Team BBC is Off the Air

The other night I played my 3rd game of Nuts! using the Chocolate & Cigarettes rules, and the 10th game of Nuts! Final Version. 

The picture speaks volumes:

No custard tarts today.

Things got off to a bad start when the first PEF resolved as a squad with 6 members and Deacon was knocked out of the fight. That was on turn 1. 

Although Hardcastle killed the German NCO, and managed to drive off the LMG crew (they passed 0 on Man Down test and left the battlefield), the Germans ended up receiving a reinforcement of another LMG crew on the next turn, so no gain there.

Both Peacock and Hardcastle were eventually dropped as Out of Fight as seen above. So, they aren't dead, but they are undoubtedly prisoners of war now. 

Perhaps an escape scenario will occur at some point in the future?

****
As for Nuts! Final Version, this was the 10th game in the 10 game challenge. There is no doubt in my mind that the experiment proved its worth. I feel  I know the game far better than I knew the previous edition and I've given it a genuinely fair shake.

I think the Chocolate & Cigarettes size games work quite well, although I had no chance to use any of the challenge rules for the additional character stats. This was a result of the scenario choices I made and not a function of the rules. Maybe if I play an escape scenario, they will see some use.

I won't be using Nuts! as my default squad to platoon rules, but will Nuts! Final Version : Chocolate & Cigarettes become a staple? 

I recently acquired Five Men in Normandy, so, some day I'll be trying those out, but in the meantime, I think Nuts! FV: C&C is just about perfect for this type of game, providing lot's of action and drama with just a few figures per side.

More Nuts! Chocolate & Cigarettes : Escort the Wounded

I decided on an "escort the wounded" scenario for my second go at Chocolate & Cigarettes.

Operation: Hyacinth - Team BBC must escort a wounded army private out of enemy territory, i.e. across the table.

OOB (I left these details out last time. Oops.):

• Lt. Corporal Hardcastle - Rep 5, Fit: 5, Pep: 3, Sav: 4, Tough, Steely Eyes, Exceptional Fixer, Smooth
• Lance Cpl. Peacock - Rep 5, Fit 3, Pep: 5, Sav: 4, Initiative, Smooth, has a hunk of cheese
• Pvt. Deacon - Rep 5, Fit 3, Pep: 5, Sav:4, Hard as Nails, Attractive
• "The Walking Wounded" - Rep 3, temporarily Rep 2 per scenario setup

As part of the scenario, the wounded can only move a maximum of twice their Rep. So, yeah, FOUR INCHES.

Good lord.

Here's the table with Team BBC and enemy PEFs in place:

[Turn 1, Germans 6, Brits 3. German PEFs won't move.]

Our heroes move through some woods. Hardcastle and Peacock take the lead to make sure there aren't any surprises.

[Turn 2, Germans 2, Brits 1, PEFS all pass two dice and move 8" towards Team BBC]

A surprise was indeed making its way towards them: a single SS-Panzergrenadier armed with an assault rifle. 

Peacock got the draw on the kraut and blasted away. 

His aim wasn't good enough.

[Peacock won the In-Sight check 3-0, he fired and scored enough to hit, but when checking the result, the enemy ended up merely knocked down and able to carry on.]

The German fired at Peacock who ducked back into cover under the barrage of bullets.

[Peacock passed 1 on his crisis test, and, since he has a BA Rifle, he is outgunned and ducks back]

Hardcastle raced up to join the fracas, but the SS trooper was ready. Dodging bullets and unphased, Hardcastle unleashed a fury from his SMG that dropped the enemy.

[Hardcastle moved up and triggered another In-Sight. The German won 4 to 1, I held my breath and hoped for the best: he missed! Hardcastle took a crisis test for receiving fire and passed 2. Even though he was outgunned, as a star I could choose his reaction, so, he returned fire and dropped the dastardly German; Jean would be proud. ]

[Turn 3 the team advanced. The sides tied for initiative on turns 4 and 5 ]

Hardcastle crossed the crest of the hill and hit the dirt as movement from the hill to his right and front caught his eye. A tense few moments passed until he realized it was just his nerves and that his mind had drifted to custard tarts.

