In this one the Americans seem certain to finally overwhelm the Japanese defenders, the only tension is whether they will lose more than one step doing it. Since this one was a draw I apparently did.

Regardless of what happens the final removal of the Japanese, especially in their one position located in the jungle will require assaults which will not be friendly to the Americans. I ended up losing my second step early in the scenario and was stuck playing for a draw all along. Luckily for me I read the victory conditions wrong and thought that it was still a three step limit and pushed forward aggressively. I say luckily because it was not simple to finally root the Japanese out of those positions.

As in the other two scenarios in this arc - this is not a good candidate for a ftf game. Play it solo to see how the Americans can improvement as the step total for the Japanese goes down. This one is surprisingly balanced and the arc is worth playing as all three scenarios are quite small and play quickly.

I give it a "3" due to the balance in the victory conditions.

Taking Bets!

Reduced in numbers, the reduced elements of the Japanese 229th and 230th Infantry Regiments await the final assault.

American Plan: Hit hard with everything. Avoid assault except against demoralized Japanese. Try to eliminate/break with artillery and direct fire from point blank. End as quick as possible to avoid chances of Japanese artillery inflicting casualties.

Japanese outnumbered in direct fire values 84-11!!! How many minutes will this take? Bets are on!

The Battle

0630 – American attacks begin.

Japanese artillery is off-target. Zeroing in on American position.

American artillery hits the dug-in Japanese. Japanese HMG half platoon panics and, demoralized, flees their position.

American direct fire from their HMG nests (Three HMG platoons) devastating! (2X) Japanese INF platoon eliminated!

American assault against demoralized Japanese has no effect.

Japanese artillery has minimal effect.

American HMG nest accurate again!! (2X). First dug-in defenders in jungle eliminated.

American assault eliminates the second Japanese dug-in position.

In the jungle the demoralized HMG is hit by American artillery then assaulted. The soldiers are eliminated and the Japanese lieutenant is captured!

GAME OVER

AMERCIAN VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

This walk-over took approximately 8 minutes to play! Whereas the other missions at Hill 53 were quite balanced, I felt that in this one the Japanese had very little, if any chance. Maybe it was payback for all the scenarios that favour the Japanese?

Overall, this was such a quick scenario the “skew” didn’t really matter. This could also be used as a “teaching” scenario, but make sure you give the new guy the Americans!

Scenario Rating 2/5. 3/5 as Teaching Scenario

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	Draw
Play Date	2023-02-14
Language	English
Scenario	JuFi018

Another, rather boring, set up and shoot in a very narrow corridor scenario this time with minimal Japanese who need to inflict minimal step losses on the overpowering Americans as they overwhelm the positions. One of the spots that the Japanese can set up in is Jungle, so they put their full strength INF and their HMG red in there to wait out the OBA which mostly goes away after 4 turns. The hope is just to roll a 2 on OBA or on Op fire. Otherwise they sit and wait and die. They dont have enough bodies to do anything else.

Americans have to be very patient and fire everything they have every turn that they can. They need to reduce the Japanese positions from afar before closing in at the end of the scenario. OBA and combined direct fire eventually causes the Japanese reduced INF in the exposed position to dem and flee after about 7 turns. They move up the ridge line and move artillery spotters adjacent to the jungle hex. Japanese OBA keeps poking at the MGs but never rolls a 2.

Eventually time is running low and the Americans have to move something forward to compell the Japanese to fire and let themselves be spotted for DF. They roll a 2 on OP fire. 1 step and a dem. The next turn the unit flees and OP fire gets an M2, and compound flips it. Game over. Draw. Americans obviously take the position in the end once they no longer care about losses.

Very boring, very drawn out, and very unnecessary.