"US Marines vs Japanese in the Philippines, Fight #6" Topic

All,

It's 2030 on 6 January 1942, and 1st Platoon is looking for the exit. Alone and cut off in southern Luzon, a Marine Provisional Rifle Company faced off against much superior Imperial Japanese forces. The Marines put up a valiant defense, and they would likely have been completely annihilated had the Japanese not been more focused on by-passing them on their way to the capital city of Manila. Following a series of fights on Horseshoe Ridge, the platoon has suffered more than 50% casualties, and their commander has now come to the decision he must seek an escape from the Philippines for his men and himself. On the run, they ran into a small group of Marines living on rumors of a US Navy ship lying concealed in a cove to the southeast.

Captain Moon and Sgt Carlson kept the Marines moving east on the southern coast of Luzon, but soon they came to a bridge at a small fishing village. Captain Moon wanted to avoid enemy contact at all costs; the Marines were unable to skirt the village to the south due to the ocean, but scouting parties sent north were unable to find a suitable crossing as well.

Captain Moon turned to Sgt Carlson: "well, Cody, I guess we're crossing here." So the Platoon sat tight until nightfall, then sent a squad forward to clear the area before the main body moved to cross.

Overview of map, north is right. The (fictional) village of Begate is at center, with the river just below it, running north to south. The Marines are entering from the west (top), the Japanese will be spread throughout the village and on the east (bottom) side of the river. The Marine will send a squad forward to secure the crossing; they've got to have a bridge as they're carrying all their wounded. The table is 6' x 4', though we're only using about 4' x 3', and my son and I are playing co-op as the Marines against the Japanese in 15mm, using Ivan Sorensen's rules, "Five Men at Kursk."

The opposing forces, with US on the right and (potential) Japanese on the left. Finally got the Type 95 tank in the picture. The US force is all from Eureka Minis, while the Japanese are Eureka except for the tank and the three Type 92 Machine Gun teams, which are from Peter Pig. You can really see how much the platoon has suffered, down from 33 able-bodied Marines to 21 (after receiving almost seventeen replacements), out of mortar and machine gun ammunition, low on food, water, and medical supplies.

Fighting is getting up close and personal; Sgt Carlson (center, just behind retaining wall) takes care of three Japanese soldiers himself, two in hand-to hand!

But Japanese on the other side of the river (bottom center) prove a problem for Sgt Carlson and his Marines in the village (top right).

The squad's automatic rifleman takes out a Japanese soldier n the opposite bank (casualty figure at bottom left), as Sgt Thomas leads two Marines across a foot bridge (center left) to deal with another enemy troop (bottom right).

To catch the exciting finish to the Marines' saga in the Philippines, please check the blog at:
link

The Marines got a move on, looking to get clear of the crossing before dawn brought more Japanese troops. It took awhile, but ultimately Capt Moon and Sgt Carlson were able to locate the US Navy, and make their way out of the Philippines. But it was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire: the Navy deposited the raggedy, worn out Marines in the Dutch East Indies, which just so happened to be Imperial Japan's next big offensive.

Thus ends our fights in the Fall of the Philippines, with the Marines escaping only to take part in the Fall of the Dutch East Indies, which will be the next set of five to seven fights.

V/R,
Jack

Another nice AAR. A lot of firing (where was every Marine a rifleman?) and a bunch of battered Grunts but they made it out. Damn lucky is all I can say. In the end that knee mortar could have done a lot of damage to those bunched up Marines. Plus the US Navy comes through for them!
LB

Have to read this properly this evening but I have to comment on the river: Beauty!!!

Amazing terrain Jack.

MG – I'll give it to ya, the Navy saved their bacon. Sure, the Marines did all the real work, but the Navy drove that boat like a champion ;) Thanks for comments, I'm glad you liked the series of fights.

Panda – Thanks man.

The saga in the Philippines is over. I added an epilogue to wrap up this chapter, if anyone is interested.

link

V/R,
Jack

That was pretty epic, I can already hear the sad trumpet music as the camera pans back over the battlefield.

Pretty cool series, eh? Two of the fights were skirmish (used 5MIN for the mission where they went back up the ridge to get their wounded, and 5MAK for this last one), but the rest were NEIS, and it worked like a charm.

The games are bigger and longer, but fun and look/feel right. My only issue is, I need a bit of a break from those big/long games before I come back for Dutch East Indies.

But my whole war plan is pretty much platoon-level, so NEIS is going to be it. I plan on 5-7 games in Indonesia, then moving to a couple games on Tulagi, then a bunch of games on Guadalcanal (I'll use the Eureka Marines for DEI, but then on to the Peter Pig troops after that). DEI and moving up the Solomons will use my teddy bear mat, but then we'll get to the Central Pacific and I'm going to need some sand and water.

V/R,
Jack

I am hoping to see KNIL in the coming campaign and of course better marksmanship from certain Marines :)
LB

We'll work on the marksmanship, but it's no-go on the KNIL, for a few reasons:

1. It's hard enough tracking the Marines, much less adding in Allies.

2. Peter Pig make some in 15mm, but I don't have the money or energy to paint and base more troops.

3. I wouldn't have anything else to do with them after these 5-7 fights.

V/R,
Jack

You ought to take some of these guys and make them Raiders. Then you can do Tulagi and Bloody Ridge. Then my second favorite marine, "Red Mike", can make an appearance.

Great stuff Jack, keep them coming.

TGunner,

Come on man, get with the program! ;)

After Dutch East Indies is Tulagi then Guadalcanal, up the Solomons (Bougainville, New Britain, New Georgia), Tarawa, the Marshalls, the Marianas, Peleliu, and Okinawa.

Not Raiders, though, I'm still making units up, in order to justify these poor bastards taking part in pretty much every US fight in the Pacific. I figure it will change over time too. Maybe start as 1st Beach Defense Battalion (there were Marine Defense Battalions in real life), then maybe 1st Beach Assault Battalion.

I want plausible, close to real, but not quite real. I thought about going with a Raider or Marine Parachute Battalion, but there were actually more of them than I realized, and it didn't make that much sense that a bunch of cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers would be formed up as an elite unit.

V/R,
Jack

After the fun in the Philippines I would say that these guys have moved on to other things. One neat thing was that some of the raiders become the reconstituted 4th Marines.

You've got me itching to get out my toys and try out 5 Core Company Commander with the Philippine in mind.

Have fun in the Indies!

Yeah, in real life they'd have been split up and sent to various units, depending on MOS and need, but I'm going to keep them together.

4th Marines at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, had Raider memorabilia on the walls of their HQ building.

Do it, I'd love to see you getting some fights in with 5Core.

V/R,
Jack