Blood Reef: Tarawa CG - Heat of Battle

Setup:
US: Well, for the first scenario I decided to commit two of my three Infantry companies (reinforced with heavy weapons platoons), my engineer company, the M3A1 platoon, and the 'dozers. In the first wave I choose to fully commit to taking the pier. Forthat purpose I chose to land a company of marines and the engineer company (with the scout sniper and the 10-3 directly on the pier). My opponent placed tetra's in B5-10 and tetra+wires in E1 and E2. My plan was to use the scout snipers on the pier to attract fire and lay some supporting fire while my engineers blew holes in the tetra's (especially the E1-2 tetra+wire). I place my bombardment hexes in I4 and K6. I overlaped them so as to get some meaningful smoke in the area. Luckily for me both bombardmants hit the right area and brought death and destruction to one major pillbox; a 9-1, mmg, 447, 37L, 228 died when their pillbox collapsed around their ears. Other than that the bombardment sr'd one squad.

First turn:

With smoke covering the eastern area, I felt good about totally commiting my attack to the pier. Turn one saw about half of my LVT's setting up empty and being recalled as soon as they entered. All the full LVT's west of the pier entered the first hex and unloaded. I know, the units are sitting ducks when wading, but I thought I could blow up a couple of tetras for the next wave (later I realized how stupid this was. I should have drove on and taken the anti armor fire, which only consisted of mg's since Hugh didn't buy anything else to cover the area except the 37L which got creamed in the bombardment). Anyway, I figured that that was just a sideshow anyway; the real test would be east of the pier. The LVT's east of the pier all made good time and moved to the D hexrow just before the tetra/wires and stopped (another mistake, I should have ignored the things and rolled right over them taking the chance that there were A-B mines added to them). The scout snipers advanced onboard.

Turn 1 surprises:

• LVT's can fire AAMG's in a 360 arc, allowing me to use the 14fp of 22 LVT's to my advantage.
• Wrecks/afv do provide cover on the reef if the beach slope is slight even though hinterland hexes are at level 0 and ocean hexes are at level -1.

[Actually, according to BRT Terran rule 1.0 everything is at level 0, but the same effect.]

Turn 2:

After losing three(?) LVT's and a squad of waders to Hugh's fire I decided to stick to my plan. First the engineers west of the bridge laid ~4 bangalore torpedos against two of the tetras, while the engineers east of the pier disembarked from the LVT's, some into the water while others went directly onto the pier to give a hand to the scout snipers. The scout snipers on the pier were drawing lots of fire (who wouldn't fire at a 10-3 and 3*768 plus 2*flamethrowers), which was all well and good with me; as long as the guys on the pier were being fired at the waders were not getting cr'ed. My other bid to take fire was to move two 348's with flamethrowers to threaten the G3 pillbox that was the lynchpin of the eastern defense of the beaches. Of course they got whacked, but you've got to threaten to draw fire. One of my bangalores worked and the B5 Tetra was no more. I also got my air support this turn, which saved my butt. Hugh had placed his armor behind the lines and had moved them across the runway to concentrate on my assault area. Well, AF 1 tanks in the open are meat on the table for '44 fighters. Even with the +2 mod to the STC, the moving unconcealed AFV's were easily identified. I proceeded to kill five of six of them in the next two turns, with the sixth going down to a shot from a wading stuart. However, they did kill two LVT's before dying.

Turn 2 surprises:

• Fighter Bombers are murder against low armor tanks.
• 6fp firelanes suck.

[Three big mistakes became apparent real quick to the Japanese:

1. The tanks should have been entrenched along the seawall and roughed out the bombardment. (BTW, If you count on USMC air support showing up on turn 3 or 4 it will show up early and will be flown by Pappy Boyington and the rest of the Black Sheep Squadron)
2. I needed a pillbox and heavy weapon to cover the eastern beachette. (I got "target fixation" thinking that we are playing the landing on Red Two yeah, and Red Two is west of the pier, yeah that's it!-- I should have known after years as a boat control officer (read expendable Navy junior officer) that Marines will land whereever they damn well please). I had planned for my tanks to charge the beachhead but Pappy's Boys made quick work of that plan.
3. A single row of tetrehedrons is next to worthless [except when assault engineers feel compelled to blow them up :-)].They should have gone east of the pier in three rows to counter the "board edge creep" amphibious landing.]

Turn 3:

Second wave comes on, a company of marines and the stuarts. Once again, I wanted to get all these guys into the cover of the pier, but there were just too many vehicles and three stuarts ended up west of the pier and under the gun. The pathfinders found lots of firepower directed at them. Even with a morale level of 10, I ended up with three dead pathfinders in three turns. This turn saw me placing 4 dc's as bangalores with none of them working. I gotta agree with whomever said that bangalores get a short shrift in ASL; next time I'll forgot about it and use the dc's to threaten troops. So, I had no choice but to go over the wire. Meanwhile, I had gotten a .50cal into the hands of my 10-3 and got 4 ROF from him, killing about a squad and a half of dedicated japanese soldiers. I kept rallying hs's and sending them on suicide misions down the pier to keep his 9-1+.50cal+mmg G3 Pillbox stack in check.

Turn 3 Lessons:

• Morale level 10 sounds good, but no cover --> eventual death.
• Smoke exponent of 5 is very good.

[Japanese comments:

1. MGs make excellent anti armor weapons--kill the pathfinders and they will usually bog and become immobilized. [Seems strange that pathfinders get armored assault modifiers since they are supposedly wading in front of the tanks marking big holes with bouys. Sounds more like hazardous movement to me.]
2. I thought it strange that squads can toss smoke grenades from reef locations onto beaches--seems the conditions would be wetter than deep snow--but they did aplenty. I think the Marine squads failed only one or two smoke greande placement drs.]

