Mike Owens and I recently finished A116 Tangled Up in Blue from the '97 Annual. This scenario gives the IJA six turns to enter the south edge of the Nhpum Ga map and work their way north to the village, picking up 8 VP more than the Americans through combined Exit and CVP. I took Blue Team, and Mike had a tall order as the Japanese.
The terrain is tough for the attacker-an uphill fight, with multiple gullies slowing forward movement along the board edges. A path runs south to north up the middle. Dense Jungle prevails.
I figured the Japanese would attack up the path, with a supporting group skirting the eastern gullies toward the center, so I set up my main defense line along the south edge of the central heights where these axes of advance come together. A couple of squads defended a forward chokepoint. Since a board-edge creep is difficult but possible for the IJA, I set up light defenses behind the second line of gullies on each edge. I didn't want to use the two HIP HMG until the endgame, if then, since they're worth extra CVP; one defended the east edge in N2, and the other covered the path exit from O11. The MMG was set up in Q6 to delay the anticipated Japanese supporting advance; I hoped to be able to pull a squad or two over from the main redoubt to help these guys out, but this could wait till I saw the IJA plan develop. Dummies went forward of this position.
Leaders were not to be risked in combat, so as to maximize the US rally ability and help me conduct my fallback defense. The 9-1 went with the main body in R9, of course, and the 8-0s went with the MMG and with the isolated west-flank 667.
The pregame Japanese bombardment was ineffective against Blue Team's big group in the middle. It did kill the west-flank leader outright, but his 667 went Fanatic. The Q6 leader was broken and the MMG/667 pinned, but the main effect was to make it apparent that the forward position was at least mostly dummies.
The initial IJA approach was pretty evenly balanced between the middle and the east flank. In the middle, the pivotal event of the game occurred in US turn 1: faced with a potentially devastating turn 2 Banzai, a lone 667 jumped into CC, avoided ambush, and killed the Jap 10-1 and his escort. This allowed Blue team's forward element to stick-and-move effectively over the next couple of turns, using their local firepower advantage and their rally ability to stymie the primary Japanese attack.
With things in hand in the middle, a concealed squad moved over from the main R9 position to help the guys in Q6. The IJA's east flank was strong, and most of it sneaked up the board edge--further out than I had expected. But an element split off from the main body, eliminated the dummies, and moved toward the MMG position. Luck remained with the Blues-the MMG pinned the Japs, which turned out to include the remaining leader (plotting a Banzai, no doubt). The concealed reinforcements made short work of these poor devils, and the Japanese were suddenly headless.
But the samurai will to fight is in their bones; their heads are optional. The Fanatic 667 in the west took up what looked like a near-impregnable position in R14 against a couple of 448s, who proceeded to slog up the slope into CC. Everybody whiffed for a couple of turns, but the GIs came out on the short end.
The GIs in the middle fell back to the west exit area, but were too late to prevent the Japanese from getting their exit VP on this flank. In the east, the Japs found the HMG and took some losses, but were able to force the crew to rout. They were able to surround the overstacked defenders in turn 6, but hot rally dice-a friend for the Amis throughout the game-kept the IJA from scoring points in the last turn. US win, despite a scary Japanese bid at the end.
The Japanese exited several units through N13. Since offboard hexes M13 and M14 are both uphill jungle, the question of whether the exiting units should pay the cost came to mind. A2.6 clearly decides against this, but it seems that rule KGP6 would be a good addition for the Nhpum Ga scenarios (or any HASL, for that matter). This says that onboard terrain that's not in play remains in effect "for movement/entry purposes". Wonder if that includes Exit?
The US setup worked pretty well; I'd do it the same way again. But a successful Banzai up the path might well have made the difference for the Japanese in this scenario. I'd call it somewhat pro-US; worth considering giving the Japs the balance, an additional leader. Decent scenario, worth a look.
cp