Saipan 1944

[otto]

less-super Marine rifle platoons,
9-3, 8-3,... ?
or it's a surprise?

[warstudent]

This looks interesting from the news latter:

We’d like to bring out more of these in 2015: a Saipan issue with much better Japanese tanks and less-super Marine rifle platoons,

Is this a revision for play balance (accuracy) or is this an alt-history modification?

[campsawyer]

less-super Marine rifle platoons,
9-3, 8-3,... ?
or it's a surprise?

You'll have to buy the game to find out

[larry marak]

I do recall Jay designed Saipan with mere mortal Marines, and was taken aback by the appearance of Kryptonians.

[Matt W]

One of the benefits of the fourth edition rules are that they, especially by the changes in the assault combat table, made Saipan instantly more balanced.

[otto]

Why is that Matt?
I plaid the Japanese a couple of times and always tried to assault avoiding exchange of fire with the DF table.

Ottavio

[JayTownsend]

It all news to me as well but I think Mike is doing an alt-history modification.

[Matt W]

If you compare the third and fourth edition assault tables you will find that the probability of inflicting losses (result of 1,2, or 3) are higher on the lower columns (e.g. you can cause actual losses on the 3 and 5 columns in 4th edition, not in 3rd) and much lower at the higher columns (e.g. the probability of not causing a loss on the 30 column in 3rd edition is 6/36 and 11/36 in 4th edition).

As the high column attacks tend to result in a more frequent morale check as opposed to elimination and the Japanese tend to have decent to exceptional morale, assaults take longer to clear hexes. Since many of the Saipan scenarios require the Marines to clear terrain and assault is the quickest way to do so in the third edition such assaults tended to go in quickly and take the ground away from the Japanese. In the fourth edition this takes longer and can actually result in a loss if the Japanese make their morale rolls.

This change is magnified in the Guadalcanal and Jungle Fighting scenarios where the Japanese morale is even higher and the victory conditions even tougher for the Americans.

[otto]

All right, I was thinking instead about the bonus shift that Japanese get in assault (which however was already there in the 3rd edition), now I get your point.
thanks
Ottavio

[JayTownsend]

I received the Golden Journal 2015 late night with the Marine Infantry counters and Japanese armor, a nice addition to Saipan and the Marianas.

The Marine Infantry counters with the 8-3 value will make the scenarios more balanced, as I thought when AP developed it the 10-3 values were too high.

The Japanese heavy armor type are hypothetical with Type 1, Type 3 and Type 4 tank that never made it off the Japanese homeland but still fun to have and tryout.

It also comes with and alternative and a new scenario, so cool to own but to own it, you have to join Avalanche Press's Gold Club, and is no big deal for me, as it saves me a lot of money each year when buying their products.