Box Contents

The Banzi! Imperial Japanese Starter Army is a mix of metal and plastic models containing:

• x8 IJA sprues (48 Infantry) – Plastic
• x1 IJA Officer – Metal
• IJA MMG Team – Metal
• IJA Medium Mortar Team – Metal
• Chi-Ha Medium Tank – Plastic

The Bring The Rain List

Breakdown

Notes and Analysis

The objective of this list is two-part – 1) use as much of the Starter Army as possible and 2) make a List that works at a competitive level. Please keep in mind, this List was written using only the contents of the Starter Army.

And we are back! Bringing you the first IJA Starter Army breakdown and hot take on building a list using Bolt Action: Third Edition Platoons. This Starter Army only comes with one Tank (the Chi-Ha) so unfortunately, we are not able to include it in the list. The Armored Platoon requires a minimum of two vehicles. Fret not, this tank is still a great unit to have and with one additional tank, you can bump this list to 1,250pts. But back to the focus of this 1,000pt Army List we have here. Infantry win games and boy does this list have them so let’s take a look at what they can do!

We have a 997pt list that contains two Rifle Platoons and one Heavy Weapon Platoon. This is a mixed-quality force that contains Veteran and Regular units. It has a whopping 15 Order Dice (OD) and at 1,000pt. games you are sure to have a great “bag presence” and may outnumber your opponent on OD. With this force, you will want to control the battlefield and play defensively. Make sure your opponent does not get within 12” of your Light Mortar units!

The core of this list is the Light Mortars. Japan is one of, if not the only, nation that can take this many Light Mortars and embed multiple in an infantry squad. These were good in Second Edition and I suspect they will be even better now that their range has gone up from 12”-24” to 12”-36”. That gives them a 42″ threat range! You can almost reach from table edge to table edge making it almost guaranteed that you will have a target in range. You will want to keep your Company Commander near the infantry units with the Light Mortars with the four-unit Snap To! you can have two LMGs and six Light Mortars firing at the same time! This is quite a feat and gives you a strong chance of hitting multiple enemy units. 

LMGs and Light Mortars used together is something I also wanted to touch on. With both of them now sharing 36” max range they can target the same units. Having LMGs and Light Mortars in the same unit makes them very dangerous. Also Light Mortars can split fire. Meaning they can choose a different target than the rest of the weapons in their unit. This gives you the possibility to have one unit inflict damage and Pins on multiple enemy units.

Alongside the Light Mortars embedded in your two squads, you also have two Light Mortar Teams. These are a great addition. They are effective and are low cost Order Dice. Use these to defend a less threatened part of the board or keep them with your infantry squads to have more chances of landing a Light Mortar shell on an enemy unit. Remember that Light Mortars are not Fixed. You can fire on the move!

Moving on to the Heavy Weapons Platoon we have the MMG and Med. Mortar. Again keep these at a distance. They play into the lists defensive strategy. Use the MMG to cover a pivotal choke point while having the Med. Mortar range on in your opponents less mobile units.

Finally we have the three Suicide Anti-Tank Teams. These are tricky to play. They are one man and are very vulnerable to enemy fire. I have found these best played by keeping them hidden behind cover somewhere on the board that would be ideal for enemy armor to push through. Typically these are used reactionary. Even if these units never get the chance to launch their strike they are still worth the points for enemy armor area denial or at the very least it will make your opponent think twice before moving their armor within the range of the Suicide Anti-Tank Teams. My final advice is to run at least two of them together. If the enemy AFV takes out one of the two the other will be there waiting to strike! If the enemy has a lot of AFVs you may end up with a tough matchup but play to that defensive strategy. Use those Light Mortars to pin and whittle down infantry and soft-skin targets.  Overall this is an effective Starter Army Box for Third Edition and gets you well on your way to making a great army.

What’s Next?

Thoughts and musings on where to go from here:

• Add another Tank – As mentioned at the beginning of the article this Starter Army includes a Chi-Ha Medium tank equipped with a Light Howitzer but we can not use it until another vehicle is added! I would look at adding a Ha-Go. This is a 95 point tank that in addition to the Chi-Ha will bump up this list to 1,237pts and get you to 17 OD. These are not great anti-tank AFVs but will still give you more of a fighting chance against enemy armor and they are great against infantry units.
• Get some Artillery – Medium Howitzers are great against Armor 8 and are very effective against infantry. These units also play into the defensive nature of this list.  You can add one Med. Howitzer and two Light Howitzers to this list and still have 33 points to spare on your way to 1,250.
• Add more Infantry – Infantry are the core of Bolt Action and this list already has so many so why not go all in and add some more. This will make it very difficult for your opponent to shift all those bodies!

– Shane

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