LN3 - Seizing Viru Harbor

Hey all,

Just finished playing against Jeff Taylor in "Seizing Viru Harbor" from CHs Leatherneck pack. If you guys haven't had the chance to play these, they're all really good PTO (or at least the ones I've played are good) scenarios featuring the USMC against the IJA. Most were designed by Steve Swann, who does a great job researching his material. It's a pity that so many people have been turned off by CH and won't even look at Steve's stuff simply because of the CH label.

At any rate, Viru Harbor plays out almost entirely on overlay 1 (although 2 whole boards are slated for play, everything other than overlay 1 is almost unused) with 2 companies of the 4th Marine Raiders attacking an IJA garrison defending the village with a couple of AA guns. The Marines have to capture the two guns without allowing 10 Japanese squads from escaping off the north edge, which they may do following a failed PTC by their best SMC. We diced for sides, and I drew the Gyrenes.

Jeff's set up was fairly balanced with a slight slant for defending the southern edge of overlay 1. His AA guns were in B5 and E2. The US could set up anywhere not on overlay 1, so I put most of my men on the Northwestern edge (12 of 16 squads) and the remainder setting up at the southeastern corner of the overlay. The US gets 3FB attacks at the beginning of the game (dropping either HE or Smoke Bombs), and I chose to drop 1 HE bomb and a smoke bomb on his units in 32oB7 and drop the other smoke bomb on B8 to allow me to close with his biggest stack. Everything hit as it should have, but did little damage (SRing a squad, I believe it was).

My attack started in earnest, charging headlong into the northern edge with the intention of making sure that he couldn't get his ten squads off and then focusing on the guns. It worked perfectly, and at the end of the first turn, I whacked two elite squads in CC with my 9-2 and 3 5-5-8s in B7, just 2 hexes from his first gun. By the end of turn 2, I had surrounded his gun with 5 squads, a 9-2, and 2 heroes generated through HoB. By the end of turn three, I had taken destroyed the first gun in CC and had assembled a kill stack consisting of 3 squads, 2 mmgs, a 9-2 leader, and both heroes (24FP-4!). Progress along the eastern edge with my 4 squad detachment was somewhat slower. Two IJA squads defended the J0/J1 gap between the bamboo and the board edge and a squad/lmg in K4 cut off any attack further west. I decided to try my luck with 8 morale troops and take the two squads in J0/J1. 1.5 squads broke on turn 1, and another was CRed to a 2-3-8, making it tough to make any early progress, but my success on the Northern edge forced Jeff to pull some of the southern troops out to relieve the north, and by turn 3, I had succeeded in eliminating three squads and had arrived at the H0/H1/G2 jungle line with an 8-1 leader, 2 5-5-8 squads, 2 HS, and a mortar, all of which started exchanging fire with the E2 AA Gun and its surrounding squads. I was feeling pretty good at this point, what with a formidable kill stack ready to roll through the japanese defenses and a small detachment holding Jeff up from the other side, but then the ASL gods started to frown on me a little.

Jeff had thrown up a very tight ring to the west of his remaining gun, but I thought I had found a back door creeping along the A hexrow all the way to the east (around the swamp) and walking up to the Gun from the relatively undefended Northeast. Jeff fired at my super stack with something like a 12+2 attack, and proceeded to break my 9-2, a couple of squads, and kill one of my two heroes. So much for a kill stack. I was able to sneak through a HS, a hero and a 9-1 leader (racing through a hail of 1 and 2 RFP shots) but almost everybody I tried to run through pinned or broke. The hero proceeded with the original plan, walking all the way around the swamp, while the HS/LDR went through the B2 Jungle knocking off the Jap 8+1.

Things remained static on the southern front through turn 4 (he broke one of my two squads, and I rallied a HS, so maybe it wasn't so static). By turn 5, it was starting to look a little dimmer. His forces (now at about 10 squads) were rapidly consolidating around the E2 gun, and in one more turn, I feared that they'd be unbreakable. Time for a charge. The 9-2 rallied everybody in his A7 rally post and I proceeded to once again direct them to the back door (still being held open by my 9-1/2-3-8 in melee with a Jap 2-3-7). I declare CX with a 9-2, a 2-3-8, and two MMG toting 5-5-8's. MF 1 was into A6 where an uppity 1-3-7 IJA HS (sitting in C5) pretentiously fired (a 1FP flat shot). He rolls a 3 causing a 1MC. I box the roll on the leader (who of course fails his wound check), and the whole deal starts to fall apart. The only unbroken survivor was a HS, who continued on his merry way. He was hit in the next hex by an 8+1 shot from C4 which broke him. Now I felt I was in some trouble. I had 2 HS (one of which had withdrawn from CC the previous turn) and a hero on the Northern side of the gun, but it wasn't going to be enough to take it, I thought. Sitting on the southern edge was an 8-1, a squad, and 2 HS, covered by 3 japanese squads and the AA Gun (4FP IFE, and I had to walk right into it's teeth). Knowing that I wasn't going to get a second chance, I started moving across the OG hex between my men in G2 and his AA Gun in E2. First a HS into F1, 8FP-1 and he's CR'd while the AA Gun maintains rate. Second HS into F2, 8FP-1, and he goes berserk (no advancing into CC against the Gun crew for him) while the AA Gun again maintains rate. Finally the squad/leader take to the attack, AM into F1. First the 4FP-1 residual attack, no effect. Then the AA Gun fires (8FP-1), breaks the leader, but the squad passes both the MC and the LLTC. So far, so good. Another 8-1 shot from some covering infantry resulting in a PTC which I passed. A couple of other inconsequential shots, and the squad held firm. It wasn't over yet. Advancing into CC against the Gun crew in bamboo got the squad ambushed, but they survived the Jap attack, and then eliminated the crew. Things are looking good now, but I still had to recover the AA Gun in the next RPh and survive PFPh before I could destroy the gun, sealing the win. CX in bamboo, the squad rolled a 4, just able to find the gun. Jeff then made a critical error. He had 3 or 4 potential PFPh shots against the squad, but only took 1, forgetting that I could voluntarily destroy the gun. The squad survived, and as Japanese squads swarmed around the gun (I wouldn't shoot for fear of activating his sniper), I destroyed the gun. The squad that won it for me went through the following in the last turn and a half: Survived a FPF shot on a Banzai charge in Jap turn 4. Survived a 4FP-1 and 2 8FP-1, along with a 1LLTC in USMC turn 5. Survived and successfully eliminated the enemy gun crew after being ambushed. Recovered the AA Gun while CX and in bamboo in Jap Rally Phase 5. Survived the Prep Fire phase to win the game. Give those guys the Medal of Honor :-)

Jake