Played ftf with Matt W in 2.5 hours.

As the Japanese commander, I felt it was very important how I setup my defense because I assumed I would not have many opportunities to counterattack. I surveyed the field the evening before the match and thought of three possible sites. Each had its pros and cons and I finally settled on the site just north on the trail at the board. I believe it was a reasonable setup but was not confident I could win this scenario.

My strategy was very simple; stay put, shoot to kill and maybe assault if my troops have a local advantage. Very simple stuff, the Japanese do not have the firepower to do more than that.

The Americans approached slowly onto 3 fronts, getting into position. I had a forward spotter and he called artillery onto a stack. When both platoons failed their morale check, I jokingly said American troops have low good order morale in ASL but recover. But this is PG and not ASL, and these Americans decided passing a morale check was an incredibly difficult task on this day.

I think what happened next is Matt impersonated a young Caine and committed a few armor assets when he lost patience with his failed recovery attempts. The armor assets did serve to draw fire away from the carefully planned killer stack he moved towards my entrenchments but the cost in lost steps was very high.

The killer stack, led by flamethrower unit, assaulted the first entrenchment on the 30 column and I had no response to it. I assumed it would take a second entrenchment, which it did easily, and then we would play it carefully to the end to ensure the draw. Only then did I notice the Americans did not have many units left. Matt still had to move one more step north of the trail to get a draw and I bombarded it until it was demoralized.

Japanese victory!

I rated this scenario a “3” because the Japanese do not have many decision points. I believe this one is a draw (likely) or an American victory (unlikely) if the Americans play patiently and only commit its armor assets late in the game, if necessary. I think this scenario is likely more interesting with hidden units if playing against another player. Being able to setup or surprise or two goes a long way towards disrupting the American timetable. Also, I think this one makes a good solo case study if playing. You setup the defense the same in 2 or 3 tries, and attempt different strategies with the Americans. I might do that actually because I don’t really understand the strategies to use in the Pacific.