AAR - The Last Pillbox - FT207

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I recently changed jobs, and thought that I would share some job hunting advice with you. Bring your posse to the interview with you.

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You will be surprised how much this will help you in salary negotiations.

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Last week’s scenario was Sycamore and Succotash, which took place on the isle of Namur and featured a torpedo warehouse explosion. This week’s scenario was The Last Pillbox, from LFT’s Deluxe Pack. It also occurs on Namur, a day later than the previous scenario.

Namur is part of the Gilbert and Sullivan island chain. The Marines are led by a Heroic 10-2, who is the very model of a modern major-general.

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I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical


The Marines also start with two M3 GMC HTs and a Sherman. Another Sherman and a M5 light tank come on later, along with infantry reinforcements.

A few terrain changes – huts are wooden buildings, bamboo is brush, and marsh is sand.

The Japanese have to have someone survive in a pillbox, building or trench. They have 3 pillboxes, 4 trenches, and 3 AT trenches. What they don’t have is a lot of troops, AT weapons, boresighting, or the ability to set up any fortification or their AA gun HIP. Two Japanese squads start HIP, but they must be put on board at the end of turn 4 if not previously revealed. There is also a Marine CVP cap, but I didn’t expect this to come into play because I would need to nail a lot of armor for the points.

Japanese setup limitations mean that board edges are not going to have any Japanese. The Marines, and their reinforcements, can enter on three board edges. This makes it hard to set up the pillboxes with decent fields of fire. Known AT trenches mean that they will be easy for the armor to avoid.

Japanese do get their choice of two special abilities, out of a list of four. I chose Fanatic in buildings and Fanatic in Fortifications. Other choices were an additional 2 units HIP, or double the number of ATHH.

I was considered to have special abilities when I was in school. I got to ride the short yellow bus, and we made a lot of trips to the zoo.

I loaded up the edge of the village with troops. I don’t like to stack much when defending, but made an exception in this case because the Marines can advance adjacent and concealed on turn 1. Pillboxes covered the roads in the center. My HIP dudes were in d4D3.1, which gave a good field of fire on the west side of the board, plus some good open ground shots to the middle of the board. The ‘final redoubt’ trench line was only manned by two 448s, with no SWs.

We did make one change to the scenario. Due to the ROAR record, we added a turn, to make it a 6-1/2 turn game instead of a 5-1/2 turn game.

Walt brought everybody in on the SE corner. He sometimes does weird things on turn 1, and this game was no exception. A HS carrying a DC charged up to a stack of Japanese in a building. He didn’t have the MFs to place the DC, so I’m not sure what the point was. I shot with a stack of 2 347s and a 447 and broke him. But there was no follow up charge, and most of the Marines skulked on. One HS with a dm mortar armored assaulted with a M3 GMC on the road in the center. One MMG and the HMG opened up, and after a lot of ROF, broke the HS. Walt decided to risk interdiction when routing, because he didn’t think the LOS was clear. It was, he failed his MC, and I had one CVP.

J1, there are lots of Big Scary stacks of Marines adjacent to the village. It is ‘do or die’ time! But, given the outcome, maybe I should not use that phrase...

A 16 flat on the Modern Major-General results in two MMG squads pinning. My other shots against his infantry do nothing. After about 10 hits on the M3 GMC, I Shock it.

J1 DF, the Modern Major-General’s stack is reduced in firepower because of two of the squads being pinned. So his attack on my adjacent squads is ‘only’ 33 FP. He rolls snakes. For those of you unfamiliar with the top right part of the IIFT, this is a 4 KIA. A massacre.


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Although I desperately scour pages of unpublished errata looking for a weaselly save, Fanatic status does not make you less dead. I lose two 447s, chopped to pieces, then, since it was a 4 KIA, the pieces get chopped into even smaller pieces. Tokyo Mincemeat.

The adjacent JI kill stack has a DC explode in it/ Both 347s stripe, and the 447 pins. So I cancel plans to try to CC Marines.

In AdvPh, I do the JI Shuffle and spread guys around.

A2, the Shocked M3 flips to a UK. I sucker the Modern Major-General kill stack into Prepping against a stack of dummies. He wallops the hell out of them. The striped 347s get shot up. But I break a 9-1 and squad in the jungle with the mortar. The M3 gets Shocked again, so the UK flips.

