The Marine's 3rd Battalion from Colonel William Whaling's 1st Marine Regiment led the way west of the New Britain landing sites towards the airfields at Cape Gloucester. By D+2, the Marines encountered the first serious resistance in the vicinity of Hell's Point, known to the Japanese as Cape Eboshi. Between the 3rd Battalion and the airfields was 2 Company from Colonel Sumiya's 53rd Infantry Regiment. While these two forces engaged, the Japanese attempted to flank the Marines. Protecting the Marine left flank were men from the 1st Battalion. A reinforced Japanese company, supported by heavy machine guns and battalion artillery pieces attempted to dislodge the Marines from the tall kunai grass.
Attacker: Japanese (I Company, 53rd Infantry Regiment and 1st MG Company)
Defender: American (USMC) (Company A, 1st Marine Regiment)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:15.0 D:11.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:1
Type 92 70mm INF Gun Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 3
LIASL DEC 2024 5 MATCHES PLAYED. This was fun. Japanese were relentless. USMC held the line for 3 turns until the right flank broke. USMC fwll back to crossroads holding until the last half turn CC. This was a really fun scenario and it teetered back and forth. Bill took advantage of my mistakes at the end. Definitely a replay scenario.
2024-12-01
(D) Eben Johnson
vs
Cameron
American (USMC) win
While my defensive fallback was decent and my rallies impressive, things might have been very different if the Japanese had landed any smoke. Fun scenario, lots of tactical work required, and I played an excellent opponent. Cheers
2024-08-02
(D) Stephen dedier
vs
Ray Woloszyn
Japanese win
Ray Methodically pushed my marines back into the jungle down both flanks.
i had my HiP squad with MMG and leader in one of the victory hexes.
Marines were forced to fall back to the Alamo and reveal the HiP units on the next to last turn.
Unfortunately we took a 1MC to my other stack of leader, MMC and MMG and all broke.
With a thin screen the Japanese came in for 4 close combats. 3 of them both sides were completely eliminated and one of them left the marines with a HS to reclaim a victory hex
It came down to the last CC but i couldn't muster the 3 i needed to keep the Japanese from taking the last hex.
fun scenario
2024-07-01
(A) Douglas Leslie
vs
Kris Koch
American (USMC) win
Played in the VASL league. This was a fun scenario with all kinds of crazy moments as my Japanese charged the US defenders. Lowlights for me included two elite squads suffering casualty MCs just before they could create a DC hero. Despite this, my troops managed to capture all three victory locations but the game came down to the last CC DR when a USMC squad counter advanced into CC against striped Japanese berserk squad. Both survived CC in the US final turn the Japanese position was reinforced in the final turn leaving 10 FP factors against 6 in their favour. To win, they just needed to roll an 8 in CC to eliminate the US squad or alternatively dodge a DR of 5 or less if the the marines survived. DRs of 12 and 4 gave the win to Kris.
2024-05-11
(D) Michael Rodgers
vs
Doug Rimmer
Japanese win
2024-03-04
(D) Steven Cummings
vs
Eric Zagdan-Gross
Japanese win
2024-01-23
(A) Richard Jenulis
vs
Will Fleming
American (USMC) win
My Japanese failed to get smoke, failed MC and ELR'ed to boot (my last 5 DR were 11: 10: 9: 10: 7, and that was pretty much a sum of most of this game). The Americans got 5 CH on mtr's and passed MC. In the end the Marines morale and firepower were too much. I agree with a previous AAR that this is a bit of a set piece. Now I'll go and have some cheese. ;)
2023-10-27
(D) Dan Best
vs
Kermit Mullins
Japanese win
2023-10-26
(A) Kermit Mullins
vs
Dan Best
Japanese win
My Japanese set up right across from the upfront American MLR. Poor dice rolls by Dan's Americans allowed the Japanese to quickly get down the north edge. It was a bloody fight with 9 American squads lost and 6-1/2 Japanese KIA'd. But by Turn 5-1/2 it was over as the remaining 2 American squads broke and the Japanese took control of the victory hexes.
2023-10-19
(A) Jeff B
vs
John Fedoriw
American (USMC) win
4.5 hrs
Neither of us went into this with too much goodwill. John didn't like his terrible starting position, while I didn't like all the OG I'd be facing trying to take the last VC hex. The Ami in charge of setting the defense could arguably be the stupidest commander ever, allowing the Japs to safely pound them from their entrenched positions as the Amis tried to make for the jungle. Any Ami showing his head with a mortar or MG was blasted. So about half the Jap force played rearguard, while the rest charged forward under some smoke cover. By the end of Turn 2 the front line was clear, with the casualty count 1 squad to 0.5 squad in favor of the Japs. Turn 3 saw that same ratio continue as the Japs poured into the jungle, and by the end of Turn 4 they were poised for their big assault on the last hex. But the Amis had pulled back with everything they could, and all that aforementioned OG would be a major issue. This lead to an absolutely disastrous Turn 5 for the Japs, who lost 5 squads and a leader to zero for the Amis. In the end it came down to a pure dicefest, certainly not one of my favorite situations. And while I managed to get a full boat into the last VC hex, he prevailed in CC to hold it. Dud city.
2023-10-05
(D) Andy Bagley
vs
Johan Vrijdaghs
Japanese win
My view of this scenario may be influenced by the fact that I lost disastrously as the Americans. The dice were not my friend as many negative-DRM shots against the banzai-ing Japanese achieved nothing, and I failed to win any of the subsequent CCs.
Even had things gone my way though, I don't think this is a scenario I'll be playing again, because it's a "set piece" with few options for either side. The setup requirements almost force the Japanese to banzai on their first couple of turns (and probably later on as well), supported by artillery and MG fire, and possibly smoke/WP. In response the Americans can do little to defend other than place their units as well as possible with overlapping fire lanes (which I did) and hope that their defensive fire DRs can at least weaken the Japanese (which they didn't). Difficult to see what else either side can do in this one.
