Agony, Ateball and Angel
Iwo Jima.
February 1945.
Saturday afternoon.
Teatime…
Jones: “I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Me: “A million green counters couldn’t take this island in a hundred turns….”
Well…actually Jonesey came up with that line, but it makes more sense if I say it, as he had the marines. My contribution to the banter was mocking the fact his mum made him sandwiches and he’s 35! Very good sandwiches though.
Ben has long bemoaned the fact no-one will ever play caves with him, and if they do he has to defend as they can’t be arsed looking up the rules. Well I like the more exotic rules, and I’d played caves once before against Trev Edwards and it wasn’t Stalingrad, so I was game.
You know straight away by looking at the scenario card that this isn’t some girly Chapter A only, straight infantry handbag affair like Fighting withdrawal or Von Tettau’s attack. Nope this is a scenario card for men…MEN!...I tell you! None of this…ooooh I don’t like playing chapter G….pout…but aren’t there are lots of SSR’s?...lip quiver. You lot might as well p*ss off and play Combat Commander or something. YOU MAKE ME SO ANGRY!!!! DRIBBLE. PUT THAT HYPODERMIC AWAY…I DON’T NEED ANY MEDICA…Snore…
Awwwww righttttt…..ladeeeez and gentleman…in the green corner…straight from the halls of montezuma and the shores of Tripoli….we have the lean…the mean…the green…killing machine…The guys with globes…the fathers with flags…the one…the only…UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!!!!
Fifteen squads of 7-6-8’s ( 7-6-8’s!!! filth!!! self deploying, non disruptable cheaters!)
Nine crews – 2-2-8’s and 1-2-8’s ( There are grudge SSR’s that MG’s/ LATW/Lt mortars must be fired by crews or there are penalties – but crews firing MG’s don’t cower)
Six M4A2 Shermans, one of which is the flamethrower version.
No less than seven leaders including two -2 dudes.
Couple of flamethrowers, six DC’s and the usual other stuff.
150mm Naval OBA (It never runs out!) HE only
80mm battalion mortar OBA (HE & S)
And in the yellow corner…please show your appreciation for…direct from the land of the rising sun…the defenders of the living embodiment of the sun goddess Amaterasu…Kuribayashi’s men…they ain’t gonna banzai no more…we stripe but we don’t break…please give it up for the glorious 145th infantry regiment of the
Imperial Japanese Army…
Four Elite and Six 1st line squads, six crews and five leaders (only one -1 though)
HMG, 2 x MMG, FT, 4x DC, 2 x 50*mtrs.
150* ART , 2x 47L AT guns.
70mm OBA
7 super duper Iwo Jima caves, mines, trenches, wire and two pillboxes.
(The caves are super-duper because they are HIP even when not in concealment terrain, and the cave complexes extend four hexes instead of two from the primary cave.)
It’s a knockdown eight and a half turn fight, victory to whoever’s left standing…on Hill Peter…at game end.
Setting up on the Critical Hit map before we started…I have to say the map is kewl. Nice big hexes and a very different tactical problem from usual. The marines have to cross the V shaped Motoyama airfield #2 (which has a small level one hill in between the two arms of the V) then struggle through the volcanic ash open ground. Which counts as sand so 2MF open ground for infantry, and a 3MP bog check for the tanks. You then get to struggle up the cliffs and hills to get to the high ground. Oh and it might rain making all your smoke useless. Semper Fi Mac.
All my experience with Japanese is that it really isn’t worth getting into a stand up fight. Especially not with US Marines. The caves are not there for the +4 TEM, they are there so you can take the unexpected shots, and then skulk away and reappear somewhere else. It is not worth revealing your position to take a shot, unless you have a decent chance with negative mods to get a casualty reduction or better. Breaking the marines is pointless, like Arnie they’ll be back, and if you stay around to DM, or try to double break them, the U.S firepower will hurt you more.
