Many of the island war scenarios that Jay has done are small affairs with one or two companies of Americans and Japanese fighting to see if the Americans can take certain features away from the Japanese (caves, entrenchments, roads, etc.) without losing too many steps in a relatively short period of time. I wanted to play a scenario of Marianas to inaugurate the database and I chose this one despite the fact that it looked to be virtually what I had just described. Two companies of Marines are tasked with eliminating two casemates. One company of Japanese, supported by extra HMGs will try to keep that from happening.

But then there is the river.

You see the river is major and although the Marines have a Pioneer who can assist in crossings the timing of the scenario is such that they almost have to try to cross at one of the bridges or the ford. The high banks mean that the LVT A1s can't just swim the darn thing so the Marines basically have to go right up the gut giving the Japanese the chance to fight in a stand up battle and cause those losses that come very dear in such scenarios.

Yes, my Americans won this battle and did so by Turn 15. They had, however, taken two step losses before Turn 10 and only some awesome firepower aided by great leaders and two consecutive "2" die rolls on the 45 column for direct fire permitted that result.

This one is finely tuned and replayable. It is probably best solo as the Japanese have only some minor movements to make with 30% of their force (the casemates) immobile meaning that the greatest mental activity of the Japanese player is to try to use telekinesis to get the die rolls to work in their favor. I give it a "4" as it is likely to be a nail biter every play, but not a 5 as it remains a small package with little for one side to do.