1. The Japanese from 3rd platoon are evenly distributed in the grass huts. As soon as the first Americans get within 5 cm of a grass hut, the Japanese commit suicide by holding live grenades to their bodies. All that the Americans know is that they hear grenade explosions going off. The wave of suicides spreads out from the initial hut to those huts nearest it, and then to the next closest huts, and so on. All of the huts catch fire from the explosions. After a hut has been on fire for three turns, all American troops within 10 cm must move away because the heat is unbearable. The huts bum out after 10 turns. The smoke from the huts does not obscure observation or block sighting. When giving the Japanese player(s) their troops you can leave out the 3rd platoon completely, or give it to them, but tell them they are out of command control.
2. The Americans must make every effort to rescue any of their men who are wounded. Although we do not normally consider wounded, for this scenario it is an integral part of the game. In the Pacific, the Americans were very leery of leaving their wounded because the Japanese made a practice of killing any wounded Americans they found. Every time the Americans take a casualty, roll to see if he is wounded. On a twenty sided die, a roll of 1 through 7 the man is dead, 8 through 20 the man is wounded. Wounded men are not capable of movement on their own. Any wounded American who is not rescued lowers the American morale by 2. If the Americans do not attempt to save a wounded comrade, their morale is lowered by 4. Morale is done by individual squads. The morale penalty affects only the squad that had the casualty. The morale penalty is cumulative for every casualty that the squad takes.
3. The ground to the south of the gulch has a series of low mounds that provide a minimum of cover for the Ameriicans. Give prone soldiers the benefit of cover when they are being fired at.
4. Like many actions in the Pacific, this battle was fought on very rough steep terrain. The distance from the bottom of the Gulch to the top should be at least four times the height of the figures used.
Map
More Saipan, 6 July 1944 Harakiri Gulch: A Battalions In Crisis! Scenario
Back to Table of Contents -- Combat Simulation Vol 1 No. 2
Back to Combat Simulation List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1994 by Mike Vogell and Phoenix Military Simulations.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com