Marianas 1944, scenario #2: Left Flank Counterattack

I like to mix it up a bit with different games played and in no scenario order accept I am trying to finish off some of my own designs without recorded plays, so I went back to the Pacific. When you look at this one on paper you think easy American victory but Japanese, in the night in assaults, with 8/8 morale and a different victory objective, are no push overs.

My first big mistake was setting up my U.S. Marines too far back thinking they could easily repel any Japanese that moved into their lines and then move forward. The Japanese hit in three places along the Marine lines to keep the Marines spread-out but it felt like hitting a brick wall until finally a small opening where some Japanese units funneled in. Now it was a battle of attrition!

An interesting note, usually the 37mm AT guns are useless against Infantry with their 2-3 Direct Five value but I saw this demoralized Japanese Infantry unit in range and fire at it, rolling a 3 on the dice and it did a morale check and rolled a 12 on the dice, the step is removed and that result rarely happens, so it was worth mentioning.

Ok back to the game, it literally took the last turn, the last dice roll to see who was going to win. The Japanese still had one undemoralized unit within five hexes of the beach but not within two hexes of the beach, it had to be demoralized for the Americans to win. With and assault force of two Infantry units and one Sherman Tank unit that arrived the previous turn I was able to demoralize that Japanese Infantry unit for an American victory but I had to sweat it out until the last dice roll. The Japanese lost 23 steps and 4 leaders, the Americans lost 4 steps and 1 leader. A nail biter!