Mike's Marines (Part 4: Late War List)

with Mike

I know that I will want to field my Marines in the Late War meta at least once, so I’ve mustered up a 1500 point list. I’ll be honest, it’s a tough life being a hypothetical Marine in the ETO, but damned if that’ll stop them! Besides, it’s pretty much the only way I’ll ever be able to squeeze in M3 75mm GMCs and Shermans into my list. So here it goes!

Marine Rifle Company (ETO)	Points
Marine Rifle HQ	55
Marine Rifle Platoon with BAR (2/3 strength)	210
Marine Rifle Platoon with BAR (2/3 strength)	210
Assault Section (full strength)	160
Mortar Platoon (4x 81mm)	125
Marine War Dog Platoon (2x Dog Handlers)	70
Self-propelled Gun Platoon (2x 75mm SPM)	110
Marine Tank Platoon (4x M4A2 Sherman)	365
add 4x Improvised Tank Assault Armor	20
Flame Tank Platoon (3x M3A1 Satan)	175
Total	1500
For 1750-points add:
Air Support (Priority)	190
add Close Air Support	25
add Napalm	30
Total	1745

You've got the books now, what's your 1500 pt USMC list for LW?

(previously... Mike's Move Out! List...)

ANZAC Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 4

Battle of Tarawa: Part IV
With special guest writer, 
Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, Ph.D.

Day 4 – November 23, 1943 – Mopping Up

On the final day of the battle, the Marines advanced across the narrow tip of Tarawa reducing the last Japanese resistance.  During this offensive, the Marines were supported by two M4A2 Sherman tanks named China Gal and Colorado as well as five Stuart light tanks.  During this action, the lead Marine elements would sometimes bypass defenses in order to outflank the Japanese.

The Mission
Play “Pincer” with a Marine Rifle Company attacking a Veteran Yosai Hohei Chutai. The battlefield should have an unimproved road running through it, though that road can be interrupted by mines, barbed wire, or other fortifications as the defending player sees fit.

USMC Force
The Marine force should include Assault Sections and may include both medium and light tank support.  The Marines should also have access to 75mm pack howitzers.

Japanese Force
The Japanese force should not have any tank support at this point.

~Fin~

For Day 1 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 1...
For Day 2 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 2...
For Day 3 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 3...

Thanks for reading! We hoped you enjoyed this series. Played through the campaign? We'd love to hear your experiences and take on your feedback! Get in touch with us in the comments below, or through the Behind Enemy Lines Facebook page or the Flames of War: Pacific page and let us know how it went! Our sincerest thanks to Dr, Michael McSwiney for his writing and enthusiasm!

Be sure to check out Mike's blog: Miniature Ordnance Review for more excellent articles and painting guides!

Dan Models! Improvised Armor for M4A3 Shermans

Today we take a brief respite from the Battle of Tarawa campaign to bring you another of Dan's fantastic videos.

 In this video Dan looks at adding improvised armor to your M4A3 Shermans.

 Thanks Dan!

The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 3

Battle of Tarawa: Part III
With special guest writer, 
Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, Ph.D.

Day 3 – November 22, 1943 – Advance from Red 1

In this photo, you can see Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr (2nd Battalion, 8th Marines)
lead his heroic assault on 22 November 1943.  It's said you can see him fourth
from the right. More information on this Medal of Honor winner here...

On November 22, the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment began a westward advance across island to meet up with the forces that had advanced from Red 2 and 3.  By the end of the day, they would reach the eastern end of the airstrip on the island.

The Mission
Play “Dust Up” with a Marine Rifle Company attacking a Veteran Hohei Chutai.  The battlefield should be the western part of Tarawa’s airfield along the south side of the atoll.  The airstrip should run along the long side of the board and there should be some support buildings and other features for cover.

USMC Force
The Marine force at this point should have access to pack howitzers and machine guns, but should still be bereft of most heavy artillery and amphibian tank platoons.

Japanese Force
The Japanese force should likely not include armor at this point, but they players can decide if the Japanese have a few Ha-Go tanks available.

Night of Day 3 – November 22, 1943 – Japanese Banzai Charge

The Japanese formed up for a counter-attack against the American Marines which was to commence on the night of November 22, but concentrated artillery fire broke up the attack.  At 3:00AM the next morning, the Japanese conducted a banzai charge against the American lines.

