The Japanese are hindered by short number of turns and being outnumbered while on the attack. The US spread themselves to cover most of the beach, though a little thin. The Japanese attacked along the northern edge, hitting two Marine and one LVT platoon. Right away the Japanese faired badly, losing a step of tanks. They did better in the following turn, and assaulted another two Marine platoons 2 hexes over. Though the Marines lost two steps, the Japanese lost two platoons of infantry and one of tanks. The Marines moved reinforcements north quickly, and the Japanese lost momentum and the battle.

Disclosure, I am the Designer and feel all my scenarios fall into the range of 4-5, 90-100% or I wouldn’t have created them, so take my ratings with a grain of salt! The only reason any are a 4, is because they are more difficult to make from design to development.

Saipan, scenario three: Probing the Marines

First let me state, this is a small errata for this scenario:

*Under Victory Condition the Japanese section should say:

*(The Japanese win if they eliminate three or more American steps)

Ok a very small fast playing only eight turn scenario, the Japanese attack but this is more of an engagement! At first the Japanese try to find the weakest holes in the American lines and then decide if they should go after terrain or eliminate enemy steps but since the Marines were able to react fast enough it turned into a shooting match followed by some assaults. Those LVT A’s vs. the Type 95’s are a very even match, as both have a, one armor factor protection! As it went, fast and bloody and after only 8 turns the Japanese had 7 steps lost and the Americans 5 for a draw. I needed to use a more finesse approach for both sides but I was too concerned about the time factor. If you want something fast and furious here you go!

The Allies set up in an arc around the beach with their left flank on the town hex 5508 and their right on 0712. The Axis drove right down the middle with tanks and one platoon of Inf. on a right flank move. The U.S. LVT4s shot it out with the Axis armor and KOed both steps over two turns, loosing nothing in return. Axis assaults were met and stopped, but it cost the U.S. four steps. But in the end the U.S. caused 12 Axis step losses. The Axis suffered from poor leadership, one 7-0-0 Lt. included. In fact no Axis leader had any sort of modifier. I will give this scenario a 4 because it is more balanced than it looks and more balanced than it played out. The Axis armor could have done better. They were evenly matched vs the Amphtracks as far a firepower was concerned the just rolled poorly. The Japanese leadership was really under standard. They had trouble recovering units and could not mount powerful fire groups even though the units were available. They just could not combine firepower. So the U.S. never had to face overwhelming morale checks and so rarely broke. The U.S. leadership on the other hand was motivated and talented. Put these together with powerful Marine rifle platoons and the Axis's noses got bloody before the dice were even rolled. The Axis then left the beach early....with a sunburn.

In this scenario a strong US force is charged with the responsibility of keeping the Japanese off the beaches and possibly avoiding losses. Both sides have some armored assets. The American firepower is, however, terrible to behold.

The Japanese assault comes directly down the road which effectively splits the American force in half. The Japanese tanks try to set up a roadblock but are quickly taking out by the responding force. The Americans isolate the Japanese and destroy the force but not before taking sufficient losses for the Japanese to also reach their victory condition. Thus a draw is the result.

It is hard to see one's force completely eliminated but, as in many Pacific Theater scenarios, the goal is to disrupt the enemy and keep the initiative. Even with the destruction of the attacking force, the Americans were not calling the shots, the Japanese set the tone in the scenario and the pace is up to them. Given the "feel" generated by the scenario I need to give it a "4". A very well constructed scenario and fun in any venue.

This was an interesting little scenario that felt more like a football/rugby game than a PG game. The basic idea of this scenario is to keep the Japanese off the beaches while both sides try to inflict as much damage as possible. Given that it is a small one both sides don's have enough force to cover or attack all the board, so the units will be moving back and forth trying to find a weak spot while the other blocks up holes that appear.

The Americans just have a Marine infantry force that has good firepower but there just isn't enough to block the Japanese from advancing to the beach as some point. This puts a lot of pressure on the American setup, as they are first and need to guess where the Japanese will advance. In my play, the bulk of the Americans were held in the center, just east of the center village and slightly south. From this position the Americans had control of the road so they could shift north or south depending on the Japanese advance. In both the north and south villages Marine platoons were on picket duty just to slow the advance if they came that way.

