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 seven: Throw Them into the Sea!

Kind of a fun smaller version of scenario 10, the Japanese must control some beachheads and the Americans must eliminate Japanese steps, so pretty straight forward and the scenario begins in the night. The Marines don’t have any on board artillery support yet and must reply on the Navy but no problem with the Battleship California and other supporting ships off the coast.

The Japanese enter on map 82 in three locations and group into three attack locations on map 80, just outside of the Americans view. This took 10 turns just to position all the Japanese Army & SNLF units, using up a lot of valuable night-time hours. But with the terrain I picked three major attack locations which in hind-sight might not have been the correct offense for this scenario, as true it kept the Marines spread out but left little to reinforce assault hexes or to flank areas if the Marines had to pull units out of the lines to reinforce assault hexes but I went with it. I even crossed the swamp hexes with my Japanese Type 2 KA-MI amphibious tank just to make room on the main road and to finally use the swamp hex and Japanese Amphibious tank for something. The Japanese split off on the three main roads/trails on map 80 and hit the Marines lines just before sun-rise.

As the direct-fire followed by bombardment fire from a battleship blew apart one of the Japanese offenses right away and the Marines not setup as dug-in were in town hexes. The Japanese managed to assault a couple of town hexes after an exchange of Anti-Tank fire between a group of Type 95’s, & Type 97’s vs. a M3/75mm Halftrack with one step of each being lost, creating a wreck in one of the town hexes. The Sherman tanks were fighting farther north against some other Japanese armor and the LVT (A)-1’s were filling gaps or reinforcing Marine Infantry assault hexes. The Daylight really hurt the Japanese not committed to battle yet, as they got blasted once they were in the line of sight! The Japanese had lost 34 steps with most of the rest demoralized or committed to assaults in half step strength when on pulled the plug on the scenarios about turn 27 of a 32 turn scenario, as the American won and the Japanese were too weak to fulfill their victory conditions. I suppose I could have pulled together one more attempt but by then the Americans could have reacted by shifting their own lines, so it didn’t seem worth it. The Americans did lose 9 steps but that matter little in this scenario.

Next time I will attack in two places as the Japanese and leave one large army section in reserve to exploit success or flank Marine positions, as they shift their lines. The good thing about arm-chairing PG battles, is that you always live another day to try again. Fun stuff!

En este escenario una fuerza combinada japonesa, integrada por aproximadamente un batallón de infantería del ejército regular, apoyado por dos medias secciones de tanques Tipo 95 y Tipo 97, y un batallón de infantería de marina (SNLF), con el apoyo de dos secciones y media de tanques ligeros, atacan las posiciones de los marines junto a las playas. Los marines cuentan con un batallón reforzado de infantería y el apoyo de dos secciones de tanques anfibios LVT(A)1 y una sección de tanques M4 y otra de artillería autopropulsada M3/75. Los japoneses cuentan con una potente artillería fuera del mapa (2x10, 2x16). Los americanos cuentan con el apoyo esporádico de la artillería naval (1x70 cada cuatro turnos y 1x30 cada dos turnos).

El objetivo de los japoneses es colocar al menos tres steps de sus unidades en hexes de playa al final de la partida. Los marines deben causar al menos 26 steps de bajas al enemigo. La batalla tiene lugar casi todo el tiempo de noche, con visibilidad de apenas dos hexes.

Los nipones dividen sus fuerzas en dos grupos: el batallón del ejército regular al norte y el de infantería de marina al sur. Los tanques quedan en principio en retaguardia a la espera de que la infantería haya creado huecos y les permita avanzar. Los marines forman una línea defensiva paralela a las playas, con una reserva en la población próxima a la costa.

Los imperiales atacan inmediatamente. Envían por delante algunas unidades de infantería con observadores de artillería para machacar las posiciones adelantadas enemigas. Los marines se apoyan en las pequeñas poblaciones para constituir puntos fuertes, pero la artillería japonesa los arrasa produciendo muchas bajas. La potencia de fuego de los marines, individualmente considerada, es muy superior a la de los japoneses, pero éstos adoptan la táctican de atacar con al menos dos secciones de infantería y un líder con modificador de combate (4 + 4 + 1 = 9) para asaltar a secciones de marines aisladas. Esto permite a los nipones asaltar en la columna 18 de la tabla, con efectos devastadores.

Por su parte, los marines se apoyan en el devastador fuego naval y en contraataques para aniquilar al adversario. Conforme pasa el tiempo las bajas crecen meteóricamente en ambos bandos, pero los marines se van retirando hacia la playa y van dejando huecos, por los que los nipones penetran.

Al final ambos bandos consiguen sus objetivos, con lo que la batalla acaba en empate.

La partida ha sido emocionantísima. Este ha sido el séptimo escenario de Jay Townsend que he jugado y no ha habido ninguno que me haya defraudado. Los escenario de Jay son poco "especulativos". No ocurre como en otros modulos de PG, en que es preciso operar con mucha cautela para evitar cierto número -escaso- de bajas. Aquí la acción es brutal desde el minuto uno. Por ejemplo, en el turno 19 los japoneses habían sufrido un 42% de bajas... ¡y los marines un 50%! Y sin embargo el resultado era todavía dudoso. Cuando di por acabada la partida, en el turno 26, los japoneses tenían un 60% de bajas y los marines un 57%. La partida estaba prevista a 32 turnos, pero los marines ya habían conseguido sus objetivo y consideré que los japoneses habían consolidado varias posiciones en las playas y era muy difícil que los americanos hubieran podido desalojarlos en los seis turnos que faltaban. Si hubiera jugado esos seis turnos las bajas aún habrían sido mayores. Téngase en cuenta, además, que la batalla tuvo lugar de noche y con muy escasa visibilidad.

