a0In the second running, I added a couple more hills to enable the Americans to fire over the foliage at the stream. \u00a0I also broke up the foliage on the American right to give them fields of fire. \u00a0The second instance was closer, but still a decisive American victory. \u00a0I want it to be more of a nail biter. \u00a0For Recon, I will add a fourth American squad that enters the table and let the Stuart enter earlier.<\/p>\n

When the Americans lose five figures, the fourth squad enters from their rear table edge. \u00a0This should enforce some level of defense in depth. \u00a0When ten figures are killed, the Stuart enters the table. \u00a0In both instances of the scenario the Americans defended far forward and had no reserve, so it felt very much like a hard crust and a soft interior. \u00a0I had envisioned the Americans firing from advanced positions to disrupt the Japanese and then withdrawing to a second line of defense. \u00a0Retrograde operations are difficult to conduct in real life and also hard on the tabletop.<\/p>\n

Below are some pictures from the play tests.<\/p>\n

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American infantry close assaults and knocks out a Japanese tank. In the first instance of the scenario, the American anti-tank gun missed three times, so it came down to the infantry to knock out the tanks with grenades.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The handsome and debonaire game master.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Early in the scenario.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Japanese initial dispositions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Early in the game. You can see a portion of the American deployment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Japanese are starting to take casualties.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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You can see a satisfying amount of death and mayhem as the Japanese push across the stream.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am pretty happy with the look of the table. \u00a0The roads are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts (BTC). \u00a0The stream is from Deep Cut Studios and is made of mouse mat material. \u00a0The bridge is an old Hovels model, I think. \u00a0The trees are a mix of BTC, flea market finds, cake decorating trees, and bamboo from Amazon. \u00a0 The cloth is a fleece blanket I had printed with a high-resolution image I purchased on DriveThru.<\/p>\n

The stream is fordable as rough terrain. \u00a0You can’t really tell in these pictures, but there are a lot of hills under the fleece.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you live near Florida, come to Recon and give this scenario a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for Recon 2022 in Orlando, FL, in April, I have been play testing a scenario set in the Philippines prior to the surrender. \u00a0I have tweaked the scenario after each instance, and I think it will make a good fight at the convention. I have been interested in this period for a while. … Continue reading Philippines 1942 for Recon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13030,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018\/revisions\/13030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}