Marianas 1944, scenario #28: Night of the Tanks

Kind of an interesting situation to play out. The Marines setup on the southern edge of map 83 planning to dig-in and wait for the Japanese attack and pull back with enough time to get seven steps back into the heavy jungle on map 100. The Japanese lead with a stack of Type 97 and Shinhoto tanks but also with a reduce Infantry and leader and in the stacks that followed by more Infantry in carefully planned attack stacks to get the most out of their attacks. With only one hex visibility the Japanese close in to get up close with the Marine units and the 81mm mortar failed in its illumination attempt. This took about five turns before any action happened and both sides are kind of in a time pinch to complete their victory objectives. The Marine really don’t want to assault the Japanese as it favors the Japanese but take some good close up direct fire shots and manage to eliminate a total of 5 Japanese steps and one Leader but the Japanese had two nice dice rolls of 2 and 12 which gave them 3 eliminated American steps and one Leader as well but their assault on the 81mm mortar failed and the Marines reinforced it in time with a PIO unit. The Marines were barely able to pull out of the line to get seven steps into the jungle on map 100 on the last couple of turns but had no opportunity to knockout a Japanese tank. So the Americans achieved a minor victory but so did the Japanese, so this scenario ended in a Draw!

A very interesting puzzle to solve and I could see this scenario ending in many different ways.