Marianas 44

[JayTownsend]

AAR: Marianas 1944, scenario eleven: Out of No Where, Guam 1941

Who doesn’t want to play a Japanese amphibious scenario! Ok it’s an uneven matchup but the victory conditions off sets this, a nice bit. The Japanese also get some land reinforcements that have landed on other parts of the island and a huge naval artillery support along with the rare air-support for the Japanese in PG scenarios. The Americans have the U.S. Marines but equipped with 1941 weapons and the whole Guam Insular Force Guard equipped with even worst but are a needed man-power. Both sides have an on board Gun-Boat.

The first turn started off poorly for the U.S. Gun-Boat which was first struck by a Japanese Betty (G4M) rolling a snake eyes or 2 on the dice and now sits at the bottom of the ocean. The Japanese landed the Daihatsu landing-craft mostly out of direct conflict with American units and move down the coast taking town hexes until it meet the main American resistance in the larger city hexes. At first it look like a cake walk with that large off-board naval artillery support until the Japanese started losing some steps in those city assault combats. Fortunately for the SNLF their Army counter parts started to arrive in force and swung things back their directions.

The American/GIFG forces had lost 14 steps not counting leaders but managed to keep one Japanese overlooked village, while the Japanese lost three steps but controlled all the rest of the city/village hexes for a 26 point to a 20 point Minor Victory. Really if the Japanese hadn’t overlooked a faraway village hex they should have had a major victory. A fun scenario to play, difficult for the American forces but not impossible to win! Another step or two, and it goes the other way.