Featherstone's Nuts! Trial by Fire.

Although I haven't been posting them, I've played several wargames of late, including games of World War Risus, Tactical Combat and Featherstone's Nuts! Most of the games were set in the Pacific Theater.

The reason behind the lack of posts has been the appalling pictorial documentation; my phone's camera isn't so great for close up photos of 1/72 figures. I shake the camera and I have no good way of stabilizing it, so pictures tend to be a bit uninteresting or worse, blurry.

Still, I enjoy having written and illustrated records of my gaming activities, and I decided to make some simple map-type illustrations for the latest encounter. I forgot how much I love arrows that show movement. Strange but true!

I generated the scenario with THW's War Against Japan.  PEFs and Japanese forces were all controlled using that same title.

I used Featherstone's Nuts! for the game itself, with the morale method from Featherstone's War Games added, and I changed the save results, such that, a figure that received 1 hit, ducked on a save, with 2 simultaneous hits and saves, moved 1 move away from enemy and ducked, and with 3 simultaneous hits and saves, moved 1 move away from enemy and hunkered down, requiring a friendly figure to make contact to rally.

Mission: Advance
My Force (USMC) : 1 platoon of 3 squads (I used 8 figure squads), plus platoon HQ (4 figs)

• 1st Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 4
• 2nd Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 5
• 3rs Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 3, Riflemen - Rep 3
• HQ - NCO - Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 3

My Objective: Reveal and eliminate all PEF encounters, and majority of Possible Contact markers, while sustaining no more than 1/3 casualties.

The map was generated using the terrain generator from War Against Japan.

I planned to use 1st and 2nd squad to identify and engage any PEFs or PCs, and use 3rd squad to act as reserves. HQ would only get involved under dire circumstances.

Initial dispositions and movement. 

1st Squad encountered a small band of Japanese infantry and was able to make good use of its BAR and SMGs. 2nd Squad did not have such luck - they encountered a full squad of Japanese, including an LMG team. HQ ordered 3rd squad to move up to assist.

Contact!

With 50% casualties, 2nd squad fell back. 3rd squad was shot up by the LMG as well, and forced to fall back. 1st Squad moved up to engage the Japanese force.

Things go South

1st squad engages the Japanese and manages to reduce their numbers significantly. Meanwhile, 2nd and 3rd squad combine into a single unit and advance on the Japanese.

2nd attempt.

The effort is in vain as they arrive on the scene only to take reactive fire from the Japanese squad - the loss of just 1 marine puts me over my limit for the mission. No matter, the PEF in the upper left split, and although I didn't get to reveal what, if anything they were, I placed them on the map to show that the odds were stacked against my success.

The Japanese were more committed than we were.

My platoon fell back to nurse their wounds.

***
The morale rules never came into play, as I chose to have my squads fall back - preservation was part of my mission objective after all. I did like the new rules for saves, as it kept units together except under extenuating circumstances.