After playing several all-infantry scenarios, we wanted to play a combined arms game in the Pacific Theater. This scenario was designed by a friend of ours as a large skirmish game. We beefed up the scenario to fit Flames of War, and it worked very well as a game for five players. The scenario is fictitious, set “somewhere in the Pacific.”
Situation: The Japanese have a heavy gun that is concealed in a cave somewhere on a rocky ridge. The gun dominates a wide river that the Americans want to transit. The Americans have dispatched two forces, one by land, and one by water, to locate and destroy the gun. The Americans also want to capture a village at the base of the ridge, and eliminate Japanese resistance in the area.
Terrain: Our table was laid with the long axis running east-west. At the northeastern end of the table is a steep ridge, surmounted by a rocky cliff. The Japanese gun is hidden in a cave somewhere on the ridge. At the southern end of the ridge is a small village in a clearing. The northern side of the table features a wide river, running east-west. Alongside the river is a low-lying area of tall grass. The southern half of the table is higher ground and is covered with jungle, except for some cultivated areas in clearings. Two minor roads run through the jungle and meet at a four-way intersection, and a fast-flowing stream runs past the village into the river.
Forces:
Japanese:
–Infantry company with three platoons
–Nikuhaku platoon (“human bullets” aka tank hunter teams)
–Light tank platoon with three tanks
–Medium mortar battery
–HMG platoon (attached to infantry)
–HMG bunker
–Heavy field gun
Americans:
Land Force:
–Rifle company with three rifle platoons and weapons platoon
–Light tank platoon with three Stuarts
Amphibious Force:
–Rifle company with three platoons and weapons platoon
–Self-propelled artillery battery
–Medium mortar battery
–AMTRACS and landing craft
–One pre-planned naval barrage
Deployment:
The Japanese were outnumbered, but had the advantage of having all their units start the game with hidden deployment. The Japanese commanders marked the positions of their units on a sketch map. One infantry platoon was deployed in a forward position on the southern side of the table, covering an area of open cultivation. The second platoon was echeloned back to its right, in the jungle behind the intersection. The Nikuhaku platoon was in the jungle between the second platoon and the village. The third platoon and the company HQS were in the jungle south of the village. The tanks and mortars were placed at the edge of the village overlooking the river. The HMG bunker was on the ridge, near the hidden gun.
Moves:
The American land force entered the table from the western end. Two rifle platoons led the advance, with one platoon on each side of the road. The three Stuarts followed on the road, and the weapons platoon and the third rifle platoon trailed behind in reserve.
The amphibious force immediately beached some of its landing craft and offloaded two mortar batteries and the self-propelled artillery, while the AMTRACs carrying the infantry continued moving upriver toward the ridge.
The land force quickly made contact with the forward Japanese platoon. The US platoon on the right was caught in the open, suffered several casualties, and was pinned down.
Just then, the pre-planned naval barrage came down, falling along the road and into the village. As it turned out, no hidden Japanese units were under the barrage, so it had no effect!
The pinned down US platoon soon received covering fire from the LMGs and light mortars of the weapons platoon, and was able to break off. This fire eliminated the Japanese team nearest the road, which enabled the Stuarts to reach the intersection, where they turned left and drove for the open grassland by the river. The advance of the Stuarts was covered by the other leading rifle platoon, which pushed into the jungle beyond the intersection, and the Stuarts reached the grassland without incident. However, their screening rifle platoon had walked into the second Japanese ambush that had been lurking in the jungle.
Japanese fire raked the US platoon, then the Japanese launched an assault. The few survivors of the US platoon were forced to retreat across the road, where they rallied on the trailing rifle platoon. The victorious Japanese consolidated back into the jungle. With the exception of the Stuarts breaking through into the river valley, the advance of the US land force had stalled.
While things were looking very bad for the American land force, the amphibious force was proceeding unabated. The Japanese heavy gun fired at the AMTRACs and landing craft as they sailed up the river, but failed to hit anything. Behind the cover of a small smoke screen, the leading AMTRACs made landfall below the ridge and the village and began to disembark their troops. The AMTRACs were then taken under fire by the Japanese tanks, but the tank gunners were unable to hit the side of a barn, and no AMTRACs were damaged. Return fire from the AMTRACs, combined with fire from the SP guns, quickly knocked out the Japanese tanks. Japanese machine gun and mortar fire was equally unable to halt the advance of the dismounted US infantry. The tide of battle was turning decisively toward the Americans.
The Japanese did have a good moment when the Nikuhaku platoon emerged from the jungle and assaulted the unwary American SP guns. Two guns were knocked out and the third was forced to retreat. The US Stuarts then moved forward to machine gun the Nikuhakus, which induced the surviving Japanese to pull back into the jungle. The Stuarts were then unable to cross the swift-flowing stream, so the US commander very cleverly had his landing craft pick them up at the river’s edge and then land them beyond the stream.
The endgame saw US infantry mopping up the HMG bunker and the hidden gun on the ridge, while other infantry followed the AMTRACS into the village. With the heavy gun destroyed and the village firmly in American hands, the Japanese commanders wisely threw in the towel, conceding victory to the Americans!
Although the game ended in an American win, it could have gone either way with some better shooting by the Japanese. If the Japanese heavy gun had hit any AMTRACs while they were still loaded, the American numerical advantage could have been drastically diminished. The Japanese tanks also failed to hit anything before they were destroyed. Once the amphibious force was on the ground and facing no ranged threats to their AMTRACs and Stuarts, it was all over.
- TJ