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 seventeen: On to Magicienne Bay

A small, short scenario that revolves entirely around casualties! The Americans have the strength to swat this attack but the Japanese hit from two different directions and with a step of armor as well. As the Japanese make contact the Marine’s direct fire has such effects, that the Marines hit the victory condition pretty fast with some nice dice rolls but with this the Japanese did not give up, as they could still cause a draw by eliminating 3 steps of American steps.

So before throwing in the towel as the Japanese I just kept assaulting the Americans positions strung out on the roads & trails, assault after assault no matter what the losses and then hit those few demoralized Marines units again until I either run out of Japanese steps or achieve the draw victory conditions. As it worked out the Japanese were able to reverse the Marine victory into a Draw. The Japanese lost 7 steps with most of the rest demoralized but the Americans lost 3 steps resulting in a draw at the very end of the scenario.

This has a small force of USMC starting anywhere on road or trail, while a slightly smaller Japanese force enters from the north and a single step of Japanese armor enters from the south. The tanks were able to come up the road on turn 1 and stop adjacent to the southernmost USMC stack of 2 infantry with a good sergeant. USMC assault and eliminate the tank force with no casualties. In the northern half, the Japanese infantry take 3 turns to get to the village and into sight of the other 2 USMC stacks, and the Japanese Sergeant and one infantry are disrupted in the village by US arty fire while the Marines modify their line so that they have 2 stacks facing the probably direction the Japanese will come from. The Marine sergeant and his stack join the other Marines in the center board jungle to help with replacements should they be needed when the Japanese start assaults. It takes another two turns for a strong Japanese stack of infantry to move through 2 jungle hexes and assault, while a second stack gets hit with the heavy firepower of the two forward Marine stacks, causing more Japanese losses. The Japanese make good their assault, but again strong Marine firepower on first fire in the jungle cuts the Japanese assault force in half before they get to strike, and in turn, their assault causes just a little disruption. The next turn, both sides in assault stop to regroup, but the Sergeant standing by in the adjacent hex brings his Marines in to restart the assault while the Japanese still have 2 disrupted infantry units, and with a roll of 12, the Japanese are badly shaken by 2 step losses, and fail in their turn to shake the disruption and demoralization off. The next turn, the Marines continue to assault and destroy two more steps of Japanese troops, leaving one demoralized and one disrupted Japanese leader all alone in the hex. Leader loss and morale checks prove nothing, but following up to see if the two are killed or captured sees them leave the board. Longer range shots exchanged between the other Marines and the Japanese holding the village, along with the continuing Marine artillery, leave the troops in the village spending more time regaining good order than being able to do any damage. In the end of this short 10-turn battle, the Japanese are left a reduced HMG and Service platoon with the Captain in the village, another disrupted LT with a demoralized single step of infantry adjacent to the Marines, and no way he can inflict the 3 steps of damage needed to swing the turn from a full US victory. Japanese lose, with 11 steps lost to nothing for the Marines. Great little game.

Given the victory conditions once either sides achieve victory WITHDRAW. I only got a draw due to Bruce's aggressive nature. I should have retreated a stack or gone for an assault. I did DF instead. He assault on his next activation to assault. Rolled a 12. Lost 2 steps and demoralized the other unit.

We played to a draw but that only occurred in the next to last turn and there were not many Japanese left. The Marines are way over powered compared to the Japanese, along with the off board Artillery with the VT fuse. Any unit that moves in the open gets hammered. I think the marine force should be reduced but I would need to play a couple more times as both the Japanese and the Marines to determan by how much.

The Allies set up on the road in hexes 0811 and 0619 and in the town at 0508. The Axis main force entered from the north edge. However their armor failed to activate for the FIRST THREE TURNS! But in the long run, did it really matter? As the Axis advance south the Allies move to hexes 07710 and 0812. The Axis assault was coordinated but was just cut down by accurate Allied direct fire. The Axis stacks received the full brunt of Allied firepower plus the two column shift for being adjacent. There were a slew of demoralizations and disruptions and step losses, too many to count here. So much so that the scenario ended right then and there. This was an easy Allied victory.The Marines were searching for souvenirs before the players put the dice away!

I'm not sure if the late arrival of the Axis armor, in the long run, made any difference. It may just have prolonged the agony. There were some lucky rolls for the Allies for sure but with their high firepower factors it was just a matter of time before they would start rolling step loss numbers. I'll give this scenario a 2. It may be worth a replay to see if the Axis armor has any effect on the battle or better luck entering.

Although I have had this game now for at least two years I have not bothered playing any scenarios from it but looking for a quickie solo game and wanting to dip a toe back into Pacific PG I played this 1 map 10 turner. I have the original maps which as we all know were printed in too dark hues making it hard to see what terrain is what, I knew that but hoped it would be easier with the colour terrain effects chart downloaded from this very site. Its not, but no matter as the new TEC from 4th edition does not include Cane Field's or Marsh either. Typical of AP's production standards. That said I treated Cane Fields as Fields and ignored Marsh completely calling anything that looked like it Swamp. The scenario has a small force of Japenese entering from the North with a Reduced Tank unit entering from the south, they are outgunned by the Marine units who can set up on any Trail or Road hex, and that the problem with this scenario the Japanese player has to eliminate 3 Marine steps without losing 4 of his own. The former may be possible the latter to me looks very hard to achieve. So in my game the Japanese marched on to the board, detached a HMG and reduced INF to harass the Ami's and the rest cowered in one corner of the map surrounded by dense jungle knowing that the Marines would struggle to get to them in time. The Tank chugged on and then ran around avoiding any contact with the American. The harassing force were wiped out but that was only 3 steps(so what) the result a draw. I hope I am missing something but this was a most boring scenario the only plus side was it took less than 60 mins to play, back to the Eastern Front for me.