Turn 4:

Well, with the failure of the bangalore torps, I decided to do what I should have done in the beginning: drive right over the offending tetra/wires and damn the consequences. For the rest of the game I just sent them over the darned things. I ended the game losing 4(?) LVT's and 1 stuart to tetras. For starters I sent ahead the LVT's that still had hs's in them and then followed them up with the 2nd wave guys. I finally got a unit on the beach of G4, although he was promptly shocked by a mtr and later died. The 10-3 on the pier got smoked by another mtr, so he was usless for a couple of turns (although this stopped the annoying habit of my troops to die for failure to rout). Two of my stuarts bogged without Pathfinders. The flamethrower + hs dance continued. I hate flamethrowers; they're such a tease.

Turn 4 Lessons:

• Screw, I said screw, the torpedoes son, full speed ahead!
• Even when smoking kill stacks, don't forget that you are providing the attacker cover.

[Japanese comments:

Well, given the rain of death of destruction caused by his 10-3, hmg, and squads (plus a 60mm mortar with good ROF)I think smoking the kill stack and giving 2-3 USMC broken half squads "cover" is a trade I will make any day --firelanes don't mind smoke a bit :-)]

Turn 5:

My troops start to filter onto the beach. I've got a 9-1 for every squad and another 10-3 with a .50cal. My other 10-3, after generating a Hero, jumps into a returning LVT from the pier with the intention of throwing a beach party. Entree? Roasted Imperial Warrior. Sleaze move of the game: allowing units to double time when trying to get under wire :0 Heck, I didn't know. Still, my units are too bunched up and still taking fire from G3. Another kill stack is in the making on the pier with 2 668's and a 9-1 replacing the scout snipers and 10-3. I can't believe the marines in this game. the average leader is a 9-1! I end the scenario with 5*9-1, 2*9-2 and 2*10-3, not to mention the odd 8-1, 8-0 and even a 7-0 underachiever. I've got a leader for every 1.7 squads! The rubble of H3 is cleared out this turn, leaving me with two beach hexes that are fairly immune to fire. I can even start gaining concealment!

Lesson 5 rules:

• One should have a plan for what to do after you get to shore. . .
• Pillboxes are just grand, but the CA restriction is disappointing.
• Every once in awhile a stuart can spread its legs and wade without a pathfinder.

[Japanese Comments:

The USMC leadership is downright demoralizing from the Japanese point of view. I think every Marine with a chevron is represented by a SMC.]

Turn 6-8:

On the following turns I continued moving troops to shore and made seemingly countless bids to take the G3 pillbox. On turn 6 I killed the reaminging 228, but was promptly blown off the pillbox by covering japanese fire. At this stage I traded a 9-1 for a half squad! I figured a 9-1 was more expendable than a squad at this point, and rather than lose a squad to the nip, I gave up a Lt Pomerantz who swore too much in church one day ;). Still, I had isolated the pillbox and forced Hugh to start shooting at units that would break instead of CR. I almost wish I had brought on the rest of the Infantry (or the shermans) at turn 5, but how was I to know. Highlight of the turn: driving a 9-1 and two squads berserk during a strafing run.

[Japanese Comments: Starting to feel like the tommys at Dunkirk!]

Turn 7:

Found me trying to arrange the berserkers to enter a particularly frustrating H4 trench location to overstack the hex. I lost the gambit and it cost me an LVT and a 248. Oh well, success would have brought me so much. Anyway, I sacrificed a 228 to try to take the Pillbox; another failure. quite annoying. Hugh's berserkers end up charging across the runway and suffering a bomb CH that kills everyone. Lots of marines broken and the beach hexes monsterously over stacked. My two remaining stuarts are in F3 and F4 raining grapeshot at the offending Asians. Me like cannister, but me don't like +5 CA TEM of pillbox.

[Japanese Comments: Yep, no surprise the air support guys get a critical hit. The Marines are definitely going to buy those flyin' college boys some booze.]

Turn 8:

Everyone but the 'dozers are on land/pier, so I'm happy. Now my leaders are stacking with kill stacks. I drive a stuart into H4, lose it to a THH, and drive another into the hex, so I'm able to move some squads into G3 concealed and then run a 9-1 and two hs's into the G3 pillbox.; that's 11 cvp and a captured .50cal mg for me, plus a good setup area. I then advance my two 10-3's and a 9-2 into three kill stacks for the final turn. Hugh is able to retake H4, and the game ends.

[Actually, 13 CVPs for the PB.]

CVP totals:

• Japanese lost 110 cvp.
• Marines lost 80 cvp.

I lost many squads (about 45% of my on board forces), but retained all but three of my leaders. I did end up losing 5 of 6 stuarts, but I really didn't think they would make it ashore anyway, so I'm glad to have one left. The LVT situation worries me; I only have 9 left. Still I have a viable beach head with a covered approach.

[Japanese Comments:

1. I have to admit that after about turn 6 my personal morale broke. My mistakes in the Japanese set-up seemed irrecoverable given the US air support's timeliness and accuracy. The amazing Marine firepower and leadership DRMs just looked too daunting for the remaining Japanese to stop so I tossed in the towel.
2. Interested to see what the MMP guys do to the CG and kudos to Steve Dethlefsen who very promptly rifled back about half a dozen e-mail questions in less than a day after their posting.]

Let me add to Hugh my own thanks to Steve d. for prompt replies to the questions I had. I even tried to keep them a minimum since I hated to bug the guy. AH will be reprinting this monster sooner or later. I hope they put all the polish on it that they usually include.

Brian Williams