Fred Haub commanded the defenders of Wallio Island in this re-creation of the famous amphibious assault of WW II. Fred's force was small... 8 units, each of 3 figures, giving him some 24 figures in all. But Fred wasn't defending all of Wallio Island... just the south beaches. My own force, the one to hit the beach, had 11 units, 33 figures. Both sides were also given an assortment of light and heavy machine guns (LMG, HMG). The final weapons in our inventories were (a) a tank regiment (1 tank model) for my side, and (b) one anti-tank gun unit for the defense. The figures we used were my Mertons, a WW II collection of 40mm figures. The rules grouped them into units of 3 figures each, call 'em squads or companies or regiments or whatever. For purposes of this battle description, we can term the units 'regiments'... in describing an amphibious assault, use of the term 'regiments' would seem more appealing than describing the adventures of a couple of squads set ashore in rowboats and kayaks and fighting their way inland. Note that the map shows four small towns along the shore line. The defenders set themselves up in both Heywa and Hocho... the other two towns were too near the landing areas to be defended properly. My sole tank regiment rolled ashore off the landing craft, and traded fire with the anti-tank installation for about six turns before the entire tank regiment was pretty shot up. It never got off the beach. Fred's anti-tank unit was a sort of 'pop up' unit... initially, he could leave it off-table until he saw where my tank debarked. He could then have it pop up in some appropriate defensive position and fire away. I did this for the anti-tank gun since the defenders had to spread themselves out along some 9 feet of ping-pong table, and the tank regiment would have been overwhelming if there was no appropriate counter force available. All of Fred's other units were pre-set in place. My main force, once ashore, immediately started directly for the town of Hocho. In this defensive bastion were located one regiment, plus the anti-tank gun unit, plus a machine gun unit. What's a 'machine gun unit'? I would assume that if a regiment was defined to be composed of 3 figures, then a fourth figure, one single-figure manning a LMG, could be termed a 'machine gun company'. Regardless of the terminology, the game looked like a medium-size skirmish affair, since both sides had only about 20 to 30 figures on the field. Sequence The sequence was a simple, alternate one of 5 phases: (a) The Active Side (AS) rallied his men. (b) The AS moved (c) The Non-Active Side (NAS) fired as many units as determined by tossing dice (d) Both sides, AS plus NAS, each fired 2 units simultaneously (e) Close assault was resolved My first success was to drive the enemy out of Hewa, on the western side of the table. In Phase (b), around Turn #3, I moved all my troops 10 inches toward Hewa, and in Phase (c), the defense fired. Here the non-active side tossed percentage dice to determine the number of units that could fire: Table #1 01 to 33 6 units 34 to 66 4 units 67 to 100 2 units A low dice toss allowed almost the entire side to open fire. Note that even if the dice toss was high, permitting only two units to fire, then in the very next Phase (d), the defense was allowed to fire another two units, so that the non-active side always got to fire at least 4 units. Two units, i.e., regiments, could coordinate their fire. Each man in a 3-man regiment contributed Fire Points (FP) as follows: Table #2 10 FP each man firing 30 FP each LMG 50 FP each HMG Thus two coordinated 3-man regiments, bolstered by a LMG, totaled the following: Six riflemen 60 FP One LMG 30 FP This gave the two units a probability of hit (POH) of 90 percent. And the POH was broken into three zones as shown in Table #3 (next page). Hits were registered via two methods: casualty figures and men temporarily placed off-board in the Rally Zone. Each time a unit received three casualty figures, one man was immediately sent to the Rally Zone. Table #3 . ----------------------------------------------------------- . No Effect POH ----------------------------------------------------------- . Target receives one casualty figure 1/2 POH ----------------------------------------------------------- . Target receives one casualty figure, One man from target unit placed in Rally Zone . ----------------------------------------------------------- Thus for the above example, with a POH of 90, a low toss of 24 would place a casualty figure on the target unit and send one man to the Rally Zone. With a unit composed of only three figures, I didn't want each hit to be a 'kill', as that would have resulted in a very short encounter. And so the strikes on the target were sort of 'watered down'... first, by using casualty markers, and