Battle Hymn

Back in November, Andy and I tried out the first mission of the Battle Hymn wargame.  This the variant of Ambush! (that I have been playing occasionally with David) for the Pacific Theatre of World War 2.  We played the second mission this week.

The mechanism is the same as Ambush! with some appropriate changes for the theatre and enemy - like Banzai charges, tiger traps and snipers in palm trees.

Mission 1: Boomerang

Guadalcanal, 7 September 1943. As part of Carlson's Raiders, your squad is being put ashore on the Eastern side of the island. Your mission is to infiltrate the Japanese rear area, cover the marines' left flank, and return overland to Henderson field with a thorough report of enemy strength.

This was rather an anti-climax as the squad managed to get across and off the map, avoiding a number of traps but losing Soldier Foxtrot to a hail of machinegun fire.  However we failed to discove enough on the map to get enough victory points to count as a success.

Mission 2: Hit and Run

Somewhere in the Russell Islands, 18 September 1943. While the battle for Guadalcanal swings back and forth, naval intelligence has detected that the Japanese have been constructing a secret fighter base in the Russell Islands to provide advanced fighter cover for the daily bomber raids against Henderson Field. Your hand-picked men are being sent on a dangerous but vital mission: embark by submarine, land at night, and destroy that base!

Landing on the beach at night in inflatable boats, the squad split into two and crossed the beach towards the cover of the palm trees.  A Japanese sniper was spotted at the top of a palm tree and was quickly incapacitated by the Sarge.  As the rest of the squad approached the jungle they heard a Zero taxi-ing to the runway but it took off before they were anything like in range (a random event that unfortunately occurred rather too early for us to take advantage of).

A machine gun nest was discovered protecting the airfield but the squad rushed in and after a few rounds of close combat took control.  The buildings around the airfield were satchel charged in sequence with just one minor mishap.  One building was occupied by a mechanic who proved to be the most lethal Japanese soldier on the map...

He was defeated but not before he had incapacitated the replacement Soldier Foxtrot.  The Sarge pulled Foxtrot to safety after which Soldier Hotel threw a satchel charge into the building.  Unfortunately he missed.  And even worse, the roll on the scatter diagram directed that the charge went into the same hex as the Sarge and Foxtrot.  The Sarge scrabbled to throw it clear but failed his Perception Check, and so the charge exploded, wounding the Sarge and sadly killing Foxtrot.  In better news, his re-rolled replacement for the next mission has much better stats!

With many Japanese discovered and all buildings destroyed, this was a resounding success for the squad.