jrv
Forum Guru
I had the Japanese attacking at night with four tanks and eight squads of mixed quality. The Americans are defending with somewhat limited anti-tank assets, a BAZ44 and a FT to start and another BAZ44 and FT as reinforcements.
After viewing my opponent's setup I decided to go down the Japanese left, staying off the hill as long as possible to leave the Americans on No Move. The Americans were set up not quite as far forward as they could be. The American setup is very tricky because they have to guard widely dispersed points against what should be a very concentrated attack. There was only one halfsquad guarding the board edge and the American starshell drifted back so my infantry could move up as far as it could anyway. There was almost no action in the first two player turns.
The Japanese second turn started with a dummy cloaking counter probing the halfsquad, which fired and put down a 1 FP residual. The Japanese launched a DC hero at the halfsquad and broke it. The rest of the Japanese infantry pushed through 61H0 to engage the American second line, a 6-6-6 in K2. So far the Americans had not been able to take off No Move except for the broken halfsquad. During American second the best leader rolled < his ELR, releasing the units with him.
The third turn saw the Japanese banzai the 6-6-6 in K2. A two 4-4-7s and an 8-0 charged in and ultimately died, but that left the way open for much of the Japanese infantry to streak up the board edge. Meanwhile the tanks climbed the hill, finally freeing the Americans from No Move on the hilltop. The Japanese stayed away from the hill edge to avoid activating more Americans. One of the Chi-Has died from a Bazooka hit. Its partner (a Ka-Mi) kept up a lively fire but couldn't break any Americans despite have twelve FP MGs at point-blank range.
In the fourth and fifth turns the Japanese continued their move down the east flank, and the Americans worked hard to activate all their No Move troops. The Americans lost all of their AT assets by rolling high. At the beginning of the Japanese sixth most of the Japanese were just in reach of board edge, but the Americans had various assets that could play against the exit. The Japanese had killed six VP of Americans to this point, so they needed to exit nine for the win. A Japanese halfsquad that could not exit performed an infantry overrun against a hero in 61p2, killing it. A tank that could not exit broke one squad with MGs then tried to VBM freeze a halfsquad with a MMG in Q5 that could put down a firelane. The MMG took the TH, hit the rear, then flamed the tank. With ROF. The first unit heading out pinned and the firelane was put down, but the rest of the units were able to push through the firelane and exit, for ten EVP and sixteen VP total. There were still some close-combats to resolve, so the total might have increased.
Overall this is a nicely-sized night action, with both sides needing to stretch their small forces to the limits. It's fun to use the Japanese tanks at night, even though it's not easy: the extra MP costs limits their flexibility, and you can't just send them boldly forward lest the Americans whip out a HIP FT/BAZ.
JR
After viewing my opponent's setup I decided to go down the Japanese left, staying off the hill as long as possible to leave the Americans on No Move. The Americans were set up not quite as far forward as they could be. The American setup is very tricky because they have to guard widely dispersed points against what should be a very concentrated attack. There was only one halfsquad guarding the board edge and the American starshell drifted back so my infantry could move up as far as it could anyway. There was almost no action in the first two player turns.
The Japanese second turn started with a dummy cloaking counter probing the halfsquad, which fired and put down a 1 FP residual. The Japanese launched a DC hero at the halfsquad and broke it. The rest of the Japanese infantry pushed through 61H0 to engage the American second line, a 6-6-6 in K2. So far the Americans had not been able to take off No Move except for the broken halfsquad. During American second the best leader rolled < his ELR, releasing the units with him.
The third turn saw the Japanese banzai the 6-6-6 in K2. A two 4-4-7s and an 8-0 charged in and ultimately died, but that left the way open for much of the Japanese infantry to streak up the board edge. Meanwhile the tanks climbed the hill, finally freeing the Americans from No Move on the hilltop. The Japanese stayed away from the hill edge to avoid activating more Americans. One of the Chi-Has died from a Bazooka hit. Its partner (a Ka-Mi) kept up a lively fire but couldn't break any Americans despite have twelve FP MGs at point-blank range.
In the fourth and fifth turns the Japanese continued their move down the east flank, and the Americans worked hard to activate all their No Move troops. The Americans lost all of their AT assets by rolling high. At the beginning of the Japanese sixth most of the Japanese were just in reach of board edge, but the Americans had various assets that could play against the exit. The Japanese had killed six VP of Americans to this point, so they needed to exit nine for the win. A Japanese halfsquad that could not exit performed an infantry overrun against a hero in 61p2, killing it. A tank that could not exit broke one squad with MGs then tried to VBM freeze a halfsquad with a MMG in Q5 that could put down a firelane. The MMG took the TH, hit the rear, then flamed the tank. With ROF. The first unit heading out pinned and the firelane was put down, but the rest of the units were able to push through the firelane and exit, for ten EVP and sixteen VP total. There were still some close-combats to resolve, so the total might have increased.
Overall this is a nicely-sized night action, with both sides needing to stretch their small forces to the limits. It's fun to use the Japanese tanks at night, even though it's not easy: the extra MP costs limits their flexibility, and you can't just send them boldly forward lest the Americans whip out a HIP FT/BAZ.
JR
