CMBN Pacific: Makin Atoll

[LongLeftFlank]

Quick update: I am off to Tuscany on holiday tomorrow (the real one) until mid-August. Alas, poor me.

However, I did spend a few hours with Makin today. The medium tanks are now floundering nicely in the reef shallows, just as they did in the real deal.... takes them a good 10 minutes to drive the ~180m ashore and on average 2 out of 12 immobilize (just like in the real deal).

Arrivederci!

[Erwin]

Our deepest sympathies for the trying times you are living through...

(Have fun!)

[LongLeftFlank]

Defence

Attack

Assaulting a bunker

...without flamethrowers or DCs

[permanent666]

please release or send me for playtesting - it looks really promising

[ZPB II]

Just wanted to drop by and say that I'm a fan of your work although Ramadi didn't run on my poor laptop and I would need to reset my CMSF keys to be able to play it again.

That map was wild, I don't know what word to use to describe this one.

[LongLeftFlank]

Thanks, Zeb, much appreciated! I went ahead and reduced the size of most of the buildings (using those tiny barns); they were just too dominant before. This also lessens the temptation to use them ahistorically as fighting positions, with one or two exceptions (e.g. the stone warehouses near the wharfs).

Permanent, I just emailed you the WIP scenario file and map.

[LongLeftFlank]

A stalwart Japanese defender faces the American first wave*

Pinned down in the surf

Moving on to flush out the next sniper....

* I have swapped in halftracks for the Carriers as Alligator surrogates owing to the higher passenger capacity and the .50 HMG mount. I used Canadian M5s because as of late 1943 bazookas were still specialized team weapons not yet issued at squad level in the Pacific. So I don't want them aboard the HTs.

[Erwin]

Looks amazing LLF...

[LongLeftFlank]

Thanks! US deployment is now more or less done (4 landing waves plus a tank column arriving on map from Red beach to the west). I am now working on the Japanese OB and defenses.

I've also now playtested the first 10-12 minutes a couple of times in RT and WeGo. Resistance at the beach is reasonably light (historical), but is still formidable enough to inflict serious casualties on a US player who doesn't promptly get his infantry ashore and out of the Gators (halftracks). In my first playthrough, the first wave (K Co, 105th Infantry) took ~25% casualties and was largely Rattled/Shaken by the time it secured its objectives (the flanking wharfs).... MJKerner might never have been born! Once again, I have to relearn that critical lesson -- act decisively or stay home!

LESSON LEARNED: a dozen .50 cal plus a punishing opening barrage seems like massive firepower, but is NOT enough to suppress all the defenders, so resist the urge to sit in your thinly armoured tracks out on the reef and gun duel the Japanese MG bunkers and snipers. Once the tanks arrive though 5-10 minutes in, they will pretty much knock out whatever's left at the water's edge, clearing a way for the infantry main force (a full battalion) that follows them.

Most of this info will be in the scenario briefing.

I think this scenario, which is well suited for single player play since the Japanese don't maneuver much (I will also work up a Japanese briefing for H2H though), will make a very interesting diversion from regular CMBN, although I don't yet know when it will be finished.

[MikeyD]

Ha ha! I love the houses on stilts. I did something like that once for a CMSF Brit scenario then I completely forgot about about it.

[mjkerner]

MJKerner might never have been born! Once again, I have to relearn that critical lesson -- act decisively or stay home!

LOL! This is looking fantastic. What an obvious labor of love, LLF. What's the ETA for us Dogfaces?

[WriterJWA]

This looks GREAT!

All the more reason why we need a real CM:Pacific!!

[LongLeftFlank]

Ha ha! I love the houses on stilts. I did something like that once for a CMSF Brit scenario then I completely forgot about about it.

