Panzer Grenadier Battles on November 21st:
Desert Rats #16 - The Panzers Pull Back Desert Rats #19 - The Panzers Return
Desert Rats #17 - The Tomb Of Sidi Rezegh Jungle Fighting #7 - Line Of Departure
Desert Rats #18 - A Pibroch's Skirl South Africa's War #5 - Irish Eyes
Hey diddle diddle, right up the middle
Author thomaso827
Method Solo
Victor United States
Play Date 2014-07-20
Language English
Scenario MARI003

This scenario pits a Japanese attack at night into and through the Marine lines to attack the Marine artillery behind. I stretched my Marine infantry and weapons covering a line from north to south with only 1 or 2 hexes between, forcing Japanese to be spotted as they passed by. The 75s, the mortars and the 37mm AT guns were sited closer to the beach where the Infantry would have more time to try to chase down and Japanese troops that penetrated the line. For the Japanese, I lined them up stacks of 2 with a leader except for the Major, who added the Engineer platoon to his stack. I set up so the Japanese had 2 elements using chain of command to allow 4 stacks to move forward in line, one group to either side of a central east-west line of jungle. I quickly forgot the Japanese victory condition, take out the 75s and the 37mm AT, and started planning to initiate assaults instead of walk through between strong points, hopefully ignoring damage and leaving behind any demoralized or disrupted elements. The Marines got the initiative on turn 2 and put the illumination rounds to good use, lighting up both groups of Japanese with a range of 2 or 3 to all the Marine elements, who started taking a toll on the Japanese line. After getting into two assaults on the south end, it hit me, there are no Japanese victory conditions for killing Marines, except for cannon cockers. The Major and one of the Captains lead their Japanese troops between Marine outposts, but this was where dice rolling got really interesting. For 2 turns, Marines couldn't miss,and Japanese couldn't hit. Japanese losses started climbing, their initiative started dropping, and surviving Japanese infantry with no leaders started heading for the rear. Only the Major and Captain could continue, and only with a handful of reduced units, until on turn 10, the Major was set to assault the first 75mm unit while the Captain was preparing letters to the loved ones of all those who had accompanied him that far. With a string of die rolls hitting the middle numbers that meant no damage, and with Marines salvaging all their morale checks while Japanese had a tough time doing any damage at all, and initative rolls that gave the Marines 4 phases before the Japanese could even act, I called it a game. There was a small chance that the Japanese could take out the one gun, but absolutely no chance to get all 3. And at this point, the Japanese had lost 21 steps of infantry and HMGs and the Marines hadn't lost anything. Definite US win. Fun game, my first of this new book. Looking forward to more.

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