Most of my stuff was on the hill, with some caves positioned to cover the runway, but nothing in plain sight. I had a pillbox on top of Hill Peter but out of LOS with mines and wire protecting its flanks, so that when the marines finally got to the top, I could flame them. To begin with I had most of my guys starting in the cave complex to be totally safe from OBA, with only the MG crews and a couple of squads with LMG’s in the caves, and some squads in trenches well out of LOS. I did have a suicide detatchment forward, with one HIP half squad in a crag hex between the two arms of the runway, a tank hunter hero and a 47L gun in a scrub hex by the mini-hill, which might get some flanking shots. It’s a terrible thing when you have to treat Sherman’s like they were Tigers.
Not sure if I read this right – one of the SSR’s - UV4 says “Delete Sand from those prohibited types…(i.e Caves may setup in non-depression crestlines if sand is <= cave entrance hex level.) This sort of implies that you can’t stick them on crestlines where sand is higher than the entrance hex, and as sand is at level two and lower (UV2) – the lowest height you can have caves is the crestline between a level three and level two hill hex.
Anyway enough rules lawyery for the moment. I was expecting to get some good digs in on the runway, as he couldn’t armoured assault with everyone – and even if he did the 150 would get some nice collateral attacks. Instead I got surprised when he only brought on four of his tanks and about half a dozen squads initially, “USMC enter on or after turn 1”. It didn’t help that his clearly weighted dice got four out of four smoke mortar attempts despite the +2motion. I held fire with everyone but the 150* who opened up with a critical hit to toast a Sherman.
That was about as good as it got. The next 150* shot malfunctioned the gun which then broke, obeying the laws of conservation of mass and energy and restoring karma to the universe. The marines advanced fired into the crags containing the HIP half squad breaking them, and the tank hunter hero bagged a marine HS through a search casualty dr before getting killed in turn. Sadly my other 47L got revealed by yet another searching marine HS, with the mini-hill blocking LOS to the tanks. It ended up killing the searchers, but its combat career was cut short when the flamethrowing Sherman made its presence known. Worse, much worse was to come.
I thought I had the runway covered by various cave positions. I was relying on G11.5 “…Barring other LOS obstructions, LOS may be traced within the CA of a cave in a non-Depression hex to/from an elevation lower than the cave’s if its Entrance Hex contains no terrain (including a Crest Line) whose obstacle height along that LOS is > that cave’s level.”
For some reason I thought this meant my caves could look over and down the plateau. Instead it meant the marines had a free ride over the runway. It meant my observer with a phone was useless. I briefly considered jacking it in but decided to play on. (I think Ben said after the game it didn’t make that much difference but as usual he’s talking s***.)
For the next few turns, comparatively little happened. I had one cave which I redeployed a crew/HMG/9-1 combo to, and it killed a crew, broke a squad or two, and knocked a HS with a FT off a Sherman, and made a hero. Return fire was surprisingly ineffective. Ben was using my captured 47L to fire AP at the pillbox for one flat attacks. He’s got a thing about captured weapons – every since he read about someone hooking up a captured gun to get the needed exit VP to win, he gets a childish glee over using them. I think he got one pin result and set off a sniper over several turns. Pathetic.
His fire group of mortars and MMG’s was positioned too high up and didn’t have LOS to anything. It rained, then rained heavily. I was desperately trying to correct a spotting round from my OBA into my observers limited arc, but it kept deviating out of the cave LOS until the phone broke and was no use at all. Meanwhile his NOBA was devastating the forward slopes of the hill mass, not killing anyone but a critical destroyed the pillbox on top of Hill Peter, wire got uprooted, mines cleared and lots of shellholes placed for cover.
You’d think there was some kind of rule to prevent unlimited fire like that wouldn’t you? Hmmm. Meanwhile the marines progressed slowly towards the hill base. And it was slowly, several tanks bogged (we did play runway hexes adjacent to sand could bog – not 100% sure that’s right), and the rain and sand meant it was slow going. The marines took the longer route to the Japanese centre and left. I shifted guys around underground so the first marines up the hill were going to walk into a flamethrower attack.
