This is a fun little scenario. The Americans must takeout both Japanese 75mm & 105mm guns in about 14 turns. So the Japanese setup their units, way up north to buy time and the Americans waste 4-6 turns getting everyone up there to fight. At first I couldn’t get through the thin Japanese units defending their guns and one stack of Marines got demoralized, so I almost gave up but the other group of Marines started doing pretty well, at which point I should have loaded up one of the Japanese guns and took off with the truck but too late, the assault happened to take out the last Japanese Artillery in this scenario and everything road on one last dice roll, the Japanese rolled a 4 and the Americans rolled a lucky 6 in the assault giving them a very close victory, when I was very close to giving up.

This interesting little scenario has a handful of reduced Japanese infantry and HMG elements defending a 105 and a 75mm battery. I put the infantry out with the leaders so that the Marines would either come under direct fire or bombardment as soon as possible, also placing the Japanese in the town hexes to give them as much protection as possible. The Marines enter from the south and need to eliminate both gun units with keeping losses down to 2 steps or less. I entered the Marine 81mm Mort with a good LT to stop just south of the village while entering the rest in column along the beach, the Major and one INF leading with the rest following in chain of command order to use only 1 initiative for at least that first turn until the HMG would slow down the one stack in later turns. What I didn't think about when I started that Marine movement was that the Mort could still be seen from the town hex closer to the beach, so that stack was hit at range 3,LT Dis and Mort Dem. The Major leading up the beach also came into direct sight of the 105mm battery dug in in some light jungle just beyond the town hexes. Middling roll for the arty had no effect on the Major but sure woke him up to the possibility of future shots. Marines moved forward and into light jungle and town hexes to avoid direct fire by the arty and to prepare for assault of the Japanese CO and one step of Inf in the town, figuring that the low firepower of that stack would have less effect even at 1 hex than the arty would. I was also able to start dropping the Marine OBA of 16 on the Japanese 105s. The Marine assault on the next turn was successful with a snake-eyes roll eliminating the 1-step Japanese Inf and putting the Marines in a good position to prepare to assault the Japanese 75 a few hexes away while maneuvering through the town hexes out of sight of the Japanese guns until the last moment. The Marine INF and an HMG stacked with the Marine CPT had fallen behind and decided to fire on one of the other defending Japanese stacks in another town hex intent on pinning them in place to keep them from coming to the aid of the guns. This worked well, and fire from these Marines and the Mort did keep them constantly having to use their initiative to rally instead of maneuvering or firing. The Marine Maj combined with another stack making a 3-unit stack in town right next to the 75s where the 75s got just one chance to hit them at 1-hex range, with a dice roll of 6 failing to stop the Marines from assaulting next turn. While that was going on, a Marine OBA shot landed squarely on the 105 and with a roll of 2, eliminated both that and the trucks stacked with it. Halfway to the goal, the Marine infantry succeeded the next turn in assaulting and eliminating the 75s. With just 2 turns to go, the Marines decided to do some mopping up rather than give the surviving Japanese a chance to assault and eliminate the 3 steps they would need to void the Marine victory. Die rolls spelled the difference, and the Japanese ended up losing the last HMG step and having the last Inf and leader demoralized to no loss for the Marines. Big Marine victory.

The Japanese set up with infantry in blocking positions in the town and at hex 1109. The artillery was well back a 0501 for the 105mm and 0601 for the 75mm. The Allies advanced through the town taking 2 step losses, but a special event raised the limit to 4 steps. This allowed the Allies to become more aggressive in their advances. By 1:15 all Japanese Inf and HMG units had been eliminated. By 1:45 the artillery was captured also for an Allied win. I love these special events. Sometimes they go against you but they do add a certain wrinkle to these scenarios. This one made the difference in this scenario. Imagine loosing your OBA just when you are about to assault a key position. It does happen and that is why their inclusion in a scenario, to my mind, is a must.

Advancing my still quite limited PG experience with another play. I liked the very small size of this scenario - a good choice until I gain more combat experience. My Marines assaulted some of the Japanese infantry successfully, but my pace was too slow. When I finally was approaching the two guns one hopped on trucks and started to play some cat-and-mouse. On the second-to-last turn it tucked into heavy jungle. Without enough time to spot and attack it I conceded.