PELELIU: A RE-RUN.

We re-played the Peleliu scenario from Combat Commander Pacific the Thursday after our games day (see previous post). I played the Japanese defenders and Rick took the US Marines.

Initial set up. I set up to take advantage of the enfilade special rule.

The US Marines surge forward under the cover of smoke from mortars and WP grenades.

Despite taking casualties, the marines manage to get round the back of the Japanese positions. While the forward bunkers are assaulted. The Japanese respond with  mortar fire on the supporting 50 Cal.

In the end, the US manage to take all the objectives and win the game.

This game moved quicker as the rules were still in our head and we were familiar with the scenario. Despite early success in causing casualties on the Marines, a lack of fire cards and Rick keeping my forward bunkers busy, my defences were overwhelmed. It shows we can finish a scenario in a night. It may need us to play a block of games to keep us familiar with the game. Maybe next year!

A DAY OF GAMES.

A few Saturdays ago, we had one of our infrequent games days. This is an opportunity to play games that take too long for a evening.

I put on a game of Combat Commander Pacific. We have played a few scenarios on Thursdays and found that we were not finishing them or not playing fully committed so as to finish. We had no time pressure for this scenario. The scenario was Peleliu and saw my US Marines having to take a Japanese held cave system by main force.

Starting positions. Marines in the jungle, Japanese in the safety of the hills, with their sighting marker in the jungle.

Early in the game. The first objective taken by the US. On the right the US try to move forward under cover of smoke from the mortars. In the centre, the US 50 cal thought it had broken a moving Japanese unit, only for Rick to play a 'pillbox' action card, adding 5 to the cover.

Poor manoeuvring on my part and use of  one of the scenario special rules, enfilade, which allowed all Japanese troops able to fire as one activation by giving up the initiative, cost me my flank attackers. A big blow to my hopes of attacking.

It did allow me to use naval support, also by giving up the initiative. This had little effect and the game petered out as a firefight between my 50 cal and the pillbox. Even this ended in failure when I used sustained fire, rolled  a double to break the 50 cal. Rick then managed to trigger an event that broke any weapon of his choice. Guess what he picked? The final ignominy was Rick getting reinforcements through another event, which he used to retake the last objective. Big win to the Japanese.

After lunch, we moved to Rick's and had a couple of games in our continuing Warfighter.

The first game saw us having to take out a VIP sitdown. Success in the previous game had allowed us to get more equipment and squad members.

The four members of our squad make a river approach, which cuts down the number of bad guys.

Rick's squad member.

Rick's character.

The trail is more exposed and we encounter baddies. This is the final opponent from three original units.

We double back on ourselves and cross the same river as earlier. A quick recon before we decide how we attack.

A combination of long range rocket launchers and close range explosives expertise ensures that we get the job done in the final available move!

The success brought me more skills and equipment.

Our second mission of the day saw us having to take down a cartel boss. 

Landing in rugged terrain, we quickly attracted attention.

Despite causing casualties, more of the boss' guards attacked.

The more we put down, the more were attracted to the sound of the guns.

The Boss surrounds himself with expendables.

The combat is getting hot.

More enemy keep arriving. We lose a squad member (he is medivaced). We push on to the target. The mission is all!

A combination of weapons takes down the boss and we complete the scenario.

All in all this was a good day. A break from routine and other distractions. We decided to test whether we could do the Combat Commander Pacific scenario on a week night. We set up the scenario till just before deployment and left it for the next Thursday game. See a future post for the result.