witchbottles
Forum Guru
Well, BD-01 ended tonight with a Japanese win. The Marines need either 3 caves destroyed (the only weapons to do that are 4 DCs) or 1 cave destroyed and both Trenches controlled by Marines at Game End.
Marine casualties were high, but the first cave died in turn 4 with a DC detonation original DR of 1,2 eliminating the 47L ATG and Crew, a -1 leader, and a MMG and crew. With the FT and a set of fanatic HSs commanded by a 9-1 with a DC that could be recovered and brought to bear on the A row cave by Turn 6, the only key to the Marine win was the 7-6-8 with a DC in the N hexrow ADJACENT to the cave with 2 mtrs in it. Those mtrs had trouble hitting anything well - (as did many weapons this game), and it was to the wire in the last Japanese DFPh- with 4 consecutive 2 - flat shots at the 7-6-8, the last one got lucky on a 3,2, NMC and my 7-6-8 went down to broken on a 6,4 DR. As there was only turn 6 MPh/APh left to get someone over to the DC, and only the fanatics with a ldr able to pick them up, but only being able to reach 1 of the caves in time- it was a wash - 2 caves can't win and no one able to get into and win to take both trenches in 1 player turn.
Overall, we felt this scenario is quite tough on the Marines, and we wondered- "Where were the Bazookas that all Marine Companies carried into combat in 1945?" We finally noticed, the larger "2nd assault" scenario in BD-02 does indeed have the Bazookas. Since Co G here in BD-01 is, by introduction paragraph and historically, fresh to the fight in this area making their first push in, we felt the right answer is that to balance this one out, give the Marines their 2 BAZ 45's (with the WP ammo they also provide). And then replay it, and see if having that extra man-portable smoke cover is enough to keep the Marine presence in the game long enough to make the threat to the defenses real for all 6 game turns.
Finally, for balance suggestions to put on the scen card:
Marines: Marines are Elite (C8.2).
Japanese: Japanese receive 1 more Cave Complex Tunnel (for a total of 2).
This provides yet more Smoke/WP opportunities for the Marines and for the Japanese, allows the defenders to link 2 of the in play cave complexes with a tunnel (the first one is an obvious no-brainer to go to the Trenches).
John and I are up for BD-02, the 2nd assault on this sector- and my Japanese are reinforced with a pillbox and some more MGs, including a HMG and a .50 cal. The Marines get 2 companies and their BAZ 45s now for this one coming up. (BD-02).
We decided to play them through swapping sides along the way to prep us for the CG playtest.
KRL, Jon H