J12 – JUNGLE FIGHTERS
Legion defending as the Commonwealth
JP attacking as the Japanese
ROAR (C:J – 38:41) – 11th August, 2007
Live VASL: 2 Sessions, 6 hours
With this scenario we come to the end of our little jaunt through the Malaysian Jungles. The Commonwealth forces have been pushed right back to the city of Singapore and this little battle is to deny the IJA an even easier victory than that which they historically achieved.
Overall we have found this set of Scenarios (the Journal 1 Malaysian Scenarios – J9, J10, J11 and J12) to be very much like history; the Japanese were heavily favoured and thus most of the battles were quite one-sided. As JP said at the conclusion of J11, “It might be historically accurate, but it hardly makes for good ASL”. We are hoping that we can finish this little series of games with a more balanced, and thus more enjoyable, battle.
Initial Thoughts
Here we have a meeting engagement with 6x Elite Australian Squads and 7x 1st Line British Squads engaging 20x 2nd Line Japanese Squads (they are treated as Elite for all purposes though by SSR). The Commonwealth forces have to try and stop the Japanese from taking a vital bridge to Singapore (11 more Exit VP than the Allies) in the midst of Bd. 45’s city. The Japanese have an edge due to their leaders and SW, the British have the advantage of entering the board first and thus dictating the results of the first turn.
Meeting engagements are always fun as they allow for a bit more tactical manoeuvring than the usual in small scenarios. However, I think that the Allies have a hard task in this one. The city lets the Japanese avoid a lot of the British firepower and their large numbers means that they have the advantage in pressing CC and forming firegroups. I think we might see a Banzai charge unleashed too as the map is just over a half-board in size and the Commonwealth forces are going to be forced to make a stand sooner than later.
British Initial Moves
I have made a few obvious moves:
– The 9-1 and 457, 2x 458, MMG, LMG are going CX to get to U9. The 457 can move off from here to secure the back lines.
– A large group (3x 457, ATR and 3x 458, LMG, 8-0) have moved adjacent/near to the P2/Q3 wall, this will allow me to interdict his forces entering the map as well as stopping him cold should he try to take me on up-front.
– A single 457 has moved to Q9. This is to make him slow down though this building.
– I have moved 3x 457, 7-0 to R5, this holds the centre of the map and puts a big enough force in the building to make him think about attacking though here.
I am also considering Kindling the Stone buildings should a safe chance come. It is likely to fail, but if it does work I will have a fair advantage.
The Game
TURN 1-4
The game starts with a real twist of fate when the WCDR calls up a change to a Heavy Breeze. My men stream on-board and take up their initial positions.
The Japanese arrive and are all over the M7 & P8 buildings, thus effectively weighting their attack to the West. He sends his MTR units along the M6-N3 road and puts MMG on either side of the open park. He also sends officer led stacks up to level 2 of the M7 building – poor JP is yet again forgetting the LOS Hindrance effect of Palm Trees (Orchards). He does send a few units up to the East and these bump into my initial units near the P1/P2 wall area – but as has been the case with the majority of these Malaysian games, the DRs are terrible in attack and great for MCs and he suffers no loss.
I try to move my 457 from the Q9 building, but as one would expect a low chance shot hits him and Pins him in place… this is with nearly 12 rabid MMC breathing down his neck. Up in the East it is even worse with another piddly little attack causing a NMC against a 458; I roll 6,6 to ELR Break and CR! The rest of my moves go well and I set up a strong defensive position in the V6 Block (bordered by the T7-V5-Y7-Y10 ring road); this is a great position to hold off a Western Flank attack as if can lay down Firelanes and RF while being mostly immune to attack from the M7 & P8 Stone Buildings from here I can also keep watch over a part of the East too.
As my men peer down their gun sights, waiting for the Japanese to rush into the open MTR shells start landing and from those MTR shells seeps so much SMOKE that I cannot see past the Adjacent hex [Note: we played this in Error, see Comments at end of Turn 1-4 Chapter and in the Conclusion]. This is a real bother. I am not in too much danger, I only have a single 457 out in the open and an LMG 458 in U9 that are affected and the SMOKE will slow his own movement down too, but the real problem comes when JP totally switches his attack and rushes across the open park to enter the R5 building and surround some of my forces here who are also SMOKEd out. In the East he is moving slowly, but my shots continue to miss while he Pins my men before they can withdraw to better positions.
