J116 Brigade Hill

Well, this was a fun one. Can't say otherwise, even though I lost. Perhaps you, carissime lector, might discover the reasons for my loss, in reading carefully what I write. I for one believe the reasons for my loss are twofold: first, fortune frowned upon my elite ANZAC squads; and second, I lost my player's nerve.

Brigade Hill is a six and a half turn, all infantry scenario which packs a lot of action into just half a board. Japanese are defending a series of hills, and the Australians are tasked with controlling three of the four hills. Specifically, three of four hexes on those hills. The Position is thus:

The Australians setup basically to the left of the gully (stream is dry) and thus control one hill. Reinforcements arrive on the opposite side of the board, opening up the possibility of an envelopment. The Japanese setup on the other hills, and get reinforcements on the bottom of the map. They thus must decide whether to go after the ANZAC setup area and seize that hill, or to bolster the defense of their original hills. Things could go either way, and the design is brilliant, giving each player an opportunity for attack and for defense.

Australians assets for the offence include two 51mm mortars, 2 LMGs and an MMG, and lots of elite squads.Unfortunately, by the end of turn two, both of my mortars malfunction'd, and then were permanently broken by bungled repair attempts. That sucked.

My plan was to throw a large force against hill 526, and send a smaller one against 502, which would link up with my reinforcement group and surround the hill. Hopefully, 526 would be overwhelmed by the time the attack on 502 would be getting underway, and that group of soldiers could either reinforce the assault, or launch a diversionary attack on 506. That sounds good, doesn't it? But the reality was different. By the end of turn two I'd lost both mortars, had killed one Japanese squad, and come no where near taking anything. At least I hadn't taken any casualties. My squads kept breaking; but at least they pretty much rallied right back up every time.

IN turn 3, though, I was finally able to get up on the hill. The Japanese rolled fairly well, and my sniper repeatedly attacked the same squad (the one in the foxhole on the right flank on the forward hill). I got concealment stripped off of all his forces on the front hill and discovered his dummy. There weren't really that many forces on hill 526, actually. After my Sniper had done his work, and I'd done some shooting, all that remained was a HS with an LMG, a 4-4-7 with an MMG and a 9-1 leader, and a 2-2-8 crew holding a knee mortar. And I was ready to go in for the kill.

Here's an image of the front hill at the top of turn 4:

So here is what I did with turn 4. Out of that big stack on the left I deployed one squad into two HS, who ran up to draw fire from his MGs. I didn't want him shooting at my three squads on the hill--that smoke was going to disperse away before he had to shoot. So my HS gambit actually worked--he blasted away as they entered T4, T5, T6, killing them (I just love those boxcar MC rolls!). But that's okay. The Japanese had lost a squad and a half, I could stand to lose one squad for the cause. In Prep, I Op Fired my CX squads and fired the other one at the crew, who shrugged it off. I was saving my Op Fire to avoid CX penalties, and have them shoot at the leader, over the heads of the mortar crew. 

My maneuvers were generally effective. I positioned a squad up around their flank, moved two more into the road and broke the HS in advancing fire, and my Op Fire guys did very well, wounding the leader and reducing the MMG squad. Then I advanced up, eager to take out that mortar crew in CC. 

I thought my prospects looked good: I had 6:1 odds! And my opponent went 1:6 against everyone, meaning he needed a 2 to kill. OH MY GOD WAIT A MINUTE! Just as I write this I realise we REALLY SCREWED UP! Because, well, of course he rolled a 2, and all of my squads died, which was a huge loss and such a blow to my player morale that I actually needed a minute.  

BUT WHEN YOU ROLL EQUAL TO YOUR KILL NUMBER YOU DON'T KILL EVERYONE YOU JUST CAUSE CASUALTY REDUCTION! Without stopping to look it up right now, I bet you're supposed to do random selection to see which squad gets reduced. Wow. 

Well, anyway, the Japanese position on this hill crumbled pretty quickly after that. But with the massive loss of manpower, as well as the big hit to player morale, I couldn't pull it off. I started doing stupid stuff. I had moved two squads from my start hill forward, leaving it undefended. And the Japanese reinforcement group, which had come on near the middle of the board, diverted and headed for that hill. So then I had to race some guys back there, and made some dumb moves--they broke and I lost control of that hill. 

I was able to set up a kill stack on the hill I conquered to blast away at 502, but that doesn't work as well when fighting troops that don't break. The Japanese aren't going to abandon position easily. You really need to just get in there in CC. The last turn saw me making assaults on the last two hills, but in the last defensive fire phase, my opponent was able to break or pin my attacking forces such that I was unable to advance into CC, denying me the hills. It was still a very close, tense game. Now I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't made the mistake of killing all my squads in CC! There at the very least would have been more units for the Japanese to shoot at--I think I would have taken one of the remaining hills. But there was still that Japanese counterattack which worked out. Meh. 

Great scenario, which I would definitely play again. I'll try the Japanese next time.

Roar Stats (as of this writing): 23-17 in favour of the Aussies.

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