With the new brighter Saipan maps in hand, it was back to give some of the scenarios a try again. I will make a pitch that the brighter maps are better than the old as you will be able to see those slight changes between light and regular jungle as well as see the hidden trail on one of the boards. I picked this scenario as it looked interesting as the Japanese have some very deadly AT guns to go up against the thin skinned American tanks as well as American tanks, FLM units and entrenched Japanese and it looked to be interesting. I thought this might be able to give a American Marines a run for their money. But once I did the leader draw, the hope had faded on this as I was surprised at the leader draw. The Americans were graced with 4 leaders with morale 10 or greater and with either bonus of 2-1 or 1-2. These were all at General, Major and Captain levels as well. Come to find out there is a good chance to getting some super leaders for the Americans in Saipan. I will need to remember this with any FtF games with this ;-)

Well, after seeing this, I figured the Japanese would need some sort of good defense. Mass firepower would be key as the Americans were not going to stop for morale checks. Two approaches I thought about was to disperse the entrenchments behind thick jungle to try to strip off the American tanks in the jungle and slow the Marines or bundle them together to mass the firepower on the Americans as they advanced. I picked the later as the Japanese would be able to "3 stack" with lessor effects as the Americans did not have OBA. The question was where, and the best spot was the hill on the south east side of the board. On the hill the Americans would need to attack up hill as well as giving the Japanese AA guns good fields of fire. So the entrenchments were placed and stacked up with HMG and INF while the mortars and guns were massed behind the hill for an impressive 60 BF when needed. The only problem was they did not have enough to cover the flanks of the hill and that would be left to lone INFs and a SER.

For the Americans, they setup on the beaches trying to take advantage of cover as the Japanese will have spotting on them starting on turn one. The tanks and LVT-4 take cover in or behind the jungle hexes next to the beaches. One group in the center of the board and one group around the village on the southern beaches. The southern group will try to get through the jungle and attack on the weaker flank while the main force will keep the center and northern Japanese forces occupied.

The advance started with the Americans in the south. They move through the cane fields and get to the light jungle just south of the hill. Long range Japanese fire actually had and effect as a basic morale check is failed by one of the Marines. Maybe the morale would be a factor and the leaders would not be as big a help. Unfortunately, no this was the only failed morale check by the Marines. Back to the advance, the Americans reach the base of the hill and look to advance on the lone INF and SER dugin in the light jungle. The Marines are able to close on the Japanese and are able to reduce both and force them to demoralize and retreat, but one Japanese counter-attack is able to reduce a Marine INF. The Japanese are forced to commit the reserve INF to help hold the line, but the damage has been done and a way to the Japanese guns is cleared.

To the north the American main force moves down the road and through the light jungle toward the cane fields. The Japanese dont have clear shots but their OBA comes down with no effect. The Japanese unleash the 60 BF but no step losses occur only morale checks and the Americans easily pass the morale 8+ checks. These guys are really tough to break. The tanks keep to the back as the Japanese AA guns are too strong at this point to advance and will let the grunts take the punishment. Slowly the Americans begin to cross the cane fields and the Japanese respond with HMG and AA fire only getting morale checks and the Americans press on. They are able to advance up the hill and get behind the Japanese. A quick assault and the Americans have cleared the northern flank.

At this point the naval airpower arrives to help with the attacks. There first passes they cannot find there targets, but on the second pass the Hellcats and Wildcats find the Japanese guns scoring a double kill on the SNLF 105 and a 81mm mortar. It must have been a napalm attack with that type of destruction. This reduces the Japanese capabilities quite a bit. Next a Marine platoon moves in to finish them off. This demoralizes the remaining mortars and they flee and locking the army 105mm with the marines. That ends the on board threat to the Americans.

The next step is to have both American flank attacks move on the entrenchments. This was a little more bloody for the Americans but not much. Two groups of 30+ DF advance and open fire on the entrenchments and some of the remaining Japanese begin to wither and the Americans assault. After three turns of assaults the Marines have the two required entrenchments with the loss of one Marine platoon. At this point the Japanese have no chance to win and the Americans have the game.

It was a bit of a lopsided victory for the Americans with only 3 steps lost while the Japanese lost 12 INF steps, all the mortars and AA guns as well as the 105mm guns. I found myself liking the scenario, but disliking the overwhelming firepower of the Americans and the fact the most of their morale checks there was a low chance of failure. I believe the worst morale check they had to roll was a M2 with a reduce platoon but a 1-2 leader was right there to help. So in the end it left me wondering how to balance this out in the next scenario I play.