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 four: Blue Beach Push

As the designer I had no idea where the hill would be located on the finished map compared with town hexes but I would recommend setting up all your Japanese defensives around hill hexes center on hex 1215 as that is the basic victory objective, the small hill in the north has no effect on anything in this scenario. In my games, the Japanese decided not to defend with any units forward in the Chalan Kanoa town as road blocks but every unit back on the hill centered on hex 1215. The Marines attacked on both roads that converge on the hills east. The Terrain is difficult but by turn three, contact was made on both end of the hill. The Japanese opened up with 2 x 10 off board artillery and 1 x8 & 1 x 4 on board artillery and one LVT was lost to a 37mm AT gun, back and forth firing and one assault took place but to my surprise the Americans could not get 7 steps of units on those hill hexes, but only 4 steps of LVT A’s, as the LTV’s don’t count and no Infantry at all were able to conquer the hill as two units were demoralized and took forever to recover and head back to the front. The Japanese lost 2 steps, the Americans 1 step but the Japanese came away with the victory, and on paper, I thought no way.

Since the whole beach was open the Marines decided to not take the straight ahead approach and hit the hill from the flank. The plan got off to a bad start when a very well placed AT gun took out an APC and it's passengers of a Platoon and Lieutenant. This didn't slow them down as the next APC in line moved forward and unloaded in point blank range of the first Japanese defender.

The defenders pulled back trading space for time. Another AT shot took out 1/2 a platoon of Armor bringing the total Marine steps left to 7... the number needed to gain a victory if every one of them makes to to the hill.

Def fire, OBA and on board bombardment fire and assaults disrupted both the remaining inf platoons and the full strength armor unit. With only 2 turns left I was forced to fire my disrupted units to try and clear the hill and assault with one apc into each of 2 hill hexes. A combination of better moral, leaders and demoralized defenders allowed the Marines to plant the flag.

The game ended up coming down to 2 AT shots. One at +0 as the 1/2 strength armor unit drove down the road and took the hill from the rear. The 2nd at +0 as the full strength unit moved onto the hill to claim victory. If either had hit the Marines would have failed.

I very much enjoyed the scenario and playing with Tim. The battle was the perfect size to play in a morning/early afternoon. The well placed AT gun was a thorn in the Marines side that I couldn't take time to remove and still win. While Tim rated the battle a 3 I'd do a 4 or 5 as it was small, fun and as it came down to the last die roll, balanced.

Interesting scenario, a US Marine inland move from the beach to get a foothold on a hill overlooking the south end of the beach. 3 LVTs and 3 Marine platoons, plenty of leaders and 2 LVT support vehicles vs 2 Japanese infantry platoons, a SER platoon, 37mm AT, 75mm and a mortar, dug in or in jungle on the hill. I placed the AT assets at opposite sides of the hill as the Marines has 2 directions of approach to take advantage of trails. Marines took the southern route, triggering ineffective AT fire from the 75 but allowing the spotting of that unit on the outcropping of the hill. The Marine support platoons blasted away while the infantry carriers moved up to the base of the hill and unloaded the troops ready to assault. In a following turn, the Marines assaulted the SER and AT gun with a 9-0-1 Sergeant, the SER losing a step to no damage for the Marines. At that point, the Japanese fire got hotter. 3 times during the next few turns, as the Japanese troops being assaulted with a defense value of 1 due to their status, snake-eyes were rolled, eliminating a Marine step. These were the only real Marine losses during the game, but had they lost one more, it would have become a Japanese victory due to lack of presence left on the hill - needed 7 steps, and LVT4s don't count. I moved the 2 supporting LVT units up, and at the end of turn 9, the game ended because the only things left for the Japanese were 2 officers and the 37mm AT in a spot that couldn't see to fire on anything else. The Mortar lost it's one step rolling a 12 for morale check after already becoming demoralized. Great short scenario.

The Allies set up on beach hexes west of the coast road. The Axis set on the ridge except for the labor platoon which sets up in hex 1013. The U.S. advance with a force going to the left, one to the right and one down the center. This turned out to be the wrong approach. Neither was strong enough to assault a Axis ridge position.

With some difficulty the Allies were able to consolidate on their own left. They then assaulted the Japanese position on North edge of the ridge. During this maneuver the Allies lost two steps of LVT4s. But in return they were able to knock out the 37mm ATG battery and a whole platoon of Axis infantry. The Allied assault was preceded by a very accurate blast of direct fire which softened the Axis position considerably.

Once the ridge line had been breached the Allies just rolled up the Axis line wiping out the entire Axis force. The Japanese OBA played no roll in this scenario. It had been lost to a special event on turn two.

I liked this scenario, despite the fact that it came out a bit unbalanced. I think if the Axis had had more luck with their Morale checks they could have made more of a game of it. They failed almost all of the M and M1 checks during the scenario. Loosing the OBA did not help either. They did inflict 3 step losses on the Allies reducing their initiative by one but it was just not enough.

This scenario was over before I knew it. Just a quick two-pronged attack on a Japanese hill position. The only American casualties were a few steps of LVTs, Japanese were effectively wiped out.

Good small scenario. I told Rich I like the small ones for now until I really nail down all the rules, especially the fire modifiers. When those become second nature I look forward to playing larger scenarios.

Rich's Marines approached the all-important hill from the long end of the board. I played a strategic withdrawal, figuring the Japs shouldn't stand and fight until it was ground that mattered for VPs. Things started great when my 37 mm AT gun took one of the three platoons of Marines when they were loaded on an LVT. Rich was persistent and patient, though. In fact, he didn't get the majority of his troops and AFV LVTs on the hill until the very last turn.

I set up my IJA infantry in the town hexes next to the beach. After two turns I started falling back to a better position on top of the hill. The Ser unit made it to the top. The 2 inf. only made it to the base. As the Marines advanced I reduced one of the tank units. In a lucky assault a Marine inf unit was reduced. I moved the IJA inf units in front of the hill in the corner of map 80. Op Fire from a tank caused one inf to DEM. That ended any chance of winning. The +1 for all IJA inf in assault is a nice edge. Played 3 more turns. Not enough firepower to inflict 4 step losses on US Marines.

Took the hill from both ends at the same time. The Japanese Commander didn't have much left by the end of the game.