One-Hour Skirmish Wargames Hits the Jungle w Recon Mission

Blimey, it's a whole Jap company hidden in there!
https://unsplash.com/backgrounds/nature/jungle
Actually, it could be a battalion or more... 

Despite the fact that it is fast play, I haven't managed another run-thru of One-Hour Skirmish Wargames in a long while, and ended up a bit rusty on this run-thru. Still, it was a good time and a nail-biter, and Mr. Winkie and I enjoyed it despite the constant interruptions from Kanga and her Roo. This does say good things about the system, as it is fast-moving, tactically interesting and entertaining even when you are not doing it right!

This fight had roughly equal forces, with a couple of fire teams on each side, but the Brits had an extra LMG while the Japs had a bunker and a sniper. Arguably, this could have forces of unequal value, with the needed victory points to win lowered as the defense increases in size. As I'd never played the scenario "when it doubt - equal it out".

The layout may interest some people. I've toyed around with various ways to do skirmish game terrain, and my present system is based upon readings of the jungle warfare on Guadalcanal, specifically "Shots Fired in Anger" if you're curious. It goes like this:
- Terrain is in 3" and 6" terrain templates.
- A figure that touches the terrain piece, or is inside the terrain template, has a hard or soft cover advantage, as appropriate by the terrain type, e.g. rocks v. brush.
- 3" templates have a mutual Line of Sight into but not thru them.
- 6" templates have mutual LoS to the edge only.
As OHSW has the lovely simple 6" move rate for Infantry, and this is a strictly infantry fight, almost all the terrain is spaced so that Infantry touching one piece of terrain, e.g. the grey base of the large trees, can make it to the next one in only one move. This is to simulate the relatively heavy cover of the jungle. 

If this was a European fight, There would be some larger open spaces of 9-12", requiring that figs either end their move in the open [quite vulnerable] or pay the Action Points [AP] to dash across the open space in one Move. There could even be some 13-18" gaps, thru which a daring Infantryman could do a triple move! This costs a whopping 9 AP, +1 to shoot at the end of it. But if you are not to worried about how vulnerable 1-2 figs would be, and maybe the dude's a crazy hero type, might be worth trying!

It should be noted that it might take a move of almost 6" to get to the far side of a template, so it may not be one consecutive move, template to template; you may have to dash across the open and touch the next template 6" away, just making it. Then, shift to the far side of the template, staging yourself to dash almost 6" to touch the next terrain template. Hope that makes sense.

All this to say, that this board is more or less covered in terrain, altho it doesn't look like it, and there's no reason for smart players to always have their men in cover. Rocks and the bunker are obviously hard cover, and shell craters to trees and the stream edge are all soft cover. Low soft cover like the shell craters and stream edge are zero cover v. someone on a higher elevation, e.g. atop a rock, in a tree, etc. It would be good to put some kind of Spanish moss in the open spaces to give it more flavor, but this is enough for now.

To make things fun for Mr. Winkie, we each have a team of Brits on the recon mission, and we will roll off against each other as necessary for the Japanese opposition. Below, he is studying the terrain and the opposition. There are three Soldiers of Nippon in the abandoned native village, four in the bunker including the LMG team, a couple in the trees behind [one up the tree], and the command team of sword-waving officer, radio operator and sniper on the near corner rock formation. Note that even being atop a tree or rock means you are in the cover as you are "in the template".
Craters and stream by Pegasus, rock formations are pet lizard terrarium features by "All Living Things" , native huts are craft store bird houses, and the trees are by Lemax.

Mr. Winkie shows his warrior face - "Blimey, e's a Limey!" Bunker Japs are ready. Interestingly, I had this identical bunker when I was a child - presently made by BMC.

Below, view from the British side. You can now see the sniper atop the rocks at right far corner. Brits are starting from Table Edge where they will enter. Atop the two large rock formations are vantage points for recon spotting. The bunker has valuable papers worth stealing. Any Jap overwhelmed in Close Combat can be taken prisoner [per the rules...should be much harder for the fanatical Japanese!] and is worth victory points also. The points on the papers and prisoner are doubled if they are moved off the table [British edge, of course]. The Japs get points for killing Brits and breaking the force.
Obviously, attacking the bunker via the high rocks is the path to Victory points, and we divide the Brits into two forces. The one on the left has the LMGs and is the "Fire" force. That on the right has the grenadiers and is the "Maneuver" and assault force. Mr. Winkie opts for the Fire team. Plan is to use their firepower from the central location to suppress enough Japs to occupy both hilltops and then take the bunker by assault - any prisoners can be taken off the board lickety-split and we'll all be home for some brew in a jiffy!

Winkie brings his force in a bit farther to left than planned. However, his careful use of the Jack we drew downs a Jap sentry in the village.
I should mention that instead of drawing cards to resolve combat we rolled d10s [I wanted d12's but just couldn't find the stupid things...] which speeded things up a bit, and decreased the amount of cards drawn - this slowed down the appearance of Joker's and lengthened the turns. After my last few games, I wanted to try this.

