AAR AP69 Uncommon Misery

  When I played a JR a few weeks in back in AP 66 Cat's Cradle, I was able to pull off an admittedly  lucky victory. JR double red-carded his OBA without a single mission and had generally poor dice through most of the game. (He wrote up an AAR here.) So when I took him on this past weekend in AP69 Uncommon Misery, I knew he would be bringing his 'A' game to avenge that loss.

  For my Japanese defense, I put HIP Tank Hunter Heroes in 57N2, R4, and T2. I put a full HIP squad in the bamboo of T5. I deployed another 1st liner and put a half squad in 62H6, and another in 57J3. I was hoping the Brits would bypass these units, and they might retake some VP locations late. The AT guns were in V2 and a Fortified stone location X3. The other Fortified Building Location was with the MMG in U4.

  Basically my strategy was to keep concealment as long as possible, and keep Japanese casualties to a minimum.  I had two squads forward in 62J9 and J10. They took a few early shots at the entering Brits and then fell back through the jungle. Getting one of them into the building at 57O1 helped slow down the assault.

  The Brits came on and swept up the gimme buildings and huts on the west side of the map. The Lees and most of the squads advanced down and around the main road. The turn two reinforcements came on the south edge and moved directly toward the village.

Things really got going in the CCPh of Japanese turn three. With the British getting close to my HIP units, I couldn't wait any longer. The THH in the Kunai of N2 popped up and advanced in on the Adjacent Lee. The Lee had infantry cover but I rolled well enough to kill it. Ditto the Lee in S5, smacked by the THH in R4.

In the previous turn, JR tried a little recon by fire on the T5 bamboo hex where my HIP full squad was hiding, but he did not get a result. That would prove unfortunate when that squad advanced still concealed into U6 where two 458s were hanging out with a Stuart. The Japanese gained ambush, declined to try a THH, dispatched the two 458s and withdrew to U5.

  Over the next few turns, the Japanese AT guns would knock out three of the Stuarts, one of which had circled around to the extreme eastern end of the village. But I lost a 9-1 when he went berserk and ran right into a 16-down-2. The British finally started getting some larger fire groups together and generally tightened the noose from the west and south. The remaining Stuart was working over the squads in Q2-R2-S3 buildings with seemingly limitless canister.

As the British pressed in, they left a half squad behind in G7 to counter my late game takeback attempt in that area (in fact my HIP half squad in H6 was killed in turn 6 CC and netted no VP.) However, the HIPster in J3 was able to take back the H3-I3-J2 locations under some fire from up the road. A result of the funky mine laying SSR put a minefield in J1 helping discourage a move against him. It seems a little odd to have a minefield suddenly pop up in a place a whole company has just gone through, but I wasn't complaining.

When the Brits moved in for CC on turn 6, they were too far behind. They won a few, but had no effect on a few others. In the end they racked up 17 CVP and 14 LVP, leaving them 7 points short of a victory.  

JR and I both like the scenario a lot. Our playing was tense throughout. The minefield SSR adds an interesting and different wrinkle. If one or two more of the Stuarts had survived long enough to start really cranking out the canister, this outcome could have very easily been reversed.  As it was, the British suffered a misery of the not very common sort.