P&F Bloody Tarawa team game - calling all participants.

[Marc Bellizzi]

Everyone,

I have been mulling over how to provide input into this playtest; my biggest concern has been to not step on toes or offend any of the participants. So please, take my comments as constructive and not critical. I won't critique the guys' tactics - I will provide some comments about the tactics I envisioned being successful (or that were actually used during the real battle), so that readers might get a better understanding of why I designed or added things the way I did.
I'll start by saying thank you and congrats to the players; this was a massive scenario and it has a lot of nuances and elements to each side that take finesse and some forethought to utilize to their fullest - the smoke, NGF, tanks, spotters, Japanese snipers, airstrikes, engineer teams, etc. Those assets and elements can really make the difference in this scenario, and a few unlucky or misplaced actions can easily turn the tide against you. I played this scenario 9 times against Cpt Cav and another 9 times against the AI, trying to get the right 'feel' for the battle. You would be amazed how difficult it was to get the scenario to play remotely like the real fight.
I provided a painfully long (removed for the final product) narrative that I pulled off the net, along with copies of the actual maps and other documents used for Tarawa. Every Japanese gun, pillbox, obstacle & trenchline was recreated; every hero, officer & NCO that I could find a name & unit for, was included on each side. I just really like providing that kind of detail.
Historically the Marines landed a Regiment of 3 rifle battalions plus assets, simultaneously on 3 separate beaches. There were 5,000 defenders against 32,000 Marines - but the Marine's peace-meal landings resulted in only 5000 Marines landing the first day. That's 1:1 odds. About 2000 Marines became casualties the first day; the beachheads were so tenuous, by late afternoon the Regt Cdr radioed to his higher, "Issue in doubt." Nearly all the Sherman tanks foundered in the surf; only 2 were left working at days end (but those 2 tanks did a lot of damage to the Japanese defenses in their vicinity). A battery of 75mm Pack Howitzers were carried to the beach and fired over open sights into the enemy lines, helping the center-battalion get a foothold. The Stuart tanks faired better, most getting ashore, but their light guns were not very effective.
An attempt to land elements of a second Regiment resulted in 70% casualties in many rifle companies within minutes of dropping the ramps, so that further landings were called off. The Marines braced for a Japanese Banzai charge expected to occur that night, but it never materialized. Unbeknownst to the Marines, a lucky NGF barrage happened to catch the entire Japanese officer corps (from Company Commanders on up to the Admiral in change himself) as they broke up from a meeting planning their counter-attack, killing them all. Essentially leaderless, the Japanese fought as individual soldiers instead of coherent units. That one lucky incident likely saved the day for the USMC.

Based on that info, I included 2 Japanese banzai charges as a sort of 'what if'; I would have never imagined (and never got lucky enough to have it happen during testing) that the banzai charge would be as devastating as it ended up being in the playtest. In retrospect, I would agree those probably should be removed; they are just too powerful.
Given my narrative above, I still feel that the scenario balance itself is not as lop-sided against the US as you might think; historically the USMC attained a minor defeat that first day; none of the planned objectives were reached and none of the battalions linked up. At the far left and central beaches, the beachhead was the equivalent of 2 hexes deep, at best. The casualty rate is about right, maybe a bit heavy for the USMC, but not exorbitantly so. Unfortunately, the US player(s) have to keep their collective chin up and not think about the bloodbath they are suffering; once the Marines get a good foothold, the tide (historically & in my playtests) starts to turn.
I would note, also, that the USMC didn't get his tanks into play - and they provide some serious 'umpf' to the US; Ozgur wrote me saying that while he liked how the battle was going for the Japanese, but he knew once the tanks arrived it would swing against him. I explained that was historically exactly what happened.
The USMC has to push, push, push his men forward; he should be spread out, with as few of units in a hex as possible to mitigate the dreaded Japanese defensive fire that eviscerates over-stacked hexes. When possible, keep advancing your pinned and demoralized units at angles, sidestepping, etc (when possible) so that they are always plodding at least a little bit forward; I'd rather have a demoralized squad reach the beach than a gutted unit that had sat in the open water, trying to rally. Really, the Marines shouldn't waste time firing until they reach shore; they rarely hurt the Japanese until they are point blank anyway. Marine squad defensive fire is sufficient when the Marines are still in the water; instead rely on air-strikes and NGF to suppress the defenders.
There is a lot of smoke available, and it is almost force of habit to want to screen the entire defense on turn 1 & 2; I found that allocating 1 salvo per beach per turn provided enough concealment to keep the Marines advancing, while also providing more turns of smoke. The Japanese suffer at-start from shell shock from the pre-landing bombardment; once that wears off (around turn 3), the Japanese guns become devastatingly accurate (coincidentally, right about the time the first Marines are almost ashore). It pays good dividends to really lay on the NGF when that happens and avoid the urge to use it all up on turn 1.
The USMC engineer & demo units are crucial to get forward as fast as possible; the wire barriers cannot be negotiated easily by the rifleman without the dreaded 'pinning', so race them forward and dump them out at the wire - and provide overwatch and 'targets' for the Japanese with your rifle squads until those obstacles are breached. I found myself 'dropping' flamethrowers and demo charges so that follow-on units (and even leaders) could pick them up and spread around the capability; otherwise a prudent defender will shoot up your engineers first and leave your men stuck outside the perimeter.
The Japanese player has to really keep track of his guns; by turn 9 or 10 they will be so worn out that they will hardly get any hits if he fires them non-stop in the offensive & defensive fire phases - he will find his guns at 25%-40% capability just as the USMC gets ashore, when he will need it most. I found myself 'turning off' every 4th gun or so, so that I had some guns with the capability to do damage, while the other guns rested. Also watch what type of ammo you are shooting, or the AI will be shooting in the defensive fire phase; HE is great against the grunts in the surf, but not so good against the AMTRACs.
The defense is actually very 'brittle'; at first, Japanese units suffer from the pre-game bombardment,, then recover with devastating effect, then get worn down by the NGF, only to wear down even more from continuous firing, so that by the time the USMC starts to really build up on the beaches, the defender is on the verge of crumbling. Looking at the scenario just played, the Japanese banzai/counter-attack was really a smoke & mirrors move; while the Marines are certainly hurting, the defender is actually on the verge of collapsing in a few places. The tanks & follow-on rifle companies are about to land on each flank, adding fresh power to the crippled Marines. In the middle the USMC battalion is very bunched up in-depth; if he were to maneuver those squads stuck behind his front line to his left and right, he could really lay a lot of firepower into the defender - especially to the left. The defender has no reserves nor any reinforcements available; he has to fight on with what he has.

So really, I'm hesitant to make sweeping changes without seeing how an actual full play through turns out. As I said, I've played it something like 18 times, so while I do know all the facets of the scenario, I also know the game is actually far from over.

Unfortunately these are things that you can really only learn by playing the scenario through at least once - this makes the learning curve very steep and the scenario can seem very unforgiving. I certainly intend to re-look at the banzai charges; I'd be interested to either play on against myself or the AI with where the battle is right now, or Borroughs, if you are going to play through, let me know how it goes.

Again, thanks so much for your comments, it helps me to fine tune this battle - ultimately I want something people like to play, not look at as drudgery.

Marc