Last night myself and Pierre-Yves got together in person to play the next turn in the Saipan campaign. This will be the third attempt of the marines to take this table and now they have 15 supports while the Japanese will continue to have only 7.
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| Pretty similar to the last game, the marines had fewer free moves so they were a little further back on the table. I would of liked to get my southern JOP a little more south but it was OK. |
USMC (FM 9) (+3 on FM roll)
6th Marine Regiment
Type F USMC Platoon #1 (7 men missing)
2SL
3 Infantry Squads with Sup JL and 12 men
Supports (15)
M4A2 Sherman (7)
M3A1 Satan (8)
Japanese (FM 11) (+3 on FM roll)
136th Infantry Regiment
Type B Infantry Platoon #1 (15 men missing)
2 SL
3 Infantry Sections with Jl and 12 men
Grenadier Section with JL and 12 men and 3 50mm Mortars
Minefield added as per consolidation
Supports (7)
Tank Hunter Team (2)
Flamethrower Team (5)
So on to the game:
I felt that I had little chance of winning this table one more time as the Marines had more supports and had already burst one hole through the hedge. I took an extra minefield but decided to not block the hole as I felt the Marines would just go to the south with a tank anyway but maybe tempted to get their infantry through the breech and I wanted to channel them. What became immediately obvious was this was not going to be the case as P-Y had used all supports on 2 tanks, with one being a Satan Flame Tank!
I suspected I could take out one tank with my tank hunters but really had no way to stop the second tank...........or as I thought. This resulted in me immediately changing my plan (if I actually had one). I knew I had little chance of winning now, so I decided to try to rush one of the marine JOP's. This was going to be close to impossible but I said why not. I deployed my Flame thrower team west of the hedge with the plan to go down the northern edge to try to distract the marine tank advance. P-Y rapidly advanced his 2 tanks to the hedge and then pointed out to me that he could not understand why I had deployed my Flamethrowers as they could be effective against tanks........well I completely had missed that!
Now I was in real trouble, I deployed all my squads now in a futile attempt to drive back the Satan with LMG fire, after all they only had 4 armour. The Sherman had burst through the hedge by now and as expected (I was lucky to accumulate CoC die quickly), I ambushed it with my tank hunters, 4 net hits, P-Y rolled a 6, the marines were down 2 FM. But what to do with the Satan, my Flamethrowers were a long way off, it was my phase and I decided to withdraw. P-Y decided to interrupt with the Satan to crush 2 of my infantry squads that were in range. Nine hits but only 2 kill, unfortunately one was on a JL, so I dropped 1 FM but then withdrew safely. I had no loses as the FM difference took out the one killed man.
Well we are now on to table 5, and our next turn is number 7, so I am in pretty good shape. I have a completely intact squad. If I have it right, I just have to win one more turn to win the campaign.
Butcher's Bill
The post game calculations were quite easy as no men in the core platoons were lost on either side.
USMC
Final FM 7
5 down for next game (platoon 1)
CO +2
MO +7 (+2 on FM roll, Platoon Leader 12" CR)
Platoon Leaders Outlook Thoughtful
IJA
Final FM 10
0 dead for next game (platoon 2)
14 dead for next game (platoon 1)
CO +1
MO +3
Platoon Leaders Outlook Assured (+1 FM)
On to some terrific photos from the camera of P-Y....
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| Tanks deploy |
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| Worst deployment in history |
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| That looks nasty |
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| Thes guys are even more nasty |
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| But up comes the Satan |
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| Cowering in fear |
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