Silly After Action Report - The Last Drop

 The transport aircraft ploughed through the air.  In the hold Captain Ito Matahari addressed his less than enthusiastic troops.

"When the door opens you jump," he shouted above the noise of the engines.  "When you approach the ground you tuck and roll.  Is that understood?"

On his cue the door in the side of the transport aircraft opened and the wind blasted in.

"Go!" shouted Matahari.  "Go, go, go!"  Of course he shouted it in Japanese but you get the idea.

Obedient to their training the soldiers lurched to their feet, shuffled to the door and one by one launched themselves into the void.  Matahari nodded approvingly as the last one left.  Fumbling the door closed he made his way to the front of the plane to where the colonel awaited his report.

"How is the training coming captain?"

"Very well sir, I think next time they'll be ready to do it with parachutes."

I actually wondered for a while whether to bother writing an AAR about this one.  To be honest not a lot happened and the result was never in doubt.  Then I remembered I had promised a paradrop AAR on Gamesquad and if the number of hits on my blog are any indication those guys have a high boredom threshold.  Therefore by popular demand (or at least popular resignation) here is the AAR on BFP 57 - The Last Drop.  I shall command the Emperor's finest or at least the Emperor's most immediately available as the Japanese risk total US air superiority to drop a bunch of more than usually suicidally inclined soldiers on top of an American airfield in the Philippines.  The intention is apparently to burn some aircraft and knock down a few buildings, at least that's what I get victory points for.

I get fifteen squads worth of infantry who enter (or not) by paradrop over (or nowhere near) their objectives.  They have the usual collection of low grade Japanese support weapons which will also float gently to earth suspended by silk umbrellas.  Waiting on the ground is a distinctly low grade force of Americans commanded by Dave Wilson.  He has two elite squads, six second line squads and four green squads.  He also has a 40mm AA gun which was also capable of wreaking great execution on ground based opponents as well.

Below is the map showing where I intended to drop my paras.  I designated my two largest groups to drop near the airport and go for the aircraft scattered over the runways (depicted by unemployed glider counters).  The other two less significant groups would drop on board 48 to at least threaten an attempt at the buildings.

And below is how my troops actually dropped after rolling for accuracy and taking into account things like the wind.  My best leader and an elite squad were among a number that dropped off the board entirely. 

There would be little firing in the first three turns as my Japanese would spend all of that time simply gathering up their support weapons and getting close enough to the Americans to shoot.  In case there was still some slight hope of victory as soon as I landed my next wind die roll boosted the breeze to heavy for the remainder of the scenario and ensured I would have no smoke or WP to assist me.

For three turns my troops made their weary way to locations where Dave could actually shoot at me.  Obviously the buildings were out and I would have to try and torch aircraft.  Eventually my vanguard (they were the closest to the Americans so I called them the vanguard) arrived in roughly airfield adjacent locations and started trying to push the Americans away so that they could get a little closer.

End of Japanese Turn 3 and my boys are just close enough to start getting killed

There was an enforced pause as I struggled to gather enough troops to actually attract the attention of the Americans.  It was already obvious that if I wanted to get anywhere then things like tactics, finesse and subtlety would not form a part of my gameplan.  To be fair they rarely do but I like to have the option.  I think I launched more banzai charges in this game than I have in the rest of my life.  The principle result of these efforts was the realisation that neither Dave or I knew where to find the banzai counters on VASL.  We made do with human wave counters instead.

Finally by the time turn four (of seven) was done I had managed to gather about half of my force in places where they might be of use and started dropping 50mm mortar shells on a US squad in a foxhole.  Then I pushed my guys forward and launched the first banzai charge.

This is kind of where I hoped to be on turn 1 but hey

Eager to make amends for their rather dubious parachute skills my troops surged forward with a will.  The 50mm mortar even scored a critical hit on the guys in the foxhole which was a slightly embarrassing bonus as I was hoping to kill them in CC.  The Japanese advanced forward and the Americans finally started taking some casualties.  Up until turn five the sole contributor to the Japanese score had been my sniper who had killed an officer and incidentally a halfsquad when Dave boxcarred the LLMC.

Looks good doesn't it.  Pity the game's about to end

Reckless advance was the order of the day and the my boys answered the call.  Well except for the ones who got chopped up by the 40mm but hey, somebody's got to get chopped up by a 40mm and it might as well have been them.  With my troops up close and personal Dave's boys started feeling the heat.  My troops lunged towards a couple of aircraft and fumbled for their matches.  I had no expectation of winning by this point but I would consider it a personal triumph if I could set a couple of planes on fire.  With the wind whipping around it seemed like quite a good chance.

So I didn't manage to set a single aircraft on fire.  I had ground through a chunk of Dave's at start force but I was nowhere near the buildings and the aircraft proved annoyingly non combustible.  At the end of turn six I had dispossessed Dave of the 40mm and had troops crawling all over the aircraft but not one of them showed an inclination to go up in flames and Dave was rushing possibly the world's most superfluous reinforcements to the scene as if it actually mattered.  I conceded with good grace.  Well good grace for me.

This is where I conceded, frankly not before time

So there you have it.  Not a lot to be said really.  But I promised a paradrop and I have delivered.  I have also made a personal vow never to play a scenario where my troops enter by paradrop ever again.  Our next scenario will involve a bunch of thoroughly ground based French and Germans.

Captain Matahari winced as the colonel leafed through the reports of the hideous debacle.

"I hope," said the colonel, "that you're only waiting until you go off duty before committing seppuku."

"I can't, I have a stomache condition."

"Well then, what can we learn from this?"

"I think the mistake was giving them parachutes before they jumped," replied Matahari.  "Next time we'll do without."

"I'll make sure you're in the first wave."