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Had a game of Bolt Action last night, my first in a couple of months. We played a special scenario where the entire table was covered in thick jungle which reduced visibility and movement (unless your army had certain special rules), and the mud had a chance of causing SMG's and LMG's to jam. It's Chindits (British special forces who operated behind Japanese lines, which I played) vs Japanese.

In terms of numbers, this was the smallest army I'd ever played with. My troops were all veterans and had an ability called Fieldcraft (Chindits, Indian and Gurkha troops all receive this) that allowed them to move normally through rough terrain, but this meant they were horrendously expensive per man. Karl went Japanese and had a mixture of regulars and veterans. He'd also went for a couple of very large squads (normally squads cap out at 10 men, but a few can go up to around 20). The mission was to go retrieve up to 4 airdropped supply canisters. If I got one, it was a draw; two, I win. In the end I got 2 1/2 off (they were a few inches from the table edge and nothing Karl had could fire at them).

Rifle Platoon.

HQ section. 4 men.
Officer with 3 men armed with SMGs.
Gurkha special rules.

Chindit Section. 5 men.
2 men with SMGs, 3 with rifles.
Chindit special rules.

Chindit Section. 8 men.
2 men with SMGs, 6 with rifles.
Chindit special rules.

Gurkha Rifle Section. 10 men.
10 men with rifles.
Gurkha special rules.

Gurkha Command Subsection. 8 men.
8 men with SMGs.
Gurkha & Commando special rules.

Sniper. 2 men.
Sniper Special rules.
Indian Special rules.

Heavy Weapons Platoon.

HQ section. 4 men.
Officer and 3 men, all with SMGs.

2 Medium Machine Gun Teams.
3 men each.
Indian special rules.

Karl unfortunately quickly discovered that his non-veteran jungle fighters could only slowly hack there way through the jungle and only got to do anything mid game while I ran in, grabbed my supplies then found themselves out of range while I retreated. My super expensive Gurkha commando's did nothing all game as they got pinned down by mortar fire and took some casualties, but did nothing else. I was most disappointed in them, but they did keep firepower off my other units. Karl's suicide bombers did nothing all game, but we did make a deal that we'd house-rule something for them blowing up if they get shot next time we play. Mostly what happened was my Gurkha's moved up the table to grab the two counters I needed for victory, while my Chindits came in on the left flank with my commandos and an HQ section. The HQ section got wiped out, the commandos pinned down, but my flanking force did remove an enemy MMG and sniper team, then held up that side of the table (including Karl's 20-man squad), allowing one of the canisters to be retrieved much more easily.

Anyway, it was a good game. It took every unit in my army firing at his MMG for two turns to completely destroy that unit and it wasn't finally removed until my flankers got close enough to finish it off. I don't think Karl will try a large squad again, although I think it's a perfectly acceptable tactic. Maybe just not for a battle in such dense terrain where the short-range weapon is king. Unlike the Germans and Soviets, neither British troops nor Japanese can really take armies festooned with SMGs, that being limited to units like paratroopers and special forces.

#36

Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2

Last post by M.10rda - September 08, 2026, 04:44:32 AM

THE RED MILL (1927):
For some reason I imagined this was about a spooky old haunted mill but then no, it's a light and frothy romantic farce, but then yes, at the end the spooky haunted old red mill appears!

THE RED MILL is the first feature-length film I've seen directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, working under the name "William Goodrich" during his official/nominal exile from the Hollywood spotlight. There's probably a good reason he stuck to making shorts for so long - maintaining hilarity for 75 minutes is tough. THE RED MILL is really more a romance w/ sporadic goofy comedy.

Marion Davies plays "Tina", a little Dutch girl

slaving away in rural Holland under the thumb of a sadistic master. There's a whole elaborate plot involving the arranged (by mail) engagement of Tina's wealthy Irish ex-boyfriend to her master's comically fugly daughter, who (sight unseen) the ex-boyfriend thinks is Tina 'cause she lied to him and told him she was rich and blah blah blah, hijinks ensue. All of it is just an excuse for Davies to look and act cute, which she does quite well. In THE PATSY Davies reminded me of Kirsten Dunst; here she's a redhead and looks more like Gillian Anderson or Tea Leoni.

The screenplay (credited to a female author) is far more pedestrian than the usual Arbuckle mayhem, but it does seem like he had some influence on the intertitles, and he creates one opportunity early on for Davies to perform some solo physical comedy in the kitchen that is really impressive and reminds one of the kind of stuff Lucille Ball would get up to on her show in the 50s. Davies was a far more capable actress than her legacy (painted alas by Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE) would suggest.

Then, in the last 15-20 minutes, Davies gets chased into the titular location, which is abandoned and reputedly haunted, though in fact it's just an OSHA nightmare. This sequence runs as long as many of Roscoe's shorts and was probably the reason he wanted to make THE RED MILL. It isn't peak Roscoe either but at least there's one climactic stunt that (in classic silent film tradition) looks appallingly unsafe. 3/5 Roscoe also has a brief and uncredited cameo as a bellhop. His head is shaved, kind of pointlessly as he's impossible to mistake onscreen, w/ or w/o hair.

#37

Solved / Re: Cartoon about a villain in...

Last post by wositelec - September 08, 2026, 04:20:23 AM

Hidden Treasure of Wompkee Wood (2009) - somebody found.

#38

Good Movies / The Big Eep (1978)

Last post by Trevor - September 07, 2026, 11:50:26 PM

I saw this in 1978.

I was eleven and the only reason I got in to see it was because my folks knew the cinema manager in my home town.

It was one of those movies I saw as a kid where I thought "I'm a little bit too young to see this" 😳😀

It was banned by the apartheid censor board and the release in Rhodesia was delayed due to the banning, as Rhodesia received its cinema releases from South Africa.

It was the first movie I saw someone bare assed nekkid in.

Thank you, Candy Clark 😍🥰

It still holds up.

#39

Games / Re: Movie Title Chains

Last post by bob - September 07, 2026, 10:45:05 PM

King Ralph

#40

Off Topic Discussion / Re: Random Statements About So...

Last post by chainsaw midget - September 07, 2026, 10:34:17 PM

The song Feed My Frankenstein contains the lyrics...

You don't want to talk so, baby, shut up
And let me drink the wine from your fur tea cup
Velcro candy, sticky sweet
Make my tattoos melt in the heat
Well, I ain't no veggie
Like my flesh on the bone
Alive and lickin' on your ice cream cone

Up until...very recently, I thought the song went ...

You don't want to talk so, baby, shut up
And let me drink the wine from your dirty cup
Velcro candy, sticky sweet
Make my tattoos melt in the heat
Well, I ain't no legend
I'm just flesh on the bone
Alive and naked on your ice cream cone

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