Leyte 1944, Scenario Forty-Three: The Last Ditch

The Americans certainly needed the off-map artillery support in this one. At one point towards the end of the scenario Americans had cleared all the north-south road hexes and three town hexes but did not have the 2 to 1 advantage in step loses, close but losing 3 steps to the Japanese 5 steps didn’t cut it and soon afterwards a Disrupted Japanese unit and leader recovered and moved on to a road hex, blocking the north-south road once again, thus the Americans only achieved 1 of 3 victory objectives giving the Japanese a Minor Victory.

This is a really close scenario. Even though the Japanese don’t being dug-in, if they start in a town hex or a village hex, they get good modifiers. The American in hindsight, should have left the town hexes and just gone for a minor victory of clearing the road and a 2 to 1 advantage in step loses, as they lost most of their steps fighting for those town hexes and even if you do control the town hexes and the north-south road, it is too much area to retain, as those Japanese paratrooper keep coming back. This is a good scenario, as even with 24 turns it goes really fast with a lower unit count.