A GENERAL PETTYGREE BATTLESTORY

MONGOLIAN RHAPSODY

WHAT HAPPENED?

Date: August 1939 --- 15 May 2021
Adaptation: Khalkhin Gol Campaign NW Sector

Location: Huay Heights, Eastern Mongolia

Circumstances: Soviets vs Japanese

Miniatures: 28mm - We Use What We Have

Rules: Home

See prevous post for background:  

https://lostsouthpacificadventures.blogspot.com/2021/05/mongolian-rhapsody-battlestory.html

----------

Japanese Left Flank (foreground) --- Communist Right Flank (background)

Not much happened here other than desultory fire by both sides.

Japanese Left Center --- Communist Right Center

Communists approach Huay Ridge with armour and infantry.

Japanese Right Flank

A lot of Communist armoured vehicles outflank the Japanese.

Japanese Rear Echelon (supply)

Japanese Right Flank --- Communist Left Flank

Communist massed armour and infantry come closer.

Japanese tanks finally arrive, deploy hull down. Fire commences.

While in The Center, Communist forces assault the hill.

The tank battle is off image to the right.

At this point a reset was called.

Reason: Japanese Right Flank was collapsing.

This allowed forces of both sides to reorganize in controlled areas,

pick up stragglers and when completed, restart the game.

We simply pick up miniatures and redeploy them.

The Japanese reset found them falling back behind a rise of ground in the rear.

Japanese tanks have fallen back given the weight of Communist

armour piercing shells and the wretched state of Imperial shells.

The Japanese Right Flank is going to be overwhelmed. We all knew it.

However there was one faint hope though coming from the Japanese Left.

Japanese forces from their indolent Left Flank launched a Banzai charge (image upper left) supported by several tanks. However, the Banzai charge was stopped cold by flanking fire off image upper left. This ended the battle.

----------

CLOSING REMARKS

1. Four old friends played; Dan and Morgan E, Jim H. and me, Bill P. Gosh it was good to game together again --- just like old times. However, I wanted to keep player numbers low at four for uncertain reasons.

2. My command was the Japanese Left Flank. I had to laugh at myself because I was not on top of my game making rookie mistakes. The wretched lockdown dulled my thinking. The Japanese left flank had half the infantry plus a surprise cavalry force. The latter never showed up. I should have pitched into the Communists a lot sooner. Sorry Dan!

3. The scenario called for poor Japanese supply and ammunition. We realized toward the end of the game, the penalty was too much to overcome. Rethinking is needed for next time. The Japanese could hardly cause casualties. My fault as the designer. Historically the Japanese held the ridge against superior Communist numbers.

4. This was certainly a different game --- fielding opposing sides in eastern Mongolia.

5. Comments welcome below.

----------