The Mission
Play “Hasty Attack” with a Japanese Veteran Hohei Chutai attacking a Marine Rifle Company. The battlefield should be the eastern end of the airstrip on Tarawa and include a partial runway, aprons, and some buildings.

USMC Force
At this point, the Marines should still lack heavy artillery, but may have light tanks and should have naval gunfire support as the destroyers USS Schroeder and USS Sigsbee provided vital artillery support to the Marines.

Japanese Force
The Japanese should largely focus on infantry formations with little in the way of heavy weapons or guns. This battle should use the “Hell by Day, Paradise by Night” rule.

Keep a look out, Marines!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for: Day 3 – November 22, 1943 ...
For Day 1 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 1...
For Day 2 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 2...

Be sure to check out Mike's blog: Miniature Ordnance Review for more excellent articles and painting guides!

The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 2

Battle of Tarawa: Part II
With special guest writer, 
Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, Ph.D.

Day 2 – November 21, 1943 – Assault on Green Beach

On day 2, the Marines who had landed on Beach Red 1 were ordered to take Green Beach.  Given most of the Japanese defenses on Green Beach were set to repel a seaborne invasion; the Marines were able to flank some of the defenses.

The Mission
Play “Hold the Line” with a Marine Rifle Company attacking a Veteran Yosai Hohei Chutai. The board should depict a beach and its defenses in the Japanese deployment zone and can have a few small buildings toward the American edge.  You may want to put a coast line along one of the long edges to simulate a flank attack up the shoreline (note that this will restrict arriving Reserves).  In this particular battle, Marine casualties were light and naval gunfire support was used to great effect against dug-in enemy positions.

USMC Force
As above, the Marine force should have strong naval gunfire support and air support and should not have access to artillery (apart from mortars), self-propelled gun platoons, naval construction platoons, light tank platoons, or amphibian tank platoons.

Japanese Force
The Japanese should have access to the entire list except Air Support, Naval Air and Sea Support, and Armour (as this was concentrated further east).

Day 2 – November 21, 1943 – Advance from Red 2 and 3

The Mission
Play “No Retreat” with a Marine Rifle Company attacking a Veteran Yosai Hohei Chutai or a Veteran Hohei Chutai.

The battlefield should include part of an airstrip crossing the battlefield in roughly the center of the board, and some buildings or defensive works should be near the Japanese board edge.

USMC Force
The Marine force should not include LVT’s at this point, but should include Marine Artillery Batteries with M1A1 75mm pack howitzers, but should still not have access to self-propelled gun platoons, naval construction platoons, light tank platoons, or amphibian tank platoons.

Japanese Force
The Japanese force can field anything available in the list except Air Support, Naval Air and Sea Support.  The only Armour available to the Japanese should be the surviving Ha-Go tanks.

One key facet of this battle was the Japanese set up several additional machine gun posts (which can be represented by Hohei Machine-Gun Platoons, Hohei Weapons Platoons, or HMG Nests) along key lines of advance.  To counter these, the Marines brought up their own heavy machine guns (which can be represented by Marine Machine-Gun Platoons with either M1917 HMG or M2 .50 cal HMG teams).

Move out!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for: Day 3 – November 22, 1943 ...
For Day 1 of the battle, check out: The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 1...

Be sure to check out Mike's blog: Miniature Ordnance Review for more excellent articles and painting guides!

The Battle of Tarawa: Mini Campaign, Day 1

Forward
This week we have a very special article series for you all. Perhaps one of the most acclaimed aspects of the new Battlefront PTO books are the mini-campaigns included in them. We talked briefly about them several weeks back, but they are worth mentioning again. These are by far my favorite aspects of the book and I sincerely hope we can see more of these sorts of gaming ideas in future books.

Today we embark on an article series written by Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, Ph.D, I've had the absolute pleasure of working with Mike over several book projects during my time at Battlefront, and he's continued to support projects such as the PTO books through great articles and writing. He's got a great grasp on blending historical research with the action on the tabletop. We're honored to have him share a mini campaign like the ones found in the PTO books, So with our sincerest thanks to Dr. McSwiney, and without further ado, we'd like to present his Flames Of War mini-campaign following the Battle of Tarawa.

