Yesterday I played A86 "Fighting Sparrow". In this scenario you will find a Jap Raiding defensive force against a Combined Australian/Dutch force. I had chosen this one because I played the Japs last some two years ago, and at that time I only played them twice. So I had a lot of learning to do. My opponent (Niels) though had a good knowledge of the Japs and was happy to learn their special features to me.
As it turned out this scenario is very good for learning the Japs. The terrain on both maps is basically open ground and light Jungle (which is the same as woods), so you can really concentrate on the features of the Japs.
I had the combined attacking force. My plan was to send the Australian force along the path on board 5. This force had to find the roadblock and clear it. The Dutch force had to go through the middle to possibly slow down the retreating Jap. My guess was that the Roadblock would be as far away from the west edge as possible. I thought the entry along the south of the board 39 hill would take to long to make it to the roadblock so I neglected this option. But in a futere game will probably try this option.
The difficult part of entry is the open ground on board 5. But since the Japs is restrited in his setup there is a limiting LOS to these open groud locations. The Jap though had done a great job in Bore Sighting all jungle hexes in the middle. This did cost me a disrupted squad and killed HS so losses weren't that high. In the meantime the Japs made a counter attack through the jungle area in front of the pond. Since there is a gully running through this area, movement is a bit restricted for the attacker (me), lots of MF costs. But with use of the CX "Hero" HS's I managed to get rid of the concealment of the Japs. One of my mortars got lucky and step reduced a Jap twice. I decided for close combat. Here is the first lesson I learned. Because of the modifiers of ambush and a resulting HtoH combat (-1 drm for the Jap) he managed to kill both HS and retreat one hex. This action made me a lot less eager to engage CC with the Japs.
On the other front the Australians made some good headway along the north edge. They had some trouble with a fire lane but it didn't cost them any troops. Also they engaged 2 dummy stacks and resistance on this flank proved to be a HS, squad and 2 mortars, a small force for all those Australians. Since I was pushing really hard on this flank the Japs in the center had to retreat towards the roadblock. As Niels later told me he didn't expect an attack along this North edge because jungle would slow my movement down so I wouldn't make it to the roadblock in time. But combination of CX and/or leader bonus gave the Australian troops some real speed through the jungle. The path through this area was, as to be expected, infected with concealed Japs so I chose the safer Jungle route. Niels and I later mentiond we were both suprised by the speed of the Australian attack. Another thing I learned in this action is that the Japs don't lower morale when encircled but do receive all the other drawbacks. I rarely get to use encirclement but in this scenario I used it 8 times on the Jap, again using the "Hero" HS option.
Another H-t-H CC in the Nothern jungle area killed a squad + a HS against a Jap HS increasing my fear for CC yet again. But I had grown wise, I wouldn't CC the Jap again an leave my concealment in place as to gain maximum ambush possibility when the Jap chooses to CC me.
I failed to slow down the Japs when they escaped the Center jungle area. I blame myself for it since I was in position to do it but at that time didn't notice it. The rush for the roadblock, for both Jap and Australian, could have been different when I would have succeded in slowing down the Jap. But this is the point were the game turned interesting. The defensive front the Japs had formed was falling apart. Some Japs were retreating, some made a stand while Australian and Dutch troops were infiltrating the Japanese lines. Battles were raging al over the board resulting in a lot of eager Japs to CC my squads. But this time we were on a even standard. He had to attack whereby the Jap lost his Stealthy bonus to the +1 PTO ambush drm. This time it was a matter of good dice rolling. Of some 5 HtoH combats I got the upper hand. I even managed to roll snakes and create a leader for the Dutch. All this HtoH though was at a cost of a lot of troops both Jap and Allied, but I had troops in abundence so I gained the upper hand. The board was covered with unpossesed SW and Dutch troops carrying Jap equipement.
As the Dutch troops were still slowing down the bypassed remaining Japs my main Australian force was heading for the suspected place for the roadblock. This roadblock finaly doomed up as far away from the West edge as possible. I still had 3 turns to reach and remove the roadblock but things really had to go my way with the DR's in making it in time. I still had a numericial advantage over the Jap and my best leaders were in place. I managed to outflank the Japs one more time and got ready to move to the roadblock. In the proces my 9-2 leader failed to GO two squad on a MC, afterwards I think this event lost me the game. A squad and a HS made it to the fincinety of the roadblock though while the 8-1 prepared his troops to CC (together with the adjacent 9-2) a Japs squad protecting the roadblock. This close combat turned into a melee and into HtoH the following turn. Here I lost my 9-2 and left was a HS but again one Jap gone.
My final movement saw some mad dashing again. At the end of the turn I managed to get a HS on one side of the roadblock and 2 squads plus 8-1 on the other side. The Jap had adjacent a squad, LMG and 9-1 leader and a crew with HMG so I could expect a lot of fire on my troops. This whole game his HMG was very unlucky and rolled colered 5 again so no ROF, but managed to break the HS, one part of the roadblock cleared. I also had a pinned squad adjacent to the 9-1 stack (I think this situation was in my AFPh). They rolled snakes but since they CX-ed and pinned + the Jap in Jungle terrain, I only gained a MC which had no effect on the now encircled Japs.
So all I had left to do was TI the 8-1 stack and hope for the best. Since the Jap choice was oppertunity fire I suffered from Hazardous movement and the Jap from +1 encirclement in the Advance fire phase. The Jap managed to get off a reasonable shot which breaks the 8-1 and one squad and pins the other squad. Game over since pinned unit cannot remove roadblocks.
Wrapping it all up I count 1 1/2 squads a crew and a 9-1 leader for the Japs. I lost half of my Dutch troops and one third of the Australian troops. Well HtoH combat can be really bloody.
I sure did have a good time with this scenario and am willing to play it again. Like I said its a good learning tool for Jap features while you don't have to learn to much about the terrain. This game was also the first time ever I played with Niels. I played some others for the first time also but during play we had quite a lot of Rule Book skimming. Niels though had a good knowledge of the rules and combined with my knowledge it made fore some fast enjoyable not much Rule book skimming game.
Peter "The roadblock" Hofland