The rain stopped. The first guys up the hill got flamed, lost a half squad to a 12 MC, and as they’d spent 4mf getting there. I decided to final fire and FPF. Twice. My 8 morale squad turned into a half squad. Jones ran a squad, leader and hero through a 12 residual attack and shrugged off the resultant MC’s. A couple of other shots were ineffective and suddenly he was right next to the victory hill and out of my caves covered arcs.
I had to come out of my caves to stop this threat. I maneuvered to soak up his fire with a 8-0 with a DC, while moving a couple of concealed stacks adjacent. A squad and a leader got melted by NOBA and didn’t make it – but it looks like I’ll be able to mop up this breach in my lines.
At this point he calls down WP on his own position. Of course he passes all the MC’s. One of my squads rolls a 12, the other with a HS and leader go beserk so they can’t advance in, and the WP strips concealment from everyone. A really good (though lucky) move – except for the fact the marines have no WP OBA only Smoke!
Man…more marines came up the hill, a close combat killed a squad each. The marine flamethrowing tank came up and stopped two hexes from a cave. I’d shifted my flamethrowing halfsquad there – it fired with a 4TK chance, missed and the return fire was a snakeyes from the tank. At that point I’d had enough and gave up.
Jones took a camera phone picture of the top of the hill with a squad, a leader and a hero and saved it as wallpaper. Personally I thought this kind of thing showed his low class as the hero had died, and for some reason he never took camera pictures of his defeats.
Even so it’s a long time since I enjoyed getting beat so much. Usually I’m quite childish and sulk. But this scenario is fantastic, and on my must play again list. In fact I have a year to prepare the Japanese defense until Jonesey returns again. Of course next time, the runway will be properly covered, the Marines won’t have WP, and the 150mm NOBA will have to obey G14.68 “Offboard NOBA observers may only place an AR in/adjacent to a known (to him) enemy ground unit and must make an extra chit draw if a friendly ground unit is within six hexes of that AR.” So you know the NOBA rules do you Ben?
Iwo Jima.
February 1945.
Saturday afternoon.
Teatime…
Jones: “I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Me: “A million green counters couldn’t take this island in a hundred turns….”
Well…actually Jonesey came up with that line, but it makes more sense if I say it, as he had the marines. My contribution to the banter was mocking the fact his mum made him sandwiches and he’s 35! Very good sandwiches though.
Ben has long bemoaned the fact no-one will ever play caves with him, and if they do he has to defend as they can’t be arsed looking up the rules. Well I like the more exotic rules, and I’d played caves once before against Trev Edwards and it wasn’t Stalingrad, so I was game.
You know straight away by looking at the scenario card that this isn’t some girly Chapter A only, straight infantry handbag affair like Fighting withdrawal or Von Tettau’s attack. Nope this is a scenario card for men…MEN!...I tell you! None of this…ooooh I don’t like playing chapter G….pout…but aren’t there are lots of SSR’s?...lip quiver. You lot might as well p*ss off and play Combat Commander or something. YOU MAKE ME SO ANGRY!!!! DRIBBLE. PUT THAT HYPODERMIC AWAY…I DON’T NEED ANY MEDICA…Snore…
Awwwww righttttt…..ladeeeez and gentleman…in the green corner…straight from the halls of montezuma and the shores of Tripoli….we have the lean…the mean…the green…killing machine…The guys with globes…the fathers with flags…the one…the only…UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!!!!
Fifteen squads of 7-6-8’s ( 7-6-8’s!!! filth!!! self deploying, non disruptable cheaters!)
Nine crews – 2-2-8’s and 1-2-8’s ( There are grudge SSR’s that MG’s/ LATW/Lt mortars must be fired by crews or there are penalties – but crews firing MG’s don’t cower)
Six M4A2 Shermans, one of which is the flamethrower version.
No less than seven leaders including two -2 dudes.
Couple of flamethrowers, six DC’s and the usual other stuff.
