Marianas 1944, scenario #24: The O-3 Line Objective

The Marines have one objective, to eliminate both Japanese 75mm guns and the 105mm gun by the end of 20 turns. The Japanese have two caves and one entrenchment counters to help protect their assets. The Americans have two similar forces but one doesn’t attempt to enter the battle until rolling a 5-6 starting on turn 8 but in my game don’t enter until turn 14. Both sides have off-board artillery and the Japanese decided to setup all their forces on the more difficult terrain on map 82 in three locations.

The Marines after four turns of movement close in with the first Japanese blocking position in a town along the road with a reduced step of Type 97 Medium tanks and two Infantry steps and one leader, The Americans make the arrogant mistake of pulling their Sherman tank adjacent to the Type 97 tank feeling invincible, but the Japanese tank rolls a 11 on the dice and gets one 1 point for their small AT Gun value and another modifier of +1 for being adjacent, for a total of 13 modified AT points and tank step loss for the Americans which are able to pass their morale check and eliminate the Japanese tank as well but lesson learned.

The Drive was slow in climbing the mountain to eliminate some of those Japanese guns and the American reinforcements would have to deal with the other Japanese gun position on the other side of the map. The Marine reinforcements didn’t show up until turn 14 which put a lot of pressure on the Americans to achieve their victory condition and in fact didn’t complete that task until the last turn and just barely. Without the reinforcements and the good dice rolls on the last turn, the Americans wouldn’t have won this one, so a very good scenario to play. The Japanese lost 12 steps and three leaders and the Americans lost 7 steps and one leader in this small but blood contest.