Silly After Action Report - Tiger of Toungoo Part 1

A seething mass of Japanese infantry bubbled towards the town.  Waving guns, knee mortars and the occasional satchel of high explosives they formed an unruly but apparently unstoppable tide.  Here and their officers could be seen not so much leading as getting carried along for the ride.  As the shabby wooden buildings got closer the Japanese momentum slowed and suddenly the entire force stopped a camel's spit away from the nearest structure.

Corporal Ito Adingi took the opportunity to huddle under a bush and light a cigarette. He offered one to the man next to him who recoiled in horror.  A slightly extreme reaction but perhaps understandable for a man with a flamethrower strapped to his back.  In deference to his comrades terror Adingi turned his head to one side.  Around the outskirts of town officers were arranging their men into battle formation.  They did this by shrieking hysterically and waving their swords around.  Fortunately everything was organised before more than half a dozen were decapitated.  Adingi sighed, it had to be admitted these were not the emperor's finest.  Except for the man beside him.  A battle hardened expert with a history of heroic service to the emperor.  His reward was to have several gallons of flammable liquid strapped to him and be made the point man for every advance.  No wonder the poor bastard looked a little green.

"Corporal," there was a definite tremor in the flamethrower man's voice.

"What is it son?"

"I hear they've got tigers."

"What?"

"They say the Chinese have got tigers guarding the city."

Adingi frowned, he'd heard some stupid rumours in his time, had started most of them if truth be known but this was the silliest yet.  Still the man next to him looked genuinely worried.

"Do you want to know how to deal with tigers?  It's simple, you just grab them by the ears and kick them in the balls."

"Does that work?"

"I'd pay good money to see you try."

As it turns out the Chinese have only one tiger but he was so impressive that he gave his name to an ASL Scenario.  Dave Wilson and I are playing Deluxe module A10 - The Tiger of Toungoo.  Here a tough force of elite Chinese commanded by the Tiger himself are defending some of the lower rent sections of the Burmese city of Toungoo from a horde of not particularly impressive Japanese who for some reason want to claim occupancy.

As scenario attacker I command twenty six squads of Japanese infantry, twenty three of these are second line and the other three are elite. This mob are led by no fewer than seven leaders including some of the most capable sword wavers the Japanese army possessed.  To help them blast their way through the no doubt fanatical resistance they have six 50mm mortars (and a whole mass of WP ammunition), half a dozen demolition charges, six light machine guns and a flamethrower.  Victory will go to me if I capture (or burn down) every single building on the board.  Not so much as an outhouse can be left in Chinese hands.

Determined to defend every outhouse to the last Dave has twenty elite Chinese squads plus a pair of half squads (mortars, for the firing of) and a whole mess of concealment counters.  Leadership is scanty but headed up by a mighty 10-2 (the Tiger) while support is provided by two 50mm mortars, three light machine guns and a heavy machine gun.  Additionally the Chinese can fortify two building locations and have a pair of pill boxes.

Below is the at start set up which didn't exactly help me gauge where Dave might have the bulk of his forces as he had enough troops and concealment counters to cover pretty much everything in fetching brown and blue.  Some of those troops had to be dummies but which ones. The Japanese have only one method for finding out.

At start, half the population of Japan is in the wings waiting for their cue

My plan, and I did have one, involved essentially carving the board into bite sized chunks and dealing with them one at a time.  The road in the centre seemed like a good boundary line and I divided my troops into two unequal parts.  To the left of the road I had a decent sized force, well led with a trio of mortars and a couple of demo charges and lmgs spread out so that I could present a decent front.  On the right was much the same but here I also had my three elite squads (one deployed to tote the flamethrower and a DC) guided by a 10-1 leader.  I don't know why I chose the right but I'm glad that I did.

With ten turns to cover not really very much ground I decided that my progression would be slow and steady rather than a maniacal banzai rush towards the enemy.  Virtually no shooting took place in my first turn as I AMed and advanced into position for the most part, preparing for the hard days to come.  There were a couple of exceptions, on the right a DC toting elite halfsquad stepped out into the street trusting to its eight morale to protect it from harm.  It was promptly broken and crawled snivelling back to its comrades who shook their heads in embarrassment and pretended they'd never met.  On the left things were better and worse.  I sent a halfsquad forward to draw fire and to my surprise he survived to plunge into a building sweeping away a couple of dummies in the process.  That went well so I decided to help him. That didn't go well.  A half squad stepped out into the street and braved final fire to jump into the building.  There was two residual in the street but I had a squad encouraged by a mighty 10-0, surely they could handle a miserable 2-2.  Nope, the 10-0 died and the squad pinned.  I did send my halfsquads into CC but didn't manage to kill the occupant (yet).

