The Japanese player's notes are good but only scratch the surface. After taking along business trip accompanied by Matanikau and the TCS 3.1 rules, I think I can expand on them. You leathernecks out there can take a look at my ideas and try to figure out how to keep your opponents stuck on the wire.

The Japanese are an interesting side to take. They have very few heavy weapons, especially compared with the Marines, and the best way to win the game with these lightly armed troops is to follow the traditional Imperial Japanese Army tactics of a night attack with swords and bayonets. It is an interesting and difficult situation, but the jungle, which covers the map and the main Victory Point sites, and the fact that the Marines must dig in every night and not move aid you considerably.

Repeat after me: "Assault combat is good." While it may result in horrific casualties to the attacking side, it is the way for the Japanese to win. You get one Victory Point for each Marine step killed in assault, and if you do not get many of those extra points you are not going to win the game. A glance through the game rulebook will show that most scenarios (4 of the 7) end at 1800, the end of the day.

This means that no matter what you do during the preceding night, the Marines-with their superior command structure, heavy weapons, plentiful artillery, and air support-will have a whole day to take back any territorial gains you might have made. Sadly, they have an excellent chance to blow the Japanese troops away. You cannot depend on having the points for territory at the end of the game.

Working the Graveyard Shift

So, those heavily armed jarheads have it easy during the day, right? Well, that is okay, because if they have an advantage then, you absolutely rule once the sun goes down. When night falls the grunts must drop everything, dig in, and not move until 0600 the next morning. The Marines have zero mobility at night. This means that they cannot escape a determined attack, maneuver against you, or reinforce a position under attack.

Furthermore, with reduced visibility at night they might not be able to see your battalions moving up on them, and even with theuse of starshells they still incur a -1 Area Fire Table modifier at night. This will tend to reduce, though not eliminate, their firepower advantage. They suffer other firepower reductions at night as well. American artillery has less chance of hitting (so does yours, but since it does not work in daylight either, it is no loss), and their airplanes cannot come over every hour to strafe and bomb. Finally, they get a +1 morale table penalty for morale checks at night. You do not.

Since the Marines are down, night is definitely the time to kick them hard. Here are some thoughts on Japanese night attacks. You should think very hard when you make the Op Sheets too, since the night attacks require tight control and you are trying to plan a big attack. While the Marines cannot react at night, they do get a free prepared defense posture then. Being dug in will give them defensive and morale advantages, so do not get cavalier about your attack. Plan carefully, since even suffering under night limitations the Marines are a very tough opponent. Every hex will have a machine gun or mortar to help it.

The Japanese cannot afford to waste any darkness, so try to have the attack begin as soon after 1800 as possible. If the scenario does not start at nightfall (many of them do), you must write up the Op Sheet as soon as practical so your slow command structure has time to think it over and implement the Op Sheet. The Marines may try to attack until nightfall to keep you from accumulating weighted turns, but then they just play into your hands by putting themselves out of position to receive the coming Banzai charge.

Give preliminary orders to move to the jump-off points. With all thejungle on the map, the brutally slow movement rates through it, and the need to move through it to avoid air attack, this staging movement is critical. Units may follow preliminary orders before the Op Sheet is implemented; you can therefore move upjust before dark so you can make the entire night a living hell for the poor grunts on the other side.

Due to the jungle, night visibility limits, and your desire for assault combat, plan for an attack on a very narrow frontage. I usually use only one or two hexes per company, and then I feed more companies through them. The result is a frontage of maybe five or six hexes for the whole battalion. If the Marines are defending in the open, for example on hills 66 or 67, you may want to spread it out a few more hexes so that those plentiful Marine machine guns have to spread out their fire.

If you have to attack across the Matanikau, you may also have to spread it out to take advantage of crossing sites. Do not bother with a reserve, since by the time they get into action the sun might be up [Ed. note: The Japanese Command Prep Rating is 6] and then they will have missed their chance to die with honor while racking up those assaulted Marine Victory Points. As a final note, think big! I find that it takes at least two Japanese battalions to successfully take on one Marine battalion, and if you can add an extra battalion to the attack you have an excellent chance of success.

On with the night assault! This is going to be different from most other TCS attacks you will make, since the whole point is to get into every Marine hex and kill every last one of them. Do not lose sight of that. Taking their territory is nice, but you need a ton of points from assault combat to win. This will be a fight to the death, since the Marines cannot leave their holes.