[A PEF moved over the top o the hill and passed 0 dice to resolve.Right about now I was starting to feel pretty good.

Turns 7 and 8, the team continued their advance, going prone immediately after moving. This costs half movement to stand the next activation but, as I finally learned, the benefit when receiving fire is totally worth it.

On Turn 8, the Brits scored a 4 for initiative and the Germans a 3. With a total of 7, I could have checked to see if the Brits got reinforcements, but like I said, I was feeling pretty good.

Never a good sign.]

Peacock had leap frogged past Hardcastle to the hill to their front and took up a position watching the forest to their right. Something was out there.

This time Lione's hunches weren't custard card dreams, but an SS LMG team. In his haste, Hardcastle opened fire but was wide of the mark. The LMG fired at Peacock and dropped him, wounded. Then they turned their gun on Hardcastle and by the luck of the gods, missed him. 

[For the In-Sight, since Peacock and Hardcastle were two different groups for activation purposes, each of them took the test separately.

Hardcastle scored 3 successes
Peacock and the LMG team tied with 2. On their re-roll, the LMG team scored 2 successes, while Peacock only scored 1.

For the sake of activation it means that Hardcastle gets to act, then the LMG team, and then reactions are taken and the active side completes their activation if they can. 

As noted on the last page of the rules, it's not about winning In-Sight, but about not losing it.]

In a hail of bullets, Hardcastle dropped the gunner. The loader, unable to return fire, ducked out of sight.

[The LMG team passed 1 for their crisis test for received fire, which resulted in a snap fire at Hardcastle. Their results: 444321. All miss because he is prone.

For Lionel, I put 2 dice on the gunner and 1 for the loader. Boom! Obviously Dead result for the gunner.

The loader passed his crisis test for man down with 2 dice, but he was outgunned, so ducked back.]

The firefight continued between Hardcastle and the loader, who, seizing initiative, grabbed the MG-42 and opened up on Our Hero.

[Three of the dice hit and one resulted in an OOF. 

But, Lionel is the star and has Star Power. He scored three successes and shifted the OOF to knock down but carry on (he's already prone, so there's no knocking down) ]

Bullets whizzed by his helmet, one ripping a hole in his sleeve. Angered at the damage to his fastidiously maintained uniform, he dropped the loader cold in his tracks.

Even before the last gurgle of life left the German, Hardcastle ran to Peacock to ready to carry him out.

[On Turn 11, the initiative summed up to 7, in favor of the Germans. This led to a new PEF right next to Deacon and the wounded.

SON OF A &%#!@!*&%]

[Fortunately it only passed 1 die, and resolved to nothing. Thankfully, no additional PEFs appeared before the team made it across the table. ]

Mission : Success!

After the mission, I checked for Peacock's status (a rule I had missed on EVERY PREVIOUS GAME PLAYED) and he passed two dice, meaning he returns to the squad for the next mission.

Nuts! Final Edition : Some Pictures and Reflections

I already see the point of the 10 games, 10 times challenge : it's all too easy to miss things in the first second, or even third play. It is not enough to just read rules, you need to PLAY them. 

And play I did - 3 more games of Nuts! - bringing my total to four, so far. 

Because I know I'm playing ten games, there is incentive to play the next one and make sure I fix any mistakes I made previously. I want to make sure that I'm not assuming things, so there was a lot of page flipping, with games taking around 2 hours to play and document. 

There is definitely a learning curve, as with all but the simplest rules. I missed things each game, mostly related to the control of the non-player force, but by the fourth, I had much of it committed to memory, or at least knew where to look when I wanted to be sure of my understanding.

Patrol Mission Setup. '44. France Somewhere.

I even found the rule I was hoping for regarding multiple groups and the In Sight test on what would be page 104, if it was numbered.   Unfortunately, it only made the matter a tiny bit less foggy.

