A Driving Charge - Phase One: The Approach to Battle

I've been teaching a good friend Chain of Command and over the last twelve months we've played several campaigns. I haven't been writing them up for the blog for the simple reason I’ve been too busy teaching to make notes and take pictures. We are also playing where the lighting isn't great for photography. That said, for our most recent campaign - A Driving Charge - I have been taking pictures, just nowhere near as many as I would normally. I think I have enough to put together a series of abbreviated AARs.

The setting for this campaign is Malaya in 1941 and I’ve enjoyed bringing jungle terrain back to the table (there is a post all about putting the terrain together here). Although I do have one confession to make. The campaign calls for quite extensive rubber plantations and I don't have enough of the right trees to represent these. What I do have is a lot of palm trees that were created for palm plantations and I'll be substituting those for the rubber plantations. They look nothing like rubber trees but at least they fit the Far East theme. 

A Driving Charge pits an aggressive and well trained Japanese force against a variety of British and Empire units as they attempt to stall the invasion of Malaya (note that for convenience I'll often refer to these forces as 'the British' even though they will represent Indian, Nepalese and British troops). I been playing the British and my friend Mark handled the Japanese.

The campaign is in two phases. The first is The Approach to Battle and covers the Japanese attempts to seize river crossings and maintain a fast tempo so their armour can advance rapidly through the British lines. What happens in this first phase of the campaign will influence the second stage where the Japanese confront the main positions of the Jitra line.

The first game is Probe At Changlun. Here the Japanese come up against a recruit Indian Army platoon trying to hold a bridge while engineers attempt its demolition. While it looks like an uneven contest - the Indians are green and poorly equipped facing a superior enemy - the Japanese appear to have few tactical options other than storming the bridge.

The river is impassable. Without the ability to conduct reconnaissance which would allow them to start closer to the river it is difficult to see how the Japanese can place any jump-off-points across it. They have little alternative but to take a fairly direct approach.  

In game terms the demolition of the bridge will take time. However, the engineers will stop work once Japanese troops are on it and it seems likely that will happen before the engineers are ready to blow their charges. I sense the defenders cannot place too much hope on a successful demolition during the course of the game. Their best hope is to drive Japanese morale down to zero and force their withdrawal allowing demolition to take place unimpeded.

The British force will rout from the table if their line of communications marker is captured or if their force morale drops to zero. A rout means the Japanese capture the bridge intact which speeds up their progress for the following games of the campaign. At the start of this game the line of communication point is reasonably secure as the only way the Japanese can reach it is by storming across the bridge (the truck serves as the LoC marker).

British start the patrol phase close to the bridge but their jungle rating is poor which means they must deploy their jump-off-points no more than 12" back from their patrol markers. That makes an aggressive patrol phase less appealing, so the British can expect the Japanese to move quite close.

In fact, as it transpired the Japanese did far better than I expected. They made use of an early war ruse (local guides) which allowed them to move a jump-off-point to an area of jungle thicket adjacent to the bridge. From there they deployed on to it immediately and from that moment on the engineers were unlikely to take any further part in the game. 

Given the limited options for approach the Japanese chose naked aggression over tactical subtlety. They charged across the bridge and reached the roadblock at the far end. In the process they successfully closed down one of the British jump-off-points near the bridge.

Only one of the Indian platoon's sections has an LMG team and they deployed into entrenchments covering the roadblock. A close range firefight ensued. The platoon lieutenant joined them and they hurled a flurry of grenades at the bridge. That was enough to inflict casualties on the leading Japanese troops and free up the jump-off-point they had just closed down. That then allowed a second section to deploy at the roadblock. 

They were armed only with rifles and despite targeting the Japanese in the open they failed to inflict enough damage to bring the move across the bridge to a halt. 

The Japanese persisted. They were prepared to take heavy casualties and the support squad that led the charge was wiped out, however in the process the following Japanese squads managed to storm the road block and drive off the defenders in a bloody round of close combat. 

In the fight for the roadblock several British leaders had been wounded, including the platoon commander. Casualties had been high and the entrenched section was soon close to breaking. 

In the end they were unable to resist the Japanese and their force morale collapsed to zero. The Japanese pursued a risky but necessarily aggressive strategy to force the crossing. The bulk of casualties were suffered by their support squad which meant the core platoon was left in reasonable shape for the following game.

As a result of the British rout the campaign moved directly to the third scenario - Gurkhas at Assun. Here the Japanese chose to delay a turn to carry out reconnaissance and wait for their armour support to catch up with them. This scenario features the Gurkhas holding another bridge along the main trunk road to Jitra. Once again they can attempt to demolish it, although this will prove difficult unless they can drive the Japanese back.

