Played this scenario the other day with Hugh Downing. We rolled for sides and I got the defending Americans. The Japanese are attacking and must force 10 VP from between 36K10 and W10. The US gets 10 546s, 3 mmg, a 60mm mtr, and some lackluster leadership. The Japanese get 12 447, a couple of mmg/lmg/mtr, and lackluster leadership.
I set up my defense strong on the US left. A stream bisects the board and the setup area. I had a 546s in I4, K3, P3 (+mmg), and L2. I kept the 8-0 and 8-1 on that side as well, with the 8-1 sitting in a foxhole in P8 with a MMG+546 and the mtr+236 in Q9 with the adjacent 546 as its spotter.
On the right the 7-0 in X8; 546s in U6, W7 (+mmg), S5; a dummy stack in Z2; and a 236 in Z7. Out of shear luck I put a foxhole in W8 that later helped me out quite a bit.
Hugh came in strong against my right, so I was out of position from the start. However, my dummy unit kept him guessing on the first turn, and his mortars only got one round of smoke down before running out of SMOKE. His first turn left him stacked up around Y2, with two squads in the Q1 area.
As soon as I saw the attack I realized I had better haul my but across the stream. Everything went running for my right except the mtr crew that stayed put. Unfortunately, one of the Q1 CX squads was able to get a shot off at my 8-1, mmg, 546 stack for a 2 -1, which killed the leader and broke the squad. It took me three rally phases for the 8-0 to rally the squad up. On the right flank, Hugh had not left himself with any shots due to the plateau effect and all the Swamp.
Hugh's turn 2 was a sign of things to come. He moved aggressively against two squads in V5 and W6 and lost 1.5 squads to good DR's and negative modifiers. Still, he broke one of the squads in AFPh and forced the other to skulk back in my turn 2. I was able to get one squad across the stream. The Japanese will (luckily for the US) have trouble blocking off the stream since there is no LOS down the stream from Q2 (although there maybe from Q3?). Anyway, I was running for my life and did not worry about the -2 shots I would have to take to stay in the game.
Turn 3 and the Japanese begin kicking me off the right hill. I hung tough with one squad, but another broke. My 7-0 had relocated to T7 to rally a broken 546 the turn before, so my other brokie ended up there as well. However, I was able to flip a few units again and wound the 8-0. Finally, his 9-1, mmg, 228 went into CC against my hs in AA8 and killed them without loss (a poor move on Hugh's part IMO, since he could have shot me off as easily without the risk of CC). My turn 3 saw me finally getting the 8-0, MMG, 546 back in action and into P8 with my MTR. I got a couple of other squads across the stream, although one broke and routed to T7 (getting crowded in that hex).
I was ready to throw in the towel since I had little hope in stopping the Japanese for 4 more turns, and my reinforcements would be useless due to their entry location. But I decided to keep fighting since there was not enough time to play another game.
Turn 4 restored my hope, although it was really two errors by Hugh, and great dice that cost him the game. Hugh had to prep fire to break an adjacent squad in W8 (thank god for that foxhole there), costing him movement. At the same time, by mmg and mtr hex in P8 were able to kill a couple of hs's worth of Japanese on the other hill. This left Hugh short of firepower. I routed my broken squad to W9. Most importantly, Hugh forgot to dm two broken squads in T7, which rallied the next player turn. In my turn, I was able to move squads up to U8 and remain in V8 due to Hugh's casualties. The final straw was when Hugh shot at my broken 546 in W9 and I rolled snakes to battle harden and generate a hero. When he decided to assault the hex in CC he ended up losing two squads to it in ambush.
We played another turn but Hugh conceded; he had run out of Japanese.
Interesting game. I really thought before the game that the Japanese would be unstoppable by 546's. I think the Japanese should tackle the US left due to the cover, although I can see why Hugh chose my right (which negates the US reinforcements of 3*546). LOS's are terribly important and hard to guess due to the swamp. I think that T8 has LOS to W10 now that I string it, but during the game I did not know if that was the case or not, which meant I had to plan on having units in V9/10 to cover that exit hex. Hugh had bad dice and I had hot dice. Without smoke, and with my rof and passing MCs his Japanese began to melt.
Couple comments: I do not like HOBs placement of terrain changes. There is a special rule that states certain paths are NA (and I really do not understand why some of the ones on board 34 are NA since they would never be used anyway), there is a box on the right hand side about the EC/Weather and PTO terrain, and there is a box on the left side about placement of an overlay. Three separate places for terrain changes is too much. I know we have all been threatened with lawsuits, but we could keep all the rules about terrain in the same area without having the evil lawyers contact us.
