Saipan 2nd Edition, scenario #39: Rice Demons

This is a brutal 40 turn scenario with all branches of both sides involved, the Japanese Army & SNLF and the American Army & Marines. The first ten turns of a 40 scenario are in the dark, the Americans do have the ability to shoot Illumination/Star-shells but with the optional rules of 10% of Artillery strength points and with some dudes at the wrong time. The Japanese also have a Morale of 8/8, so the Initiative never goes down. The Japanese must use the darkness to close with the Americans and have three objectives, eliminate 20 American steps with tanks, artillery & LVTs counting double, eliminate all three Marine artillery units and lose, yes lose ten Japanese leaders so show the Banzai attack spirit.

The American setup mostly on or around the 40-meter hill on map 83, in hindsight the larger hill on map 81 would have been better, as it would have taken the Japanese longer to get there. The Marine artillery setups up on the 40-meter hills, while the Army setup a perimeter around them but weak in some areas as they have a lot of area to protect and there is an old Japanese minefield between them and is friendly to no one, as the Japanese no longer had knowledge of it. The Japanese enter in three areas, to try and not bunch up too much and actually have a step of Type 95 SNLF tanks that groups with the Infantry for better effect.

The Battle is one of the most brutal to fight out and the Japanese that make it in past the American artillery assault and assault as their causalities do not matter. By about three quarter through the scenario, the Japanese had already achieved 2 out of three victory objectives and the Americans had pulled back to regroup and the Japanese also regrouped for another banzai attack. The Americans Reinforcements didn’t arrive until turn 35 in time to straighten out the lines, eliminate the only Japanese armor with a Sherman Platoon, as that thing seemed to survive with the Infantry and leaders a ton of assaults. The downside of the reinforcements, is they actually eliminated the 10th Japanese Leader, giving the Japanese their third victory objective and a major victory.

This scenario could playout differently depending on the American setup, the Japanese entry, the dice rolls in some critical moments and a thousand other things. 40 turns of a lot of assaults make this one a longer gameplay but I enjoyed it, off and on over 4 days/nights of gameplay.