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 twenty one: Coordination

In this scenario the Americans have different victory levels for controlling certain amounts of caves and entrenchments and at the same time how many units they exit from the north edge of the map. The Japanese have different victory levels depending on how many American steps they eliminate, but don’t worry the Americans will have to come to them to achieve their victory conditions. There is only one map with the biggest mountain-hill on Saipan and thick jungle with a trial heading all the way to the top. But the main trail going north-south has some wide open territory with light jungle, open hexes and so on surrounding it, so the tanks could just run up the west side without too much difficulty.

Setting up the Japanese defenses, I put two caves in the Mountains and one entrenchment there and I set up another entrenchment north blocking the open road off the map adjacent to the town, so the Americans couldn’t just run their units off the map to fulfill part of their objectives too easily. The U.S. Marines attacked with half of their forces to clear the open trail, town and entrenchment in the north-west of the map and the other half to attack the Japanese fixed locations in the mountains. The Marines sent most of their engineer units and one Satan tank into the mountains with rest of the armor and AFVs heading up the west open trail north and the Infantry divided pretty evenly between the two groups.

The fighting was heavy and to my surprise the Americans took most of their casualties in the lowlands hitting that town and entrenchment in the more open areas as the armor took a beating with some big dice rolls from the 47mm AT Guns and the 70mm Guns trying to block the easy exit points north but the Marines still had to take that entrenchment and at least 1 or 2 more caves or entrenchments in the mountains. The Americans positioned their attacks very wisely, hitting these positions with a good dose of direct fire followed by another stack of Infantry with at least one engineer or Flame unit or even a Satan tank when possible, and lost about 5 steps in the mountains taking two fixed positions but in the lowlands they lost 6 steps taking one fixed position before exiting 26 steps off the north edge of the map. So the Japanese achieved a major with for eliminating 11 steps, one over the 10 they needed but the Americans also achieved a major victory for taking three out of four fixed positions and exiting 26 steps off the north edge of the map which was one more than the 25 they needed. This made the whole scenario a Draw!

This could have turned either way, depending on both the defensive setup and the attacker approach. I am not sure I did either the best way, as it was draw with both sides winning. That long winding trail up the mountain and through the jungle is so fun to climb, at least on card-board maps!

Interesting scenario. Japanese are defending board 82 in depth, meaning there are a lot of gaps. But the requirement to take at least 2 or 3 of the entrenchment of caves forces the superior numbers of the Marines to engage and wipe out part of the Japanese force and still get at least 20 steps off the board in 22 turns. The Japanese out their Anti-tank weapons in the entrenchment and towns to keep them from being lost too easily. The Marines succeeded in getting may of their force to the north along the trail, losing just a few steps before disclosing and taking the first cave and entrenchment. The flamethrower certainly helped, especially the Satan tanks. The fight wasn't a pushover, as the Marine Sherman's took losses to the Japanese AT guns and then lost another step as a Japanese assault caught them in the open and unescorted. I'm the end the Marines tore a large gap along their left flank and got the necessary 25 steps off the board, along with the 2 entrenchment and a cave, to make a major victory, but lost 11 steps, giving the Japanese their major victory as well.

The Axis set on the southern end of the northern hill with positions just north of the East-West road. The principle position had Four Inf and an Hmg guarding the area around the 1313 road junction.

The main Allied attack pushed down the western road. Another group consisting of both Satans & nine Inf and one Flame platoon attacked down the right side of the board. This group lost one whole Satan platoon and three Inf steps and a Flame step just getting by the Axis's eastern main line. And once that line was breached they had no where to go. The only choices being move over to the west and follow the attack down the western road or plunge into the thick jungle and most likely never be in a position to exit the board or even reach an entrenchment or cave.

By 11AM the Allies had lost 10 steps and were just now approaching one cave and one entrenchment. The best the Allies could do at this point is a draw but decided to try to plunge ahead anyway.

By 12:45 the Allies had still not captured any cave or entrenchments and had lost an additional three steps including a M4 step. At this point the Allies retired. Rating 3. The Allies missed just too many activation rolls and lost too many steps in assault. But most of all the Axis artillery was "in the zone" and just could not miss. Several step losses and and many disrupions and demoralizaitons and double demorializations were inflicted on the Allies by the OBA. In addition the Axis had several "friendly fire" incidents that never even caused a moral check.