USMC:- First Blood

Well, my Marines have been finished a couple of weeks now, and have had their first game! 











The Battle was fought at the Marquis of Lorne Pub in Gillingham, against my mate Jays Japanese SNLF, using my SNLF figures. The game was 500 points and used the following armies:-

Japanese Army List

US Marine Army List (I forgot my army list for the Marines however, and forgot to use the mortar...)

We didn't play any specific scenario, as the game was a test to see how both armies performed. 

Deployment 

 Japanese forces are deployed at the north end of the board, the USMC are at the south end. All the terrain was soft cover, except where it completely obscured line of sight.
















Turn 1: First order dice out the bag handed initiative to the Marines, who opened fire with their light howitzer, killing a large chunk of one of the Japanese squads. After this both forces advanced cautiously exchanging small arms fire, with a few pins inflicted but only minimal casualties.
 

Turn 2 again saw Both sides advancing towards one another, with the USMC laying out plenty of pins on the Japanese rendering the return fire fairly infective,  although the Japanese sniper and mortar were starting to make their presence know by killing a squad leader and zeroing in on the light howitzer. 





















Turn 3 saw a Japanese squad that had been sneaking along one flank come out of cover and fire a devastating volley into one of my Marine squads, killing 5 Marines who somehow managed to pass their order test and hang in the fight. The Japanese mortar also proceeded to wipe out the Howitzer, leaving things looking grim for the Marines who again only managed to kill another few riflemen.











 

Turn 4 and the Marines managed to fail several critical order tests allowing the Japanese to consolidate their positions, luckily the dice also abandoned Jay, and turn 4 was largely ineffective on both sides. 




 
 Turn 5 involved the Japanese launching a Banzai charge and assaulting one of the remnants of my weakened US Marine squad, and killing them all, but taking casualties in the process. My undamaged Marine squad and .30 cal between them managed to shoot a Japanese squad to death as well, leaving the game very much in the balance and both armies significantly reduced.

Turn 6 and the Marines managed to get their hands on the order dice, launching a devastating barrage of shooting, killing another Japanese Squad. although also failing to activate the other largely intact squad that was in cover. In retaliation the Japanese assaulted my 2nd LT who killed one of his attackers, only to fall at the last minute. The Japanese LT charged my large squad, and was cut down by the Marines. 




At the end of the game we had both had 3 units killed, and the rest of our forces were covered in pins and casualites, so the game was declared a draw. We both had a fantastic time, and the whole thing felt immensely cinematic. Personally I love playing Bolt Action at the 500 point mark, however my next game is against John Lambshead, and he USMC will be up against 1000 points of John Japanese! 

As ever more of my work can be seen here at Volley Fire Painting 

The Marquis of Lorne Facebook page is a great way to contact Jay if you would like a game at the pub  

Warlord Games can of course be found here