150mm Naval OBA (It never runs out!) HE only
80mm battalion mortar OBA (HE & S)
And in the yellow corner…please show your appreciation for…direct from the land of the rising sun…the defenders of the living embodiment of the sun goddess Amaterasu…Kuribayashi’s men…they ain’t gonna banzai no more…we stripe but we don’t break…please give it up for the glorious 145th infantry regiment of the
Imperial Japanese Army…
Four Elite and Six 1st line squads, six crews and five leaders (only one -1 though)
HMG, 2 x MMG, FT, 4x DC, 2 x 50*mtrs.
150* ART , 2x 47L AT guns.
70mm OBA
7 super duper Iwo Jima caves, mines, trenches, wire and two pillboxes.
(The caves are super-duper because they are HIP even when not in concealment terrain, and the cave complexes extend four hexes instead of two from the primary cave.)
It’s a knockdown eight and a half turn fight, victory to whoever’s left standing…on Hill Peter…at game end.
Setting up on the Critical Hit map before we started…I have to say the map is kewl. Nice big hexes and a very different tactical problem from usual. The marines have to cross the V shaped Motoyama airfield #2 (which has a small level one hill in between the two arms of the V) then struggle through the volcanic ash open ground. Which counts as sand so 2MF open ground for infantry, and a 3MP bog check for the tanks. You then get to struggle up the cliffs and hills to get to the high ground. Oh and it might rain making all your smoke useless. Semper Fi Mac.
All my experience with Japanese is that it really isn’t worth getting into a stand up fight. Especially not with US Marines. The caves are not there for the +4 TEM, they are there so you can take the unexpected shots, and then skulk away and reappear somewhere else. It is not worth revealing your position to take a shot, unless you have a decent chance with negative mods to get a casualty reduction or better. Breaking the marines is pointless, like Arnie they’ll be back, and if you stay around to DM, or try to double break them, the U.S firepower will hurt you more.
Most of my stuff was on the hill, with some caves positioned to cover the runway, but nothing in plain sight. I had a pillbox on top of Hill Peter but out of LOS with mines and wire protecting its flanks, so that when the marines finally got to the top, I could flame them. To begin with I had most of my guys starting in the cave complex to be totally safe from OBA, with only the MG crews and a couple of squads with LMG’s in the caves, and some squads in trenches well out of LOS. I did have a suicide detatchment forward, with one HIP half squad in a crag hex between the two arms of the runway, a tank hunter hero and a 47L gun in a scrub hex by the mini-hill, which might get some flanking shots. It’s a terrible thing when you have to treat Sherman’s like they were Tigers.
Not sure if I read this right – one of the SSR’s - UV4 says “Delete Sand from those prohibited types…(i.e Caves may setup in non-depression crestlines if sand is <= cave entrance hex level.) This sort of implies that you can’t stick them on crestlines where sand is higher than the entrance hex, and as sand is at level two and lower (UV2) – the lowest height you can have caves is the crestline between a level three and level two hill hex.
Anyway enough rules lawyery for the moment. I was expecting to get some good digs in on the runway, as he couldn’t armoured assault with everyone – and even if he did the 150 would get some nice collateral attacks. Instead I got surprised when he only brought on four of his tanks and about half a dozen squads initially, “USMC enter on or after turn 1”. It didn’t help that his clearly weighted dice got four out of four smoke mortar attempts despite the +2motion. I held fire with everyone but the 150* who opened up with a critical hit to toast a Sherman.
That was about as good as it got. The next 150* shot malfunctioned the gun which then broke, obeying the laws of conservation of mass and energy and restoring karma to the universe. The marines advanced fired into the crags containing the HIP half squad breaking them, and the tank hunter hero bagged a marine HS through a search casualty dr before getting killed in turn. Sadly my other 47L got revealed by yet another searching marine HS, with the mini-hill blocking LOS to the tanks. It ended up killing the searchers, but its combat career was cut short when the flamethrowing Sherman made its presence known. Worse, much worse was to come.
