Two tracks diverged on an arctic Muskeg And I, I didn’t choose the lesser one And that has made all the difference…

SUMMARY: Major Japanese Victory. Massacre Valley lived up to its name. It is a low counter, and generally fast moving scenario with the US Player moving against the clock to penetrate the Japanese defenses and move off board. JAPAN VPs: 29 vs. 14 US VPs

Japanese Casualties: 14 of 15 steps (94% casualties), 2 of 4 leaders (50% casualties)

US Casualties: 7 of 23 steps (31% casualties), 2 of 6 leaders (COL and MAJ – 33% casualties) PLUS Steps & leaders remaining on board: ALL - 16 of 23 steps and 4 of 6 leaders.

SITUATION: Key Terrain – trails that allow for unimpeded movement of Americans through the Muskeg and Arctic Hills. Hexes 1406, 1212, 2110, 2010, 2031, and 1632 are choke points where the Japanese player can bring to bear his hidden units to ambush US forces to optimize column shifts and disrupt/block US movement.

US Courses of Action: The US generally has three courses of action. Advance up the western route, advance up the central route, or advance on the eastern route, which again merges to the central route to get off-board. Any other course of action takes him into restricted terrain and risks losing cohesion. For his organization, the US player can either advance as a single “flying column” or split forces. The pace of his heavy weapons may dictate the rate of march. Also, splitting forces is only advisable between the central and western routes, where they can be mutually supportive of each other, and perhaps one force can bypass or envelop Japanese blocking positions at the end of the map. Splitting forces any other way just serves to desynchronize the plan and allow the Japanese for the potential of local superiority.

Japanese Courses of Action: The general Japanese courses of action are: 1) defend forward with all forces at or forward of the east-west track. The benefits are in stopping the US cold early on and making it that much harder for them to recover. However, the risks outweigh that benefit if the US can successfully defeat or bypass the forward defense they will be able to make an end run with little chance for he Japanese to stop them. 2) Defend the final ridge en masse. The benefit is to have all Japanese units and local counterattacking force dug in on the key terrain the US player must almost certainly pass through to get off board. The risk is that the US player will likely be able to arrive with a fully cohesive force, and, if playing with strategic movement, the US player will have sufficient game turns to reduce the Japanese strongpoint. 3) Defense in depth. This approach is for the Japanese player to distribute his forces so that US forces are always under observation and unable to use strategic movement, while he uses hidden forces to ambush and disrupt US forces forward in a disruption zone, so they may not have the cohesion to tackle the main defensive positions on the ridge at the exit points. The risk is that the US will be able to overwhelm or bypass forward defenses if he discovers them.

Japanese Plan: COA 3 – Defense in depth; DELAY, DELAY, DELAY 1. Prevent Ally from using strategic movement by keeping him under constant surveillance 2. Use hidden movement to surprise/ambush 3. Engage Early and Often by establishing a disruption zone between the southern hill and the northernmost ridge. 4. Dig in a strong point at the end of the trail. This will be the main effort 5. Setup: a. Hill 1 (hex 1406) 1xINF PLT and leader – task: defend in order to delay/disrupt US advance b. Hill 2 (hex 1212) 1 x INF PLT and leader – task: disrupt in order to delay and disrupt; screen in order to maintain visual contact for OBA c. Ridge (hex 2110) 1 x INF PLT and CPT – defend key crossroads in order to delay US advance. d. Exit points (hexes 2031) 2 x HMGs, (hex 1931) 1 x 81mm mortar with leader (-1 morale modifier), and (hex 1832) 2 x INF. Task: Defend in order to prevent US penetration.

US Plan: COA – Central trail with a single “flying column”. Try to stay together so as to not be broken up by fog of war rolls and to maintain a fast tempo.

Execution:

0600-0645. The US column advances from the south up the initial track. The lead platoon gets within 4 hexes of the hidden Jap position and luckily spots it. This allows the US player to call for OBA and suppress and luckily disrupt the Jap platoon. The following turns the lead American platoons assault and defeat the dug-in Japanese platoon with no loses. 2 Jap steps and leader eliminated. A good start for the US.

0700-0800. The US column proceeds to turn west and the lead platoon is pinned by Jap platoon in hex 2110. When the US decided to send the COL up with a platoon to mass fires and leaders, a historical event happens. Jap opportunity fire causes a step loss on US platoon and kills the US COL as they move up bypass. This causes decapitation and stalls the advance.

