Dirk Heinz and I played this while I was visiting Orlando recently. This is an ambush type scenario with a twist. Each HIP Jap unit must fire as soon as there is a marine convoy unit within 3 hexes of it, that could be affected by that Jap unit's fire. They are also free to fire sooner. We found out that this scenario requires a more devious, thought out set up than I was able to muster.
I set up the units so that when one was forced to fire, many others would be able to fire at decent odds, except for a few flankers to defend against the inevitable counter attack. I positioned most units about mid-board, three hexes from an N road hex, where there was the least hindrances. I had both INF guns, the tank and the leader directed MMG aiming down that road, with a light MTR just behind, as well as the ATR. I was counting on a high initial number of CVP to offset the Jap losses to come later.
Dirk obligingly entered the full column on turn 1 (he could have split the convoy over 2 turns). The convoy head was jeep, Sherman, jeep, truck, halftrack, then the rest. Those were the units which became targets when the convoy reached its limit of movement on turn 1, which was also when the lead unit became within 3 hexes of a Jap unit.
This is when I found out I was relying too much on luck. I destroyed the2 jeeps, but only immobilized the truck and had NE on the HT. The Sherman was not really vulnerable to anything in the Jap OOB, except for immobilization attempts or the DC hero or a T-H hero. I had fired the 2 INF guns, the MMG and the tank; the MTR and ATR were still hidden in the hope a truck or HT would wander into a good LOS. The good part was the marines could not unload even though the convoy was disbanded because there was no more MP. This left me with my PFPh and the next DFPh to do some damage.
My attempts to do damage did basically nothing, even after adding the MTR and ATR. I broke a couple of unloading marines, but most managed to do this behind lots of kunai. The other 2 Shermans moved up and the death knell sounded for the Japs. There was more back and forth, of course, but soon the Japs were in a CVP hole, so I conceded about turn 4.
Dirk and I reviewed the Jap setup possibilities afterwards. He thought it might be good to keep most units at 4 hexes range from the clear area in the center of the board to let the convoy go a little further during turn 2. Place a unit to stop it on turn 2 when the weaker targets are in front of the feeble Jap guns in that clear area. It also might be effective to set up T-H hero(s) adjacent to the road or at 4 hexes, depending when you want it to come into play; I had forgotten that Japs can set these guys up, as well as try for them during a game.
In any event, the Jap defense must be carefully thought out. I also wonder if 2 marine convoys might be smarter than 1.
Michael R.