Shad's Note: I'm dumping in a bunch of my old BGG AARs. If you've followed my "work" on BGG then you've read these before...

Introduction

I took the Marines and Liverpool Dave, my steadfast wargame partner, took the sneaky Japanese. They begin with 5 platoons onboard, 3 of which are reduced. Dave chose to hide 2 of the reduced platoons, stick the 3rd in the village to be defended, and place his 2 full-strength platoons in the jungle but covering the beaches in order to defend the approach of my landing craft.

I loaded up my 4 LCVP and distributed my leaders accordingly. With only ONE steploss costing me the scenario, I was not in the mood to take chances in my tinfoil boats. Rather than push my luck by cruising towards the village and taking fire from his 2 good platoons in the jungle, I headed straight to the nearest beach and unloaded a good 1.5km (~8 hexes) from the fishing village.

The Marines formed up into two groups - the HMG and 1 platoon of Marines and my best officers (10 base morale & +2 morale mods!) were to slowly and carefully head directly west for the village. The second group, composed of the other 2 Marine platoons and the remaining good - if not quite as motivated - officers, were to take the scenic route in a long curve SW, W, and then NW to approach the village from behind. In this way I hoped to end up with his 2 full-strength JPN SER platoons pinned between my patrols without exposing myself to undue risk.

Advance

Things went quietly in the outset, with the Japanese digging in and my men slowly advancing along their pre-planned routes. Dave was rolling for hidden unit detection with every step, but nothing came up in my favor.

Finally, however, as I was closing towards his dug-in platoons from the East and Southwest, a natural 6 came up and Dave suddenly had to reveal himself. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where those 2 reduced SER platoons were (slightly west of my position) but boy was I wrong - he was to the south, completely behind me. Exposed, he did the honorable thing and initiated Assault combat there and then on the weaker of my two patrols.

Reduced SER units, however, with their fantastic 1-2 combat rating, don't last long against Marines with solid leadership. The Marines cut the Japanese to pieces and then turned to focus on the main enemy emplacement.

Punishment

By mid-game I was in position - adjacent on 2 sides actually - to remove the dug-in Japanese and lay claim to the village. The -2 column shift for being dug-in AND in jungle terrain nullified my adjacent bonus, and the Marines struggled mightily but could not inflict steplosses...

I was starting to worry that I'd run out of time as the turns ticked by, but luckily for me Dave kept missing his reinforcement roll (and would continue to miss it until Turn 21!). Finally, after an hour of point blank fire and repeated rallies among the Japanese, a group of JPN service personnel cracked under the pressure and fled demoralized from their dug-in positions. FREAK 'EM OUT!

Leaderless, demoralized, and alone in an unforgiving & disorienting jungle, they were immediately pounced upon and slaughtered to the last man in hand-to-hand combat by my Marines. F--- 'EM UP!

...the key to victory had been revealed.

Smelling blood, the Marines returned to their positions on either side of the dug-in Japanese and resumed punishing waves of fire. It wasn't long before the remaining platoon cracked and cowered demoralized inside their foxholes. FREAK 'EM OUT!

Not even bothering to wait for them to make a run for it, the Marines stormed in with the HMG platoon and 2 platoons of regular leathernecks. Within minutes the entire construction unit was nothing more than a pile of corpses, including all 3 officers which had been present. F--- 'EM UP!

None Shall Pass!

Kings of the Jungle, and without losses, the Marines took up positions on the jungle fringe just west of the village to await the as-yet-unseen and futilely late Japanese reinforcements.

For awhile it seemed as if they'd never come, but then, with only an hour until extraction and return to the perimeter, that familiar battle cry was heard...

Dave, knowing all was lost unless he managed to inflict one steploss, ordered his men forward in a mad dash down the open beach towards the village... right into 3 platoons of Marines and an HMG unit.

This was the first time in my personal PG history that I had the opportunity to roll on the 45+ Direct Fire table, and I made it count!

A hail of bullets, 1 entire platoon and half of another fell never to rise again. (3X!) The stragglers? Demoralized all and in full flight for the treeline. There would be no glorious Banzai Charge this day...

Conclusion

With clinical efficiency the U.S. Marine Corps disembarked, eliminated all enemies encountered, secured the objective, and returned to the perimeter. Victory, perfect.

Closing Thoughts

Dave's SNLF reinforcements, which would have actually put up a fight against the Marines, arrived much too late to contribute anything to the battle. If you make that roll early the entire scenario will change. Dave chose to hide his reduced SER units, I would not have done the same.

As the Marines, one steploss and you lose is the factor influencing every single decision. You have a +3 initiative advantage over the JPN so you're almost always guaranteed to go first, plan accordingly.

As the Japanese, the best chance the weak SER units have is to catch a Marine patrol off guard and initiate an assault. You'll probably only get one chance to get that steploss, but one's all you need. If you can get your SNLF forces on the board quickly then a Marine walk-over suddenly would become an even battle.

Highly recommended to those of you who have a FtF opponent and want a scenario with hidden units that you can knock out in 90min or less.