The Marine's 3rd Battalion from Colonel William Whaling's 1st Marine Regiment led the way west of the New Britain landing sites towards the airfields at Cape Gloucester. By D+2, the Marines encountered the first serious resistance in the vicinity of Hell's Point, known to the Japanese as Cape Eboshi. Between the 3rd Battalion and the airfields was 2 Company from Colonel Sumiya's 53rd Infantry Regiment. While these two forces engaged, the Japanese attempted to flank the Marines. Protecting the Marine left flank were men from the 1st Battalion. A reinforced Japanese company, supported by heavy machine guns and battalion artillery pieces attempted to dislodge the Marines from the tall kunai grass.
Attacker: Japanese (I Company, 53rd Infantry Regiment and 1st MG Company)
Defender: American (USMC) (Company A, 1st Marine Regiment)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:15.0 D:11.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:1
Type 92 70mm INF Gun Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 3
D:0
M2 60mm Mortar x 2
Misc Rules:
PTO (G.1), LJ (G2.1)
Map Board(s):
39
62
Overlays:
O2
OG2
G2
G4
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
My Japanese set up right across from the upfront American MLR. Poor dice rolls by Dan's Americans allowed the Japanese to quickly get down the north edge. It was a bloody fight with 9 American squads lost and 6-1/2 Japanese KIA'd. But by Turn 5-1/2 it was over as the remaining 2 American squads broke and the Japanese took control of the victory hexes.
2023-10-19
(A) Jeff B
vs
John Fedoriw
American (USMC) win
Neither of us went into this with too much goodwill. John didn't like his terrible starting position, while I didn't like all the OG I'd be facing trying to take the last VC hex. The Ami in charge of setting the defense could arguably be the stupidest commander ever, allowing the Japs to safely pound them from their entrenched positions as the Amis tried to make for the jungle. Any Ami showing his head with a mortar or MG was blasted. So about half the Jap force played rearguard, while the rest charged forward under some smoke cover. By the end of Turn 2 the front line was clear, with the casualty count 1 squad to 0.5 squad in favor of the Japs. Turn 3 saw that same ratio continue as the Japs poured into the jungle, and by the end of Turn 4 they were poised for their big assault on the last hex. But the Amis had pulled back with everything they could, and all that aforementioned OG would be a major issue. This lead to an absolutely disastrous Turn 5 for the Japs, who lost 5 squads and a leader to zero for the Amis. In the end it came down to a pure dicefest, certainly not one of my favorite situations. And while I managed to get a full boat into the last VC hex, he prevailed in CC to hold it. Dud city.
2023-10-05
(D) Andy Bagley
vs
Johan Vrijdaghs
Japanese win
My view of this scenario may be influenced by the fact that I lost disastrously as the Americans. The dice were not my friend as many negative-DRM shots against the banzai-ing Japanese achieved nothing, and I failed to win any of the subsequent CCs.
Even had things gone my way though, I don't think this is a scenario I'll be playing again, because it's a "set piece" with few options for either side. The setup requirements almost force the Japanese to banzai on their first couple of turns (and probably later on as well), supported by artillery and MG fire, and possibly smoke/WP. In response the Americans can do little to defend other than place their units as well as possible with overlapping fire lanes (which I did) and hope that their defensive fire DRs can at least weaken the Japanese (which they didn't). Difficult to see what else either side can do in this one.