I thought I had the runway covered by various cave positions. I was relying on G11.5 “…Barring other LOS obstructions, LOS may be traced within the CA of a cave in a non-Depression hex to/from an elevation lower than the cave’s if its Entrance Hex contains no terrain (including a Crest Line) whose obstacle height along that LOS is > that cave’s level.”
For some reason I thought this meant my caves could look over and down the plateau. Instead it meant the marines had a free ride over the runway. It meant my observer with a phone was useless. I briefly considered jacking it in but decided to play on. (I think Ben said after the game it didn’t make that much difference but as usual he’s talking s***.)
For the next few turns, comparatively little happened. I had one cave which I redeployed a crew/HMG/9-1 combo to, and it killed a crew, broke a squad or two, and knocked a HS with a FT off a Sherman, and made a hero. Return fire was surprisingly ineffective. Ben was using my captured 47L to fire AP at the pillbox for one flat attacks. He’s got a thing about captured weapons – every since he read about someone hooking up a captured gun to get the needed exit VP to win, he gets a childish glee over using them. I think he got one pin result and set off a sniper over several turns. Pathetic.
His fire group of mortars and MMG’s was positioned too high up and didn’t have LOS to anything. It rained, then rained heavily. I was desperately trying to correct a spotting round from my OBA into my observers limited arc, but it kept deviating out of the cave LOS until the phone broke and was no use at all. Meanwhile his NOBA was devastating the forward slopes of the hill mass, not killing anyone but a critical destroyed the pillbox on top of Hill Peter, wire got uprooted, mines cleared and lots of shellholes placed for cover.
You’d think there was some kind of rule to prevent unlimited fire like that wouldn’t you? Hmmm. Meanwhile the marines progressed slowly towards the hill base. And it was slowly, several tanks bogged (we did play runway hexes adjacent to sand could bog – not 100% sure that’s right), and the rain and sand meant it was slow going. The marines took the longer route to the Japanese centre and left. I shifted guys around underground so the first marines up the hill were going to walk into a flamethrower attack.
The rain stopped. The first guys up the hill got flamed, lost a half squad to a 12 MC, and as they’d spent 4mf getting there. I decided to final fire and FPF. Twice. My 8 morale squad turned into a half squad. Jones ran a squad, leader and hero through a 12 residual attack and shrugged off the resultant MC’s. A couple of other shots were ineffective and suddenly he was right next to the victory hill and out of my caves covered arcs.
I had to come out of my caves to stop this threat. I maneuvered to soak up his fire with a 8-0 with a DC, while moving a couple of concealed stacks adjacent. A squad and a leader got melted by NOBA and didn’t make it – but it looks like I’ll be able to mop up this breach in my lines.
At this point he calls down WP on his own position. Of course he passes all the MC’s. One of my squads rolls a 12, the other with a HS and leader go beserk so they can’t advance in, and the WP strips concealment from everyone. A really good (though lucky) move – except for the fact the marines have no WP OBA only Smoke!
Man…more marines came up the hill, a close combat killed a squad each. The marine flamethrowing tank came up and stopped two hexes from a cave. I’d shifted my flamethrowing halfsquad there – it fired with a 4TK chance, missed and the return fire was a snakeyes from the tank. At that point I’d had enough and gave up.
Jones took a camera phone picture of the top of the hill with a squad, a leader and a hero and saved it as wallpaper. Personally I thought this kind of thing showed his low class as the hero had died, and for some reason he never took camera pictures of his defeats.
Even so it’s a long time since I enjoyed getting beat so much. Usually I’m quite childish and sulk. But this scenario is fantastic, and on my must play again list. In fact I have a year to prepare the Japanese defense until Jonesey returns again. Of course next time, the runway will be properly covered, the Marines won’t have WP, and the 150mm NOBA will have to obey G14.68 “Offboard NOBA observers may only place an AR in/adjacent to a known (to him) enemy ground unit and must make an extra chit draw if a friendly ground unit is within six hexes of that AR.” So you know the NOBA rules do you Ben?
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