Many of the island war scenarios that Jay has done are small affairs with one or two companies of Americans and Japanese fighting to see if the Americans can take certain features away from the Japanese (caves, entrenchments, roads, etc.) without losing too many steps in a relatively short period of time. I wanted to play a scenario of Marianas to inaugurate the database and I chose this one despite the fact that it looked to be virtually what I had just described. Two companies of Marines are tasked with eliminating two casemates. One company of Japanese, supported by extra HMGs will try to keep that from happening.

But then there is the river.

You see the river is major and although the Marines have a Pioneer who can assist in crossings the timing of the scenario is such that they almost have to try to cross at one of the bridges or the ford. The high banks mean that the LVT A1s can't just swim the darn thing so the Marines basically have to go right up the gut giving the Japanese the chance to fight in a stand up battle and cause those losses that come very dear in such scenarios.

Yes, my Americans won this battle and did so by Turn 15. They had, however, taken two step losses before Turn 10 and only some awesome firepower aided by great leaders and two consecutive "2" die rolls on the 45 column for direct fire permitted that result.

This one is finely tuned and replayable. It is probably best solo as the Japanese have only some minor movements to make with 30% of their force (the casemates) immobile meaning that the greatest mental activity of the Japanese player is to try to use telekinesis to get the die rolls to work in their favor. I give it a "4" as it is likely to be a nail biter every play, but not a 5 as it remains a small package with little for one side to do.

Kind of a quick, fun scenario to play with LVT A1 vs Casemates to name few odd matchups and in the new Guam map with a river! By the way, it is mentioned in the description but all the bridges have been destroyed in this scenario which makes time a factor for the American player to destroy both casemates without losing more than three steps in the time limit.

I won’t go into any detail as I played this a couple of weeks ago so I am going off of memory but this was a very tight match and the Americans won towards the very end and lost 3 steps but no more.

This small scenario sees 3 Japanese infantry, 2 HMGs and 2 Casemates with 3 leaders defending against 4 Marine infantry, 2 Weapons, a Mortar and a Pioneer with 4 leaders and 3 LVT4-A1s. The Marines need to eliminate the 2 Casemates without losing more than 2 steps. Anything else is a Japanese victory. The Japanese set up with a casemate in the jungle at the north end of the big south-central hill, the other casemate on the eastern side of the highest elevation, also in jungle, with 2 Japanese infantry and the Captain 2 hexes east in the jungle, and one HMG in the jungle hex between them, hoping to spring an ambush as any Marines make for the casemate, allowing the HMG to stop or slow down the attack and the Japanese infantry to use their superior assault value to prevent the loss of that casemate. The other Japanese infantry set up on the westernmost upper level in the jungle with the LT, with the last HMG set up 2 hexes southeast and lead by the SGT, intending to prevent a move around the hill to surround the defenders and to try to prevent a force from hitting the northern casemate. Marines entered from the south edge of board 100 and immediately started to ruin the Japanese plan. The LTV4-A1s drove towards the hilltop to engage the casemate there, and when the Japanese infantry attack came, they chopped up the Japanese infantry, first in adjacent hex fire, then in the assault hex. Marine losses in the action there was 2 of the 3 LVTs disrupted, but the Japanese fell back with the Captain and a surviving single step of Infantry into the jungle hex with the casemate, while the HMG on the flank joined in hopes of a later assault, even though it would mean giving up the column shift for Japanese infantry. Meanwhile, the Marine Major and the Captain each took 2 Marine infantry and skirted the hill to the west, shrugging off a couple of low chance opportunity shots and making their way to the Japanese infantry and to the northern casemate. The 10-1-2 Major and his two elements attacked the casemate, while the Captain with 2 more prepared to assault the Japanese infantry. After a couple of turns of fire from the Marine Sgt with the Weapons and Pioneers and adjacent fire from the Captain, as well as some poor fire from the Marine mortars, the Captain assaulted, doing well while the Japanese defenders failed to hurt them. The same could not be said in the northern edge, where the Marine Major was first disrupted and then demoralized and the only step loss taken happened. As seems to happen a lot, the assaults stagnated, with the Marines getting slightly better results, while the LTVs pounded the hex with the other casemate and Japanese troops. From turn 10 until turn 15, nothing changed. Then in turn 15, the LVTs got an X result and a random check to see which of the 3 units in the hex would take the hit resulted in the Casemate being eliminated, while the Japanese Captain was demoralized and the demoralized Infantry step died by morale failure. At the same time in the north, the Marines finally got an X result and eliminated the other casemate, while the Marine Captain eliminated the last of the defending Japanese there and the HMG fell to fire from the Sergeant and the Mortars. I went ahead and played out the scenario to turn 19 thinking it was still possible that the Japanese would rally long enough to cause more Marine damage, but by the end of 19, only the Japanese Sergeant was left on the table, and with no OBA to call, he had no way of inflicting further damage. Marines win, with only one step loss. This game was played using the original Saipan Marine 10-3 Infantry.