For the Japanese, it was also a tough decision as their force was not very big, but has two reduced Type 95 tanks. These would be good for going up against the American LVT's but they would not be much help with assaults as well as watching out for pesky Marine bazooka teams. The Japanese setup as a massed group, just south west of the 20m hill in the northern quadrant. This gave them the cover of the light jungle to move as well as a possible avenue of attack between the center and northern American Marines.

The game start with the Americans getting the initiative and advancing two platoons from the center to block/fire from the south on the Japanese. The Japanese respond by moving toward the Marines and look to isolate and assault the Marines. But the Americans quickly move back on the next turn and the Japanese turn back to their advance to the north. They close on the beach road but the northern Marine pickets look to block them as the southern pickets rejoin the center force and look to block the whole south side of the board. So far "Navy" has kept "Army" out of the endzone beaches.

The Japanese, seeing that the line of advance has closed down, look to attack the isolated units trying to block to the south. The massed Japanese force turns back to the south and moves to hit the lone platoons trying to block a southern advance. The Japanese Captain skillfully maneuvers the INF's and tanks to the jungle, but the Americans shift reinforcements to help cover the advance. At this point the Japanese draw first blood with a step loss on the DF seven column and reduce a Marine platoon. With a massed force ready to assault the reduced Marines they shift units to support, but a Marine platoon and HMG score a 2X on a advancing Japanese platoon. The American Colonel advances more reserves to help close gaps, but he is demoralized while in the cane fields and the Marines are left on there own. But the attack is to the south and the two Marine Captains are strong enough to hold the line.

At this point the Japanese commit the tanks to dash into the American lines to draw fire for their infantry. American OP fire misses and the LVT-4A moves back down the road from north to cover this threat. This leaves the other Type 95 open to move back to the south and support its brethren. But the Marines aren't going to wait and a Capt 10-1-1 spurs his platoon against the tanks, they disrupt the tanks but could not get a good shot with their bazooka teams. The Japanese Captain has a INF charge in with the tank and reduce the Marines. It now becomes a major issue for the Americans with a trapped platoon about to be overrun.

On the next turn the worst happens the Japanese get the initiative and kill the remnants, while the tank moves past the blocking Americans and heading for the beaches. Meantime the American LVT-4A positions to get a shot as the Type 95 moves south. The second Type 95 moves to support the remaining INF. But the Marine HMG's score another kill this time a 3X lose, one full INF and a LT 10-1-0. Then the Marines assault the other Type 95 with a platoon and disrupt it. The Japanese Captain commits two INF's to cover the tank, one is demoralized as well as the tank demoralizes. Next turn the Marines assault again this time double demoralizes the tank and INF. With the tank gone, the Japanese Captain commits the last INF and himself and is able to reduce the Marine platoon through double demoralization.

At this point the game has reached the end and the Americans a 5 point lead on the step loses, but the Japanese have broken the line and dashed a tank unit to the beach to put a scare into the Marines unloading. But in the end it is the step losses that win it for the Americans.

Both sides drew a great bunch of leaders, US just a bit better, with 3 10-1-1, a 9-2-1 and a 9-1-1 to the Japanese 10-1-1, 10-1-0 and 8-0-0. Putting the US colonel and 2 platoons in the middle town hex near the beach, and spacing the other 4 officers out with 2 platoons each where not much could get past without being fired on or assaulted, the 2 LVTs in the line between the Colonels HQ and the infantry where one or the other was sure to engage the Japanese tanks. Japanese CPT with 3 platoons formed a slow moving but powerful assault force, with another force neighboring him, the 8-0-0 LT with 2 platoons. Tanks started behind the edge of the hill on the trail, staying beyond the initial spotting distance of 3 hexes - although this is a noon-time scenario, there is smoke on the field preventing spotting beyond 3 hexes. Great little scenario, this started out with a 2-activation US initiative, so the US bides their time waiting for the Japanese to make a move. They don't have to wait long, as the Japanese tanks run along the trail and stop just short of the LVT a4, which takes it's OP fire and misses. Japanese infantry on the US right advance to the town on the west side of the hill on that side of the table. The other 2 Japanese forces move forward through the heavy jungle. A US force with the 10-1-1 LT moves forward and is ready to advance into the town next turn for some assault action. As the game progresses, the Japanese and US armor exchange step losses, with the LVT lost on the next turn, and the Japanese armor losing two steps between fire from the LVT a1 and an assault. The Japanese commander worked his way down and assaulted the center Marine force, which put them in the beach area, where they hoped to survive constant assaults. The other US force, continuing to assault the surviving Japanese tanks, failed to find their bazooka round but made up for it demoralizing the Japanese tanks which fled East after failing their next rally attempt. US and Japanese troops ended up in assaults all across the board, exchanging dis, dem and a few step losses for the Japanese. US morale got the best of things, and at the end of 7 turns, a surviving Japanese CPT was the only force any where near the beach, while US troops had lost only the 2 steps of the LVT and 1 step of infantry to the Japanese loss of 9 steps. With no way to make up the difference in causing step losses to the US, the game ended. The Japanese 10 OBA played little effect during the game. I rate it a 4 as I believe a more effective Japanese set-up would make it much harder for the Marines to keep them from putting a platoon somewhere to keep the US from winning, and the lack of US losses was more the luck of the dice than anything in their setup. Like most, I look forward to getting this into a FTF game.

