JuFi041 
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Butaritari Jungle Fighting #42 |
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| (Defender) Japan | vs | United States (Attacker) |
| Formations Involved | ||
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| Japan |  |
Makin Island Garrison Force |
| United States |  |
2nd Marine "Carlson's" Raider Battalion |
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| Overall Rating, 4 votes |
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1.5
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| Scenario Rank: --- of 940 |
| Parent Game | Jungle Fighting |
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| Historicity | Historical |
| Date | 1942-08-17 |
| Start Time | 04:00 |
| Turn Count | 73 |
| Visibility | Day & Night |
| Counters | 32 |
| Net Morale | 1 |
| Net Initiative | 4 |
| Maps | 1: JuFi |
| Layout Dimensions | 43 x 28 cm 17 x 11 in |
| Play Bounty | 135 |
| AAR Bounty | 159 |
| Total Plays | 4 |
| Total AARs | 3 |
| Battle Types |
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| Inflict Enemy Casualties |
| Surprise Attack |
| Conditions |
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| Reinforcements |
| Scenario Requirements & Playability | |
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| Guadalcanal | Counters |
| Jungle Fighting | Base Game |
| Introduction |
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Intended as a diversion to support of the Guadalcanal landing (which preceded the raid by ten days), Companies A and C (each less one rifle section) of the 2nd Raider Battalion landed on the Japanese island of Butaritari, more popularly known as Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands. The objectives were to simply kill Japanese and destroy equipment and supplies. The two largest submarines in the U.S. Navy, the Argonaut and Nautilus (rated as transport submarines) embarked the 13 officers and 208 enlisted men in Pearl Harbor on 8 August, 1942 and landed them on the ocean side of Butaritari on the night of 17-18 August. |
| Conclusion |
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Things went wrong from the beginning. The landing of the two raider companies was late. The accidental discharge of a rifle alerted the Japanese. The Raiders failed to capture any prisoners, but did manage to kill several dozen Japanese and fire a aviation fuel dump. The son of the American President, Major James Roosevelt, was executive officer of the battalion and almost lost in the fighting. When it came time to depart, the surf turned out to be a bigger problem than had been imagined and few men were able to re-embark on time and the two submarines had to wait for the next day. Finally the two submarines had to leave as Japanese air and naval units made the waters around the island too dangerous to remain. Forty-six Japanese had been killed in exchange for 30 dead Raiders, 9 of whom were left behind to be captured and executed by the Japanese. While not a victory, the raid had captured the imagination of the American public and done its part to restore morale on the home front. |
| Additional Notes |
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Variable scenario ending criteria, 73 turns minimum. |
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| Imperial Japanese Army |
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| Imperial Japanese Navy |
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| Marine Corps |
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| 1 Errata Item | |
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| Scen 42 |
Japanese reinforcement roll times are out of sync with turn count by 1 hour. (triangular_cube
on 2023 Mar 03)
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| Stay on the boat... |
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In theory, sticking a map on the back of the Jungle Fighting scenario book was a brilliant idea. In practice? Avalanche Press went with a map for a tiny spit of land that's used in exactly one scenario. Did I mention that the one scenario was awful? Extremely low unit densities, long stretches of turns between even solitary activations, rolling and rolling and rolling for turn ends hoping for something to happen... This brilliant idea lands with a thud and then leaves a foul taste in your mouth. This is the only PG scenario I've ever packed in early... avoid at all costs, unless you're hell bent on completing your scenario count. |
| 0 Comments |
| Jungle Fighting, scenario # 42: Butaritari | ||||||||||||
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An odd scenario that I had to give a try after reading the special scenario rules a couple of times until I grasped what the overall idea was and dug into it. Not sure why special rule #2 mentions about the Japanese initiative being lowered with step losses when they start with and initiative of zero anyway. The map is on the backside of the supplement but I printed off a hardcopy anyway. The American and Japanese both have some dice rolling to do to see how the setup begins. After that the Americans must clear the tiny Island of enemy units without more than two steps being eliminated. They take out all the initial Japanese starting forces with only one step loss and then must wait a series of dice rolls until each one of 6 groups of Japanese reinforcement enters, which when they do, the just takeout these piecemeal reinforcements with mass force, each time, then roll to get off the island but I am not sure why I should wait 65 turns for this, when all the Japanese were finished by turn 45. Well the Americans won this but I can’t recommend the scenario. Jungle Fighting has many more, better scenarios, in fact 41 better ones. This one just didn’t work right even though it was creative. |
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| 2 Comments |
I thought the passionate warning of my AAR would be enough to prevent any further plays of this turd, but I was wrong!
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did, Jay! ;-)
I didn't read it unitl after I started playing it but besides this, I had printed a map long ago for this, so either way I had to give it a try to justify my printed map.
| Jungle Fighting #42 | ||||||||||||
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The Japanese won because the marines drowned in their boats. No really. If the units on boarding fail to reach the island at the get go, they have a 50% chance of losing a step, eventually. Americans cant win if they take 2 step losses, Japanese win with 3. 2 marine steps drowned, and 1 was killed on a displacement assault against the SNLF in the government house. I didnt even get to the endless rolling stage of this... bizarre... scenario. |
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| 2 Comments |
Jay and I both tried to warn you! The only nice thing about this scenario is the map.
I needed the ribbon :) The premise was at least interesting. Had the step losses from landing on the island not counted for VCs, I probably would have given it a 2.