I have to withdraw to a defensive position which I can hold away from the SMOKE, but my moves are fraught with danger and all but 1 of the MC or PTC I take failed! I am pulling back in all areas, but with the MCs and PTCs being failed there is now an opening in the East for him to exploit (through the U2 building). He at least suffers a little bad luck in his Defensive Fire, losing a LMG to malfunction and having a 228 stripped by a SAN but other than that this was a disastrous turn for me. At the moment, containment is my only option; but with half the board covered, half the time over and half my force already rendered useless through breaks or Pinning in bad positions I am up against it!
When JP starts the turn off with more SMOKE I am actually quite relieved, time is his greatest enemy in this game and the more SMOKE, the slower he moves. Also when he is firing SMOKE he is not firing HE, and he missed an opportunity to drop HE on one of my exposed units due to his own newly laid SMOKE stopping LOS. As he moves he quickly finds himself bogged down as even Open Ground hexes are costing 2MF now. Even more than that, the drifting SMOKE is also adding more costs to movements and blocking more LOS which does give me some respite to re-arrange my defence without interdiction. A HOB result sends a 347 MMC Berserk, and he is justly gunned down. When JP starts to move units that are not affected by the SMOKE (which is mostly to the West of the battle) he is forced to waste more time due to Fire Lanes down the Y7-V6 (from MMG 458, 9-1 in Z7) and Z5-W4 roads (from LMG 458, 8-0 in AA6). Both these positions are essentials if you want to hold off the Japanese, there is not much you can do to stop them moving forward through Stone Buildings, but they are going to have a terrible time moving laterally if you can cover the streets with even LMG firelanes. Unfortunately I have a Hero (from an earlier HOB) and 457 engaged in H-2-H CC by 2x 237, 7+1 (down near U9) but neither of us are able to score a kill! Even if I kill all his units in this CC the loss of my single 457 will be more damaging.
I am forced to pull back further but my options for retreat are starting to fade fast. Again I cannot score any useful results from Prep Fire, with only a single shot hitting and it’s 2MC was easily passed! I have left men in the X7 building in the centre of the board to force him to slow down, he can crush them in CC if he chooses to, but if he doesn’t kill them straight away then he is going to waste more valuable time. Things up in the East are looking desperate, I had a 50% chance of Self-Rallying a 457 up there, and that failed… everyone else has been under so much pressure that they are re-gaining their DM as fast as they lose them. My movements were essentially designed to hold the AA3-Y7-Y10 line but I cannot cover anything more Eastern than AA3. I have a 457 way forward in X3, he will hopefully be able to hold the East against the 3MMC that are crowding in here. The CC down in the West ended poorly when he fired into the Melee with 20FP! Sure his men failed their MCs – but they only strip; I failed the MCs too and was eliminated immediately! This is really good play by JP, totally focussing on the Japanese unit’s benefits to force a quick resolution to a messy CC. At least my Hero was able to take a Squad with him when he died.
The SMOKE has really started to clear up and JP is starting to ditch the heavy MTRs. He did fire a few more rounds though and the most important of those was right on top of my MMG position (Z7), he had ROF (as usual) and dropped another SMOKE shell along the road to completely stop even a Fire Lane due to >5 Hindrance modifiers. I thought he was going to switch his axis of attack again and flood over to the East, but JP surprised me and Banzai-ed my X3 position instead – the end result of that was the loss of my 457, but he suffered numerous MMC stripped while the 9-1 leader who led the Banzai was KIA in the H-2-H CC so I was quite satisfied with the end result of this! Unfortunately there were 3 IJA MMC crawling around up here in the East and they were able to gobble up the 2.5 MMC I had Routed away towards the Eastern board edge… JP did not declare ‘No Quarter’ because he knows those Prisoners will count for double if they are Exited.