With time on their side the Japanese pause to carry out reconnaissance allowed them to fight across the table instead of along its length. Once again they could be expected to be upon this second bridge very quickly. The chance of being confronted by Japanese armour was high and so I called on a 2 pounder AT gun for support and placed a roadblock on the bridge. Similarly AA MGs were on hand, as I fully expected to undergo a pregame Zero attack.

The game started in a monsoon downpour that gave the Japanese two free moves at the start of their patrol phase (as if they weren't close enough to the bridge already!). It also limited line of sight to 18". 

The heavy rain turned the normally knee deep creek into one that's waist deep, making it a more difficult obstacle for the Japanese to cross. However their advantage in the patrol phase meant they had been able to place a jump-off-point on the opposite bank and so avoided having to cross it during the course of the game.

As I had predicted the British experienced the effects of a pre-game Zero Attack! so the AA MGs proved a wise precaution and would make that attack slightly less effective.

The Japanese had the initiative and were off to a good start with a double phase. Their following command roll included a 666. While a run of phases certainly worked in the Japanese favour the turn end did not. It meant the zero attack was no longer in effect and saw the lifting of visibility with the end of the downpour. 

Having suffered quite high casualties when storming the bridge in the previous scenario the Japanese had opened the game by trying a flanking move. A scout team deployed from the jump-off-point by the creek and worked its way into the plantation. That presented quite a threat, but an entrenched Gurkha section covering the plantation soon had them pinned down.

With the attempted flank move stalled the Japanese decided to make a push for the bridge. Once again a support squad was given the unenviable task of leading the assault. 

A Gurkha section deployed to the roadblock and immediately inflicted shock and casualties. It looked like this attack might also stall. Fortunately for the Japanese they had another double phase and the Gunso used his one-off ability to resort to corporal punishment to rally the men before leading them into an assault. Unfortunately he went too far and killed one of them. Things were not all going the way of the Japanese. The Gunso's brutality would prove costly.

He ordered the men to follow him. His decision to inspire them by resorting to corporal punishment had backfired. The shock they were suffering prevented them moving fast enough to make contact. They had used the crawlers ruse to send men forward with grenades to precede the attack, but once again fortune was cruel. Of the three grenades thrown only one hit the target and that managed to inflict only a single point of shock. 

With a short distance to cover they did finally make contact in the following phase, but the close combat was brutal. Japanese losses combined with the shock they were suffering put them at a disadvantage against the Gurkhas who were in better shape and defending hard cover. All the Japanese were killed, including both the squad’s Gocho and the platoon’s Gunso. The Gurkhas also took casualties losing five men, but it left the survivors holding the roadblock. The severe Japanese losses saw their force morale take quite a blow. 

Despite the setback the Japanese were determined to press the attack and a Chi Ha deployed onto the road. 

From there it could target the roadblock and provide supporting fire for another attempt by their infantry to storm the bridge.

This was the moment for the 2 pounder to deploy. While the first shot failed to knock out the tank it inflicted shock on the crew and took the commander out of action for the following phase. 

While all the attention was focused on the bridge the Japanese had not given up on a flank move. A squad deployed to join the scout team to see if they could suppress the entrenched Gurkhas in the plantation. 

The defenders were quick to react and the Japanese squad accumulated shock quickly.

The Japanese then made the mistake of allowing themselves to become bogged down in a firefight when they would have been better off moving instead. 

As the shock accumulated it was going to slow them down even further. The section guarding the flank had done their job.

The third Gurkha section deployed entrenched by the bridge to provide more firepower to counter any further attempts to storm across.

However the real damage was delivered by the 2 pounder which continued striking the Chi Ha. By the third hit the crew’s shock had risen to four and they bailed out. 

That took Japanese force morale down to four. A blow that saw them lose a command dice as well as the red dice. That made command and control increasingly difficult for them. 

The futility of a single squad trying force the bridge was becoming clear and so the Japanese chose to reinforce the flank. The grenade discharger squad deployed at the edge of the plantation and targeted the entrenched section but their initial round of fire had little effect.

The Gurkha section continued targeting the squad on the flank and succeeded in wounding the Gocho and wiping out the scout team. That brought their force morale even lower.

The Japanese had found themselves bogged down in a protracted firefight. The entrenched defenders at the bridge were also able to target the grenade discharger squad and casualties began to mount.

