War in the Pacific: US v Japan (Escalating Engagement Scenario)

I decided to put to use some of my recent purchases of Japanese and US WWII
figures and vehicles to stage a WWII game using the rules in Introduction to
Wargaming.

I selected the escalating engagement scenario and randomly determined all the
deployment and terrain elements using my solo rules. Each side had 9 units with
three each deployed on the table.

Both commanders were rated poor with average command structures. The Japanese
commander was marginally better in quality being rated bold as opposed to the US
commander, who was cautious.

As it turned out the respective ratings did seem to manifest themselves in the
way the game played out. The US side had no luck whatsoever and consistently
failed to get a reserve unit each turn until turn 7 and then that was too late.

Meanwhile the Japanese built up their forces each turn and while having to
traverse the table were able to deploy enough combat fighting power at the US
strongpoints and defensive lines.

The Chi-Ha tank actually took out the last gambit Stuart which charged on in
turn 7 to try to lift the US force, with a direct hit.

End of story.

One modification I did adopt for this game - I decided to make infantry units a
bit more reflective of the underlying compliment of firepower. In this scenario
my Japanese units were composed of 8 riflemen and one LMG - no SMGs as I don't
believe their line infantry ever used this weapon. This made them marginally
more effective at longer ranges. I like this mix rule to determine firepower as
you could load later war German units with assault weapons and MP42s to beef up
their limited manpower resources. The other modification you could employ is to
change the number of figures within a unit. The Japanese could be raised to 12,
however, I felt that changing the firepower composition was enough.

The game, despite its one-sided nature, was actually quite enjoyable as it
provided a great deal of wonderment and interest in the way the dice managed to
play out the scenario's course. It really was quite fascinating to see how the
Japanese could build up their strength and exert relentless pressure on a
battleline depleted of reserves and hampered by poor command and control.

Short but sweet.

Banzai!