I set up my defense strong on the US left. A stream bisects the board and the setup area. I had a 546s in I4, K3, P3 (+mmg), and L2. I kept the 8-0 and 8-1 on that side as well, with the 8-1 sitting in a foxhole in P8 with a MMG+546 and the mtr+236 in Q9 with the adjacent 546 as its spotter.
On the right the 7-0 in X8; 546s in U6, W7 (+mmg), S5; a dummy stack in Z2; and a 236 in Z7. Out of shear luck I put a foxhole in W8 that later helped me out quite a bit.
Hugh came in strong against my right, so I was out of position from the start. However, my dummy unit kept him guessing on the first turn, and his mortars only got one round of smoke down before running out of SMOKE. His first turn left him stacked up around Y2, with two squads in the Q1 area.
As soon as I saw the attack I realized I had better haul my but across the stream. Everything went running for my right except the mtr crew that stayed put. Unfortunately, one of the Q1 CX squads was able to get a shot off at my 8-1, mmg, 546 stack for a 2 -1, which killed the leader and broke the squad. It took me three rally phases for the 8-0 to rally the squad up. On the right flank, Hugh had not left himself with any shots due to the plateau effect and all the Swamp.
Hugh's turn 2 was a sign of things to come. He moved aggressively against two squads in V5 and W6 and lost 1.5 squads to good DR's and negative modifiers. Still, he broke one of the squads in AFPh and forced the other to skulk back in my turn 2. I was able to get one squad across the stream. The Japanese will (luckily for the US) have trouble blocking off the stream since there is no LOS down the stream from Q2 (although there maybe from Q3?). Anyway, I was running for my life and did not worry about the -2 shots I would have to take to stay in the game.
Turn 3 and the Japanese begin kicking me off the right hill. I hung tough with one squad, but another broke. My 7-0 had relocated to T7 to rally a broken 546 the turn before, so my other brokie ended up there as well. However, I was able to flip a few units again and wound the 8-0. Finally, his 9-1, mmg, 228 went into CC against my hs in AA8 and killed them without loss (a poor move on Hugh's part IMO, since he could have shot me off as easily without the risk of CC). My turn 3 saw me finally getting the 8-0, MMG, 546 back in action and into P8 with my MTR. I got a couple of other squads across the stream, although one broke and routed to T7 (getting crowded in that hex).
I was ready to throw in the towel since I had little hope in stopping the Japanese for 4 more turns, and my reinforcements would be useless due to their entry location. But I decided to keep fighting since there was not enough time to play another game.
Turn 4 restored my hope, although it was really two errors by Hugh, and great dice that cost him the game. Hugh had to prep fire to break an adjacent squad in W8 (thank god for that foxhole there), costing him movement. At the same time, by mmg and mtr hex in P8 were able to kill a couple of hs's worth of Japanese on the other hill. This left Hugh short of firepower. I routed my broken squad to W9. Most importantly, Hugh forgot to dm two broken squads in T7, which rallied the next player turn. In my turn, I was able to move squads up to U8 and remain in V8 due to Hugh's casualties. The final straw was when Hugh shot at my broken 546 in W9 and I rolled snakes to battle harden and generate a hero. When he decided to assault the hex in CC he ended up losing two squads to it in ambush.
We played another turn but Hugh conceded; he had run out of Japanese.
Interesting game. I really thought before the game that the Japanese would be unstoppable by 546's. I think the Japanese should tackle the US left due to the cover, although I can see why Hugh chose my right (which negates the US reinforcements of 3*546). LOS's are terribly important and hard to guess due to the swamp. I think that T8 has LOS to W10 now that I string it, but during the game I did not know if that was the case or not, which meant I had to plan on having units in V9/10 to cover that exit hex. Hugh had bad dice and I had hot dice. Without smoke, and with my rof and passing MCs his Japanese began to melt.
Couple comments: I do not like HOBs placement of terrain changes. There is a special rule that states certain paths are NA (and I really do not understand why some of the ones on board 34 are NA since they would never be used anyway), there is a box on the right hand side about the EC/Weather and PTO terrain, and there is a box on the left side about placement of an overlay. Three separate places for terrain changes is too much. I know we have all been threatened with lawsuits, but we could keep all the rules about terrain in the same area without having the evil lawyers contact us.