Germans pinning down my men in the yellow farm house. Sarge and Pvt. Harry move up to lob grenades.
I'm not sure about the logistics of tossing grenades over hedgerows, but it sounded right.

Looks like things might go my way, right? Nope.
Despite their losses, Germans would kill or capture the entire team in the yellow farmhouse.

Second game.
Mission : Defend
Enemy Objective : Exit from my edge of the table.
I took my squad (dubbed 1st squad) and another squad, aptly called 2nd squad)
I made the Sarge a Star, and rolled up attributes per the rules for all of 1st squad.

I had the bright idea to send 2nd squad's BAR team up to identify the last PEF.
Turns out there was one in the ruined building.
(all buildings automatically contain a Potential Enemy)

The figure top center lobbed a grenade up over the hill and that was followed by the remainder of the Germans charging into melee. Melee is brutal, as seen here.
Red 6s are Dead, Red 3s are Out of Fight.

A chaotic and deadly melee at that.
You can see 1st squad, bottom left, trying to join the fight.

On a combined score of 7 for initiative, the higher rolling side gets to roll for reinforcements. Germans rolled high:
It's only a squad because I ran out of figures for the "rest of platoon" called for.
I decided my forces would fall back with the wounded.

The biggest thing I have learned so far is: 

If i had been in charge of the US forces in WWII, Hitler would have conquered North America.

Setup for 3rd game.
Mission : Defend.
Enemy Objective : Eliminate us.
I took a whole platoon sans HQ this time.

Everyone in the clear is actually prone (both sides), except the guys on the road.
They are running, but they are sitting ducks.

His last moments caught on camera.

This is just the 2nd turn! Do not get caught in the open!

This game lasted all of 4 turns before 2nd and 3rd squad retreated off table (by my decision, not game mechanics) and first squad was reduced to 2 men as they tried to flank the Germans in the woods.

To that I would also add, I need to throw out all of my six-siders, because clearly they have a pro-German bias

Make no mistake. These games have been enjoyable - full of emotion high and low, and I'm looking forward to the next game. 

Speaking of, the next game will be a patrol on the Eastern front; perhaps my Soviets will fare better. 

But, first, I should probably read up on small unit tactics, because clearly, I have no idea what I am doing!

Nuts! Final Edition : First Patrol AAR pt 2

We resume our patrol (click the pictures to enlarge).

After these pictures were taken, I decided to add some stone walls to the houses. Such is life.

Turn 1 - I rolled 1d6 per side and tied with 6s. That's greater than the Interest Level of 2, so no random event.

Turn 2 - Again I rolled doubles this time 2s. Because that's less than or equal to the IL, a random event is triggered (random events are optional. I like them, so I figured what the heck. I mean, how bad could it be?

I dutifully rolled on the random event table and got sniper. Since I was treating my squad as 2 groups (Cpl. Malazar, Pvt. Perceval and Pvt. Manchiever in one, and all the rest in the other), per the rules, I rolled first to see which group the sniper would target, and then which figure in the group.

As luck would have it, the sniper targeted the BAR group, and shot at the gunner, Pvt Perceval. To resolve the attack, I rolled 1d6 to add to the sniper's Rep 4 and scored a hit (which was easy since the target was in the open). 

The d6 for damage was 4, and since the Impact of the weapon is only 3, Pvt Perceval got a chance to escape death.

Rolling 2d6 on the Infantry Reaction Test, using the Recover Test row, Perceval, at Rep 5, had a good chance to skate through. 6 and 2. Oops. He only passed 1 and was Out of the Fight.

I rolled a Crisis Test (Man Down) for Malazar and Manchiever - Manchiever, at Rep 3, unsurprisingly passed only 1 and he hit the dirt (duck back-goes prone) but Cpl. Malazar stood tall.

Turn 3 - I rolled and AGAIN tied, this time with 5s. I figured it was time to switch dice.

Turn 4 - US 4, Germans 3.That's more like it.