Further, the Japanese should not quit the assault unless they are taking truly horrific casualties. Night is the best time to attack, and it will only get worse during the day. My goal is usually to run two to three battalions right over one Marine battalion and wipe it out. This will rack up points, deny the Marines an entire maneuver element, and leave you sitting on some good real estate which the Marines will then have to take back. Yes, you can suffer many casualties and the scenarios are long, but the results are what matter. Scenario 5.5, Connoley's Defense, is a great solitaire training exercise in this kind of action.

Samurai Leadership

Do not forget your standard attack principles just because your units are occasionally Banzai-capable. Move up supporting units, including the machine guns. The few Japanese machine guns are now critical for this purpose, since TCS 3.1 has a much finer gradient at the low end of the Area Fire Table. Unlike TCS 3.0, in which your units used the same fire columns as the Marines, they now have a one or two column disadvantage. When in place, fire away at the Marines and suppress them so your assaulting units can close up and enter the target hex. Unless the defenders are suppressed, the assaulting Japanese will take very high casualties, so do not rush it. This goes even for Banzai units. They cannot do an SFA themselves, but their buddies can and should try to suppress the Marines for them. With the new morale tables in TCS 3. 1, 1 find that it is rarely a good idea to stack Japanese infantry platoons to get the morale shift. Under TCS 3.0, the -I Morale Table shift was much more significant than it is now, and the extra casualties are not usually worth it.

The new morale tables in TCS 3.1 are working against you here. Units must double their morale in assault, and each point higher on the table will make it worse. The defender always fires first in assault under TCS 3. 1, so high morale units may not even get a chance to shoot before they suddenly remember that they had urgent business back in their foxholes. Hence, units with a base morale of four or more should probably never attempt an assault, and units with a morale of three must be careful to choose the best moment to strike. The Marines get a -2 morale modifier for being dug in, and this is really going to help them survive an assault. Still, if they are suppressed, you stand an excellent chance of killing a step or two (and scoring a Victory Point or two)! Japanese units who are Banzai charging do not have to check morale, of course, but since you cannot control the start of a Banzai charge you should always follow proper infantry attack principles.

Banzai charges are quite useful when they do occur during the attack, so take advantage of them and help them by suppressing the defenders. With luck, they will stick around for a few extra assault rounds and get even more points before they die honorably. These extra rounds of assault combat will give the Marines more chances to suffer casualties or even roll a Paralyzed result during a morale check, resulting in a quick victory for the Japanese. This is where the Marines' inability to SYR is an advantage for the Japanese side. Marines never SYR, so they have tremendous staying power. If the Japanese units are in a Banzai charge, however, they do not check morale, so the Marines have just bought themselves a very long and costly exchange of casualties. The Japanese cannot even become Suppressed!

During a night attack, I usually use the Japanese battalion mortars for smoke screens. This is not as effective under TCS 3. 1, since there is only a 50% chance of the smoke appearing in the hex where you want it. Still, I consider it to be better than using the small firepower of the mortars to attack dug-in Marines. The smoke can aid your movement and reduce casualties in the face of superior Marine firepower. When about to Banzai a hex that is fairly beat up, I sometimes shoot the smoke into the target hex itself. The Banzai units are trying to last until the Marines suffer a Paralyzed result, not shoot them up, and the smoke improves their staying power. Besides, attacking through the jungle limits spotting ranges in both directions. I almost never use a starshell, since that tends to aid the side with the superior firepower (and that is not you).

Be very careful about crossing open ground in the face of heavy firepower, especially if you are stacking several platoons together. The new Battalion Morale rules are not on your side, either. Under TCS 3.0, 1 found that I never really had to worry about Japanese company morale. About the time it started to get really high, the last remaining platoon would roll a Surrender result, head off on a Banzai charge, die honorably, and then the company morale would not matter anymore.

Now, taking four or more casualties in one fire combat will cause problems across the battalion. Battalion morale increases are much more significant because they do not go away very fast, and they really make a difference for the whole battalion. Fortunately, you cannot suffer Battalion Morale additions in assault, but you should still be careful on the approach.

A final possibility about night attacks is the chance to sneak into the Marines' rear. You could slip a unit behind him and dig in while he cannot react to it, but it is not such a great idea. This tactic does not usually work, since the unit is then cut off and gets wiped out, and the high Japanese Command Prep Rating probably will not allow a defense to be implemented. A better idea is to sneak a company back to the Marine mortars and overrun them, then trigger a failure result for that company and get it back to your lines by daylight. I have seen Marine players who park their mortars in one prime spot and nail them to the ground.