En ningún momento decreció la tensión. Si el objetivo de los wargames es sobre todo divertir, los escenarios de Jay Townsend lo consiguen plenamente.

Bravo, Jay.

This scenario is quite interesting, both for the overall set up and the afterthoughts it generates. We have played with no night rules since special rules are not clear (!!!) enough (visibility is 2 hexes and the "night" word never appears...) I was the Japanese and I chose to try to force the Marines to spread themselves all along the front line parallel to the beach line. SNLF went to the right wing, Army japs to the left and amphibious AFVs + some infantry were threatening to pass through the central road/marsh/swamps The first turns were not an easy going : the tremendous firepower of the Marines combined with their lucky assaults die rolls led to a high casualties among my Japs. When my assault began to succeed eventually, the 26 eliminated steps were easy to get for the Marines and all I could expect was a draw by keeping at least 3 Jap steps on the beaches. I did just that. Now, is it really "throwing them into the sea" ? What really does mean Japanese control of a few beach hexes with at least 3 unit steps ? Why are 26 Japanese casualties so important and further Jap casualties meaningless ? Why is it that the Japanese player is not even forced to begin any assault at all and still get the draw ? Victory conditions are not realistic in this scenario ; they should be worked out a lot more since the situation is really interesting. Again, I regret the absence of the banzai rule in this module : especially when I have to pass through the US troops to reach the beaches.

This 32-turn scenario has Japanese regular army and SNLF attacking to try to put 3 steps on the beach area by the end of the game. The Marines (I used the 8-3 Marine infantry) have to try to destroy 26 steps of Japanese and prevent the Japanese goal to win. The first 25 turns are in 2-hex visibility. The Marines have 4 turns of 70-factor OBA plus 30 factors every other turn from an offshore battleship. I set up the Marines in basically a skirmish line holding the eastern town hexes and heavy jungle to the north and south flanks so that the Japanese had to get close to somebody somewhere to approach the beach, and the sound of Japanese armor alerted the Marines early on to the attack. The Japanese split up into 2 groups, the SNLF to the north and the regulars to the south, trying to overwhelm the north and south outposts but keeping pressure on the rest of the line with their tanks and some of their troops. The Marines took advantage of their mortar to place star shells and one of the LVT-A1s succeeded in taking out the Japanese Army tanks quickly while the other LVT-A1 moved north to lend armor support to the north flank. Just in time, he joined a Marine defense just short of the northwestern outpost, taking out 4 steps of SNLF armor in just a few turns before joining the defense as the last step of SNLF armor joined an assault against the Marine defenders. The assaults on the town and outposts turned against the Japanese pretty badly, as the Marine morale was just as high as their own and their lower attack factors prevented their gaining the advantage even with their up 1 for Japanese infantry. Step after step of Japanese infantry was lost while Marines took morale losses and then rallied to keep the line, and the Marines holding the unengaged center moved north and south to help strengthen the outposts. At the end of turn 10, Japanese losses were 41 steps including all the armor, while the Marine losses were 2 steps and an LT. The Japanese attack's back broken, and all surviving Japanese troops at least 3 hexes from the beach and demoralized, I called it a game. Even though it didn't last the full 32 turns, it was an exciting game, as any of those assaults could easily have gone the other way. Japanese OBA had little effect, and the huge Navy guns ended up rolling an awful lot of 7s so actually played little part in the fight. Great game.

I have never played a game with a more one-sided outcome. The Japanese nigh counterattack was defeated in detail, suffering the equivalent of 50 step losses for no losses by the Marines.

The Marines were defending the beach in a loose line, with clusters of units north and south of the lake as well as in the town just off the beach. They sent forward some platoon-sized patrols along the front to find and fix any Japanese as they approached, buying time for their main thrust to be identified and the rest of the Marines to respond. The Japanese were attacking in three groups, the full Army contingent on an axis directed north of the lake, part of the SNLF directed south of the lake, and the SNLF tanks with infantry support coming up the middle to skirt the southern lake shore and strike directly into the Marine-held town.

The Japanese moved very effectively on their approach, with their tanks driving deep into the American position, but the Marine patrols on the flanks were equally effective in forcing the Japanese into assaults in bad terrain. In the south the SNLF were caught in a crossfire in a valley and struggled to fight their way out. In the north Marine reinforcements in tough two-platoon groups completely disrupted the Japanese advance and bogged them down a kilometer shy of the beach. After three hours the Japanese had sustained very heavy casualties, but had managed to break out a weak company within sight of the beach. But another series of aggressive assaults by the Marines wiped out this last thrust of the Japanese Army. A platoon of Japanese SNLF tanks, locked in a fruitless assault in the main town, were finally finished off by Marine M4s that just arrived on the scene, ending the battle well before dawn broke.

Stunning American victory.

This scenario shows a Japanese night attack supported by armour on the American beachhead. The Japanese attack is hampered slightly by the fact that the Army and Navel forces do not co-operate well but the main problem for the Japanese player is the firepower of the US marines which they will face as set up their assaults even under the cover of darkness. I did use the lesser firepower of the marines and this made the contest slightly more even. However after 15 turns Japanese losses were 15 steps to the US 5, realising that the Japs were not going to get three units onto the beach I stopped the attack and the Japanese forces retreated to the hills overlooking the beaches in an attempt to gain a tie by not losing more than 20 steps. However the US forces created a assault kill stack MG, FLM and MAR INF with a 10-2-1 and 10-1-1 leaders who just marched up to the Japanese positions and methodically cleared them one by one. There was some fun when the Jap Navel forces did a final banzai attack towards the end of the game but that was soon stymied.There may be a way for the Japanese player to win this one but I could not see it, however this is good solid PG fare and certainly worth a look