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?