Pattani, a town in the province of the same name, is located on the Kra Isthmus, more than 500 kilometres south of Burma. The town’s proximity to the Malayan border made it a top Japanese priority. As day broke on 8 December, Japanese transports were spotted offshore. Thai forces mobilized in earnest. The local detachment of the Pattani Provincial Force made preparations to resist. But it was units of the Royal Thai Army that posed the gravest threat to Japanese plans. The 2nd Company of the 42nd Infantry Battalion garrisoned Pattani, along with headquarters and support elements. Two platoons from the 2nd Company had their machine guns (MG) trained at the surf, ready to give the enemy a hot reception. Aboard assault boats were soldiers of “Ando” Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 42nd Infantry Regiment, of the Japanese 5th Division. The 2nd of the 42nd was on a collision course with the 2nd of the 42nd.
Defender: Thai (2nd Company, 42nd Infantry Battlion and Pattani Provincial Police Force and 66th Yuwachon Thaharn, Benjamarachutisd Military Academy and Heavy Weapons Company, 42nd Infantry Battalion)
7 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:13.0
AFVs: A:5
Shohatsu x 5
AFVs: D:1
Cam. de Mitr. CA Medium Truck x 3
Guns: A:0
Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 2
D:2
7.5cm leIG 18(g) x 2
Misc Rules:
PTO (Exc: roads and bridges exist) A: G14.1 Seaborne Assault
Map Board(s):
8a
Overlays:
Be3
OC1
O5
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
After getting our feet wet with a couple other seaborne invasion scenarios we thought we'd give this one a go since it featured the Japanese. Boy was that part of the game simple here, and relatively painless for the Japanese (who lost 1.5 squads and had a leader wounded). Once the attackers landed the Thai force had a tough time standing toe-to-toe. Immediate rain on the first turn (subsequently changing to heavy) helped the Japanese cause. About 2/3 of the attacking force went for the building control, while the other 1/3 went to head off the reinforcements. The 10-1 and a squad were actually able to plant themselves in the jungle right next to the road. The truck with the gun was immobilized and all passengers broken, and two other trucks would have been immobilized as well if it wasn't for the rain. Unfortunately we had forgot the other gun but, as it turns out, this probably didn't matter. It was not at all part of my initial plan to go for an immediate Turn 3 victory, but the buildings just kept falling into my control. A couple of banzai sealed the deal, and the mad rush to recapture by the Thai met with deadly resistance. I would gladly play this one again as either side.
2017-12-20
(D) Scott Sherer
vs
Jeff Buser
Japanese win
As Jeff mentioned, not much to the seaborne assault phase of this scenario, so probably not much use from the standpoint of learning those rules. Did get my first chance at attacking LC through an unarmored target facing, so there was that. Put the Thai MMG with the -1 leader in P11 with the thought of getting some shots through the unarmored side of the Japanese LCs on their run in. In hindsight, that was probably a mistake, as once ashore, this SW was out of position and rather useless. Tried pulling them back to O12 for a potential FL down hexrow O but he was quickly broken and had to rout away leaving the MG behind. I thought I could defend M12 pretty easily to prevent the early-game VC, but Jeff's skillful use of the Japanese, including a nice banzai carried that building and brought the game to a conclusion after Turn 3. Interesting that other comments here felt the rain helped the Thai player...we rolled rain and then heavy rain on the first two game turns, and we felt that the +1 LV hinderance seemed to help the Japanese more overall. A fun scenario...would have liked to get further into it to see how it would have played out.
2017-01-21
(A) Miikka Sohlman
vs
Petri Rissanen
Thai win
2015-09-12
(D) Michael Rodgers
vs
David Haasl
Japanese win
My Thai defended with everyone in the P row. MMG was in jungle. LMGs were on both flanks. Japanese came in mostly on north beach. PBF generated 9 CVP, but return fire and sniper attacks tore up the Thai line. Japanese won on turn 3 by having P13 buildings with 11 CVP taken.
2015-07-11
(D) Ian Morris
vs
Darren Orwin
Thai win
2015-05-05
(A) Andy Beaton
vs
Jeff Wasserman
Thai win
Learning beach landings, learned valuable lessons; stay off the left half of the beach, remember brush is bamboo and will bottle you up once you've landed, and roll at least average dice.
2015-01-03
(A) Kurt Berger
vs
Mark Kraatz
Thai win
First scenario in play through of AP 9 and first beach landing. Japanese had a rough go of it running three landing craft aground. Between wading ashore and the heavy rain that came on mid game, the Japanese didn't stand much of a chance. Good scenario for learning beach landing rules
2014-12-17
(D) Kurt Berger
vs
Mark Kraatz
Thai win
Replayed this scenario switching sides. Japanese had a picture perfect landing and a hole in the Thai defence allowed the Japanese to advance to interdict entry point for the Thai reinforcements (not pretty for the Thai trucks). Despite this, the Thai army took their toll of the Japanese racking up 15 CVP by turn 5 including all Japanese leaders. The Thai won this at the end of turn six as the Japanese ran out of time. A fun scenario, perhaps slightly biased to the Thai.
2014-08-04
(A) mark watson
vs
Sebastian Hummel
Thai win
Yikes. Japanese nearly won this on the 3rd turn before completely imploding. Had the casualties during the landing not been so disastrous it might have been a bit closer. Still a fun scenario and part of Sebastian and my attempt to a bunch of beach landing scenarios.