Australian Player [ELR 5, SAN 4]: Matt Schwoebel
Japanese Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Nick Drinkwater
After a half day playing "Up the Numa Numa Trail", Matt and myself switched sides and played this micro-scenario from HOB's Tropic Thunder Pack on the Australian 1945 invasion of Borneo and Tarakan. In this Matt had a platoon of three 648 Australian commandos, a hero and an 8-1 with Lt Mtr and LMG defending a small level three hill on Board 36. By SSR they can set up in foxholes and concealed on level two or higher terrain. The task the Japanese have is to either control all five level three hill hexes or claim 7 of the 9 available Australian CVP….in 4 turns…with five 447s, two half-squads and a couple of leaders, but no mortars. OK.
Due to the time element here, there really is no time for anything of Japanese finesse – ambitious flanking movement over the tough terrain is impossible and many of the Japanese start in a gully, so that's already 2MP used up. They are almost forced to go straight up the middle along a track but then they end up surrounded in a nasty gully and overlooked by two Australian dominating positions. I sent some sacrificial lambs up the middle to see if I could force anything and two slightly flanking attacks both under leader direction, but they were all largely shredded by relentless first, subsequent and final fire attacks at 16-Flat, 12-Flat, 8-Flat or 6-Flat. Again, the Japanese are good but they are not that good and they wilted under that lot and Matt's radically improved dice. I did get one half-squad CX on top of a commando but they were ambushed and went down in a hail of bullets. Eventually, I managed to kill one HS from a timely berserk roll and then evicted another, and this meant I was in a position to make Matt abandon his foxholes and fall back and cover the last three level-three hexes. However my two final banzai squads died on a 12 Morale Check rolls after receiving numerous 12-24FP first and subsequent fire attacks.
An OK micro scenario that ultimately really is very scripted – the Japanese are going up the middle, or just left of the middle, or even just right of the middle, but pretty much up the middle all the same and there the guns of the Commandos will be waiting for them. If they roll high then the Japanese have a chance, if not then there's only one winner here.
Fine if you have the odd ninety minutes between games….
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