The Japanese are spread pretty thin on 2 boards as the US Army tries to move north through them from a jump-off line on a 3rd board. The US Army had a fairly easy time of it at first, and even managed to get air cover and good arty support for the first half of the game. Japanese were set up evenly split on infantry between the central and northern boards, but the 3 single steps were added to make killer stacks in the jungled hills of the northern board. I set up the central board troops with 1 stack at the middle of the board in jungle to slow down the advance, and placed an AT gun and infantry in the central board village hoping to get a shot at approaching tanks before losing it. With more stacks than leaders, I placed adjacent stacks of infantry next to weapons and HMG stacks, keeping pure infantry stacks with leaders in order to do the most damage should they get the chance to assault and letting the infantry officer influence the adjacent weapons/HMG stacks as necessary until being occupied themselves. The 2 single step Japanese tank units I stacked in light jungle where they were masked by heavy jungle but had lanes of fire that covered the central road and bridge. The US were set up in elements of 3 stacks centered on Captains with the HMG and Engineer or Flame unit and 2 LTs each with 2 Infantry platoons, something of a heavy company force, with reserves just behind lead by the Colonel, LTC, Major, another Captain and LT, and followed up by the SGT bringing up all 3 mortar units. The US armor was stacked in the middle and moved out to mid-board, where they stopped in light jungle, still on the road, to await the infantry before getting closer to a 3-hex jungle area on the hilltop, a great looking place for an ambush. Infantry soon caught up and flanked the jungle to fight an infantry stack in the south-eastern hex and an AA gun and HMG combination in the southwestern hex, where the AA gun had hoped to get the tanks as they went by. The Japanese troops melted away to direct fire and off table arty, while a spectacular show of airpower arrived in the form of a P-38 element that headed for the village hex on that central board. A roll of 2 with a result of 2X eliminated an AT gun and an Infantry step and demoralized the Japanese SGT, and a followup attack by arty finished off the defenders the next turn. The US troops continued to move north but things stagnated quickly when they found the Japanese stack in the town and another in jungle to the east. The Japanese in the town kept rolling X results that took step losses and demoralized leaders. In the east, the Japanese Major had decided to initiate his own assault instead of waiting for the US troops, and his luck wasn't quite so good. In the town, the US Captain died, along with the Flame unit he had entered with, and one after another of the infantry platoons that had moved adjacent was called in to reinforce the assault, while the Japanese lost nothing. Again, the Japanese Major on the other side of the board lost step after step until he lost his own life in the leader loss result along with 3 of 4 steps of troops he had started with. The US luck in town finally changed just as I remembered the plus because of having a tank unit in combined arms, and the roll finally went the right way for the US, eliminating 2 steps of Japanese troops, demoralizing one of the survivors and the LT they were stacked with. The two events finally allowed the US line to move forward again and the COL and his entourage moved between the two assaults and onto the northern board. In the midst of all this, the US Shermans had exchanged shots with the Japanese tanks, and Managed to eliminate both single step tank units to no losses to their own. The elimination of the last pockets of resistance on the middle board had taken too long, and the US troops that had succeeded in regrouping and moving forward would have had a tough time indeed trying to take out the Japanese killer stacks of 5 steps on each of the jungle hilltops, especially with one less flame unit available to do the job. At the end of turn 22, and with points at 38 for the US to 25 for the Japanese, and with US troops on the northern board, but the cave still in Japanese hands, I called the game. With just 2 turns available, there seemed no way to storm those last 2 hills without turning the points against the US. Great game.

Marianas 1944, scenario #26: Yigo and the Approach to Mt. Santa Rosa

The U.S. Army gets back into the Battle on Guam. Three maps to conquer as much victory objectives as possible. I setup up the Japanese in five areas hoping to stall the Americans but they have such a large force and air & artillery support too boot! I maybe should have setup up all the Japanese back on map 82 or bunched them into larger groups, so they couldn’t be taken out peace-meal but I didn’t.

The American lost only 5 steps and one leader and achieved all the victory objectives but the far off cave, which they failed to take on the last turn. Of course the American steps count double but still the Americans won 48 points to 13 points for a Major Victory but it was fun task of trying to maneuver and fight over three lengthwise maps.