Alternately, many scenarios start at dusk, and you know from the setup instructions where the unguarded mortar park is. Make this area an objective for the night attack, since the Marine mortars are as immobile as everyone else. Send a whole company for this easy job, so that the first couple of platoons can perform their assaults and force the mortars to use their one shot per action phase, and the last platoon can move in on the now-defenseless mortars for the final assault and get the kills and the points.

This is Not Iwo Jima

So much for the attack. Now here are some thoughts on the defense. Many scenarios offer a Japanese night attack followed by a daylight Marine attack [Ed. note: see 5.4, 5.5, 5.61 or start off with a Marine attack. You will have to be flexible in the face of overwhelming firepower, since sitting and taking it will not do you any good and will only raise casualties. If the Marines are allowed to haul up all their weapons, each hex will get hit hard. In the end the Marines will probably get the terrain back, but you need to make him pay for it and still retain enough strength to take it back at night. Remember, the jungle is still your friend, since it blocks spotting and long-range fire.

Often, the high Japanese Command Prep Rating of six will not allow a prepared defense Op Sheet to be implemented. Go ahead and settle for a hasty defense and start accumulating turns for the night attack instead. I favor a sector defense style, which will allow you to remain on the defensive while falling back. Defend as far forward as possible, shoot a few Marines, then fall back into the jungle a hex or two and repeat.

There is no Overwatch fire on a unit that shifts modes, only on one that enters a new hex. The change to fire mode is free, so the infantry can readily slip back one hex through the jungle and remain able to fire. Essentially, you are trading space for Marine casualties and minimizing your own. Try not to get pinned against the Matanikau, if you happen to be defending a point on the east bank. If you let the Marines pin you down so they can haul up all their weapons, you are in for a world of hurt.

You should also be aware of the artillery range lines on the map. Defending forward of the 75mm line is asking for trouble, since the Marines have many 75mm artillery batteries and ammunition. These guns are small but plentiful enough to cause you some trouble. Unfortunately, the Matanikau village with its 20 VPs is just inside the 75mm line, so you will have to put up with some of it. At least it is near the jungle, so stay in the jungle and prevent the Marine spotters from getting a good LOS to you. The artillery under TCS 3.1 is now point and shoot so the air spotting of artillery fire is not as important. The Marines have lots of artillery ammunition in most scenarios, so limit your stay in easily spotted areas. This will also limit your vulnerability to machine gun and mortar attacks.

Go ahead and use your own artillery whenever you want. It is not very good, at least at arriving on target, but it may slow the Marines down a little. You have very little ammunition, so it is probably better to use it for attacks even though they are at night. You can even play up the psychological use of the artillery, with threats to bring 150mm shells down on everyone at any moment. (With your artillery accuracy, it could land anywhere!) If your opponent even thinks about your artillery, you are ahead.

Some of your units will start Banzai attacks while you are on defense. Just accept it, and as with attack, try to help them by suppressing their intended victim. It may get you a few bonus points or even blunt the whole Marine attack. In the same vein, if the Marines get bogged down in front of you, go right ahead and assault them. Small counterattacks like this to push back an attack are perfectly acceptable with defensive orders. Use the jungle to make the Marines come next to you, then blast away. With a little luck, some may become Paralyzed, giving you a perfect chance to assault them and kill off a whole platoon. And if the Marine player is crazy enough to assault you, stick around and let him! He is just giving you points, since those dead Marine steps count whether they are lost in an attack or defense. Then tell me where this opponent lives, so I can go play him.

If you really need to hold onto terrain, such as Matanikau village, be prepared for a bloody defense. Load in all the regimental weapons units, and put them in the jungle. Stay out of the jungle's edge near Matanikau, since that will invite the wrath of the Ballard and her 5" guns. That 20 strength attack is nasty! Not only that, but all the artillery units are in range of the village. Defend on the east side of the river if you can, since that may blunt the attack enough for the Matanikau village to hold. Nothing flexible about this, just dig in and shoot back (kind of like the Marine situation at night).

That is it for my say on Japanese tactics. They are challenging to play, and if handled correctly, truly tough to beat. Just remember, stay focused on brutally assaulting everything in a green uniform and you will come out ahead. Now, to all you jarheads out there, I would be interested in seeing an article from the Marine point of view that says more than dig in and shoot straight!

[Ed note: Thanks to Lee Forester, I can apply some Maneuver Warfare analysis. In this article Mr. Newport shows the lack of long-range firepower as a Japanese center of gravity and exposure at night to Duncan MacCleod "in the end, there can be only one" assault combat as a Marine center of gravity.

Scenario 5.5 shows how Marines dug in on a hilltop, with clear fields of fire, have a chance to shoot up advancing (or Banzai charging) Japanese troops.]