0800-0915. The US is able to suppress the Japs enough advance and bypass up the western track. US forces from the earlier assault rejoin the column, but it must leave behind a demoralized PLT that failed to rally. It does eventually rally, digs in, and establishes a blocking position to prevent Japs from hex 1212 from pursuing. OBA caused 1 x step loss on the Japs as they move from hex 1212 in an attempt to pursue the column. The remaining Jap INF Platoon from 2110 are able to pursue the US column as the US mortars start to lag behind. At 0845, the Japanese position in 2031 is able to spot the approaching US column and harasses them with OBA and mortars. The US is able to observe the mortars and use counter fire to successfully destroy the Jap 81mm mortar at 0900.

0930-1000: The US column advances to vicinity hex 2031 and the lead platoon fails to uncover the hidden Japanese HMG nest straddling the track. They open fire. In a rash move, the US attempts to assault since they are in a close ambush. The result with Japanese fit fire is that the US loses. 5 US steps, while US HMGs move into the arctic hills to flank the Jap position.

1015: The Japanese maneuver their reserves with 2 x Jap INF platoons getting adjacent to the US HMGs. A US INF platoon is sent to link up with the lagging mortars that are about to be overrun by pursuing Jap platoons in the rear. The US Infantry platoon arrives in time to defeat the Japanese assault from the rear. Japs lose 3 steps.

1030-1115: Over nearly the next hour, a firefight and assaults ensue back and forth over the US HMGs and the Japanese HMG position. The US is not having any luck rallying fleeing units, but the Japs lose both of their Infantry platoons, and 1x HMG takes a step loss and flees north along the track. 4 JAP step losses. Any chance of the US player getting all his units off the board is gone. His last attempt will be to break the Japanese HMG position to hopefully get 1/3 of his units off the board, as too many have not rallied.

1130-1145: Massive direct fire and OBA on the remaining Japanese HMG causes 2 step losses. The Jap HMG that fled rallies and is able to still block the exit track. By this time the US unable to exploit further and get off the map, although it has all but massacred the entire Japanese contingent.

US Observations: 1. Decide who/how much you are willing to leave on the board early on. Suffering demoralizations early on can be devastating to maintaining tempo. Decide how many times you will keep a leader or the force from moving forward while waiting to recover disrupted and demoralized units. 2. Protect your units from Decapitation. The loss of the Colonel will halt your advance for basically two turns. 3. Fix discovered Jap units with arty and direct fire, but keep your units moving and bypassing while they are suppressed. 4. Your mortars and HMGs will determine your rate of march. The mortars might be a sacrificial lamb early on. You can only fire them 4 times in the game if you expect to have any chance of getting them off the north edge. 5. Try to keep you HMGs in the second rank of your column with your best fire support leader, it might make for a slower march, but having 20+ fire value that can combine with troops in contact should decimate a Japanese position prior to a US assault. 6. Do not rush to failure. When a Japanese HMG ambush is sprung, if might prove better to let the arty and direct fire reduce the position before sending in the assault to be decimated by first fire. This will have to be a call made considering how vulnerable the unit in the ambush hex is. 7. Remember the plan. I advise the central trail, as it is the best piece of terrain for keeping the relatively short range Japs at a distance. However, I ended up going down the western trail once my forces made contact and were pinned.

Japanese Observation: 1. Dig-in and force the US player to have to attack you. The first fire advantages, being on a higher elevation, and being Japanese (non-HMG) will maximize column shifts in assault. 2. Maximize HMGs in one location to create a true strong point that can range all 4 hexes of a US advance across open terrain or Muskeg. Consider having a Jap infantry Platoon or two that can relieve an HMG once they get locked in close combat in order to move the HMG to a alternate position at the end of the trail and to gain a +1 shift modifier for the Jap infantry in the assault. 3. Use indirect fire to harass the US advance, but use it as your last actions of a turn. Normally, OBA is worth using up in the first three actions before Fog of War rolls, but Jap OBA is so weak, only a very lucky strike will cause results. Use it when all your important actions are complete. 4. The Japanese mortar should consider being placed where it can benefit from direct observation of the US march so as to get the +1 column shift. The mortar will be susceptible to US Arty counter fire. Make sure they are dug-in and you might want t consider moving them into a Muskeg hex to gain the -1 bombardment modifier along with a -1 for being dug-in. It will offset the +1 for being mortars. 5. I placed a platoon on the eastern hill to disrupt any US eastern route COA, but that platoon was misspent. Maybe only because the US player went west. But from the eastern hill, it is very difficult for any Japanese forces to be able to rejoin the fight if bypassed. 6. Japanese leaders. My leaders were not stellar, with only a single LT that had a morale modifier. I risked my set up with only one leader in each defensive point. I might have wanted to consider one less defensive point to have an additional leader at the main effort.

Balance Considerations: Favor balance toward US: Do not play with Fog of War Favor Balance toward Japanese: Do not play with Strategic Movement rule

Overall – a scenario I would play again, and found more enjoyable and tense than I thought I would.