This small scenario was played using the standard 10-3 Marine platoons. The Japanese have one full Type 95, supported by 2 portee weapons, one a 25mm AA and the other a 45mm AT gun, supported by a company of infantry, an HMG and a Service platoon with 4 leaders. US defends at an area of road as it enters board 81 from the north in a night scenario with lots of jungle and hills. It takes the Japanese a couple of turns wandering on the road, and the Japanese captain, with an HMG and the Service platoon steps aside to let the tanks take the lead, at least until they stop just past the village to take a look at an obvious kill zone with the jungle barely visible to their south, but they stop in view and range of the Marine Shermans, who take a shot and destroy a step. Phase by phase, the Japanese infantry and portee weapons move forward onto line with the tanks, which prompts fire from the jungle that is hit and miss at the range of 2 hexes as well as the -1 column shift for night. The Japanese take a few losses and take some disruption for no damage, and another shot from the Shermans finish off the Japanese tanks. Then the Japanese portee 45mm AT fires and eliminates a step of the Shermans, who become disrupted, leaving them in a prime spot for a good Japanese assault. Pretty much the whole line of Japanese move forward to adjacent hexes to the Marines, and the Marines decide to step back one hex, which, except for the Sherman, avoids that Banzai charge, and the Sherman takes it in stride, demoralizing the Japanese infantry while being disrupted in return. Marines move forward to support the Sherman and roll well against the Japanese attackers, but the Marine Sgt and the Sherman become demoralized and in the next instant flee the area, while the Marine infantry remaining succeed in stopping and then destroying the Japanese assault force. Another Marine LT and a Marine infantry platoon assault the Japanese portee 45mm gun, which surprises them and holds out for several turns before becoming a casualty just as the Japanese Captain, an HMG and the Service platoon prepare to join the assault hex, and since the truck and weapon are now gone, their assault can be faced head-on by 30+ points and are quickly eliminated, leaving only the Captain and a demoralized single HMG step. The other assaults turn into certain Marine victories, and fleeing Japanese infantry and leaders are busy regrouping in the hills to the north, but don't manage to get back into the game before the end. The Marines eliminate the second portee, and the only remaining Japanese on board 81 are the Captain with an infantry step and another LT with a demoralized step that is stuck in assault, leaving the Japanese holding only one road hex on the south board. Counting that road hex, the Japanese have 4 points, and the Marines have 15, a Major US victory. The points for holding the road might be modified, changing occupancy to control, which would give the Japanese troops points for having moved through a number of road hexes. That would not have changed the results in this game, but would have given them 4 more points, making it a little bit less of a Marine win. And with a gap having formed along the road in this game, just a few different dice rolls could have given a Japanese element a few more road hexes forcing a draw. Great game.

The other day I wanted to setup and play a quick/small scenario and picked this one, as it can be played in about an hour, with 14 turns and with not too many counters. It also has some interesting units with the Japanese attacking trying to gain control of the east-west road and eliminate American steps as well, with a small number of Marines defending at night.

In my game I took a gamble after the American Sherman tanks already fired on their activation and moved a stack of Japanese Portees and Type 95 Tanks adjacent to the Marine tanks and Infantry units hoping that they would active first but with the nature of the dice the Americans activated first the next turn with the Sherman tanks destroying the Type 95 tanks and one Portee unit and the Infantry taking care of the other Japanese portee. The Japanese basically wasted their whole mechanized force on one turn and left it up to their Infantry units to try and achieve victory unsupported the rest of the game which proved too difficult, giving the Americans a major victory. The early gamble wasn’t worth so next game I’ll use more tactics with this scenario.