In the end losing a team wiped out was enough to bring Japanese force morale down to zero. A fine result for the Gurkhas who succeeded in repelling a superior force. While an aggressive approach to the bridge in the previous game paid dividends for the Japanese the same did not apply here. Instead it ended with heavy losses for no gain. With the Japanese driven back the Gurkhas were able to complete the demolition and withdraw in good order.

That now takes us to the second stage of the campaign where the Japanese hit the main defence on the Jitra line. While the defensive works are incomplete some do exist and the line is defended by troops that are better equipped and trained. 

Getting ready for the Driving Charge campaign

Embarking on a new campaign is always the perfect excuse to add new terrain and figures (well, in so far as we ever really need an excuse). It’s been a while since I’ve used my jungle terrain, so planning to play A Driving Charge, set in Malaya in 1941, gave me a chance to refresh what I had and make a few new pieces. 

Rivers, creeks and paddy fields feature prominently in this campaign and they are all projects that I’ve been wanting to tackle for some time. I did make two lengths of river a few years ago. They were based on MDF with the banks sculpted from insulating foam. The problem was, I'd made only two straight sections and just enough to stretch four feet across a gaming table. Useful, but limited in so many other ways.

For the rivers and creeks in this campaign I've used painted plastic sheet and dressed the sides with off-cuts of teddy fur and other pieces of scatter terrain. I think it's a very versatile solution.

I like the idea of creating seamless waterways with no visible joins and painted plastic sheet is a simple solution (not to mention cheap!). As the first scenario in the campaign calls for a large river winding across the table this worked well. 

Another terrain pieces I’ve been meaning to add is a substantial bridge and this campaign calls for a couple. Model railways were the obvious place to start looking. Tri-ang produced a very sturdy version that looked ideal and I managed to find one on eBay. Assembly was quick and simple as there are few parts. The road surface is a solid piece of wood into which the girder sides are screwed, making for a very solid game piece. The main effort required on my part was painting and weathering.

This was perfect for two of the games in the campaign and really looked the part.

I made a few paddy fields several years ago and while I was very happy with the result they were not going to cover the sort of areas required for this campaign. 

As you can see from the two maps below they call for a large area of the table to be covered. That's considerably more than my current collection can meet. 

Not only that, if I was to make more paddy fields in a similar style I would find myself with significant storage issues. It called for an alternative solution and I think I found one. 

While this campaign features flooded paddy fields there will also be times when games are set in different seasons. At times the paddy fields are fallow and dry, but they remain divided by the bunds. 

I needed a solution where I could have modular bunds and then a method for overlaying them on either dry or flooded fields. The bunds themselves, while not particularly high, are very distinctive and clear to see.

Teddy fur had been an ideal material to dress the sides of the rivers and creeks and I thought a similar concept could work for the bunds. However I needed to find a way to represent the earth banks and give them more height. They also needed to have a bit of extra weight to help them sit in place.

My first thought was to base them on narrow strips of MDF, but in my experience they have a tendency to warp once they extend beyond about 200mm. After experimenting with a few options I think I've found a solution that meets my need and is easy to work with - pieces of carpet. I’d been using carpet tile to make ploughed fields and that would give me the extra height I wanted. Equally important, the rubber base had sufficient weight to hold them flat and in place. From there it was simply a matter of cutting them into suitably sized lengths and gluing the strips of teddy fur on top. 

The final touch was to glue sand to the sides to add texture to the banks.

The sides were then painted in earth colours that match my existing terrain. That worked well, although I found they look a bit too angular when laid out in place. So I made pieces for the joins that gave the corners a more naturalistic look. It was a bit more extra effort but I liked the way it broke up the sharper angles. Lastly I thought about how to represent the rice plants themselves.

While those above have the rice plants almost filling the entire field it is also common to see them bordered by water like these below.

Once again pieces of teddy fur supplied the solution.

These bunds can work for wet or dry paddy fields, it’s simply a matter of choosing the most appropriate underlay for the season you're representing. I'm happy with this as a concept although I can see where there's room for a few small tweaks and improvements. Best of all this gives me a way to create extensive paddy field coverage that is endlessly adaptable but can all be packed away taking very little storage space. Not often a terrain project ticks so many boxes.

Rubber plantations are another prominent feature of the campaign but I couldn't find an easy solution for these that didn't involve creating a lot of new terrain pieces that might not have many other uses. In the end I decided to compromise. As I have done for other games set in Malaya I've used palm plantations as a substitute as I have made up a lot of these already. Admittedly they look nothing like rubber trees, but at least they fit the tropical theme of the tables.

