- Joined
- Feb 4, 2003
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- Michael
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Magnus Rimvall and I played A55 THE CAT HAS JUMPED, to add Heavy Surf to our knowledge of beach landing rules. This is a 1941 scenario depicting one of the Japanese landings in the Philippines. Twenty-two Japanese squads in nine landing craft try to push through defence of six 4-4-7 squads and six 3-3-6 squads that have one .50 cal MG and 3 MMG. ROAR shows this favouring the Japanese; 22 victories versus 6 for the Americans. For that reason, we gave the American side the balance of two extra conscript squads.
It was my turn to be the side doing the seaborne assault. The heavy surf rules work against the side making the seaborne assault. On the run in, each landing craft (or platoon of landing craft) must have a secret swamping DR made, similar to a mud bog check. The landing craft will be swamped (sink without survivors) on a 12, and there are no DRM. From our experience, I say this is a rare occurrence. No landing craft were swamped in this way during our game, nor the match that we played after this one.
The real effect of the heavy surf shows when the landing craft reach the beach. Upon reaching a hex with a beach, the owner of the landing craft makes a DR. On a result of 1 to 8, the landing craft beaches, but on a random hexside if there is more than one possible. A result of 9 or 10 will let the landing craft beach if it just arrived, but it receives a TI counter and its turn is over; no unloading if it had MP left to spend. The worst result is a 10 or 11 which causes the landing craft to broach (become a wreck). Picture a landing craft hitting the beach sideways. The crew must make a survival roll; the landing craft CS numbers tends to be very low. All the passengers are subjected to a Bombardment MC instead of a CS roll. The Bombardment MC is a 2MC and any doubles higher than the unit’s morale cause casualty reduction; failing the 2MC also causes casualty reduction.
The real deadly part of heavy surf is that the owner of the landing craft must perform that (un)beaching roll every movement phase and every advance phase (unless broached or fast aground) before the landing craft can do anything else. I saw some of my landing craft alternate between being beached and un-beached every time it made the DR. You can’t unload with that going on.
I believe that people forgetting some of the heavy surf rules some of the time has contributed to the high number of Japanese victories in this scenario.
The image below shows the run-in after two turns. Despite trying to keep the landing craft in platoons, the heavy surf causes some random drifting towards shore during the advance phase to break up some platoons.
On turn 3, the landing craft reach the beach. The cost of unloading, however, means that no one can unload on the turn that the landing craft beach. The cost to unload passengers from a Shohatsu landing craft is 50% of its 4MP. Heavy surf doubles that to 100%! I bet that more than a few players did not play that correctly. It will take several turns to unload the passengers safely. Two landing craft broached, causing the first Japanese casualties. The Americans, we discovered after the game, could have been using small arms to try to hurt the passengers while the passengers were still on the landing craft. Normally the Americans could not because passengers on a landing craft are immune to small arms fire, but there is a vehicle note for the Shohatsu that states their passengers are vulnerable as if they are in a CE AFV.
Turn 4 was not good for the Japanese. Several landing craft un-beached during the movement phase. The passengers that unloaded from the others were shot up severely. Only three Japanese half squads are on the beach. Many more are in the dead pile.
Turns 5 and 6 do not go well for the Japanese. Some landing craft make like yo-yos un-beaching and beaching in the same turn. Some landing craft broach causing more casualties. Units that manage to unload mostly get shot up, although a couple in the south manage to get off the beach. The Japanese have four turns remaining to exit 25 VP off the east edge of the play area. Unfortunately, there are only 23 VP of Japanese remaining and prisoners do not count. Time to concede.
The Japanese ability to stripe does not help them here, because failing a morale check in a landing craft or on the beach causes them to casualty reduce like any other nationality. Magnus had good luck with his machine guns during this match; despite being X11 by SSR, he never had a malfunction.
It was my turn to be the side doing the seaborne assault. The heavy surf rules work against the side making the seaborne assault. On the run in, each landing craft (or platoon of landing craft) must have a secret swamping DR made, similar to a mud bog check. The landing craft will be swamped (sink without survivors) on a 12, and there are no DRM. From our experience, I say this is a rare occurrence. No landing craft were swamped in this way during our game, nor the match that we played after this one.
The real effect of the heavy surf shows when the landing craft reach the beach. Upon reaching a hex with a beach, the owner of the landing craft makes a DR. On a result of 1 to 8, the landing craft beaches, but on a random hexside if there is more than one possible. A result of 9 or 10 will let the landing craft beach if it just arrived, but it receives a TI counter and its turn is over; no unloading if it had MP left to spend. The worst result is a 10 or 11 which causes the landing craft to broach (become a wreck). Picture a landing craft hitting the beach sideways. The crew must make a survival roll; the landing craft CS numbers tends to be very low. All the passengers are subjected to a Bombardment MC instead of a CS roll. The Bombardment MC is a 2MC and any doubles higher than the unit’s morale cause casualty reduction; failing the 2MC also causes casualty reduction.
The real deadly part of heavy surf is that the owner of the landing craft must perform that (un)beaching roll every movement phase and every advance phase (unless broached or fast aground) before the landing craft can do anything else. I saw some of my landing craft alternate between being beached and un-beached every time it made the DR. You can’t unload with that going on.
I believe that people forgetting some of the heavy surf rules some of the time has contributed to the high number of Japanese victories in this scenario.
The image below shows the run-in after two turns. Despite trying to keep the landing craft in platoons, the heavy surf causes some random drifting towards shore during the advance phase to break up some platoons.
On turn 3, the landing craft reach the beach. The cost of unloading, however, means that no one can unload on the turn that the landing craft beach. The cost to unload passengers from a Shohatsu landing craft is 50% of its 4MP. Heavy surf doubles that to 100%! I bet that more than a few players did not play that correctly. It will take several turns to unload the passengers safely. Two landing craft broached, causing the first Japanese casualties. The Americans, we discovered after the game, could have been using small arms to try to hurt the passengers while the passengers were still on the landing craft. Normally the Americans could not because passengers on a landing craft are immune to small arms fire, but there is a vehicle note for the Shohatsu that states their passengers are vulnerable as if they are in a CE AFV.
Turn 4 was not good for the Japanese. Several landing craft un-beached during the movement phase. The passengers that unloaded from the others were shot up severely. Only three Japanese half squads are on the beach. Many more are in the dead pile.
Turns 5 and 6 do not go well for the Japanese. Some landing craft make like yo-yos un-beaching and beaching in the same turn. Some landing craft broach causing more casualties. Units that manage to unload mostly get shot up, although a couple in the south manage to get off the beach. The Japanese have four turns remaining to exit 25 VP off the east edge of the play area. Unfortunately, there are only 23 VP of Japanese remaining and prisoners do not count. Time to concede.
The Japanese ability to stripe does not help them here, because failing a morale check in a landing craft or on the beach causes them to casualty reduce like any other nationality. Magnus had good luck with his machine guns during this match; despite being X11 by SSR, he never had a malfunction.
