Action Japanese Movie
Courtland Boland
Japan is fun to play because your best strategy is sheer aggression. You win by chasing your enemy down and turning them into a shish kabob, or hucking an anti-tank grenade onto their engine deck from point-blank range. With Japan, every victory is a pyrrhic victory. No game will end without a horde of casualties ringing the playspace. This also makes them very fun to play against, with your opponent desperately trying to whittle down the wall of screaming men before they can get into close combat and tear thheir position to shreds.
So even though Japan lost this encounter, they still took way more enemy models with them by forcing additional rounds of close combat until they were destroyed. Alternatively, if they had won ANY of those three rounds of combat, they would have wiped the Americans out instead.
The second thing that makes Japanese infantry great is the Banzai Charge rule. This allows Japanese units to automatically pass Order tests so long as they issue a Run order towards an enemy unit. Since in many instances you will want to get into close combat anyway, this is an invaluable tool.
Despite having both Fanatics and Banzai, there is still more to this strategy than just running blindly forward. Infantry need to be moved forward through cover as far as possible to avoid taking too many casualties on the approach. If the scenario allows it, also consider using outflanking. This will allow your units to come in from the sides of the table and surprise vulnerable enemy units. If possible, get to any objectives before your opponent and force them to shift you off of it. Because of the Fanatics rule, your units will hold out practically to the last man, making getting Japanese troops off of a specific point very difficult.
Generally, when building my list, I aim for a combination of large amounts of infantry and high explosives to clear out enemy infantry. A mortar, howitzer, and vehicle with good HE capabilities can really do a ton of damage to enemy infantry, and force them not to simply sit in cover plinking away. It can also put enough pins on units to force them to rally or fail to activate, giving you a chance to charge into action.
Japanese armies tend to have a large amount of Order Dice because they favor infantry and can take many small teams. Typically at 1,000 points you should have 12-15 order dice, which puts you in a good position to get the coveted Last Dice+First Dice. This is when you pull the last dice of the turn and the first dice of the next turn. This can be a huge advantage, because when it happens you can essentially move a unit twice in a row.
With Japanese special rules being what they are, HQ units are not quite as important as they can be for other armies. Honestly a single 1st or 2nd Lt. is perfectly acceptable as the sole HQ option for a Japanese list.
As to whether to opt for Regular or Veteran infantry, I generally lean towards Regular as being a better choice for Japan. The Fanatic/Banzai combination really diminishes morale as a consideration, and you generally want as many bodies as you can. That being said, SNLF are veteran infantry that can take two SMGs, and are pretty hard to kill, so they can be a good option.
Consider adding a basic General Purpose Truck to your list. For 41pts this can transport up to 13 men. Load your meanest infantry squad and a flamethrower or engineer team into that bad boy, then outflank. Bring the truck in next to some juicy enemy target, then unload your infantry and flamethrower, for a one-two punch. The next turn you can banzai charge any survivors.
Most players coming to Bolt Action will grab the perfectly cromulent Japanese Infantry box from Warlord Games. They also have a SNLF box, which are the same plastic sprues as the Japanese infantry, but with some extra metal bits and a few unique metal figures. Stylistically, I think the SNLF are cooler and really like the customization options that box provides.
Speaking of 3D printing, there are also a pretty solid selection of infantry, artillery, and vehicle options for Japanese collectors. Some of my favorite are: Studio Historia, Studio Grozny, and Deweycat.
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If my opponent decides to leave his tanks at home, to make my anti-tank redundant without any targets, the High Explosive rounds from this fella can ruin a squads day instead. Equal opportunities fire giver. ?
Resin is not my favourite medium for hobbying because there always seems to be dramatic lumps where the mold entry meets the sculpt and plenty of swarf to be removed compared to plastic. This kit had a couple of metal pieces that worked neatly, but the the more perceptive of you will notice i sat the barrel too far back in the carriage and i am not sure how i managed to have one track longer at the back than the other, but on this occasion for some reason i am not phased by this enough to fix it and am happy to continue with my project.
The 3 light mortars in a squad interests me mechanics wise. I am still unsure how to hobby these or how to use them tactically for the best, but I always like to lean into faction specific rules to get the flavor the designers intended.
Or just use them for set tasks followed by any remainder in the box used in just one infantry squad. If it only comprises of crouched guys and prone guy it gives a pleasing aesthetic in play, because you have one unit of almost all standing minis charging the enemy as the other unit is crouched and prone set to give covering fire.
Another alternative was to use the prone men as pin markers instead of the first pin marker? Less tokens is important to the emersion sometimes, but this option does deplete my box of 30 minis to 25 quite quickly.
The tree trunk is two pieces of resin. I tried to cut off a piece of resin sprue to bulk out the basing and lay Greenstuff over it. Then realised that a sandy or grassy dune would not look as good as a tree trunk and the resin had contorted in a bark like texture.
Japan realised that their anti-tank equipment was too light to knock out the Shermans, Lees and even Stuart tanks being put in front of them, they had no time or resources to up-gun their defenses. It was only the fact that Japan had such a devoted and indoctrinated infantry that allowed them to use Suicide attacks, lunging anti-tank mines on wooden shafts directly against the sides of tanks, as a last ditch defensive field tactic for taking out enemy armor.
Started out by washing the metal to remove mold release agents. These can spoil the quality of the primer adhesion and gluing the minis together. These were mostly only two part minis. Being able to choose the heads is always nice with Warlord Games blisters like this.
Almost finished my 10 man team and finished this LMG displacing and rifleman mini today. On the base of the LMG i have used dried up paint from the lids of Citadel paint pots as leaves for a tropical plant.
Need to start building a TON of minis for my huge regular squads. This may end up being a mistake tactically but will plough on anyway. If i have spare minis i will make another LMG and NCO above what I currently have planned, because i feel at some point i will divide the two huge squads into three smaller ones.
Armed with my new Greenstuff World branch punch i dissected a can of Monster and punched out about 55 metal branches for basing. Time again i would probably be able to get 80 or more out of it, but i was very wary / cautious of opening an aluminium can and it was my first time using the punch.
I found it easier to punch through from the outside of the can inward for some reason. I also found it uncomfortable to push the punch down with the heel of my thumb and palm. I found pressing down hard with one thumb and then adding extra pressure with the other thumb on top was the best technique for me. I also took the precaution of using a work glove for extra grip and avoiding getting cut on some jagged edges made when initially breaking into the can.
I used Citadel Warpstone Glow green and Ork Flesh contrast paint to detail the plants and stuck them in the turfs of grass i had placed on the bases earlier. I think across the whole force it will be a great unifying theme that will set the army off nicely.
Don't get me wrong, I realize something has to be done even if it's just to postpone its descent over the short term while they wait on external forces to restore the exchange rate. But "speculators" aren't going to be exactly encouraged by these interventions right?
For myself, as far as my trust in the erosion of the Japanese yen. The last time the Yen went over 147 I did a transfer for $200,000 USD. I was thinking about doing it again if it hit 160 but at this point like I said earlier, if manipulating the currency makes me wanna just leave my money cash in the US.
No, it's actually the result of the US Fed and US economic trends. The Biden economy is so strong that currency traders now believe that the Fed is starting to feel that lower interest rates are no longer needed to give a boost, as the "boosting" has largely already been achieved.
How many times, in recent years, i have heard this?? Different versions. So typical/sad state of affairs here, its all talk, end of the day, non thing will happen/change. Japanese, must all collective do something, about local politics.
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