Disclosure, I am the Designer and feel all my scenarios fall into the range of 4-5, 90-100% or I wouldn’t have created them, so take my ratings with a grain of salt! The only reason any are a 4, is because they are more difficult to make from design to development.

Saipan, scenario fifteen: Counter-Landing!

Out of all the scenarios I was most worried about this one was it, as historically the Japanese got blasted before they could land any troops with 13 landing-craft sunk and the other 22 turning back north to Tanapag but that is why we play these scenarios, to see if we can do better than our historical counter parts and for the fun of gaming. This also created the opportunity to finally get Japanese landing-craft into the PG series. Some new situations came up, like ship vs. ship and planes vs. ship. Ships of opposing side cannot be in the same hex as to avoid the water assault combat confusion. Landing-craft can be in assaults with ground forces when then hit beaches.

I may have made this one too difficult on the Japanese not giving them enough map landing area trying to simulate the actual situation but this is still an interesting puzzle to try and solve for both sides. I set my Americans mostly in the southern half of the map to defend against the Japanese landing victory conditions but some setup farther north to hit the Japanese along the way with star-shells, bombardment & some direct fire. Also to buy some time for the entry of the American gun-boat from the south.

The Americans battered the Japanese all the way to the southern beaches sinking many of the Daihatsu landing-craft with their infantry and leaders. The Japanese attempted three air attacks during this scenario, once on the American Gun-Boat and twice on American ground units but even though these units are not dug-in the dice rolls were poor. The Japanese were able to land two infantry units in the holes in the beach hexes which would have totaled 6 steps with the landing craft but the Americans assaulted or used direct fire against them destroying the landing-craft and sending the Japanese Infantry demoralized back east into the Jungle. The Japanese had their chance, more so than historically but could not hold on to two beach or adjacent hexes. The Japanese lost 24 steps not counting leaders and the Americans only lost one step in an assault for an easy American victory. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, as the Japanese do not have to worry about casualties and even though it turned out one sided, I still wasn’t sure until the last 3-4 turns. If anything, it a fun, fast playing scenario that gets all types of units fighting in the air, the sea and ground and few dice rolls the other way and who knows?

This is somewhat of a reverse scenario, with the Japanese trying a landing at night against dug in Marines with lots of local big guns. There's even a naval gunboat wandering around. I set up the Marines along the beach so that the Japanese landing craft would have to come inside of the 2 hex sighting range somewhere a turn or two before they could start landing. That and a starshell lit up the night and gave a 105 some AT targets. Two barges loaded with troops went down immediately. Turn 3 saw the first 3 stacks landing, 2 immediately into assaults with defending Marines while the other stack, down to just one since his partner was one of the boats lost to AT fire, landing in a hex adjacent to a 75mm gun, which also happened to be where the good Colonel was hanging his hat. That made for a bad day for 1 platoon but surprisingly they rallied immediately their next turn and ended up assaulting the colonel and his gun. Marines are tough, and those gunners and the colonel held on long enough to be joined by 2 platoons and an LT, which pretty much wiped out the Japanese force. Two other hexes of assaults went back and forth for a few more turns, but by turn 8, Japanese losses were up to 21 steps, with only 2 demoralized reduced platoons and a sergeant left. Even the Japanese air force was having a tough time, as the one close call, a hit on one of the gun batteries, ended up with an M1 morale check, which the Marines took in stride. Interesting game, only 1 step lost for the Marines, with a few minutes of wonder waiting to see if they would ralley or not, but the morale gods smiled on the Marines this day, and they brought themselves back from the brink each time.

En este escenario una fuerza de desembarco japonesa, integrada por aproximadamente tres compañías de infantería, debe atacar la playa donde inicialmente habían desembarcado los americanos con intención de atacarles por la espalda. Los japoneses cuentan con diez frágiles lanchas ("Daihatsu") y el ocasional apoyo de la aviación. Nada más. Los americanos despliegan dos compañías de marines y tienen el apoyo de una poderosísima artillería sobre el campo de batalla y, sobre todo, una cañonera (LCI-G) blindada y bien artillada.

Los japoneses entran por el mar al norte del mapa y deben navegar más de la mitad del éste hasta la playa de desembarco. El problema para los atacantes está en que hay un cuello de botella marítimo de apenas hex y medio en torno a los hexes 308, 309 y 310, que naturalmente está protegido por varias secciones de infantería y HGM enemigas, con una poderosísima concentración de fuego. Por si fuera poco, la cañonera americana hace de tapón prácticamente inexpugnable y la concentración de artillería americana permite salvas en la columna máxima de la tabla de bombardeo.

Con estos antecedentes el resultado de la batalla no puede ofrecer dudas. La flota japonesa de invasión llega al cuello de botella y es machacada sin piedad por el fuego AT de la cañonera, por la concentración de fuego directo de los marines (columnas 30 y 45) y por la artillería. En tres turnos apenas la totalidad de la flota nipona es hundida, desmoralizada o desorganizada sin siquiera tocar tierra. Se trata, por tanto en la práctica, de una batalla naval. Y de una batalla totalmente desnivelada.

En mi opinión, PG no ha sido diseñado para este tipo de combates. Surgen dudas sobre el correcto empleo de las unidades navales y de desembarco. Por ejemplo, ¿la cañonera es "open top" o "closed top"?, si una lancha cargada es desmoralizada, ¿corren la misma suerte los líderes y unidades que transporta, según la regla 5.65? (si es así el combate aún estaría más desnivelado), ¿deben las unidades y lideres transportados abandonar las lanchas?...