Permanent666 worked those up; yes, they look excellent, but 2 story Modular buildings really dominate the jungle even when I sink them 1-2m into the earth. So I mostly removed them in favour of the tiny barns. As noted before, only the coral-rock-walled godowns (warehouses) by the wharfs provided any kind of tactical cover; the other structures were little more than bomb and artillery magnets for the Yankee.

MJK, like most of us, my RL obligations to work and family ebb and flow, so it's hard to say when this will be out. I just laid out most of the Japanese fortifications last night (the US VC is heavily related to finding and destroying the 12 or so key bunkers). Next are the Japanese unit deployments, then the mission Briefings. At that point I'll need a H2H "Goldilocks" playtest to fine tune stuff like fields of fire and navigation in the overgrown interior.

Writer, I suspect a single game (no modules) CMPTO with US Army/Marines + Australia/Fiji (sorry, C-B-I fans) vs Japan (IJA, SNLF) would attract at least as many buyers as CM:Bagration (I blaspheme because I care ). Engine-wise the key needed features, in order, are (a) flamethrowers ( caves © "berserk"/Banzai charge TacAI (d) treetop sniper platforms (e) amphibious vehicles. All the other tools are pretty much there or can be reasonably simulated.

[LongLeftFlank]

Up to now, I've been spending most of my time and attention at the water's edge. I am now working on the "fun" part; the jungle interior. You know, the part the Japanese are actually defending. The part the tanks and aircraft can't see well.....

Open air supply dump, heavily bombed by Helldivers.

Hard to spot. Given the water table, the Japanese can only dig holes about 6 feet deep.

OK, at this point I am definitely cranking up some

to mod by. And all the children are insane.... Followed by a little Mike Oldfield.

Eardrums bleeing, mouth parched and eyes streaming from the smoke and dust raised by the American bombardment, Korean labourer (now honourary hetai) Park begins to feel a certain ambivalence about dying gloriously for the divine Japanese Emperor. They say a powerful Imperial Navy relief force is two days steaming away, but will that matter to him?

[Erwin]

Speaking of how the Koreans were pressed into service in the Imperial Jap Army, go see if you can rent MY WAY. It's a an awesome war film that covers the Jap war in China, then the Eastern Front vs the Nazis and finally Normandy - all from the perspective of a couple of unlucky Koreans - apparently based on a true story. The battle scenes are larger, more numerous, and imo more intense than Saving Private Ryan, Stalingrad etc.

[LongLeftFlank]

Hi there American doughboy, so you think the Navy flyboys and destroyers plastered the Japanese HQ buildings pretty good this morning*? Hit a home run out of the ballpark, and now you can just stroll around the bases? Well we'll just see about that, sunshine.

* They did in fact kill the garrison commander

[mjkerner]

Erwin, thanks for the tip. I just bought Apple TV last weekend, and noticed "My Way" in the list of foreign films, and remembered someone here (you maybe?) mentioning it a while back, but wasn't certain if it was a good or bad reference. I'm checking it out tonight.

[Heinrich505]

LLF,

I've been enjoying your maps and all your hard work. Your terrain is extremely immersive and bears an uncanny resemblance (your intention, of course) to the real thing. Many of those black and white photographs we've seen in the history books are actually coming to colorful life through your efforts.

I've always thought the CM system should include the PTO as well. Please keep up your efforts here.

Your screen shots are superb.

Heinrich505

[mjkerner]

LLF, I think once they decide to do a PTO game, you'll be taken into the BFC fold like they apparently did with sdp because of his Italy mod work.

You heard it here first!

[LongLeftFlank]

Well, if my other job prospects fall through, I'll consider it.

[LongLeftFlank]

I've posted this panorama before, but I noticed that when you exit the Briefing the map briefly resolves at a higher level of detail. Thought I'd share for my fanbase. US Objectives are now marked, although VP are actually awarded for finding and destroying the key bunkers in and around these zones, and for killing the enemy without losing too much of your own force, not for "control" of dirt.

I'll try to post the mission briefing tomorrow.

[LongLeftFlank]

Getting pretty close to playtesting here.