Allies Losses: 458, 457, 247 (2.5 x 457 Captured)
Japanese Losses: 4x 347, 2x 137, 228, 9-1
4x 347 stripped, 237 Stripped, 228 Stripped, 8+1 wounded
It was here that we stopped the game for the night. It truly hangs in the balance and despite the luck certainly favouring the Japanese the Allies have managed to hold off their more numerous foe in the area where it currently counts the most, the West. Up in the East though there are really some big problems for the Commonwealth forces to deal with, they are out-numbered 3:1 and if those Prisoners are taken off-board then it is “Goodnight Jan”
End of Turn 4: The Allies are in a desperate situation
Comments on SMOKE and Heavy Wind
We both made an error with the Heavy Wind and it’s effect on SMOKE. Although this was to JPs great benefit I am the one who must take responsibility for the oversight as JP asked me about the effects of Wind early in the game and I assured him I knew what I was doing!
For those (like us) who have not had Heavy Wind occur often in a game, the relevant rule for this case is A24.6 which notes that SMOKE is immediately removed in Heavy Wind. All those MTR shots which so successfully shielded his men from my MG Fire Lanes and other attack were actually in error.
However, as it stands at this point in the game the SMOKE has played its part so even though we removed the SMOKE immediately it had essentially out-lived its usefulness anyway…
TURN 5-6
Back to finish the game off now, and a quick look at my position does not give me much to feel good about. With a bit of luck in both Defence and Attack I shall be able to pull off a win here, but I really don’t rate my chances. He has too many troops and too many options to push through my now-meagre defence. Even though we have finally clarified the Heavy Wind issue and its effect on the SMOKE that still cannot counteract the ability of the Japanese to fail MCs and keep on moving; something that is vital for Exit VP games.
I have the option of pulling back and withdrawing off of the board to try and increase his required Exit VP total, but he also has taken Prisoners, and they are going to be worth a mint if he can get them off… as it stands, just the Prisoners will almost be enough to win this game for him! I shall pull back as many troops as possible to the last 2 hexrows and make that my last stand.
I start off by attempting to extricate my men from danger. As it turns out the Palm Trees and Hedges/Walls help me a lot and by the end of movement I am able to withdraw all but 2 MMC beyond his LOS; that allows me to re-gain concealment and stop him Banzai-ing me. The 2 units I leave behind end up on Level 1 of the X7 and the Z7 buildings, which will prove to be a bit of a thorn in his side when it comes to movement; they are sacrifices, but useful ones as I need to slow him movement more than anything else.
He repairs his LMG, but that is of little use to him now as my men are not standing and fighting. To get to them he is going to have to move into the open and across roads, which puts the onus on him to make good MC rolls. In the end he settles for very little forward movement, just being content to enter the AA8 building with a number of MMC and a leader (which makes a Banzai charge possible). There is lots of lateral movement; he is setting up for a rush to the edge with all his men now being 5-6 hexes away from the Exit Edge – though to get off he will have no choice but to travel in open ground with CX… something that allows me to prepare my fire groups for his attack. He suffers a bit of bad luck with a HS (and his Prisoners) being KIAed in the street as he moved about in the open; Prisoners count double as CVP when KIA but with them dead he cannot claim the Exit VP (A26.222) and CVP are unimportant in this game! He also has a HS ELR broken against the Western edge, a great result as it means that I can gain concealment for more units. There are a number of Units Stripped and Pinned which is also useful as each unit stripped takes him one step closer to being CRed or Eliminated.
We are both suddenly aware that the game is now on a knife-edge and could fall either way…
My first DR of the new Turn is a Prep Fire from X7 which Wounds his Adjacent 9-0 officer and strips 2x 347. Again I pull back, this time to my final positions right up against the Exit Edge… to get off-board he is going to have to brave multiple in-depth attacks and Fire Lanes, the board will be a mass of RF counters by the time I am finished with him! My moves go off without a hitch and the only unit that suffers a PTC ends up pinned in probably the best place possible (CC4) since this will force units here to run his DFF, SFF and FPF gauntlet! I also take the opportunity to move my 3 leaders off-board for 4 Exit VP, now the Japanese will need 15 Exit VP to win.