And here, because the total is 7, I should have checked to see if I got reinforcements, since my die was higher. But I forgot to do it! Noooooo!

Malazar ordered Manchiever to grab the BAR as they moved to get a bead on the farm house.

When there's a building, the assumption is there's a PEF inside which gets resolved when you're within LOS and 12". 

Rolled 2d6 against the Enemy Interest Level to see if PEF in building was anything.

this picture was taken at the end of the US 1/2 of the turn, hence the narrative inconsistency.

The building PEF resolved by pass one die - this means nothing is there, but,the next PEF roll will use 3d6 to resolve, and take the two lowest.

Orecchiette's group took off for a Fast Move towards the house - unlike the previous editions, the Fast Move rule is written as +1/2 movement for each d6 passed. I rolled 1 set of d6 for the group: 2, 6. That means the all pass one. Movement is 8", so 12" total (8" + (1/2 * 8") ).

The German half of the turn:

The PEF farthest from my force passed two dice, and as a result moved 8" towards me, using the hill and 2nd building as cover.

The next farthest from me also passed two dice, moved 8" to the edge of the woods and triggered an In Sight between the PEF and Sgt. Orecchiette's group.

First I had to resolve the PEF though.

Because of the result I got for the building PEF, I rolled 3d6 instead of 2d6 vs the Enemy Interest Level, counting the lowest two. The PEF passed two dice. A roll of a single d6 told me to roll on the Enemey Reinforcements Table, rather than the Enemy Defensive Position table. When I rolled on the reinforcements table for the Germans, I found it was an infantry squad.

Germans get 5 + 1d6 men per squad and I rolled a 4.

Ugh. I guess it could have been worse.

Up next, the In Sight check, shooting and chaos!

Nuts! Final Edition : First Patrol AAR pt 1

Rather than dive in with a platoon vs platoon game, I decided to send a squad out on a patrol mission (p .74). 

First I generated the terrain, using the rules on page 59. It's pretty much the same as previous editions. 

The board's overall terrain type was clear but individual sections had hills, woods and buildings as follows:

Section 1 - Clear
Section 2 - Hill
Section 3 - Hill
Section 4 - Woods
Section 5 - Clear
Section 6 - Building
Section 7 - Clear
Section 8 - Building
Section 9 - Clear

To generate my force, up to a full squad, I used the American force table (identical to Nuts! 2.0). US squads start with 7 + 1d6 men. And i rolled a 1. Of course.

Interestingly, in Nuts! 2.0, the Patrol mission was called Reconnaissance Patrol and you could take up to a platoon. I much prefer the smaller force for a patrol.

I decided the NCO would be a Rep 5, but I'd roll for the rest. And the dice were very kind (some of you may recognize the names):

Sgt. Orecchiette - Rep 5 - SMG
Cpl. Malazar - Rep 5 - SA Rifle
Pvt. Perceval - Rep 5 - BAR
Pvt. Linkat - Rep 5 - SA Rifle
Pvt. Irongrim - Rvp 4 - SA Rifle
Pvt. Theodotus - Rep 4 - SA Rifle
Pvt. Blarg - Rep 4 - SA Rifle
Pvt. Manchiever- Rep 3 -SA Rifle

I opted not to use a Star, and I left off the attributes, to keep things simple for my first real attempt at using this edition.

As in Nuts! 2.0, the scenarios in the core rules have a list of the steps to take to set them up, with references to the necessary pages in the rule book.

• My first step was to establish my Investment Level. In Nuts! 2.0 this was called Activity Level. The Investment Level is functions the same, as far as I can tell - the big difference is that it isn't randomly generated
•  According to the rules, both sides start with an IL of 3. Except, patrols are 1 level lower, so both the US and the Germans will start with an Investment Level of 2.

• Which also takes care of the second step, Establish the Enemy Investment Level.

• I decided my squad would enter in section 7.

