Peleliu "Bloody Nose Ridge" USMC vs Japanese scenario game.

Historicon 2016 has come and gone, but here are few pics of the scenario game I ran for WWPD and Battlefront. This game was a Peleliu September 1944 battle for the Umurbrogol Mt. or, as the Marines of the 1st Division called it, "Bloody Nose Ridge".

The game had a Marine Battalion reducing a Japanese bunker and cave complex while also defending against Japanese counter attacks attempting to break the Marine line and reestablish contact with the Japanese fortified position. It came down to the last turn and was a entertaining all the way around.

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Bolt Action - Gung Ho: USMC Raiders Theatre Selector for the attack on Makin Island, 1942

GUNG HO

USMC RAIDERS, MAKIN ISLAND 1942

Up until August of 1942, The Japanese Empire had seemed unstoppable as it took Guam, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and other significant territories in the south pacific. Something needed to be done to halt the tide of invasion. While US Marine Corps invaded Guadalcanal, a secondary much smaller operation would be launched a thousand miles away against Japanese forces on the Makin Atoll. This operation was undertaken by the 2^nd Raider Battalion, of the newly formed Marine Raiders, and was led by the extremely unorthodox Evans F. Carlson.

On August 17^th, 1942 the 2^nd Marine Raiders were secretly delivered to Makin by submarine and landed ashore at night using rubber rafts. Their mission was to wreak enough havoc that the Japanese would hesitate before sending reinforcements from the Marshal Islands to aid IJA forces on Guadalcanal.  Without outside support, these soldiers carried the weapons and equipment they needed to complete the mission. Despite being scattered by the surf on the way onto the island, leadership issues during the operation and problems escaping the island’s strong tide when leaving, the Raider’s hit and run mission was touted by Allied media as a success and proved that the unbeatable Japanese could indeed be beaten.

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Saipan Invaded!!! USMC vs Japanese Beach Assault

By Eric Lauterbach

Hey, the new USMC and Japanese PTO books are in the WWPD grubby hands so its time for a Saipan style beach assault! Luke whipped up two Japanese lists and I came up with two USMC lists for a side by side 1500 on 1200 point game. Yes for the first test we always do, we get silly and have 3000 points on the table.  The beach assault mission is very similar to the Omaha beach landing mission and is good for that once or twice a year "get all the toys out" game. It has some completely different rules than a normal mission the biggest one is casualties are irrelevant.  Yup you heard me its purely on taking objectives by turn 12. Killed USMC infantry and man-packed guns get the zombie rule and come back as the next wave of troops. The victory is determined by when or if you get the objectives.

Japanese deployment

For this mission the zones are sea zone, surf zone and then beach zone and then it is the hinterland zone.

We added a few LVT in this pic for dramatic effect 

Hollywood photo.

Another Hollywood pic the actual number of landing craft we use is far less but looks stupid in the pics.

Japanese start pinned

Reminder this is two games side by side on a slightly narrower boards.

The Japanese have few bunkers that can crack the LVTs but we get lucky coming in.

The bush represents obstacles we treat it like wire.

The Japanese are two different types of company one fortified and one confident trained.

Luke intermixing his infantry platoons.. playing the rules not the game. 

John fails to pin both platoons 

Assault checked with Japanese attached HMG fire.

On the left the USMC is dealing with heavy bunker fire.

The first assault is checked.

Getting pounded but the Amtraks keep up the fire.

Time for the second wave of assaults.

Thank god the USMC pinned that bunker.

The Japanese run out of infantry in the hand to hand fighting.

The Marines kill the HMG bunker with satchel charges.

Things a looking good they have a toe hold on the beach.

Things are not going as well on the right.

Marines take more fire from the bunker line

Time to move on to the next bunker.

John going for it again

The next bunker goes down to USMC charges.

The Marines killed the bunker but took massive casualties nothing much left.

The Marines need to recycle and get the next wave.

The Japanese have moved troops down the line to re-enforce Tojo hill.

The second wave of troops is late!

The assaulting continues on the right.

The Marines second wave is coming in and they get a flamethrower Sherman

The second wave is slowly coming in.

The Japanese 75mm bunker is killing Amtanks left and right.

The Sherman with nothing but flame can't do much to bunkers at all.

Still trying to crack the line.

The Japanese have been getting troops in as well.

These silly light tanks will be a huge problem for the Marines.

Nothing but MGs but enough to generate pins.

Its taking too long to get the second wave up.

The Japanese try and take out the flame tank.

But the Niki team gets gunned down.

The second wave is clear obstacles and moving in the hinterland.

More Japanese tanks arrive.

John assaults the center 

John takes the trench line.

The Marines kill the infantry in the trenches but that bunker has to be killed to win.

The fire from the bunker and all the light tanks is too much the Marines can not get the assault off.

The Marines are running out of time to clear the objectives of Japanese.

The last Japanese infantry stand keeps making his morale checks.

The last chance assault fails.

With the turn limit reached it was too much for the USMC. Just enough Japanese were left to contest the objectives and prevent the win for the Marines. The game was long when you have to go 12 turns for a outcome so make this a all day game for planning. The Japanese tanks are too much for the Marines who are really expensive and good tank killing assets are limited. So I would probably reconfigure the USMC lists for this eventuality of hordes of Japanese light tanks. I can see this being a unrealistic crazy arms race between light tank and LVTs which should be a infantry on infantry fight.

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