A Nip in the air

Something different at the club this week, well the same but with a twist, Chain of Command Far East, Malaya 1942 to be precise. Now I am not a fan of WWII Japanese and would never play them but I was offered the chance to play against them this week so my 1944 British pretended they had left their shorts at home and plunged into the Malayan jungle.

Guessing the Japs would be infantry heavy I also took plenty of infantry and my only nod to armour was a Universal carrier carrying a Bren team, I was defending with a Japanese roadblock to my rear preventing me from leaving the table which of course was my objective, they were also inches from my Line of Communication marker which if they captured would make it twice as difficult for me to retreat.

Somewhere in Malaya.

 

Japanese roadblock.

I managed to quickly swamp the Japs at the roadblock and prevent them from moving on the LOC marker, I also managed to set up a line of defenders ready to block the main enemy effort which would be coming down the road. Things looked very good from my perspective albeit it was taking time to move through the damn jungle around the roadblock and actually reduce the enemy squad there. The little carrier also turned up in the rear of the Japs and although they shot at it with an anti-tank rifle the little 'tank' remained unscathed and a pain in the Imperial rear.

Looking good.

 

No, disaster, run away.

I was so engrossed in the game I forgot I had an MMG waiting to come on, this was a big mistake on my part. As time counted down Paul threw a wild charge into half a squad holding my right, this should have been a walk over for the enemy but my boys actually held and beat them, Banzai that mate. Sadly the Japanese at this point were aggressive, so they did not fall back but continued fighting, this sealed my doom, I quickly lost a squad, a leader and a Jump Off Point which caused my morale to plummet. On the other side of the table I sent two squads into a nearby Jap section, I lost and was pushed back, this meant another JOP was left undefended, I gave up. In short time I had gone from winning comfortably to losing desperately.

This is a lot different from fighting in Europe with CoC, the jungle terrain which comes in all shapes and sizes is a real struggle to move through and has all sorts of nasty effects, I found it very frustrating and it took a long time to get anywhere, where my objective was turned out to be really, really deep jungle. There are a lot of characteristics to get your head around in order to give an historical feel to the forces, the Japanese at first seem to have the upper hand but I believe the shine is taken off this as the war progresses. It was an interesting game.

My second run out of CoC was back in France, 1940 with Matt Crump taking the French and me attacking as the Germans. I had an infantry force with a StuG III for support. my objectives were in a village at the opposite end of the table. I didn't get far in the Patrol Phase and managed to set up a measly 12" from my table edge. I would have a long way to go to win the day. I set off determined to make some kind of effort at attacking and not simply setting up a fire base and wait until the French died in droves. Someone should have told my StuG crew we were here to win, I was relying on them to weaken the defenders but that did not happen and their efforts left a lot to be desired.

Now boys, now!

French on one objective.

Vorwaerts or whatever.

Matt made a wrong move and sent his rifle grenadiers into a wood outside his defensive cordon and I took the opportunity to attack and wipe them out, but I could not continue into the French troops lining a nearby hedge who were waiting for me. I tried suppressive fire and overwhelming fire on the French left but could not sustain it and had to pull back. Once again time was running out and it was obvious it would take hours for my StuG III to make a dent and by then I probably would have had no infantry left to push forward, also we would have fallen asleep.

French cordon.

That's where we should be Johanne.

I was frustrated at my lack of progress in this game, I also made some mistakes which might have given the StuG more of an opportunity of handing out punishment, but them's the breaks, I won't forget next time. CoC2 again showed that it plays better than 1 although I am more convinced than ever that its strength lines in playing small campaigns and not one off battles. Therefore if things go well I will kick off a couple over the next few months.

Tiger, what's a tiger?

A little tank.

You may know that I gave up with the expensive Winsor and Newton brushes some time ago and began to rely on bundles I picked up from ABC Brushes, I then decided to try Rosemary brushes as they give you a bit of chocolate in the package and they have a good reputation. I also thought I would take the advice of lying them flat to dry therefore stopping the bristles from fraying at the ends. I can now report that is a lot of codswallop, I have around ten of these brushes and yes, the hairs do fray, stood up or lying down, I will though confirm they have excellent points on them, but the down side of that is they do not hold a lot of paint, perfect for small details but not 'splashing it all over'. I have bought ProArte for that side of things, but they do tend to hook at the ends. Now recently I cannot escape something called Temu on Facebook and they/it offers 100 brushes for a quid or less, now even if one brush does a couple of figures that must be a win win?

I am enjoying reading Max Hastings' new book Sword, which is both exciting and sad as it deals with the personal experiences of men during the run up and landings on Sword. One passage caught my eye "McKinnon stood in a Highland bonnet, playing his bagpipes on the bridge of the destroyer Undaunted as craft ploughed past." The first ship I served on in late '69 was the Undaunted, it was a training draft for only a few weeks running out of Portland, she had portholes near the waterline and we slept in hammocks, I remember even then thinking the ship seemed tired. Although only 17 I do remember being allowed cans of 'Yellow Peril', small tins in a yellow tartan of Younger's Tartan Ale. I was glad it was only a few weeks, Tartar was like a cruise ship in comparison.

HMS Undaunted.