• I generated 3 PEFs (Possible Enemy Force) markers, 1 behind the crest line of the hill in 3, 1 in the woods in 4, and 1 behind the woods in 4.

• In Final Edition, all PEFs are Rep 4 and I can imagine why this was changed: in the previous edition you rolled 2d6, and kept the lower as the Rep, which half of the time led to very low Rep PEFs that didn't move much if ever. Still, as a solo gamer, I might use the old method now and again for the variety it provides.

At this point, the table is ready for play to begin. I'll continue the write-up in the next post.

Nuts! Final Version Arrived! (Plus some other stuff that arrived not too long ago)

I went out to the mailbox today and to my surprise, my printed copy of the Nuts! Final Version rulebook was there.

Since I've ordered and received several sets of rules in the last month or so, I thought I'd do a group shot:

The Pacific was a find at the library book sale two weeks ago. It's quite a tome compared to my usual reading, so it might be a while before I can muster the fortitude to confront it. I also just finished No Bended Knee: the Battle for Guadalcanal, so I could use a break from the PTO for now.

The WWI rules were inspired by my reading of The Guns of August (a book I thoroughly enjoyed). Until I read The Guns of August I had only a barebones grasp of WWI. I'm not saying I'm an expert now, but I know more than I did and that's a start. And I find I want to read more about it. 

So, yeah, I fear a new wargaming period in my future.

Featherstone's Nuts! Trial by Fire.

Although I haven't been posting them, I've played several wargames of late, including games of World War Risus, Tactical Combat and Featherstone's Nuts! Most of the games were set in the Pacific Theater.

The reason behind the lack of posts has been the appalling pictorial documentation; my phone's camera isn't so great for close up photos of 1/72 figures. I shake the camera and I have no good way of stabilizing it, so pictures tend to be a bit uninteresting or worse, blurry.

Still, I enjoy having written and illustrated records of my gaming activities, and I decided to make some simple map-type illustrations for the latest encounter. I forgot how much I love arrows that show movement. Strange but true!

I generated the scenario with THW's War Against Japan.  PEFs and Japanese forces were all controlled using that same title.

I used Featherstone's Nuts! for the game itself, with the morale method from Featherstone's War Games added, and I changed the save results, such that, a figure that received 1 hit, ducked on a save, with 2 simultaneous hits and saves, moved 1 move away from enemy and ducked, and with 3 simultaneous hits and saves, moved 1 move away from enemy and hunkered down, requiring a friendly figure to make contact to rally.

Mission: Advance
My Force (USMC) : 1 platoon of 3 squads (I used 8 figure squads), plus platoon HQ (4 figs)

• 1st Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 4
• 2nd Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 5
• 3rs Squad- NCO- Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 3, Riflemen - Rep 3
• HQ - NCO - Rep 5, Jr NCO - Rep 4, Riflemen - Rep 3

My Objective: Reveal and eliminate all PEF encounters, and majority of Possible Contact markers, while sustaining no more than 1/3 casualties.

The map was generated using the terrain generator from War Against Japan.

I planned to use 1st and 2nd squad to identify and engage any PEFs or PCs, and use 3rd squad to act as reserves. HQ would only get involved under dire circumstances.

Initial dispositions and movement. 

1st Squad encountered a small band of Japanese infantry and was able to make good use of its BAR and SMGs. 2nd Squad did not have such luck - they encountered a full squad of Japanese, including an LMG team. HQ ordered 3rd squad to move up to assist.

Contact!

With 50% casualties, 2nd squad fell back. 3rd squad was shot up by the LMG as well, and forced to fall back. 1st Squad moved up to engage the Japanese force.

Things go South

1st squad engages the Japanese and manages to reduce their numbers significantly. Meanwhile, 2nd and 3rd squad combine into a single unit and advance on the Japanese.

2nd attempt.

The effort is in vain as they arrive on the scene only to take reactive fire from the Japanese squad - the loss of just 1 marine puts me over my limit for the mission. No matter, the PEF in the upper left split, and although I didn't get to reveal what, if anything they were, I placed them on the map to show that the odds were stacked against my success.