- Mike


Battle of Tarawa: Part I
With special guest writer, 
Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, Ph.D.

The Battle of Tarawa was largely fought on and around the island of Betio.  The Japanese had been fortifying the island for over a year, and had brought in several coastal guns to defend the atoll.  Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, commanding the Japanese forces at Tarawa, boasted that “it would take one million men one hundred years” to capture the island.  Over the course of the four day battle, casualties on both sides were high, with only one Japanese officer and sixteen Japanese enlisted surrendering out of an original garrison of over 4600.  Korean laborers brought in to fortify the island also suffered greatly, with only 129 surviving out of an original strength of 1200.  American casualties were almost 900 killed in action and nearly 2200 wounded in action sparking protests on the home front.  However many lessons were learned from Tarawa and would lead to the success of future amphibious operations in the Pacific.

Day 1 – November 20, 1943, Assault on Red 1, 2, and 3

The Mission
Play “Atoll Landing Mission” with a Marine Rifle Company attacking a Veteran Yosai Hohei Chutai. The battlefield should be a beach table with a clear reef and lagoon.

USMC Force
The Marine force should all be equipped with LVT(4) Amtrac armored personnel carriers, as these were the only transport craft able to make it successfully to the beach during the first day of the battle.  The Marines should have strong naval gunfire support, air support, and can have one or two platoons of 75mm M4A2 Sherman tanks as some were able to make it ashore and proved effective. The Marines should not have any artillery (apart from mortars), self-propelled gun platoons, naval construction platoons, light tank platoons, or amphibian tank platoons.  

Japanese Force
The Japanese on Tarawa were generally well-supplied and well prepared and included both IJA and SNLF personnel.  The Japanese force can field anything available in the list except Air Support, Naval Air and Sea Support.  The only armor available to the Japanese was roughly 14 Type 95 Ha-Go Tanks. 

Good luck, soldiers!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for: Day 2 – November 21, 1943 ...

Be sure to check out Mike's blog: Miniature Ordnance Review for more excellent articles and painting guides!

Dan's Marines WIP

With Dan

I was lucky enough to bags the Marines going into the Pacific project and I can tell you it has been a lot of fun experimenting to get the colours just right. A couple of days ago I finished the Marine Rifle Platoon for my Amphibious Tank Company.

I went for a sand camo on most of the helmets and used colours which can be found in the below video. Overall I had a lot of fun painting these guys they're great sculpts with a lot of character.

Now me being me I couldn't help but overdo it and if there's one thing I really like it's a painting challenge. I chipped the Marines landing craft and then went to town with the AK Interactive products and in the end I was very happy with the results.

Now while it was fun to paint the support options first I couldn't neglect the Meat & Potatoes part of the project and that's the new LVT (A) 1 & 4. For these I used my silly putty technique (not mine but you get my drift) The best part about this is the excitement I get from removing the silly putty from the miniature to reveal the hard edged camouflage underneath.

My little painting guide for the LVT 4 -A:

There's still a bit more work to do and right now it's mostly crewmen and details like tracks and metal colours but in about a week or so most of this should be ready to hit the beach.

Night at the PTO Museum

with Mike

Over the Easter holiday, I took the family to the museum. I've been to the museum dozens of times, and each time I find something new I hadn't noticed before, or sometimes I see something in a new light, such as the museum's PTO collection! The Auckland War Memorial museum has an interesting collection of Japanese items.

A captured Type 94 37mm anti-tank gun

I find views from behind the gunshield helpful for picking out which bits should be gun metal and which  areas are painted.

This A6M3 Zero has a pretty interesting history. It was damaged in the closing days of the war. It was refurbished as a Kamikaze aircraft and scheduled to fly it's final mission but the war ended. The aircraft was then captured and shipped to NZ for evaluations. It only flew once as it was highly unreliable. 

Few artifacts puts things into perspective than a Japanese military map of your country!

I also dug up these photos that I took during my trip down to Panzerschreck last year.  

Between these museum visits, and watching Greg's and Damo's Japanses forces coming together, I'm really getting impatient about painting my own SNLF. I'll get there soon enough, but I want it all, now!