This is a fast playing 8 turn scenario. In my case, it only went 5 turns, and might have been over in 4. The Marines spread out across the beaches, mostly within a hex or two of the coast, although a little farther in when it would get them a better LoS. I was mostly trying to make sure not to concentrate on one end only to see the Japanese rush the far beach and dig in and just try to hang on.

The Japanese concentrated on the bottom half of the map, attempting to rush one town and establish a bridgehead on the beach before the Marines arrived in force. I was playing the Marines as 8-3/4-3 despite having the original counters. I stacked both Japanese tank steps together, which was probably a mistake, in retrospect.

The Japanese rushed one stack of Marines and tied them up in melee. Despite their weaker strength, that 1 column shift in assault is big. The tanks got a shot in on one of the LVTs and reduced it a step. Unfortunately, that stopped their movement and this allowed 2 marine units to come in and assault them, eliminating both. So, that was 4 Japanese steps eliminated already. More melees ensued, including one where the Marines were on the 30 column and the Japanese on the 24. The Marines scored a 2, the Japanese a 1. And then the morale die rolls began. I think for the 7 units involved (2 leaders, 3 marine units, 2 Japanese units after I took both step losses on 1 unit), only one rolled less than an 8 on the morale check. This continued everywhere. The morale rolls were high, and units would not recover. The only die rolls that were low were the fire die rolls as Marines took their free shots against fleeing Japanese. Heck, I even disrupted an 11-2-2 Marine leader when he rolled boxcars on an M1 result (friendly fire from that attack also disrupted more Japanese units). By the end of turn 5 (maybe 4, I didn't realize this until later), the Japanese had lost 7 steps, the US 4 or 5. That meant both sides had reached their victory condition, so the scenario was officially a draw. Looking at the ending map (it's on CSW and in the Wargames on your Table thread for 09/2015 on BGG and the Wargamers group on Facebook), it looks like a disaster, with disrupted and demoralized units all over the place.

This was a neat little scenario. I think the Japanese should have put 1 tank unit in each of 2 stacks, which also would have helped with melee, and made them less vulnerable to suddenly giving them 4 step losses, and I think the Marines should have taken a couple of direct fire shots to try to weaken the Japanese before assaults. I will say that, as the Japanese, knowing I only had to kill 3 American steps to win, I was aggressive in forcing assaults. This also helped to partially cancel out the huge Marine firepower advantage.

This was a fast game. A battalion of Marines with a few cannon-armed LVT were spread out in a skirmish screen behind the beaches. The Japanese had a battalion of infantry with the mission of breaking through the perimeter and reaching the beach. They decided to concentrate at the south end of the Marine line, hoping to overwhelm the Marines locally before the rest of the skirmish line could react.

The Japanese aggressively moved against 2 Marine platoons at the end of the line, who immediately began to dig in rather than opp fire. This paid off for them as they rode out the fusillade of gunfire and held on until reinforcements began to trickle in from the north.

The Japanese plan was to block reinforcements with a platoon of infantry and half a platoon of tanks on the high ground just north of the attack, but the Marine LVTs made quick work of the tanks and a Marine assault cleared the heights.

As more Marines showed up before the initial attack made any progress, the Japanese commander pulled back and attempted to establish a corridor off the board within which to withdraw, but the Marines on the high ground got around their flank and sealed the Japanese in a pocket. After two hours of game time the Japanese battalion was surrounded and badly mauled.

American victory.