The Japanese were more committed than we were.

My platoon fell back to nurse their wounds.

***
The morale rules never came into play, as I chose to have my squads fall back - preservation was part of my mission objective after all. I did like the new rules for saves, as it kept units together except under extenuating circumstances.

Frankenrules : WWII Mash Up or Featherstone's Nuts!

I've been messing about with mashing different sets of rules together - trying to take mechanisms from each that I like and somehow make them work. No, I haven't given up on World War Risus, but that's really best suited to games with a platoon or more per side in my experience. 

As the subject line suggests, I decided to mix Nuts! 2.0 from Two Hour Wargames, with Featherstone's simplified WWII rules from his War Games book, ostensibly intended for battalion or divisions on the table, to make something playable for a 1:1 game with a platoon or less. In the end, I also used the Six Gun Sound 1st edition rules for In Sight, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and USE ME WWII.

I like Nuts! 2.0 for 10 or less figures per side, but I have trouble with all of the reactions in the larger games. Still, the game has spoiled me: I want figures in a 1:1 skirmish to react to events in the game without my involvement.

In any case, this is not a robust set of rules - I rely on both Nuts! and Featherstone's rules to fill in the gaps. If you don't have Nuts!, you can get CR3.0: Final Version for free from THW and it will supply you with all you need to understand Reps, passing and failing reaction tests, etc.

Without further ado, for those who might be interested in such things, I present:

Featherstone's Nuts!

All figures have a quality rating (per Nuts! and other THW titles). With a platoon on the table, I just assign a single Rep to all members of the same squad to make my life easier.

Initiative: Decide initiative however you'd like.

Movement: I waffle on this, Featherstone suggests 6" for infantry, THW uses 8". Either way.

Reaction Check:  If a figure/unit moves into LOS of an enemy unit, either from behind cover or not, the enemy figures/units with LOS roll 2d6 to see how they react. If they pass 2, they open fire, if they pass 0 they hold. 

If they roll 1, the sides draw. 

Roll 1d6 per unit involved (or per figure if preferred) and add to figure/unit Rep. Actions proceed then from highest to lowest. The moving unit does not need to fire, but can continue their move, while the reacting side can only choose to fire or not, if they win the draw. 

Shooting: Roll 1d6 per target rating of the weapon (See Nuts! 2.0 or CR3.0: FV), hit targets in the open on a 4-6, in cover on a 5-6. 

I target the unit, not individuals and then allocate hits using a method taken from G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. which allows for the possibility that the same figure was hit multiple times.

Saving Throw: For each hit a figure takes, they roll 1d6. In the open, they make their save on a 5 or 6, in cover, 4-6. 

If they make their save, they are forced back either 1 move or until out of LOS from the unit that fired on them (whichever is shortest) and their activation is over for this turn. It's possible that this movement will force a different non-active side unit to make a reaction check.

Melee: I use opposed d6 rolls added to Rep. High score wins. No save.

Morale: I'm not sure how to handle this or if I even want to.

Friday Night Tank Ambush

In an effort to bring my new panzerfaust team into the action again, I decided to play a variation of Scenario 2 from the Nuts! 2.0 rulebook:

The Soviets had to get across the board and I, playing the Germans, had orders to stop them.

I looked at the options for the original scenario and decided the Soviets would field one T-34/76 with tank riders, and then roll on the reinforcements table for their other unit - and they got a second tank.

Tank riders.

I used the small playing area again and changed movement to multiples of 5". I also couldn't find the stone walls for the farm house, so I made do with dungeon tiles:

I had my infantry laying in wait to flank the armor.

The Soviets were cautious and it took a long time for them to move up. When it came time for the first In-Sight, I decided to use the CR3 In-Sight test, rather than the Nuts! 2.0 method.

I don't know if it was me or  what, but the game never felt right. I really like CR3, so I think the mechanism is pretty sound.

