As Dave and I started our second session of the Tiger of Toungoo I was cautiously optimistic. On my left my forces were somewhat tattered but still pushing forward while on the right I had managed to shepherd a sizeable force towards what was obviously Dave's main defensive position albeit more by luck than judgement. The weeks break had given me time to formulate a strategy to carry me to ultimate victory. Even as I type this I can feel readers rolling their eyes.
I had plenty of time and decided it was time to hasten slowly. On the right I would prepare myself for a final assault on his bastion. The major difficulty here was his his squad/hmg combo sitting snugly in a pillbox guided by that mighty 10-2. Between smoke and my flamethrower I hoped to at least neutralise them. On the left I would pause, reorganise and then launch a renewed assault once everything was in position. It will come as no surprise that a lot of this didn't happen.
The first order of business on the left was to tidy up (ie; win) the close combat still raging in one of the buildings. The surprising self rally of a half squad helped with this and I pushed it forward along with another (striped squad) to join their doughty comrades already fighting with the bayonet. On the far left having definitely determined that neither of my mortars had any smoke I pushed forward dispossessing some dummies of a building and, drunk with success, sent a mortar carrying halfsquad into the large building. Success was somewhat mixed and by mixed I mean absent. The melee raged on and in the next turn Dave would wipe out my entire force for the loss of a halfsquad. The halfsquad I sent into the large building was sent to join its ancestors by a squad Dave was keeping apparently for that purpose. Things on the left were, if anything even worse than when I started.
In the centre and right though surprising success was achieved. I discovered one of his fortified building locations but nevertheless managed to break the squad occupying it. At the cost of only a couple of sacrificial halfsquads I managed to distract the remainder of his defenders and snatch the fortified location for my very own. Now my troops would have the benefit of the +3 defence, which was good because there was a squad sitting in the very next building hex and so far all I had managed to do was make it fanatic.
In defiance of the prevailing trend my mortar on the far right managed to find a smoke round and dropped it neatly onto his hmg pillbox. I wasn't quite ready to launch a full assault but I did sent my elite halfsquad forward with a demo charge on a sort of "recon by taking fire mission". This halfsquad had proved to be a disappointment so far. It had taken two morale checks so far and failed them both. Kicked back into action by an officer it stepped forward. It didn't break, this time it was killed outright and good riddance to the worthless bastards.
 |
| End of Chinese turn 5 |
The building on the left which had been the scene of epic close combat now had so many discarded Japanese support weapons that you could have opened a shop. Possibly with that in mind Dave sent his remaining squad on the left back into the building leaving me with the irritating task of pushing him out of it all over again. In the centre I managed to pin his fanatic squad (we checked carefully but we could find nothing to say fanatics don't pin) and then wipe it out in close combat. With the centre thus reasonably safe (despite a pillbox commanding the street) I shuffled forces led by by 9-1 to the left. They would recapture the Japanese weapons store or die trying. I think you can see where this is leading.
On the right with his hmg pillbox choking under a cloud of smoke I tried the same trick with his other fortified building location. Unfortunately the mortar crew had only brought one smoke round (those things are heavy) but managed to drop a WP round into the location instead. Greatly daring I pushed a couple of squads across the street (aided by the fact that Dave managed to break an lmg in defensive fire) and seized a toehold in the building that was obviously the soul of his defence. Just for laughs I sent a halfsquad that had spent pretty much the entire game hauling a broken mortar about the place in as well. Sneering at such opportunism Dave sent a 7-0 into close combat with these hapless mugs and killed them. I did manage to kill the owners of the broken lmg and maintain a hold on the building.
 |
| End Chinese turn 6 - things could be worse |
On the left my 9-1 proved an invigorating presence, swiftly rallying a rabble of half squads and leading them forward to challenge for possession of the weapons store. Into close combat they plunged, Japanese and guided by a 9-1, no more fearsome sight can be imagined. They all died. Every last one of them. The scream I uttered when this happened was probably audible to Dave without skype. The weapons store added more items to its inventory.
Honesty compels me to admit that despite the soul crushing losses It left me in a good position for Dave's squad died as well and with that the left flank was cleared. Such forces as I had left (about two squad equivalents and a 10-0 leader) could now move forward against what little remained of Dave's centre defenders (after gathering up all of the weapons).
Over on the right I achieve a solid result when my my last -1 leader guided a kill stack of two Japanese elite squads and lmgs and managed to break the squad in his last fortified location. I also dropped a WP round onto the hmg pillbox to replace the recently departed smoke. Dave was now running out of places to rout to. In return and despite the WP currently obscuring his vision the hmg team managed to kill the halfsquad carrying the flamethrower. I wasn't too concerned. Splitting my kill stack I sent one squad out into the street to join their comrades in the large building while the other squad and the 10-1 moved in to collect the temporarily unowned flamethrower.
 |
| Things are looking disturbingly positive |
Of course it couldn't be quite that simple. As I tussled for the main building on the right with the remainder of Dave's defenders his hmg team earned their pay once again, firing out of the WP into the building containing my 10-1 and an elite squad. When you have a 10-1 officer and an elite squad you can laugh at a 1MC right? Not so much. My 10-1 promptly rolled an eleven and wounded down to a 9-0. Challenged by this the squad went one better and rolled boxcars. My elite squad was now a broken, first line halfsquad. I shrieked, I moaned, I may have wept. In the centre the remnants of my left flank were industriously killing what little was left of Dave's force in those parts but my attention was gripped by the sudden tragedy on my right.
Fortunately the god of bastard dice was about to prove that he was an equal opportunity psychopath. In the next fire phase my wounded officer wiped the blood from his eyes and hoisted the flamethrower sending a stream of liquid burny stuff (if you want technical details read a different blog) into the pillbox. Dave's 10-2 took a normal morale check and rolled an eleven. That was pretty much the end. With nowhere to run the 10-2 died a tigers death (alone in the woods killed by a human) and my surviving troops cleaned out the handful of remaining buildings. It took until the very last turn but I managed it. At the end I had captured every building. From an at start OB of twenty three squads I had seven remaining, a number of them rather battered halfsquads of various types. From twenty one squad equivalents Dave had precisely one. Thanks to Dave for the game and for putting up with the hysterical shrieking and raving that is an integral part of playing me.
 |
| The end, at this point we had both suffered so many casualties we could have held the battle in a phone box |
Corporal Adingi cautiously pushed aside the desperation morale counter he'd been hiding under and ventured out into the street. There was smoke, blood and splintered wood everywhere but things seemed to be remarkably quiet. There were also bodies, lots and lots of bodies.
"You there!"
Adingi turned abruptly raising his rifle only to lower it somewhat reluctantly when he saw an officer striding towards him.
"All right corporal," barked the officer, "round up whoever's left alive and send a message to headquarters telling them of the glory we've won."
Adingi ripped off a smart salute and waved over the half dozen or so remaining soldiers. The officer glanced swiftly around to make sure none of the others were in earshot and whispered,
"How did you survive?"
"Spent most of the battle hiding under a desperation morale counter. You?"
"Lurked in the background until everybody had killed each other then charged forward waving a sword once we ran out of enemies."
"Nice, how's Mum?"
"Hoping both the Adingi boys make it home from the war."
No comments:
Post a Comment