At Cold Wars 2018 I ran two Combat Patrol(TM): WWII games set in the Philippines in 1941. The Japanese were advancing toward Bataan, and an understrength platoon of Americans had to try to stop them. As you can see from the map, the Japanese had to advance across a stream and the Americans were scattered around a small village. The stream could be crossed by infantry, but vehicles could only cross at the ford. The map is all jungle except the clearing around the town (marked by lichen) and the peaches of felt. Visibility in the jungle is only four inches, and movement is halved. This made it slow going for the Japanese and hard to concentrate any firepower for the Americans. To defend the town, the Americans had an M-3 stuart and an anti-tank gun.
It is very difficult to find early war American infantry. I used the Americans with tin helmets from Pulp Figures.
A forward deployed team of Americans advanced to engage two Japanese tanks and a squad of Japanese infantry. The Americans didn’t fare well, but they slowed the Japanese advance for a couple of turns.
The Japanese advanced steadily on their left flan. After destroying the American team in the center, the Japanese advanced into the village to engage the Americans. The huts provided very little cover, but as the Japanese advanced into the clearing the Americans finally had enemy in their fields of fire.
This rock was a deceptive piece of terrain. It seemed like a good defensive position, but the jungle limited the field of fire, and it could be easily bypassed.
In Combat Patrol(TM): WWII when figures are wounded or incapacitated, the unit’s leader acquires a morale marker. When a unit next activates, it must first make a morale check for each marker it had accrued. A funny moment came during one of these morale checks. The platoon headquarters had to make a morale check. The four Army nurses were attached to the platoon headquarters. One of the morale results had the platoon leader and two nurses charge into melee with the Japanese. The Japanese had a better morale number, so this didn’t work well. The Japanese killed both nurses and the platoon leader. As a result of losing the platoon leader, all of the American units became pinned.
Chris Palmer took over control of the Stuart tank midway through the game. Chris got several shots at the Japanese tank, but he missed every shot. Between the Americans being pinned and both Japanese tanks closing on the road, we called the game a Japanese victory.