In large part, i think, it was because I hadn't played the rules in awhile and had to look so many things up - especially for the armor.

There was one high point. My panzerfaust took out a tank! :

I played for well over an hour before I finally called the game - things were not going well for the Germans - what you can't see below is that the bottom T-34 had wiped out my LMG team with it's co-ax MG. A few more turns and the Soviets would make it off the table, or reinforcements could arrive, prolonging the conflict and I was out of time:

Save a Dead Tree: War Against Japan

I've been playing small test situations with Two Hour Wargames's (THW) Nuts! 2.0 and the War Against Japan (WAJ) supplement. The former I have used often enough, but the latter has languished in my book case until recently. 

Last night, I had a chance to set up and try an assault landing.

It was to be the start of a campaign, but due to a restless toddler who refused to sleep, my time to play was greatly truncated and the game didn't get very far before having to be torn down for the night.

I rolled Palm trees/Scrub for the dominant terrain type. This was somewhat unfortunate as it meant line of sight would extend unimpeded across the table (although it does provide cover and concealment:

The layout

I had a reenforced platoon consisting of :

• Platoon HQ
• Squad 1
• Squad 2
• Squad 3
• Squad 4 (on loan for this mission)
• Flamethrower (on loan) whom I attached to my HQ squad.

Enemy Activity Level was 3, my support level was 4.

I decided to send Squad 4 onto the beach first, and then diced for which section. The entered in section 1.

4th Squad takes to the beach.

To their front, upper left in the picture, you can see some coins I use for what are essentially random/hidden force markers. All of them resolved to nothing.

1st squad hit the beach in section 3 and found themselves opposite 4 markers, which resolved into two groups of infantry (13 figures total). The second group had an LMG. Fantastic.

And then passed 2d6 on their In Sight test. Great.

The results were horrific. The squad was decimated. 80% casualties and 20% wounded.

The rest of my force landed with little incident, thankfully.

Unfortunately, I ended up calling the game after 2 turns (that's how little time i had). 

Here's my right and part of my center - which also took fire, but was only forced to duck back (drop prone in this case):

On my left and the remainder of center things were going a better - the rest of 2 ,and all of 3 and 4 had made it up to the tree line, although Squads 3 and 4 were bunching up, since 4 had to work its way around the inlet.

I really don't feel capable of calling victory or defeat at this point. 

With an Enemy Activity Level of 3, it's a good bet a number of the remaining enemy markers would resolve to nothing. So, i plan to set it up again on Wednesday night and give it a go.

Thoughts about WAJ:

• There are a lot of special rules for handling the Japanese and all of them feel "right" to me, as do the modified reaction tables for all forces in the Pacific.
• The beach assault clearly has potential to be devastating to your force - which, to my understanding, is how it should be.
• The tactics tables for the Japanese, as well as having a specified target preference order, helps take Japanese control further out of the solo player's hands.
• I do have some questions, which is typical when playing a Two Hour Wargames title - mostly pertaining to LOS and resolution of those force markers.

Nuts! 2.0 is most often my choice for small 1:1 skirmishes (up to platoon) WWII gaming. Although I may use other  rules now and then, and even make my own, I always find myself trying to incorporate the THW reaction mechanisms into them. So my decision to use Nuts/WAJ should be viewed in that light.

Disposable Heroes covers the same sized conflict but feels very different, as I noted previously. I enjoyed them, but I wasn't overly excited by them.

 Nuts! feels like there's a lot happening, control is often wrested from you when things go south, and shooting is far bloodier, where DH feels a bit less frenetic (more like chess), gives you greater ability to coordinate complex plans (again, chess), and  shooting tends to pin, not kill. 

Both games suffer from status marker-itis, although Nuts! far more. I developed a tracking sheet for use with THW's CR3:FV but it is useless in a game with as many figures as this.

Of the two systems, Disposable Heroes seems to be far easier to learn and, I suspect,  teach someone else. But, once you grok the reaction mechanisms, THW games tend to be, in my opinion, a bit more exciting.