J10 – ARMOURED FIST
JP attacking as the Japanese
Legion defending as the British
ROAR (J:B – 30:13) – 29th July, 2007
INITIAL THOUGHTS
This looks easy enough, I got 4 squads and 4 tanks against his 4 squads and 3 armoured cars. All I got to do is get 15CVP’s (3 tanks) worth off the board, the question becomes: do I try and smash my way through or try and sneak around him?
SETUP
He has 5 infantry counters in AA4 and 2 counters in AA7 with 2 more counters further back along with his 3 armoured cars, (obviously these are all concealed) that makes a total of 9 counters and the scenario card only allocates 8 so he has obviously deployed one squad.
THE PLAN
There is an opportunity here that is too good to miss, the 5 units in AA4 are in a hut which will collapse after any AFV has done an overrun and thus make it lose its +1 TEM as well as making the occupants take a PTC so I think I will do an opening gambit and charge it. If his ATR is there then I may lose a tank but killing what must be at least a squad and a half and probably the only leader will be worth it I feel.
I have divided my force into 5 manoeuvre elements as below in order of movement:
– Squad + LMG enters R8 goes CX to W9 hoping to get the AA7 unit to fire or at least show himself – if it is a HS then it will obviously be stacked with the ATR after all, what is the point of having an LMG with them in such close terrain?.
– 2 Chi-Ha Medium tanks will enter the road R5 (CE for a while then BU) and the lead tank will do an OVR on the AA4 position (thus collapsing the huts) stopping in the hex to ensure he can not fire at the rest of my force.
– The other 2 Chi-Ha Medium tanks will move to AA3 and Z3 to do some advancing fire on AA4’s occupants.
– 2 Squads, LMG and the 9-1 leader are on a truck and they will enter on the road R5 and drive to Y5 where one squad, LMG and LDR will go to Z3 for a 6FP –1 shot at the AA4 troops in advance fire and the other squad will either accompany them or keep moving down the road either on foot or on the truck depending on whether the AA7 unit has fired (and perhaps unload and advance into the bldg. BB4).
– One truck with a Squad + MTR enters road R5 and goes to Y5 where it will unload and the squad will move 1 more hex to Z4.
– The remaining truck will follow the attack, I am well aware that they are worth 1 CVP each and I may use them later to draw some of his ATR fire.
GAME 1
I moved the squad to W9 and he flashed his AA7 HS to strip my concealment, now I had the green light, I was sure the ATR was with the HS so I sent the 1st platoon of tanks to do an OVR on the AA4 troops, they passed the PAATC and kept concealment, and they also passed the collapsing hut PTC so I moved the tank out of the hex and he exposed one unit with a LMG which tried to do an AFV TK# with MG at my rear but he missed the shot. My second Platoon went in and OVR him as well and once again he passed the PAATC but my OVR DR was an ace-deuce which CR’ed the exposed squad and the subsequent MC’s were failed by the leader, squad and newly reduced HS. At this point he surrendered, Legion admitted that he had not read the hut rules as he thought they were only by SSR and now that he had lost half his infantry it was a guaranteed win. (There is a lesson there for all of us… never assume!!)
GAME 2
He re-setup with a similar defence only this time the 5 counters were in level 1 of BB4. I was of the opinion that he would have moved his ATR to the AA7 hex but was also aware that the level 1 hex could only fire at the adjacent road hexes due to the plethora of palm trees around his position. My tanks started on the same hexes but my infantry spread out with 2 squads, LMG, MTR and Leader entering at R0 and the other 2 squads and LMG entering at R7 and R8. Once again I moved a squad to W9 where he showed a full squad in the AA7 position. A pair of tanks went to Z2 and AA2 and my leader took the 2 squads at the top of the board and went CX and by bypassing the jungle (its light jungle so all OK) went to X1 by the end of advance phase with a view to cutting off the BB4 troops from attacking the flanking AFV’s. My last pair of tanks went to CC9 to engage the AC in FF7. My advance fire was all about getting area acquisitions on the escape routs from the BB4 building (more to convince him to move rather than with any real intent to attack the building. In his turn the FF7 AC started up and promptly blew up from a well placed shot by one of my tanks at the CC9 area. His AA7 squad fired at my troops but missed and advanced into BB7. A leader and squad ran out of the BB4 building (leaving a unit and SW still concealed in there) and successfully re-located to GG4. Another AC pulled back to 42E4 and the last went to GG3.
I sent the top pair of tanks to EE1 and FF1 where the GG3 AC fired for no effect and, using BFF I rolled a snake eyes (there was +8 DRM!! So a hit and even a possible CH) I didn’t score the CH but the AC brewed up none the less. The bottom pair of tanks went to FF6/GG6 to engage the AC in 42E4 and also the infantry in the trees at GG4. My leader and a squad went to AA4 with a view to entering the BB4 building and doing some CC when the BB4 unit fired and, to my surprise it was a full squad with an ATR (I thought it was a HS) so I changed direction after he FF’ed and went to CC3 and eventually advanced into DD3. the squad in the bamboo near AA7 had to come out eventually so I put a squad in AA6 and another in CC9 to be able to put him under fire (I still have my tanks rear CMG if needed). At this point Legion realised that he needed to do something or he would be cut to pieces and destroyed piecemeal so he attacked. He prepped with his sole remaining AC to no avail. The squad and ATR in BB4 tried to get to my tanks at FF6/GG6 but was broken by fire. The squad in the bamboo also tried and was broken as well. The leader and squad in GG4 were broken as they attempted to attack as well. His last squad ran down the road right at my lead tank which was unable to kill him and it passed its PAATC but did not kill my tank in CC.
At this point (Turn 2) Legion surrendered and quite rightly, I could squish the man in the hex with my tank and he only had one AC left alive.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Legion usually wins 2 out of 3 games we play so I take satisfaction from beating a better player but this game left nothing, it was a white wash from the moment it was printed. To have any chance the Japanese should lose one tank to force them into a 3 tank platoon or risk movement TC’s, they just have too much mobility and the Brits have too few units to stop them. The only way I would recommend this scenario is for a newbie to play the IJA and an experienced player to play the Brits as the only way I can see the British winning is if the Japanese get diced.