OPERATION KOURBASH, November 20, 1943. Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands, Central Pacific. You command 2nd Battalion Landing Team (BLT), 27th Army Infantry Division (105th and 165th Regiments) in the opposed landing at YELLOW Beach, in the heart of the Japanese fortified zone.

Operation GALVANIC was the first step in the Central Pacific "island hopping" campaign that would end at Okinawa. A huge US Navy armada put Marine and Army forces ashore at two Japanese-fortified island atolls, Tarawa and Makin. Makin was not as defensible or strongly fortified as Tarawa, so US losses were far lighter. The tactical challenges were still significant however.

By late 1943, the tide had turned fully in the Pacific and the war's outcome was no longer in doubt. Any early war advantage the Imperial Japanese forces had enjoyed over the Allies in quality or quantity was now drowning in an ocean of American industrial might. MacArthur's forces were on the march in the Solomons and New Guinea, while the naval and merchant tonnage that held Japan's new Pacific empire together was sinking by the day under an unrelenting US submarine and aerial onslaught.

Guadalcanal, Buna and other brutal battles had dispelled the Japanese notion that Americans had no stomach for infantry assaults on fortified positions in the jungle and would therefore make peace. All the increasingly isolated and outmanned Japanese island garrisons could do was deepen their fortifications, hope for a miraculous counterstroke by the Imperial Navy, and sell their lives as dearly as they could.

....

The KOURBASH operational plan for H-Day is a "one-two punch". Two battalion landing teams (BLT) have landed before 0900 at RED Beach on the western shore of Butaritari. The beachhead is already firmly established and is pushing east against minimal resistance.

As any enemy reserves are drawn west toward the RED beaches, 2nd BLT is to conduct a surprise lagoon-side landing at YELLOW Beach, in the heart of their built up zone. This site neatly outflanks their primary fortified line (West Tank Barrier) across the long narrow island, isolating it and allowing it to be enveloped from both sides.

While the lagoon side is less defended and less pounded by surf than the ocean side, the downside is that troops must cross some 250 meters of shallow reef to reach YELLOW Beach. The Higgins boats (LCVPs) carrying the main force were supposed to clear the reef edge at high tide, but are unable to do so, so the men must wade ashore with their gear, totally exposed to fire.

The first assault wave, "Special Detachment Z" (Company M, 105th Infantry) is being mounted in Alligator amtracs, the first ever such employment of these versatile vehicles (the Marines are also using them at Tarawa). This company has been reorganized into two oversized "platoons", , supported by tanks and naval and air bombardment. Their critical mission is to secure the wharfs on each flank and keep the enemy from firing enfilade across the main landing forces.

Advance your main force inland promptly to clear the 4 marked objective areas and effect a linkup with the 1st BLT advancing from the west. Eliminate as many of the defenders as possible, particularly their fortifications, while preserving your own forces.

[LongLeftFlank]

Playtesting tonight. Here's my take on the famous AP photo in the OP of this thread....

And Hell followed with him.....

So once again Detachment Z is pretty much a broken force by the time it gains the shore, with the company taking about 60 casualties and nearly all squads Broken. Some guys even try to Surrender to the Japanese. The defenders have lost about 40, mostly from the prep bombardment or when the Shermans blast hell out of them.

8 of the 12 tanks are Immob en route to the beach, which is a lot more attrition than I wanted.... may need to ratchet conditions back to Damp.

[LongLeftFlank]

I'm on the road for the next couple days, so no playtest screenies for a bit.

But I am curious: any bona fide Japanese or Korean WWII wargamers lurking out there? (expats, Westerners of Asian ancestry, white dudes who dig Asian women or just love kimchi need not apply). I am trying to test my hypothesis that an Asian market exists for CM games (the "Tamiya factor"). Anybody? We don't mind poor English skills... most of us speak pretty lousy English too.

[LongLeftFlank]