Don Hancock and I got into our second PTO learning scenario with my Japanese attempting to exit more squads that Don's well-led American force. We played this one open hand meaning that we would announce and discuss why we were making each of the moves we were doing. We played this one more competitively than Ninety Minute War as we are starting to become more comfortable with PTO.
Don's setup included a couple of stacks on board 5 along and on the path, one stack in the middle jungle, one more stack on the board 34 path and then one more on the path just on the other side of the huts of the edge of board 34. He also had the track squad stack as far away from me on the path as he could get in an effort to setup the goal line defense. It looked like a pretty tough nut for me as I new that there was HIP units out there on the path somewhere.
First turn I ran a half squad up on the left side to draw fire. He did not so I ran the 10-1 MMG 228 LMG 447 kill stack up next to the concealed squad 6(-2) yields a 2KIA and boom the 10-1 kill stack on the left is gone. I move the rest of the board 5 force up and we break that Ami squad and he runs down the path only to be heard from again. I moved a couple of squads into the middle jungle area in an attempt to relieve congestion on the jungle path. On board 34 I move up the most of my squads up the path except a leader lead stack that tried a board edge creep through the huts on the Japanese right of board 34.
On Turn 2 I lost the other 10-1 kill stack to Smith on one of the paths on board 34 and then had another squad flip when Don popped Weston MMG and 667 squad for a 20(-4) shot. I was able to get behind Weston and his kill stack since my Jap squads were so spread out on board 5. Weston and his squad broke after several attacks and were eliminated for failure to rout. It took me another turn for me to kill Smith the same way on board 34. I had several squads flip during this attempt. Don attempted to form a HS wall on board 5 with at least one squad being able to look out from the jungle onto open ground to attempt (-2) attacks. I just marched up the Japs and took whatever fire the Amis could give and then advanced into CC and was able to kill all three squads. I suffered a wound to my last leader during this attack (about turn five). I then cautiously line up the surviving Jap leader and five squads for a Banzai across the open ground of board 5. Prior to the Banzai one of my 447s goes berserk and chases the mortar crew down until the crew decides to exit. A few squads flip, but the rest survive as the US mortar breaks and a few CC later I have exited 7 CVPs to Don's 4 and the Japs win.
We both made several errors in this game, but it was a lot of fun for the Japanese even with some bad luck at the beginning of the game. The second to last turn Banzai charge was just what the doctor ordered in this scenario although it may have been different if there were more Amis on the goal line stand.
New things learned:
I guess that is all that I have. Next up is On the Kokoda Trail and it is my turn to try and stop the Japanese. Any helpful hints?
Bob Oppen
In answer to some of your points:
>1. The Japs are wonderful for surrounding broken or soon to be broken
units.
> Someone else mentioned this during the discussion of Ninety
Minute War.
Yep. That's fer shur.
>2. HTH CC can be very deadly to the Japs. Try to give your Japanese
squads
>an advantage but no more that 4-3. Otherwise you may lose you
guys just as
>easy as killing his guys. CC in general is risky, but HTH
can be very deadly to
>deal with as the attacker.
Disagree here. Go
ahead and go in at 1:2 or at most 1:1. The Japanese get that devastating -1 DRM
to H2H attacks. I'd gladly trade a Japanese HS for a full enemy squad. DON'T
go in to CC with anything more than necessary to take out the enemy presence.
H2H IS deadly; conserve your force.
>3. Banzais are cool, but you should be used with some caution. I could
have
>been in a world of hurt if the MMG would have been facing my
Banzai.
Banzaii's are good to break stalemates. Also, banzaii's are GREAT
for drawing fire and following up with non-Banzaii units.
>4. The Japanese are difficult to defend against. They take forever to
break/stop.
They're more difficult to attack, IMO. The lack of "breaking"
is much more of an advantage when they're sitting in a fixed position and need
to interdict movement. The step reduction hurts on the attack; once that
firepower is gone, you can't get it back.
>5. The Japanese can almost always pull out the win in the end or force
the
> game to the final turn.
Nyet! Their OB is usually 80% thrashed
by the end of the game, regardless of whether they win or lose.
>6. One of the keys in this game was the free MC failure that the Japs
get. I
> always felt that it was no big deal if I get shot at. My 447
becomes a 347 no
>problem.
Big nyet on this one. It IS a big deal if
they step reduce. Arguably, it is WORSE than a normal break, because that unit
is altered for good, there's no going back. In a long scenario, the cumulative
effect of step reduction is tremendous.
All IMHO, of course,
Dade