En este escenario alrededor de dos compañías de infantería japonesa, apoyados por dos medias secciones de tanques "Tipo 95" atacan a un batallón de marines desplegado en una débil línea paralela a la costa. Los marines reciben el apoyo de una sección de vehículos blindados anfibios LVT A1 y otra de LVT A4.

Los japoneses atacan por la carretera central apoyados por varias unidades de infantería. El resto de las fuerzas japoneses avanza por la jungla hacia la costa en dos grupos. El grupo de tanques "Tipo 95" y la infantería llega a la colina de 20 metros junto a la aldea, en una posición dominante y ventajosa para el combate tanque contra tanque. Los marines se aseguran la población de la aldea y hacen a avanzar a sus vehículos blindados hacia el enemigo en la colina, conscientes de que la "eficiencia blindada" les dará ventaja. Acto seguido se entabla un duelo entre los blindados. Los japoneses consiguen destruir media de sección de LVT A4 y desmoralizar a la otra media, pero la mayor potencia de fuego antitanque y velocidad de tiro de los LVT A1 consigue destruir a todos los tanques nipones.

A continuación la infantería japonesa asalta la aldea, pero es frenada en seco por los defensores. Tras la llegada de posteriores refuerzos, los marines hacen de esa posición un reducto inexpugnable. No obstante, los japoneses hacen varias cargas "banzai" y son casi totalmente aniquilados.

Al final, los japoneses logran hacer llegar media sección de infantería en buen orden a la playa, donde consigue mantenerse con éxito hasta el final. A pesar de ello los japoneses pierden la batalla, ya que los americanos sólo han perdido un step y los nipones 11 steps.

Creo que es un resultado bastante parecido al histórico.

It is our first Saipan scenario and we chose this one because it is small and introductive to the game. We were not really seduced. OK : maps are great, subject interesting and counters well done. However we had not expected so many "problems". To name but a few : difficulties to identify terrain types (marsh/swamps and light/heavy jungle or even clear terrain from light jungle...), unit identification (WPN instead of HMG for marines, PIO instead of ENG for Marines, LVT types and number of steps)and "forgotten" rules (hidden rules for Japanese, Disorientation, +1 for Japs in Assault and more important "Banzai"). We had a rather long discussion about the set up conditions : "three hexes east of any US unit" seems to push the Japanese back to row 12 when the US sets up in 0912 (village). This seems far away from their objective (beach) considering the short time available (8 turns). Regarding light jungle vs open ground or heavy jungle, we more or less agreed on light jungle whenever the smallest palm tree is present. Sometimes a difficult decision (and no quarter of hex rule, here !). My Japanese opponent attacked in the center, along the road. My spread out US forces quickly regrouped and inflicted heavy losses on the poor lads :two type 95 (reduced) tank platoons were quickly further reduced to ashes by the LVTs. The Japanese captain quickly died from wounds bringing on terrible decapitation. More infantry step losses on Japanese side and further disruption and the scenario was over. My partner would have given a 2 for this one.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Japan)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	United States
Participants	bugmaster@aol.com
Play Date	2022-05-14
Language	English
Scenario	Saip003

This was a 1-session play-through of this short scenario, which ended at the beginning of game turn 7 by mutual consent. Wily Gun5linger played the probing USMC Commander from his HQ in Utah. A left flank combined arms Japanese attack was thwarted by substantial and well-positioned US firepower and an adroit counter attack by supporting USMC armor. Ineffective Japanese OBA managed only harrassing fire on the mostly-dug-in Marines, and 2 additional Japanese thrusts were met with withering DF and close assaults. In all, 2 steps of Marine infantry were lost, as opposed to 9 for the Japanese side by the negotiated finish on game turn 6 (1315).

The Japanese Commander conceded the game, though he did have a single infantry unit in one contested beach hex (0405), faced by overwhelming Marine firepower in that hex and two other assault hexes. We figured that it was only a matter of time before the Marines would triumph in this unbalanced, but interesting scenario.

I suggest that this is a nice quick introductory game that is probably best played in solo mode. I rate it a 3, mostly because it was fun to play with another enthusiastic online newcomer to PG. A good way to get used to moving and fighting in various kinds of jungle and overgrown island terrain.

Thought the American Commander had set up a pretty stiff defensive line, emphasizing the road approach. However, those crafty Japanese just went the other way and attacked out of the North end of the map area. The American Commander spent his time repositioning his forces to counter this "new" threat and got BOTH of his tracks shot up. That about ended his game.