Greg Paints! Battlefronts Japanese Infantry

With Greg

In this video Greg paints a Japanese Infantryman. He goes over his style of painting and gives us a run down on how he paints.

So, sit back and let the magic unfold!

Why Japanese Tanks?

with Damian

The release of the Pacific War books couldn’t have come at a better time for me.  I’d been looking for a new Flames of War army to do for a long time and when the guys at Behind Enemy Lines were offered the chance to jump on-board and help out, I found myself really excited about the opportunity. (Even if I found a week later than the others!) Clutching my copy of Banzai with feverish hands I skimmed through the army lists...

My choice for a new army?  A Sensha Rentai (Tank Regiment.) -Japanese tanks!  Lots and lots (and lots!) of tanks.  I’ve always loved running hordes of tanks since I first started playing in 2002-2003.  Of course, way back then I only had an Italian tank force of underpowered, outgunned and slightly mad L3-35 tankettes and M40/41 “medium” tanks to compete versus other better mid war forces.  So I thought to myself why change what I’ve always loved to play with now?  I’ve always relished the challenge of using slightly off the wall, unbalanced lists that people wouldn’t really consider using themselves, and a Sensha Rentai with no infantry or artillery barreling across the table as fast as their outmoded engines could go made me laugh.

In 1940, Japan fielded the fifth largest tank force in the world (behind the USSR, France, Britain and Germany, but ahead of Italy.)  Of course by 1943 the designs they had in the 1930’s were horribly obsolete.  Sounds like fun to me.

A Sensha Rentai’s main strike weapon is the Type 97 Chi-Ha (a 1937 design) with the Type 95 Ha-Go (a 1935 design) in support.  Perfect.  This force needs a HQ and one combat company as a compulsory starting point, so that’s where I’ll start.  I’m looking to cram as many tanks into my new force as possible so it’ll be interesting to see where this list takes me.

A nice twist in the new Japanese book is the ability to field my tanks as a straight up Pacific War force vs the capitalist Marines of the evil USA or, should I want to, as a Late War force enabling me to pit my tanks versus any other late war force out there.  With that in mind I’ve decided to build up an army capable of being fielded at a myriad of points values for both theatres of war!  1000pts for the Pacific and 1500pts for Late War seems about right.  I’m basically trying to get as many “treads on the ground”, as I know the list(s) I’ve chosen definitely will not be a combined arms option.  The trick will be to try to “even out” the amount of tanks in each list as the points values radically change from the Pacific to Late War.  I expect my lists will have different ratings as I attempt to keep the numbers of tanks about the same.

I might have some (not so) nice surprises for my opponents as my army takes shape and grows. There might even be some non-tank support options.  It’s going to be tough keeping track of what I’m doing and matching up the two lists I’m creating but I’m really looking forward to it. Now I realise that the force I want to build and use did not historically take to the field of battle as a whole unit but I’m just completely stoked to put it together and roll around the table. I hope it inspires many of you to have a go also.

PTO Terrain: Shrine

with Mike

I've been on the hunt for a small Buddha statute to make into a jungle statue for my Vietnam terrain, but I've had little luck. However, I saw a little shrine in the aquarium section at the local pet shop and grabbed it for $10.

With my Pacific terrain project starting up in force, I've brought this out for some finishing. While shrines like these may not have been seen on the island hopping, they were certainly in southeast Asia where the Japanese empire clashed with British commonwealth forces. So, it'll certainly see use at some point!

This is how the piece came straight from the pet shop:

I decided that at this point I'm not going to spend any time on the structure itself as I thought it's pretty much tabletop ready. I might give it a touch up at some point in the future, but I'm more interested in getting terrain pieces done for some PTO games, rather than getting mired down in the details. Once I have a solid collection I'll think about upping the realism a bit more.

Anyway, the base certainly needs some attention, so I stripped out the plastic plants and repainted the thing dark brown. Then, using my earlier jungle terrain tutorial, I added some of the plastic foliage pieces and flocked the base with green static grass and some dark green and red meadow flock.

Boom, sorted.

Maybe one day I'll get a little ambitious:

Thanks for reading! Let us know what terrain projects you've got on the table!