Artillaery and Assault

[nicky_longbranch]

Hey, Everybody!

I Was playing a Saipan Scenario yesterday when it occurred to me that their should be some column modifier for support weapons in a prolonged assault. how is it that two Japanese guns and a service platoon withheld 4 turns of assault from 3 US Army Infantry platoons.

[thomaso827]

That "we're Japanese" column shift really adds up, doesn't it. Had a couple of assaults today going with 1 demoralized reduced platoon (column 1) and a good order leader (+1 for column 3) holding off 2 platoons of Marines with a good leader, and with all that, the Japanese defended on a 5 column. Not bad unless they roll snakeyes on top of it, which these guys did, triggering morale checks and delaying things for a bit longer. I'd think you were having the same sort of experience.

[vince hughes]

Assault does not mean hand-to-hand. Its any combat within 200m. Your attacking Marines may have had difficulty closing. Perhaps too much open ground or clearing in front of the guns. At platoon level, you can not zoom in that much to see. Also, gunners etc will be using their own SMG's and rifles etc once things really get close. Nothing is a done deal on the battlefield.

However, that said I have always had the house rule "Attacks against ordnance only enemy" +1 col

In PG, I unserstand that SER platoons are treated the same as INF right ?

[campsawyer]

Nicky, are you playing with the 2d6 assault table or the existing 1d6. Now that this is posted on the APL site, one can see that assaults are not as potent as they were in the 3rd edition. The addition of the Japanese shift for INF's makes it harder. But remember the Japanese shift only applies to INF's and SER's

[thomaso827]

In most scenarios I've looked at, yes, just pretty weak, but I think a few have their morale separated from the regular army. The scenario I just played at lunch had them all treated the same, so they are only slightly better than a reduced regular Japanese platoon.

[zaarin7]

Well if you've got ASL you could always fight an assault out as a scenario. Of course that might take just a little more time but I'm sure the results would translate.