David Longworth and I started this scenario at a Bears meeting a couple of weeks ago and finished it off last night.
The scenario features an initial force of 16 USMC squads attacking a small force of Japanese holding the hut overlay. The Japanese have a lot of toys including 3 75mm infantry guns, a .50 cal HMG and one of those little 37INF guns. Both sides are reinforced. The Japanese by 3 448s and the USMC with 5 squads entering from the opposite side of the board.
I set the guns up in huts in the village. If the Marines want that village they are going to have to duck some large calibre bullets at close range. Most of my infantry was strung out on board 34 guarding most of the natural choke points on that board (between the gullies and the bamboo). One squad with an LMG was guarding against an end run down the beach. The right flank was completely unguarded as I reckoned that I would have time to shift to meet an attack from that direction. My intention was to use my reinforcements to protect against his reinforcements while I slowly pulled back to the village with my main force.
Dave entered over a broad front, with a strongish force racing down the edge of Board 34 to hook around my front line. I had to divert one of my Turn 2 reinforcements to slow this down a bit.
Meanwhile my frontline squads fell back slowly as the US pushed forward. Over the next few turns a lot of my squads perished as they got rushed by the Marines. The plentiful cover and their high morale and firepower made it hard to stop them. Dense jungle does make it hard to set up mutually supporting positions. A steady stream of Marine squads were broken and my sniper shot the two US 8-0 leaders as they were trying to rally troops in the jungle.
The US 10-2 turned out to be leading the flanking force. One of my guns placed WP on his stack to reduce its FP. The gun crew was then eliminated by a box cars on an NMC, another crew then missed 3 successive recovery rolls for it before finally finding it! The Japanese sniper continued to wreak havoc by getting the 10-2 right between the eyes. This shattered the two squads with him and took most of the steam out of the flank attack.
The end of turn 6 saw nearly a dozen US squads surrounding the village. The Japanese had a small force of crews and HS with just a couple of full/depleted squads remaining. Most of the Japanese heavy weapons were still in action, however.
Fortune fluctuated wildly each turn. US turn 7 saw 4 US squads break with minimal Japanese casualties. The Japanese half of the turn saw 3 US squads rally and only a single half squad die as the Marines decided that the 75mm shells supplied minerals vital to their diet, rather than a threat to their health as they shrugged off 1MCs and 2MCs with the greatest of ease. The return fire whittled away some more Japanese and the FB pinned a squad slowly making its way to the village.
Turn 8 saw the Japanese get whittled away some more but the .50cal HMG broke a squad sneaking up the rear and a 75 got a CH and killed a squad in the middle of the village. The first 75 went down as it got overwhelmed by the green hordes and the last Japanese leaders bit the dust.
Turn 9 saw the Japanese with 2 75s (and crews) and a 348 depleted squad still in the village, with a couple of hard to get to vacant huts remaining. The only routes to these hexes were through OG hexes adjacent to the guns. US Prep Fire was ineffective despite some good odds attacks. The first gun did its bit by breaking the first HS that tried to get through and laid down the 6 residual. The second gun, however rolled a 12 on its shot(-4TH) against a leader and squad and left a gaping hole in my defences.
David rushed through the hole and grabbed the unoccupied huts without resistance and moved his men close for CC to grab the three remaining hexes. A lucky PTC with a Final Fire shot from the 348 that pinned 2 squads adjacent to it gave me hope. The US advancing fire was pretty ineffective and then we had 3 close combats, 5-1 and 10-1 vs crews and 2-1 vs the 348. There were no ambushes but Dave rolled an 11 for the 5-1 (needed 9) and a 7(CR) on the 2-1 attack. The 10-1 attack went off OK. So the Japanese were left with a crew and a HS and 2 huts and claimed the victory (third last DR of the game). If around 95% casualties represents victory, I'd hate to see a defeat!
Seriously though, this is a really good scenario, fairly fluid with a tight ending. The presence of the guns and the aircraft gives it a different feel.
This is third scenario that I,ve played from the 96 Annual and they have all been great (the others were Dorset Woods in the Rain and The Drive for Taierzhuang)
My main lesson from this game was that I underestimated the effect of the aircraft and found it hard to successfully pull my infantry back to the village. I never did get around to moving the .50cal out of the huts to give AA cover. Probably would have been worth doing for a turn or two. The US squads are tempting targets though, after all the FB can,t capture a hut. David conducted an excellent attack and probably would have won comfortably if the sniper hadn,t taken out the 10-2.
Richard Cornwell