Dear All,
Spent the last two weeks playing CH's Iwo Jima Module CG, Uncommon Valor. A very intense experience. Frustrating, exciting, devastatingly violent.
The action centres around Motoyama number 2 airfield in the centre of Iwo. The runway is surrounded by tall hills, level 5/6 I think. The marines must seize all level 5/6 hexes and a ridgeline which is under fire from all three peaks - Hills 621, Oboe and Peter.
To enter the board The USMC must cross the runway before struggling up a series of terraces of volcanic ash. Constantly under a *lot* of fire. Thankfully the entry points are so far from the Jap positions that only ordnance can really reach, although long range .50 cal fire hurts the most (4-3)
Anyway on with the AAR. Now i'm playing this solo so I can recount both sides here...
By SSR Cave complexes extend 4 hexes from the primary cave and by thoughtful setup it is possible to provide the IJA with an underground route from one end of the battlefield to the other, tactically crucial. I guess this may be the ultimate interior lines.
I won't go into my placement of 30+ caves and PB's but in essence I have used the hills to provide support positions that cover the entry points and victory hexes with 150 ART peices and the excellent 47L AT guns. 70mm mtrs provide a lot of suppressing fire and are sighted to cover rally points just to keep The USMC DM.
PB's tend to hold the MG's as I don't like to have my ordnance restricted by PB setup, I mostly keep em in caves so I can move em.
The infantry and knee mortars (about my favourite peice of hardware) are placed on the edge of terraces in trench/bunker systems. This means that as soon as marines move up the lower terrace (for 4 mp) they are hit by all kinds of firepower. The volcanic ash acts like sand, 1/2 ing ordnance FP but making movement *real* slow.
I have placed wire all over the victory hexes, mines along armour advance routes and AT weapon blind spots. AP mines are just in plain old sneaky places.
The defense is horribly in depth, the lie of the land allows vast covered arcs.
Well, to the Corps. Not much scope for initial tactical work here. Smoke the runway and block LOS to hill 621 and around the central runway knob. Run across the runway hoping to get to the first terrace before the IJA get a FFE down. As the Jap I didn't place any forts in the first terrace as they would have been cut of from support by the smoke and quickly destroyed by the green machine.
Biggest killer in this initial rush was .50 cal fire and 47L for the 8AF shermans.
The marines (c. 5 platoons, 4 tanks)make it to the terrace leaving a trail of bloodied, unpossesed SW behind them.
(I feel it important here to mention the TO&E for the Marines, each Platoon is made up of 3x768, 1 228 and 1 128, 1 60mtr, 1mmg and 2xDC, and a leader)
Meanwhile, 1 fully deployed platoon runs towards hill 621 to distract the IJA and relieve some pressure on the main force. A mmg and Mtr platoon race towards the central runway knob and setup to support the rest of the boys.
The main force makes it to the terrace and is pinned down. The armour is largely picked off and the massive marine FP makes no impact on the entrenced IJA. Movement up the J6 wadi is stymied by mines, and any attempt to move forward is quickly gunned to a stop.
The platoon moving towards Hill 621 is wiped out ny OBA and knee mortar fire from Q18 and Q21, (nice positions) the support platoon makes it to the central knob and starts WP'ng all visible gun positions.
Air support with napalm and rockets tears holes in the IJA trench system but too late, the scen finishes on turn 7 with minimal IJA casualties and massive marine fatalities - where are the burnt out wreck counters?
In the between game phase the marines invest in 81mm mtrs, 75mm art peices, couple of platoons and a MG platoon, no OBA though. These purchases were very *wrong*.
The IJA just top up their infantry and buy some more 70mm OBA.
The next scen is a very painful memory for the marines.
In the little toehold they have on the terraces below Hills Peter and Oboe the marines setup in foxholes counting on their heavy weapons to blast a hole for them. I setup a saved engineer platoon and medium tank platoon ready for the big push that will take me over the ridge and onto hill oboe.
The attack begins well, a showpeice for WP. But then it bogs, tanks are picked off from hill 621, one 47L now has 6 tank kills, 150 ART peices start rolling snakes, WP starts to deplete, but a platoon laden with DC's, FT's and a 10-2 supported by the last Sherman makes it to the ridge below Hill oboe. There they are pinned down and machinegunned to death. The Sherman going down to yet another 150mm ART CH.
Suddenly there are no marines left. Japs swarm from caves in a counterattack that nearly wipes the Marines from the map, leaving them with a few squads and the tiniest of toeholds on the plateau.
A very painful memory.
That night the japs counterattack to drive thew few marines off the map leaving only the SW platoons around the central knob.
So, back to square one for the USMC. bugger.
Still I have learnt my lesson, OBA smoke and Infantry rule the sands (volcanic ash) of Iwo Jima, although FB's with Rockets and Naplam really are the dog's bollocks*1.
Hope this is of interest to the other person on the list who plays CH stuff.
Ben"-"Jones
The Horror, the Horror
*1,read: very good
This page last updated 4/26/00
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