My First Run at FoW with the EW Japanese

As a complete newbie to Flames of War,  decided to start with something new in the game itself. Coincidentally, The Early War Japanese Army has just come out.  I scooped up a bunch of boxes and set ff to paint up a force and then take them out to fight.  Although they did not fare as well as I hoped, they did pretty well for a force that lacked some key components...like artillery.

Of course,I got caught up in the game in the beginning and didn't take to many pictures until near the end.  Here is what happened.  We payed the scenario Counter Attack, with me as the one to Counter Attack.  My mobile reserves came on the table catty corner to my onboard deployment witht he goal of taking one of the enemy's objectives.  I deployed my infantry, machne guns, 2x AT guns and 2x man pack guns (70mm) in a defensive posture around my objective.  I also kept the Cmd Platoon of the Tank company (2 Type 97s)  on the board.  My mobile reserve consisted of two 5 tank platoons of Type 89s.  My opponent used an Early War Fallshirmjager list with a ton of guns and mortars.

The reserves rolled to come in on Turn 2 and proceeded to do well against the Geraman Infantry and MGs.  Unfortunately the limited rage of the tanks guns caused problems dealing witht he German AT guns which could range the Obj.  My tanks slowly tried to maneuver but ended up burning in the open as they maneuvered to get a shot at the guns.

You can see the strewn wreckage of the Type 89s burning to the upper right of the photo.

 Meanwhile, I maneuvered one infantry platoon to storm the woods in the center of the board as a means of closing wit the guns.  This took longer than anticipated and didn't really succeed in penetrating his front lines..

The remnants of the left platoon hides in the corn fields after failing in a bloody Banzai charge.

Bring the support weapons up to actually support the advance was really difficult and they were practically useless, especially the guns.

My Main Effort fights to drive the Germans more than 16" away from the objective, but a couple troops are still inside the radius when the final bell rings ending the game.

I learned from this game, that having the options for a list is really important.  I was constrained by the models available to the Japanese, because only 60% of their models are even out for sale yet.  My Type 97s and guns were all Battle Honors, because there isnt even a verified date for there release yet on the Battlefront site yet.  Artillery was the key issue.  The inability to pin his units or suppress his artillery hurt my maneuver.  I recently picked up a bunch of Irregular Miniatures guns, so I should have the full list available next time around.  Anyways, although there was a bunch of chuckling around the table, I think the Japanese if tuned up and used properly could be an extremely deadly army list.  Maximizing the special rules (except Banzai Charge) and adding gun and cavalry to the list will definitely make the Japanese more potent.