"US Marines vs Japanese in the Philippines, Fight #3" Topic

All,

It's 2130 on 20 December 1941, and following its ass-whoopin' at Horseshoe Ridge, 1st Platoon is moving Back up the slopes under the cover of darkness to recover its casualties.

Sgt Carlson: "Alright, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna wait 'til it's nice and dark, then we're gonna go get our men. We'll set the gun and Cpl Duncan's mortar into the same exact positions, and I'll take 2nd Squad up the ridge. 1st Squad stands by down below, just in case. We go up, grab our guys, then get the hell outta dodge. If any shootin' starts, I want the mortar and MG to open up. I want a wall of fire between the eastern side of the ridge and the west, keep the Japs from getting at us."

With that, the Marines of 1st Platoon moved into their start positions, ready to jump off.

The full table is still set up, but this is the contested area we'll be dealing with for this fight, just the eastern slope of Horseshoe Ridge. North is to top right, and you can see the Marine casualties lying in the open at center top left. It's night time, but apparently the moon is pretty bright ;)

The Marines: the actual fighting force will the Platoon Sergeant (bottom center), Sgt Carlson, and the six Marines of 2nd Squad (right). As a figure, Sgt Carlson is carrying a .45-caliber pistol, but for the game he's carrying a Tommy Gun (I have plenty of Tommy Gun figures, I just wanted his pose to stand out).

The MG and mortar teams are for decoration, scenario fodder. The Marine fighting force is just seven men with Tommy Guns, a BAR, and Springfield 03s.

The Marines move up the slopes to recover their fallen buddies, but as they do, a Japanese sentry spots Sgt Carlson and fires. To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
link

The remains of 1st Platoon falls back to regroup, and they make contact with higher headquarters. Major Ford, their Company Commander orders them return and take Horseshoe Ridge! While a few of the wounded have been able to return to the line, the Major knows 1st Platoon is still pretty understrength, so he lets them borrow an M-3 Stuart of the 194th Tank Battalion, an Army National Guard unit.

Captain Moon saw to it that his men got plenty to eat and drink, and plenty of rest. Then they mounted up on the morning of 24 Dec 41 and began making their way back to Horseshoe Ridge for our next fight, which I'll post in a couple days.

V/R,
Jack

Wow, this is timely. I just decided to start USMC 1941 and Japanese forces for Wake Islands and the Philippines. Good stuff!

I like your game. It has a good, almost RPG feel about it. Good description!

Thanks for the kind words guys, I appreciate the comments!

Dale – Excellent. I wanted to play Wake Island, but I always play campaigns, and not really anywhere to go following that fight :( And not too much for Marines in the Philippines (fall of Corregidor, and a couple other very small clashes), so I took some liberties with a provisional rifle company with the South Luzon force. In any case, I'd love to see your figures and batreps, and if you don't already have troops, I can't recommend Eureka enough.

Landorl – Glad you like it, I'm always in it for the stories that come out of the games, that's what makes it fun for me. These are but the opening moves in following a platoon of Marines throughout the entire war in the Pacific, so a lot more to come.

V/R,
Jack

My miniatures are handmade and wooden. Although these are British, it was while casting about for an opponent that I struck upon never having done the Pacific War and that the 1941 USMC might be just the ticket.

My rationale for my decision is at this link .

Holy cow, Dale, those are pretty damn cool!

V/R,
Jack

I love your site! Your wooden figures look as great as almost any metal figs that I have seen. They are pieces of art!

Thanks guys. Still thinking how to build the Japanese without too much fuss.

Dale,

For what it's worth, I wouldn't sweat it too much. I'd use the same shapes as you did for the Brits, just don't put a lip on the helmet, and use different colors. Maybe put a chrysanthemum emblem on the helmets.

V/R,
Jack

I was considering that. I almost always make several prototypes before settling on the final build. It comes down to what looks the closest without taking too much effort to "mass produce".

I was also thinking of painting the white headband on, like shown in the Osprey Wake Island book and the Bolt Action "Far Empires" book.

I gotcha. The white headband with the sun and some kanji on it? That would be cool, but a lot of painting.

I always liked the white uniforms and blue helmets from the movie "1941," but I've never seen anything to suggest they wore that in real life ;)

V/R,
Jack

Dale, those wooden figures look fabulous – better than many lead figures imho.

Jack, your terrain is very evocative – is it faux fur? Are your figures 15's? Anyhow, great work. Sorry if I missed the information somewhere…

Gone Fishing,

Yeah man, teddy bear fur, I bought it off eBay. And the troops are 15mm, Eureka and Peter Pig.

V/R,
Jack

Those little wooden guys are adorable :-)

Here is my first prototype for the Japanese SNLF. No arms or weapons yet. The idea is to see if the helmet looks acceptable.

picture

He looks kind of unhappy but yeah, I think those look fine.
The Japanese helmets had kind of a bowl shape.

Caps were very common as well, if you want to shake things up.

Yeah, I was going to put the officers and senior NCOs in caps. Officer with a katana, of course!

That is a scowl, not unhappy. Then again, they did not have Brian Donlevy, William Bendix, and Robert Preston on their side!

Keeping the NCO's in caps makes them easier to identify as well, I dig :-)

Looking good, Dale, really like the sash on the helmet.

V/R,
Jack