Some great dice in the center down a gunner in the bunker.

So far, the AP's are favoring the Brits a bit, which shows.

After a few Player Phases, the Joker comes up and Turn 1 ends. The Downed figs are resolved: Brits draw some Black which is Back, but also draw two Hearts and lose two dead! Japs only draw one Red and lose one Dead.

Drawing against the number of dead, both sides easily pass morale on the first card draw [which must be higher than the number of dead, so the Brits needed a 3+ and Japs a 2+].
Actually, I guess the Brits had a narrow escape with a '4'!

As play progresses, my Manuever Force takes it in the teeth, with numerous downed figs, and another Dead. At the next Turn end, Brits and Japs easily pass, needing 4+ and 2+ respectively. This game, I played that Diamonds just remained "Down" while Hearts were still dead and Black cards were "Back" as per the rules.

At the end of Turn 3, the Brits have advanced on the village, and are concentrating some fire on the bunker, but haven't made much progress in the way of Victory Points! I'm starting to think that the best VP will be to break the Jap force, so I change plans and back Mr. Winkie's succeeding move on the village with the wrong team - not that there's much choice as most of my team is Dead or Down!
Both sides easily pass with '7' and 'Joker' respectively.

After some strenuous efforts, we Down the closest Jap with a Tommy-gunner and he is auto-Dead after being attacked in Close Combat [CC]. With the one other Deader being from the village force, it looks even better to keep pushing here.


The Bren LMG Downs the last Jap rolling a high of '10'...

...and the Tommy Gunner CC's him for another Dead-er. 

Now, to maneuver this force thru the village and attack the bunker, preferably from the rear where it will be more vulnerable. We accomplish this quicker than I thought as some great cards come our way. Soon, two riflemen have crossed the stream [which costs two moves] and we've finally downed some more of the Japs in the trees.

Mr. Winkie is gleefully espying the route to victory!

The next cards are critical as a Jap card could enable them to turn about and fight the Brits, while a Joker might end with all the Downed Japs being just fine again!

But Fortune favors the Limeys - they dash in and make quick work of two Sushis. This is quickly followed by tearing up most of the bunker group. They also seize the papers!
Interestingly, the entire Jap force is Downed. This means they cannot activate anyone, so I was uncertain what to do. I kept drawing for Initiative and drawing a card for the Japs when they won, but they couldn't use the card. I figured it still moved their deck forward and made the drawing of a Joker closer even if it was via shuffling upon their last card being drawn.

But the Brits activated a few times, and bayoneted, shot or otherwise disposed of several Japs. Finally, their deck ran out and was shuffled, and a Joker was quickly drawn. The Japs easily passed with a King. The Brits needed a 6+, but drew a '5'. No problem, since they get three more draws with Leftenant Pennyworth's Leadership [3]. Amazingly, they draw a '4', a '2' and another '5', and withdraw from the field!

Well, that was quite a surprise, but certainly "the luck of the draw" as Han Solo would say. Ben Kenobi would say that there's no such thing as luck. What would the Limeys say?

In any event, it was a fun game either way. Altho the victory conditions and points were messed up as I forgot to take the prisoner and the papers off the table, I counted it as a Brit win as they suppressed the entire Jap force, seized both vantage points and the bunker, and took out all bunker personnel seizing the papers as well. Altho their force broke, it was not forced by the Japanese who had no active personnel at the time, so I concluded it was an orderly withdrawal.

It was strange at first that once side had nothing to do. This was the first time this had happened, but altho odds are against it I should've realized this possibility. If all four Jokers come up quickly, and the forces are not large [more likely later in the game after casualties] one side could have the entire remainder of its force "Down" and unable to act as the card decks continue along their merry way. 

I decided to just keep playing, but not acting with the Japanese so their Action Points card was just wasted, while the Brits continued to act normally. This would have resulted in the entire Japanese force being destroyed in Melee had I played all of it correctly, but I'd forgotten to act every other Player with the British, and the Japs got a number of - useless - player turns in a row.

Per the Turn Sequence, p. 6, Players drawn off for Initiative, and the high card gets first Player Phase, followed by the second Player taking a second Player Phase. This sequence of IGO-UGO continues until a Joker is drawn and the Turn ends, at which time Army Morale is checked and if both sides pass Casualties are then adjudicated. I was playing it wrong by always drawing off each Player Phase. Actually, this worked just fine altho it *could* have resulted in one side getting several Turns in a row.

Also, one could nuance the victory conditions a bit.  A Recon Mission includes the assumption that the force will depart whenever it has achieved enough of its goals, so the opposition should get no victory points for breaking the recon force, IMHO.

Overall, this was a great time with great figs and great terrain, and I'm looking forward to more action and painting up these figs and more of the terrain, for even better looking battles. I think it will be more and more fun for Mr. Winkie, and there are very few games around that are equally challenging and fun for young and old, newbs and grognards alike, so again highly recommend you get this book and try these rules. 

I must admit, I'm thinking of playing them again - straight - just to get a better feel for them, altho I'll probably keep the "Diamonds are still Down" mod as I like it.