Jacometti
Elder Member
Friday morning and after my bitter defeat in Round one I was determined to restore some pride to my run. My opponent was Charlie Willmer and we selected Buckley's Block from the recent Journal. I had seen this played at ASLOK and prepared a setup, but Charlie outbid me to take the Marines.
This was to be a pretty epic game for the size of the scenario. The first two Turns were uneventful, as the Japanese move through the Mud to engage the US outposts. On Turn 3 my Japanese found the 37LL AT gun, also known as the Canisterosaurus Rex. This little piece of junk ripped through my few units with ROF shots on Canister and looked a major danger to my progress. I certainly had NO intention of Banzai Charging into that kind of terror.
Fortunately, the Rain stopped on Turn 3, which allowed my MTR to put down some badly needed Smoke, partly blinding the AT gun. This allowed the bulk of my force to move sideways and around the dreaded gun. A small (child-sized) Banzai Charge then helped me push some more hexes forward, ending with a hand-to-hand CC opportunity for a striped squad. They managed to whack the Marine gun crew, which opened up the way forward. I took possession of the Gun the next RPh, taking a vital 4 CVP for the piece of equipment. Another US squad voluntarily broke and things looked positive for a moment.
This did not last long: the Marine squad self-rallied on the needed 4 and was again blocking my force, while Mr Buckley held the center with a 6-6-8 & HMG combo in the Jungle. On the other (river) side of the board I managed to find a sneaky LOS and break two full squads on a lousy little shot, which opened up some room there. However, I was pretty sure the HIP 75* halftrack was around there, so I could not push forward too wildly - and neither did I have many troops there.
By now it was Turn 5 and high time I knock out mr Buckley, if I were to have any hope of exiting through the road/jungle in the center. The Battle for Buckley was exhiliarating.....I launched a DC hero, a small Banzai Charge and about 4 other units at him. The 8-1/668/HMG shred most of what I could throw at them, taking a total of 4 FPF shots in one MPh. Finally, I ran my best leader with squad/LMG next to him and on their 5th FPF shot the valiant Marines went down to a 10 DR....
While I had now finally cracked open the center, I still needed to move a lot of hexes for exits, so I had to open the box of trickses. I ran several squads into the right locations, where they could all voluntarily break (into HS) and rout forwards through the jungle. My 10-1 joined one of these and rallied all 6 HS on the next Rally Phase (needing 10s for the Elite HS and 9s for the 1st liners).
Charlie now had to pull all his remaining units to the center to try and close the gap, including the halftrack, which had Malfed its AAMG. In my final Rally Phase I recombined all three squads and had the options I needed to get off the board - or kill a good number of CVP.
In the end I managed to tie down and limit the fire of the Marines Charlie had posted around the board edge. Twice I managed to create a Tank-Hunter hero in the middle of a MPh, who then charged the halftrack - unfortunately none of them made it to (almost certainly) bag me the 5 CVP. But I enjoyed trying - and a lot of ammo was spent on those little men.
I then moved my final 10-1/elite squad around and to the board edge, where we did our count of VP and realised I would certainly win by one or two points. Charlie conceded at that point.
Overall a great game, well played by both sides, although probably a bit static and heavily dependent on the ROF of the key weapons for the Marines. I think my careful maneuvering (resisting the urge to launch large banzai charges to offset the high movement cost of Mud), use of the Rain ending to put key Smokes down, and (ab)using the voluntary break opportunity probably made me the deserved winner.....but it was tight!
This was to be a pretty epic game for the size of the scenario. The first two Turns were uneventful, as the Japanese move through the Mud to engage the US outposts. On Turn 3 my Japanese found the 37LL AT gun, also known as the Canisterosaurus Rex. This little piece of junk ripped through my few units with ROF shots on Canister and looked a major danger to my progress. I certainly had NO intention of Banzai Charging into that kind of terror.
Fortunately, the Rain stopped on Turn 3, which allowed my MTR to put down some badly needed Smoke, partly blinding the AT gun. This allowed the bulk of my force to move sideways and around the dreaded gun. A small (child-sized) Banzai Charge then helped me push some more hexes forward, ending with a hand-to-hand CC opportunity for a striped squad. They managed to whack the Marine gun crew, which opened up the way forward. I took possession of the Gun the next RPh, taking a vital 4 CVP for the piece of equipment. Another US squad voluntarily broke and things looked positive for a moment.
This did not last long: the Marine squad self-rallied on the needed 4 and was again blocking my force, while Mr Buckley held the center with a 6-6-8 & HMG combo in the Jungle. On the other (river) side of the board I managed to find a sneaky LOS and break two full squads on a lousy little shot, which opened up some room there. However, I was pretty sure the HIP 75* halftrack was around there, so I could not push forward too wildly - and neither did I have many troops there.
By now it was Turn 5 and high time I knock out mr Buckley, if I were to have any hope of exiting through the road/jungle in the center. The Battle for Buckley was exhiliarating.....I launched a DC hero, a small Banzai Charge and about 4 other units at him. The 8-1/668/HMG shred most of what I could throw at them, taking a total of 4 FPF shots in one MPh. Finally, I ran my best leader with squad/LMG next to him and on their 5th FPF shot the valiant Marines went down to a 10 DR....
While I had now finally cracked open the center, I still needed to move a lot of hexes for exits, so I had to open the box of trickses. I ran several squads into the right locations, where they could all voluntarily break (into HS) and rout forwards through the jungle. My 10-1 joined one of these and rallied all 6 HS on the next Rally Phase (needing 10s for the Elite HS and 9s for the 1st liners).
Charlie now had to pull all his remaining units to the center to try and close the gap, including the halftrack, which had Malfed its AAMG. In my final Rally Phase I recombined all three squads and had the options I needed to get off the board - or kill a good number of CVP.
In the end I managed to tie down and limit the fire of the Marines Charlie had posted around the board edge. Twice I managed to create a Tank-Hunter hero in the middle of a MPh, who then charged the halftrack - unfortunately none of them made it to (almost certainly) bag me the 5 CVP. But I enjoyed trying - and a lot of ammo was spent on those little men.
I then moved my final 10-1/elite squad around and to the board edge, where we did our count of VP and realised I would certainly win by one or two points. Charlie conceded at that point.
Overall a great game, well played by both sides, although probably a bit static and heavily dependent on the ROF of the key weapons for the Marines. I think my careful maneuvering (resisting the urge to launch large banzai charges to offset the high movement cost of Mud), use of the Rain ending to put key Smokes down, and (ab)using the voluntary break opportunity probably made me the deserved winner.....but it was tight!
