Grumble Jones January Scenario GJ066 - Nankan Station

For the first scenario of 2019, I selected a PTO event. In looking back on 2018's scenarios, it was a bit heavy on East Front Action. Like many people, I do tend to shy away from PTO games. For some reason, I always let PTO terrain keep from playing some really great scenarios. And over the years, as I have attended tournaments, you will often find yourself playing a PTO game. And after playing it...you say to yourself..."that's wasn't so bad"...and like all things ASL...you just tell yourself..."yeah...I got this" and open the book to a whole new ASL adventure. So...if you haven't tried PTO games or just a few, don't let PTO terrain and other PTO rules hold you back. Jump in and take it all in stride. PTO is best learned by playing the scenarios. And trust me, you will enjoy the change that PTO provides. 

My inspiration for this month's scenario comes directly form Osprey's excellent Combat Series. In this particular case, the clash between Chindits and Japanese in the Burma Campaign provides this month's source material. 

Growing up, I was fascinated by Ord Wingate and h is Chindits. The nature of their guerrilla war was something that my younger brother and I would imitate in the backyard. We created a base camp behind a long pile in the trees and used an old fuse box as our radio to stay in contact with base. With our wooden springfield rifles (you know the good ones from the 1970's that had the fake gold bullet in the breach) we would make forays around the house to battle Japanese Patrols. I thing the history was lost on my brother. He was always a less than willing wargame buddy. But those were some fun days.

So leaving childhood behind for a moment, I chose to do a small scenario around Brigadier Michael Calvert's Column No. 3 and its efforts to destroy the rail line at Nankan Station. While they were successful, their operation was interrupted by lorry driven Japanese infantry. So this scenario attempts to depict a portion of that action as two of Calvert's Column No. 3 Parties attempt to destroy the rail line and hold back the oncoming Japanese before making an escape to pre-arranged rally points in the south. 

The SSR's are important with special attention to the DC attempts to blow the bridge. The Chindit Player has to blow 2 rail line hexes, with one to each of the Railroad Overlays RR3 and RR13. The bridges are successfully demolished with any KIA result of the detonated DC. Of course a bad roll here or there and no demo. So the Chindits have 4 x DC's and can also set the DC and wait a number of turns to detonate with a -1 on the effect Die Roll for each turn after the DC was set. There is of course still the chance that the Chindit Player will fail to blow two Hexes...and if so...well...mark it down as a Japanese win. So roll low on those DC effect Die Rolls.

Here now is this month's scenario. As always, I hope it provides the flavor of the actual event. For additional info on this particular battle, check the excellent link below:

https://www.chinditslongcloth1943.com/following-5-column.html

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, the PDF's for these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).