Excellent small scenario, US Army attacking 2 caves with a small bunch of Japanese infantry, over half of them already reduced, and a 20mm AA battery supporting. I pulled a poor rated Major for the CO, hence the title for this AAR. I split the US force to try to take the western cave and tie down the supporting Japanese forces on the eastern hill to keep them from shooting at the assault force as it attacked the western cave. This did well, and the Major took personal charge of the assault force and succeeded in chasing out the Japanese in 2 turns of assaulting with only a single step loss, and eliminating 3 steps of Japanese infantry and their LT in the process. US arty suppressed the Japanese AA for a turn allowing another US force to assault them, but they succeeded in holding out even longer than the first cave. As US forces maneuvered to assault the second cave, the Major again lead the assault. This time, Japanese defenders demoralized the good Major, and disrupted the remainder of the force, adding another step loss to the US forces. The Major failed his morale check several turns in a row, not running but walking quickly towards the rear while the rest of the troops rallied and succeeded in taking the second cave. At the end of 13 turns, only a single Japanese LT had survived and he was being surrounded and would be captured soon, while the Major failed his morale check once again. A fun little battle that would be a good candidate for hidden setup for the Japanese force in a 2-player game. This little jewel could also be used for a 4-player training game giving 2 players each a cave and a supporting force and the US could have the Major in one group and the Captain in another.

Marianas 1944, scenario #27: Mt. Santa Rosa

I wanted to play a small size Pacific battle with some caves again and picked this beauty. It doesn’t look good for the Japanese but still fun to try. I setup the Japanese in two sections, each with a cave and divided forces and by each cave I setup a strong adjacent support hex of units, one supported by the 20mm gun and a full strength Infantry unit the other a HMG and another full strength Infantry units. The reduced strength Infantry I put into the caves to make the Americans have to assault them out if they could get by the adjacent Japanese support units. I also setup in terrain most beneficial to the Japanese.

The Americans enter the southern map edge but split into two group to go after both Japanese caves at once but this will weaken their attack but with 18 turns, it took almost four or more turns just to get into range to stage these attacks. The Americans have to roll for off board artillery support each turn, while the Japanese have a little of their own each turn.

Kind of just about everything weird that could happen did happen in the American attacks of the Japanese positions but it was really fun to play and what I thought should have been an easy victory for the Americans wasn’t! The dice rolls certainly favored the Japanese on a few critical assaults and adjacent attacks. In the end the Americans controlled both caves after hard fighting but lost four steps in the process and they needed not only to control the caves but also lose fewer steps then the Japanese. The Japanese lost four steps as well, so the Americans lose but by not losing less steps then the Japanese. The US Army didn’t have time to regroup and go after a lot of those demoralized spread-out Japanese units in the last two turn, as they were pretty disorganized themselves.

The American artillery support in this one, was way off the mark. I believe the American should probably win this scenario 60% of the time but I found a way to lose it for them but dice were not on my side either. A really fun one scenario to play, regardless of the outcome. Makes me want to design more Pacific actions. Of course I already have: Philippines 1941-42, Philippines Luzon 1945 and Philippines Leyte 1944.