Mindanao 1945, scenario #5: Jungles of Zamboanga

Kind of cool to have five different colored counters/units; American Army & Naval, Philippine Army & Japanese Army & SNLF Naval units all in the mix. Setup is key here for the Japanese, by spreading out the entrenchment counters, you make the Americans to have to slip up their forces across three maps to try and conquer at least 6 out of 8 entrenchment counters as one of their objectives. But in this terrain it will be difficult for either side to funnel forces back and forth to support areas of need. The Americans do get both air and artillery support. Both sides have on map mortars and when place together can have a nice punch.

The Americans enter on all three southern edges of the maps and the Philippines forces enter from the north on map 83 and can kind of be used recklessly as their step losses don’t count and can charge right into the action. With so many minefields and entrenchments the American FLM and Engineer units become the most valuable units on the map and there are two of each type that will get some heavy action.

With the battle spread-out across three maps, the fighting was heavy but thanks to the air-support and off map artillery and some nice dice rolls at the right times, the American/Philippine forces came away with a Major victory. Only because the Japanese had to open a corridor to try and reinforce other areas and one of the key entrenchments was lost at the very end of the scenario.