second, by placing men in the Rally Zone. These men in the Rally Zone had a 50 percent chance to rally and rejoin their units; if they didn't rally (Phase (a) in the sequence), at that time, they were removed from the battle. In the manner described above, using both casualty figures and a Rally Zone, the number of hits received by a target unit were filtered to produce an acceptable casualty rate for such small-size units. An alternative method would have been to use data sheets, and mandate that when a unit took, say, six hits, it would be removed completely. I assigned 3 regiments to assault Hewa... they were pretty shot up by the defense, but managed to close. As they approached Hewa and suffered losses, the regiments all took morale tests. Each regiment started at a Morale Level (ML) of 80 percent, and this was modified by three factors: -3 For every casualty figure on the unit -10 For every missing man +X Augmentation provided by officer This last item, the assistance provided by the officer, varied: Table #4 01 to 33 Add 20 points to ML 34 to 66 Add 15 points 67 to 100 Add 10 points Each time the officer assisted, he was at risk for double the number of points he contributed. The opposition tossed the dice, and if they succeeded in potting the officer, he was placed in the Rally Zone, where he had a 50 percent chance to survive. I lost several brave fellows, but they permitted their units to attack Hewa. One of my officers, Lt. Wobble, seemed to have a charmed life. No matter how many points he contributed, nor how often he contributed them, he stayed on his feet. Lt. Wobble was obviously destined for great things in the military. And now we come to the great assault on Hewa. I chose the 2nd regiment as the lead unit to first enter the town. Then we referred to a 12 card Melee Deck, and began drawing the cards one by one. Each of the deck's cards was annotated with such items as "Defender takes one casualty figure", or "Attacker loses one man to the Rally Zone", or "One supporting regiment joins in for attacker" or "All engaged units take a casualty figure", and so on. This was the casualty phase of the melee, as the involved units took losses. These cards were drawn until a card appeared which stated "Resolve melee". Two of the 12 cards were so annotated. Now each side looked at N Number of surviving men C Number of casualty figures on opponent And the sides computed the product, P, where P = 10-sided die x (N + C) The high product, P, won the encounter, and the opposition retreated. In Heya, I caused the defenders to leave the town with heavy losses (lots of casualty figures and lots of men placed in the Rally Zone. This was the beginning of the end for Fred Haub's defenders. Once Hew a fell, this opened up their right flank, and, using Hewa as a take-off point, my troops moved toward Hocho. I must admit that on my own right flank, I didn't do nearly as well. Two of Haub's regiments were situated on a wooded ridge to the east of Heya, and I ordered two regiments to close with them. This was fairly rough terrain, and the ridge-top was located two levels above the beach area. This meant that any assaulting forces had to pass two 'rough terrain tests'... toss under 70 on percentage dice twice to move up the slopes. My lead unit made it into contact, and I placed the 5th Regiment just behind the lead unit, ready to come in if the cards of the Melee Deck permitted a reinforcement. The first card calling for a support unit appeared... and the 5th Regiment failed to make its way up the hill. Another card draw... and again, the 5th failed. And yet a third time! Needless to say, without a reinforcement, the lead unit was beaten back. All men in the Failing Fifth were immediately sent back to basic training for a hill climbing course. At battle's end, when we thought the defenders had had enough, we counted casualties. The invading force has suffered 12 casualties, and the defenders 11, almost equal. But since the invaders had started with about 7 more men than did the defenders, the 11 casualties attrited the defenders in greater proportion than the landing force. The entire encounter took no more than 2 hours, and the turns flowed quickly as, first, the one side went through its routines, and then the opposing side became active and went through his. What was lacking, in terms of re-creating a full scale amphibious assault, were provisions for off-shore bombardment, for airpower, for logistics, for reserves, and for a few other pertinent items. But, in the main, the basics were there, and the "flavor of the period" was there. I have no idea of what that means, but then, neither does anyone else. Back to PW Review May 1999 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Wally Simon 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