Japanese Army Update + FUBAR Battle Report (AAR)

Hello,

So I had a good couple of days where I was able to work on the 20 Japanese infantry. In my opinion they turned out well besides the fact that the color of the uniforms is almost exactly the same as the Chinese but darker. With me completing the whole process of painting and building them I was able to actually have a battle using the bare bones FUBAR rule set with my dad.

We each had 20 infantry miniatures that we could organize any way we wanted. The Chinese figures included: 1 Officer w/ Pistol, 1 Banner man, 1 Officer w/ Dao Sword, 3 SMG Men, 14 Riflemen. The Japanese figures included: 1 Officer w/ Katana and Pistol, 1 Banner man, 2 SMG Men, 16 Riflemen.

When we were making our armies the Japanese forces were given the Renault FT (2 crew needed) and 3 5cm mortars (2 crew needed per mortar) while the Chinese forces were given the Pak-gun (5 crew needed).

We randomly distributed the terrain by dividing the map into 6 sections and rolling to see where this piece of terrain would be placed, similar to how they do it in many Games-Workshop stores. Then we organized our troops into different Units and then rolled for our units' experience.

FUBAR UNIT EXPERIENCE

1-3 "Green"

4-6 "Seasoned"

7-8 "Veteran"

9-10 "Elite"

 Really a simple chart and provided a good variety for the Chinese and a strong force for the Japanese.

The Chinese Army. 1 "Green" LMG Unit, 1 "Veteran" Rifle Unit, 1 "Elite" Rifle Unit, 1 "Veteran" Pak gun Unit, and a "Seasoned" Command Unit. Total Morale for the army was 7.

Japanese Army. 1 "Veteran" Armored unit, 1 "Veteran" Rifle Team Unit support, and 1 "Veteran" Command Unit. Total Morale for the army was 6.

Then we rolled for where we would deploy our forces using the same way we deployed terrain. The Chinese Forces got section IV while the Japanese Forces got section V putting us diagonal from each other! The Japanese Forces won the initiative roll and decided to deploy their forces first. 

The Troops are deployed on the field. The Japanese in the open while the Chinese deploy in the woods and hill.

After deployment the Japanese were able to attempt activating first (they won initiative) but failed their first roll turning it over to the Chinese. This bad start would reflect the first half of the game as the smaller Chinese units were able to activate and move quickly surrounding the still Japanese forces.

The Chinese hiding in the woods and hill.

Pak-Gun moved to a small rock pile (+1 Soft Cover) for cover firing upon the Renault FT.

A Flank maneuver from the Elite units as they slog through the marsh (+1 Soft Cover).

It only grew worse for the Japanese as the Chinese units on the hill constantly fired upon any unit they could suppressing the Japanese units making it harder to activate even with their Veteran status. Though they were able to activate a few times and fire back they were still stuck in the open terrain with very little cover. The only cover was used by the Japanese Command Unit and was a +2 Crater.

The Armored Japanese unit is pinned from Elite gun fire!

The Japanese, though Veterans, had trouble activating and getting out of the open.

Grenades were lobbed from the elite team that destroyed the remaining tank but the crew lived!

It wasn't until the tank was destroyed that the tide really turned for the Japanese. Soon activation rolls were being made and the Japanese focused as much fire power as they could on one Chinese unit at a time. This led to the Elite Chinese Rifle team getting pinned and taking many casualties. They failed the first of soon to be many morale checks.

The Japanese strike back focusing all their fire power on the elite team killing one and suppressing the rest.

The Elites take more casualties from mortar fire and flee the battle.

The Japanese command team begins rallying their troops.

For the Chinese it was over once the Japanese had rallied and killed the Elite and Veteran teams on the Japanese's right side. They began a large push towards the hill. The Chinese Pak-gun moved forward to try and slow down the Japanese advance but grenades quickly killed some of the crew and made the rest flee as well. The Chinese had lost most of their firepower and infantry while the Japanese still had many men left.

The Pak-Gun team flee after receiving fire from the Japanese command team!

The Japanese troops advance and fire upon the hill killing the men on the hill.

The final charge was made by the Chinese command team towards the Japanese tank crew in the woods but they were slaughtered forcing the command team to flee only to get gunned down by the Veteran Japanese Rifle Team. Ending the game. (Chinese morale reached 0)

The final picture of the battle field.

Overall the battle was fun for everyone. Seeing the difference between two different organizations, one had larger units while the other had smaller units. The smaller units provided better maneuverability while the large units, though slow to activate, had amazing firepower when used correctly. We didn't get to see much with the tank as the armored unit was always suppressed or failed its activation.

There are a few rules we are going to change or add to the game to make it better but we are also going to modify the measurements and distances to our scale as no one was ever out of range. Now it was a small map with a small amount of units but we found some of the ranges to be a bit ridiculous. (Throwing a grenade as far as a pistol can shoot?) We also think that any armored weapon or vehicle shall always be its own separate unit as there were some rule "conflicts" that came up with having infantry and armor paired together.

As far as the campaign rules go we haven't even implemented those yet. This was just a small skirmish to test to see what we like and what we don't like about the basic FUBAR system of play. We really liked how morale worked and how suppression and activation worked even though it was frustrating for the Japanese in the beginning.

That is all for now! Hope you enjoyed it.

-"Jonah"