J10 – ARMOURED FIST
Legion defending as the British
JP attacking as the Japanese
ROAR (J:B – 30:13) – 29th July, 2007
Live VASL: 2 hours
Well, ROAR doesn’t hold out much hope for my poor British, and after the Allies efforts in the last game (J9 – A Stiff Fight) I can see why morale crumbled so fast in the early days of the Pacific War.
Here we have an armour intensive battle between 4 Medium Japanese AFV and 3 British Armoured Cars… Infantry are light on both sides though the Japanese also have Trucks. Obviously this is meant to show the Motorised aspect of the Japanese attack on Malaysia.
Initial Thoughts
4x Type 97A Chi-Ha vs 3x Marm-Herr III MFF. This does look to be a one-sided little battle. The Japanese AFV are Radioless, but that doesn’t give an advantage to the British in terms of tactics and manageability due to the narrowness of the board. The 57mm MA of the Chi-Ha’s certainly give the edge to the Japanese; they can easily penetrate the British frontal AF with an 8TK. Against this the British only have 2x LMG and and ATR in the hands of the infantry as well as a CMG and ATR in each AC – none of these weapons can penetrate the front or even side armour of the IJA AFV with much chance of success.
My infantry will be necessary to hold back his infantry and to threaten his AFVs with their AFVCC attacks. The mass of Palm Trees on Bd. 35 gives me some opportunities to slow up his initial advance, though fire is likely to be less effective thanks to all the LOS Hindrances and he is sure to OVR or VBM Sleaze. At least I shall have a chance to see where he plans to push through with time enough to re-deploy. Once we leave the terrain congested Bd. 35 we enter the more open Bd. 42; this terrain has less hindrances, but does make him think about where to attack through – the terrain here is more channelling.
I shall be interested to see what JP will do with his Trucks, they can provide a lot of mobility for the Japanese and are also worth 1Exit VP, they might make for good Roadblock scouts and can also stop SFF attacks and absorb firepower.
I expect JP to move his MTR up quickly, these little things are terrors and he loves to use them. I think that there is a lot in this scenario that makes a Banzai charge an interesting option… I wonder if JP is considering this tactic?
The terrain in this battle is Light Jungle and the central main road does exist.
British Setup
35AA8 LMG 457 – Just to keep him honest, and guessing!
35BB4(1) 2x 457, LMG, ATR, 8-1 – This gives me a way to hurt infantry or vehicles and of slowing him down too
35EE2 Marm-Herr III MFF(CE) – VCA pointing toward the exit edge for a quick get-away
35FF4 457, Marm-Herr III MFF(CE) – VCA pointing toward the exit edge for a quick get-away
35FF7 Marm-Herr III MFF(CE) – VCA pointing toward the exit edge for a quick get-away
I have set my defence back far enough to make sure that he will have to commit to a direction of attack that will allow me time to re-position my defence. The terrain on Bd. 35 is not very conducive to a quick advance, nor does it make for easy attacks, thus I have decided to plan for a delaying defence and then to use the more open and yet more channelling terrain of Bd. 42 for the killing-ground.
I have placed my Roadblock at 42L4. If the game lasts long enough for me to pull back this far then I shall have a perfect location from which to hit him hard. This Roadblock will be placed on-board as soon as he has LOS to it though (G.2)
The upper-level units are so placed to make him either come close to fight me, or to move past and then face the possibility of rear attacks.
The Game
We played this game twice.
The first time I had not noticed the rule G5.1, about all single-hex buildings being huts.
This had left my force decimated in the first turn… we re-set the Defence and started again!
JP sends the AFV on first in 2x Platoons of 2x AFV each. One platoon is heading straight down the road at first before going North to stop on top of the 35Z2 Hut. The other goes South past the bamboo patch. His Infantry follows the AFV with CX and is also split 50:50. I have just a single shot worth attempting, that of the FF7 AC – but he misses by miles. JP takes a lot of shots but misses with them all… he uses his AFV to paint the Jungle with AQR counters so my units in the BB4 building will have to face shots if they try to move out.
I do try to move out, though it is with the exposed AC. JP has placed his AFV far enough away to make it necessary for me to roll snake-eyes on the TK roll just to Immobilise the vehicle, so I try to bug out. Unfortunately the Japanese gunners, high on their early-war euphoria make light work of the British AC and it ends up a burning wreck! At the sight of that I pull back as much as I can… One AC heads to cover the middle road from 42E4, the other skulks behind the Jungle in 42A3 (this way I get a reasonable chance of a hit and kill when he pops into LOS). I send the LMG 457, 8-1 back too, they make it to the jungle near the second AC in an attempt to guard him from Infantry attack.
Realising just how difficult it is for me to successfully attack his AFVs JP just rushes forward, though he is careful to keep at least 2 hexes between himself and my ATR. It all really falls apart for me when he BFFs with the lead AFV at my AC hiding behind the patch of jungle (42A3) – the shot is a snake-eyes and my second vehicle goes up in a ball of flame leaving another burning wreck. With that we both know that the game is pretty much in the bag for him, so he just bypasses my infantry and prepares to take out the final Armoured Car. I did have some shots at the second platoon of Chi-Ha’s but LMG fire against their side armour and ATR shots against the front bounced off without even scratching the paint!
With little chance of saving the game (and it is only the 2nd turn!) I decide to try to at least take some of the enemy with me. I charge at his pair of Chi-Ha on the road but in keeping with the style of the game it is a very one-sided affair. His shots are all 2FP +0 or 4FP +0 and my 4 attacking units each have to take a solitary 1MC from those shots… and all but one of them fail! I had hoped to at least get a single LMG/ATR MMC within 1-hex of an AFV’s rear… all I could manage was a solitary CC and for that I rolled 6,6!
It was right there that I surrendered to save us from wasting any more time!
Allies Losses: 2x Marm-Herr III MFF
JAPANESE VICTORY
Conclusion
Wow… what a terribly balanced scenario. I really fail to see how it can have many Allied victories at all! Those ATR can barely penetrate the IJA AFV even from Point Blank against the side and the Armour on the British AC is not enough to stop the guys inside from catching a cold, let along a 57mm shell! Even in the movement stakes the AC are in a lot of trouble as they have less MP than the AFV once they leave the road.
Possible tactics to try are to swarm a platoon of AFV (if there are only 2 of them), but you WILL lose AC and what is the pay-off… a few CVP gained and the possibility of stopping the lone AFV from moving 50% of the time due to the Platoon Movement rules. Even the infantry are not enough due to the equal numbers of British and Japanese troops. If you try to swarm using the British all you will end up with is a lot of dead or Broken troops and possibly, just possibly another AFV killed… that still leaves enough AFV to exit for the win.
The Japanese just need to seek a fight to win this scenario as the balance lies in their favour in every way. Their Morale is superior and they only strip rather than break. Their AFV are mostly safe from the British AT weapons. They have little territory to cover if they do decide to make a run for it, and even a few losses to the British leave massive gaps in the defence.
I can see nothing to recommend in this scenario apart from the beauty of the board… I would love to play a balanced game on this map setup as it look like it offers a lot of tactical options… but it wont be with this scenario!