J2, the mortar uses his last WP round to smoke the Sherman. The AA gun breaks an 8-1. The MMG finally kills the M3 HT. A 9-0 with a LMG squad decide that it is safer to AM into the jungle adjacent to a Marine squad and HS than to face the Modern Major-General. Shots are fired, and the 447 squad goes Fanatic and creates a Hero. Advancing fire by them breaks the Marine squad. Then they jump the HS in the jungle, and kill them with sharp, pointy bayonets. But the Marine HS fights back, and I lose the 9-0 and Fanatic squad. All that is left is a Japanese Hero, standing over a pile of bodies.

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After two turns, I am almost out of Village People. There is a conscript HS in the village, Our Hero in the jungle outside of it, and the 448 mortarmen and the AA gun behind the village. Attacked by armor, giant piles of Marines, bazookas, and a DC, I have lost 5-1/2 squads and a 9-0 in the village. Ouch.

A3, the reinforcements come on the east edge, basically skulking due to fear of non-existent Japanese fire. I have one stack of dummies in the area.

A Marine squad shoots at the Hero, then jumps in for CC. But Our Hero hides behind a big tree, gets ambush, and withdraws. Into a hex that DMs a broken HS and 8-1.

The Stuart fires Canister at the mortarmen and AA gun, and stripes the mortarmen. But no other fire against them is effective.

In rout, the broken 8-1 and HS trapped up against the board edge by Our Hero die for failure to rout.

A CX HS jumps the mortarmen, and dies.

J3, more Marines get nailed in the jungle by the mortar.

The next couple turns see Our Hero getting Ambush and withdrawing from CC AGAIN, while chasing and reducing a broken squad. Eventually, Our Hero dies, when he was about to jump onto the M3 GMC. He had managed to kill off a squad equivalent and an 8-1, and tied down a squad and a M3 GMC for two turns. The Stuart drives right up to a pillbox to blast at point blank range, only to find out that the gun is jammed. Since Recalled vehicles count for CVP totals, Walt has great incentive to not try to repair. The striped mortarmen pass about 12 MCs, including several 2MCs, while breaking 2 Marine squads and eliminating a HS that rolled a 12. He even got a Battle Hardening result, but it was kind of a waste, since he was already a Fanatic 448. Back-to-back CHs from the M3 GMC knocked him down to a HS. The Modern Major-General concentrates his fire on the AA gun, eventually eliminating the crew, but taking lots of fire phases to do so. My HMG, firing through several hindrances, still manages some good shots, one of which fatally wounds a 9-1. My HIP units get placed on board, without ever having had a shot.

The Turn 5 infantry reinforcements enter on the NE corner, which I think is a mistake, because they can’t get to the 1+5+7 pillbox without exposing themselves to fire in open ground and sand hexes.

J5, Walt is close to the CVP cap, so I decide to go after two tanks. An ATHH charges a Sherman, which misses with the MGs, but nails him with the 75 mm. But it took the ACQ off of the pillbox. A Trench 448 can now move adjacent. A 347 that was skulking through the woods gets striped, but still jumps the Stuart. The 448 jumps the Sherman. Unfortunately, I don’t get any results.

A6, the Modern Major-General finally eliminates the mortarmen. The Melee tanks move away, and the striped 347 is overrun and reduced by the other Sherman. A 8-0 and squad charge forward, and are broken by one of my LMG squads. Walt fails his PMC, and calls the game.

Although the tanks were by the pillboxes, they had outrun their infantry support. There was no way that his infantry were going to be able Control the pillboxes. All three still had functioning MGs in them. I also still had 3 squads in building or trench hexes.

I ended the game with 18 CVPs. This was almost all infantry losses. The only armor lost was the one M3 GMC. The Marines lose if they lose 22 CVPs.

If you look at the end of game pic below, Modern Major-General is in the top left, only ever having made it 3 hexes onto the board. He wasn’t as devastating as he could have been, in part due to a number of 11s when shooting. Many of Walt's other attacks were 10s. In a short scenario, these non-results are killers.

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Japanese have a SAN of 5. I had NO sniper attacks during the game. Zero. The Marines had a SAN of 3. They had three effective snipers, but two hit dummy stacks, and one pinned an already pinned squad.

Walt lost probably two squad equivalents due to rolling 12s on MCs or rally attempts.

Having pretty much all of the Japanese Fanatic, unless they had wandered off into the jungle, was huge. Not only did it help me pass a lot of MCs, but Fanatics don't Cower, which helped on several shots.

This started out looking like a walk in the park for the Marines. My Fanatic mortarmen and Our Hero were the Thin Yellow Line that held up the advance and gave me the victory.

I would play this with the additional turn, however. I think the Marines need it to control the pillboxes. Please note that this was something we did, and not the written scenario balance, which is to increase the CVP cap from 22 to 30.

I think that the Japanese balance should be to give them a bunch of torpedoes...
 
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