End Japanese turn 1.  One officer dead but otherwise ok

The Chinese turn one was even lighter on firing as Dave decided to skulk virtually his entire front line despite my hysterical shouts of "come back and fight".  One of the few targets he left me with gave me the opportunity to break one of my mortars which I accepted with alacrity.  I did manage to kill a halfsquad in close combat though.  Hurray!

My second turn saw my push really begin.  One of my mortars on the right dropped a WP round on some convenient defenders and my troops swarmed forward and around his front line cheerfully plunging into CC at every opportunity.  On the left I again turned to a mortar for a little cover.  Unfortunately when these guys were given their WP and smoke rounds they put them all in a sack and dropped them in the nearest well.  Nevertheless the advance went disturbing well on the left too and I started making building gains.

End of Japanese turn 2

Lest the previous paragraph sound a little too much like an excerpt from a propaganda sheet it has to be admitted that this advance cost me as much as it did Dave, a 9-1 and a few squads joined the ranks of the heroic dead and an 8-0 was converted to a blood spattered 7+1 but Dave took equal losses and I had more troops than he did.  If we traded squads one to one at the end of the day I would have six squads left and Dave would have none.  As a proud graduate of the Douglas Haig School of Infantry Tactics I know you can't make an omelette without killing thousands of your own troops.  

Again in his own turn Dave skulked where possible and shuffled some troops in back play.  No doubt he was coming up with some evil genius plan that will ruin my hopes at game end but I decided to ignore it and live in the moment.  The mortars are causing me some irritation.  There is almost nowhere you can place them where they won't get shot to death the moment they turn up.  Still I'm hoping they'll prove useful at the end.

With the front line broken and Dave deciding that cowardice was the better part of valour I reverted to the cautious incremental advance of the first turn.  Sneaking forward where I could and tiptoeing nervously around flanks.  I can hear serried ranks of deceased Japanese soldiers sneering at me with contempt but there's a reason they're deceased.  Keep an eye on the Chinese halfsquad in the left centre currently being monstered by Japanese all around.  These enterprising little bastards would neatly ambush the troops who jumped into close combat, withdraw towards my rear and charge happily for the buildings I had captured but left behind.

Moving forward and getting closer to where Dave will have to stand and fight

I had to detach a squad from my unstoppable surge forward to go back and chase those little pricks down.  Fortunately I succeeded in doing so before they had an opportunity to capture more than a couple of building locations.  Over on the far left I had finally found a use for a couple of mortars and started gaining acquisition counters on building locations in his left rear.

The red circle marks where Dave's enterprising halfsquad got after ambushing me.  This also marks where they died

It has to be admitted I had taken a bit of a battering on the left.  Not only were casualties high but my remaining troops were scattered and disorganised.  I should have paused to regroup, instead I pushed on, capturing some more buildings but at the price of more casualties and disorganisation.  Over on the right I was in somewhat better shape, concentrated and pushing forward to his last line of defence.  A pillbox was revealed in the centre with its covered arc pointing to the right direction and I would soon discover the other pillbox in a patch of woods on the far right with its covered arc pointed in the other direction.  The result was a cross fire covering the street I would have to cross to get to the last buildings.  In the forest pillbox was the hmg guided by the Tiger himself ready to apply his -2 modifier with extreme prejudice to any Japanese foolhardy enough to wander out into the street.

Over on the left my sloppy and disjointed attack was punished when a squad and a 10-1 leader were slaughtered in close combat leaving me embarrassingly short of troops to get forward.  

Yep, the left is a bit of a problem

To add insult to injury Dave then got a little keen on close combat and pushed a squad and a half against my forwardmost surviving squad.  Fortunately these guys managed to survive and kill the half squad so the melee rages on.  On the right having carefully shepherded my flamethrower half squad forward under a concealment marker for most of the game I took a shot at his pillbox with the 10-2.  There was no result of course but I hope for better things next turn.

Even more of a problem now

This is where Dave and I left it for the week.  We'll pick it up next week at the start of my turn five.  I have time to burn and three defensive clusters to take out.  The large building on the right will no doubt be the toughest nut and I'm going to have to do something about the damn pillboxes.  My sniper has made a start by wounding the 9-1 commanding the squad lmg combo in the centre pillbox.  Dare I hope for a better sniper result on the other one?  Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion to my two part blog series Hunting Tigers for Fun and Profit.