It has finally come to the last chance for the Japanese and they are forced to face some realities… they cannot get their leaders off-board as both surviving leaders are Wounded and thus have only 3MF – there are no units in LOS that they can Banzai either, so they cannot unleash the hordes of nearby MMC with 8MF. In the end the leaders Banzai charge my X7 and Z7 sacrificial units; more out of lack of other options than anything else, the MMC they take with them had no chance of making it to the board edge anyway. As his units each start to take their CX counters and rush for the Exit edge they call up amazing amounts of fire, and even more amazing amounts of low DRs from the Commonwealth forces… if this was Sesame Street, then it would be brought to you by the number ‘3’… The Japanese throw themselves at the map edge with great bravery and the forward Commonwealth positions take FPF shots until they break, but the dice have totally swapped allegiance from the start of the game and now the IJA are the ones suffering…
It all comes to a head when a 347 unit makes it to the edge of the board and is forced to take a 2MC… the result of this is a HOB, and the result of that is a Berserker! Instead of having 2 Exit VP now this unit turns around and rushes the nearest British unit! It was then that we both knew it was game over… of the remaining 16CVP that made a rush to Exit (including 3 CVP of Prisoners, who would be doubled to 6 Exit VP) only 2.5 MMC made it along with a single Prisoner Squad… Against all the odds, and totally against the run of the game to this point it was an Allied Victory!
Allies Losses: 3x Prisoner HS eliminated by friendly fire
Allied Exit VP: 4 (9-1, 8-0, 7-0)
Japanese Losses: 3x 347, 237, 4x 127, 128, 9-0
3x 347 stripped
Japanese Exit VP: 9 (2x 347, 127, Squad Prisoner)
The Japanese have not exited 11 VP more than the Allies.
COMMONWEALTH VICTORY
Conclusion
We made a big mistake with our lack of understanding of the Heavy Breeze‘s implications. Because we picked up on this only in Turn 4, this meant that the IJA had 4 uninterrupted turns of SMOKE, and that SMOKE helped them mightily.
Although this was a big mistake I feel that for the AARs sake it was really not too bad.
– Firstly due to the fact that there is such a small chance any other players will face such an event – it does require a WCDR of ‘2’ followed by a subsequent dr of ‘5’ – and those are pretty poor odds!
– Secondly, the Heavy Winds negate the SMOKE capability of the Japanese, turning the game right around, instead of being pro-Japanese it suddenly becomes pro-Commonwealth; this means that our AAR is a little more relevant to players who might want to take up this scenario as the availability of SMOKE is going to be the usual state of affairs
As it was, the SMOKE was a crucial factor in this game. JP got lucky with both availability and ROF, so at some stages whole areas of the map were totally obscured giving the Japanese huge opportunities to shift their attack laterally across the board. Personally I feel that 4x 50mm MTR is just too much of an advantage to the Japanese; especially since their troops are considered Elite and thus get an extra +1 on their SMOKE Depletion number.
The Allies suffered the usual poor attack rolls that have dogged them though this whole series of games, the Japanese easily passed most of their MCs. This totally changed around in the last 2 turns when it seems that the Allies finally learned how to shoot straight and cut the Japanese rush for the Exit edge to pieces.
Even with this taken into account I still think that the Allies really face a terrible risk of being totally over-run if they stand still for too long. The IJA have enough leaders to effectively Banzai their way across the board, and despite the losses JP incurred in the only Banzai attack he made, he still ended up clearing out an entire flank’s defenders with it. The Commonwealth commander must constantly keep his men out of the IJA LOS so that any Banzai opportunities can be avoided.
Troop numbers is where the Allied men really face an up-hill battle. They are stretched so thin that any hole in the defensive line is going to be quickly exploited. The Japanese numerical superiority as well as their ability to fail MCs and keep on moving makes it all too easy for them to keep any British or Australian units under DM and then just pour through gaps. 20 Squads, each of which need to suffer 3 failed MCs prior to being Broken is always going to be hard to stop… especially when they are able to make use of the city environment and SMOKE to avoid FP and Firelanes. The only way for the Allies to stop the Japanese is to keep slowly giving up ground, moving backward from one interlocking Fire Lane position to another; by the time Turn 6 comes about, if the Japanese can reach the Exit edge without use of CX and Open Ground Movement then you are going to be in real trouble.
This was a very interesting scenario though, and one that I enjoyed playing despite really being under pressure from the very start. I would recommend giving it a play as it presents an interesting setting for a Japanese attack.