Jungle fringe is a new terrain type in the Far East Handbook and represents the thick foliage and undergrowth that grows along the edges of secondary jungle. It's treated as a 2" wide obstacle while also providing cover for units that occupy it. I needed to find a way to make it look like a dense barrier but at the same time be able to accomodate figures. I’ve found the best way to recreate it was to make use of several existing terrain pieces and then add more terrain elements to them. 

My solution has been built around my palm plantations. These are based like my orchards with two trees evenly spaced on a 50mm x 150mm (2”x6”) piece of MDF. As it happens that's rather convenient given the width of jungle fringe is also 2".

I thought if I also base a number of the trees I use for my jungle trees on similar bases they could also work in the same way and add variety to the types of trees along the jungle fringe. These are cheap models from a seller on eBay but have more of a look of tropical trees than many of the more symmetrical shapes available, in fact I've seen them sold as Banyan trees even though they don't look that much like them. 

While I was putting them together it did cross my mind that when evenly spaced like the palm trees they could pass off as rubber trees. 

Perhaps I do have suitable trees for rubber plantations after all....

In fact the more I've thought about it the more I can see enough versatility with these that it might yet be a very viable option. The justification being their multiples uses - not only would they work in jungle fringe and when placed at random angles within jungle itself, but they could also serve as rubber trees. In fact I could see them working well in European settings on tree lined roads, or even for my 28mm games in the American War of Independence.

Anyhow before I tumble down that particular rabbit hole I should get back to the task in hand - jungle fringe. The idea being I space these palm and jungle tree bases along the edge of the jungle to define the area of the fringe, but then for playability I fill the gaps in between the trees with various scatter pieces and lichen that can be moved easily. 

That gives me the density of vegetation I’m after from a visual perspective, but it also allows those pieces to be moved out of the way when it comes to figure placement during a game. The idea is to ensure enough of a mix to give the impression of thick undergrowth.

I think the visual effect comes as much from the variety of plant types as it does from their density.

During the course of making these I had extra aquarium plants and teddy fur off-cuts lying around the work bench. I experimented with making holes in the fur and gluing the plants into it without resorting to a base of any kind. The glue certainly held the plants in place and the lack of a rigid base allowed me to arrange these pieces over other terrain. This worked better than I imagined and made for effective looking pieces that have the potential for multiple uses. They can work as scatter pieces in their own right but also help fill the gaps in the jungle fringe. It's given me a number of ideas that I want to explore further.

I can certainly see them working well to line the river edges when I want to create tropical jungle creeks and rivers in places like New Guinea. 

Another new terrain type is barrier growth. In terms of game rules they are very similar to a European farm hedge and serve a similar purpose dividing homes and fields in the Far East. A short stretch of one of those is needed for one of the scenarios and once again I've tried to make this as versatile as possible. It will work as a length of barrier growth but could serve equally well as jungle fringe or simply as extra scatter within jungle.

I liked the idea of having a marker on the table as a reminder of when the effects of a Zero attack are in play, so what better than an actual model of a Zero? Fortunately I had one of those I had made many years ago and was able to adapt it and add a suitable base.

The model is not permanently attached to the base which will allow me to swap in other aircraft like a Stuka for France 1940 or a British Hurribomber for Burma in 1944.

While working on another project I had a bit of left over Milliput so tried my hand at sculpting a few pieces of scatter terrain in the form of household objects that I could add to my villages houses. Certainly not essential for playing this campaign but like all scatter terrain it helps add more character to the table.

I've chosen basic things like food and water containers. I can't say they are the finest sculpts but they work well enough in situ.

It was also an excuse to put some paint on a figure of a rice farmer and his buffalo. This is from a set of South East Asian civilians from 172 Scale Miniatures. Judging by the clothing I suspect these were created with rural Vietnamese civilians in mind but with this farmer stripped to his waist I think he could work in many settings.

I've painted the base in the same colours as the paddy fields and coated it with gloss varnish to help make it blend in. 

Although I may well rebase them on a thinner piece of plastic as the base supplied with the figures is a bit on the thick side.

I've posted about this recently but one final addition was a marker for when a red dice is lost by a force and when they are required to move a unit back to a jump-off-point. They are painted wooden blocks from a craft shop but conveniently sized to fit comfortably in my force morale trackers.

As I'll be playing this campaign against a friend who I've been teaching Chain of Command I won't be blogging about the individual games in anywhere near as much detail as usual, instead it will be an abbreviated version that I hope will still provide a flavour of the campaign and show how some of these new additions work in a game context.

The first game reports of the campaign can be found here.