Sands of Iwo Jima

[John B.]

Time to switch to the other side of the world. In this game, I'm the US Marine Corps/US navy attempting to take the island of Iwo Jima. I have ten turns (5 weeks) to do so. Part of the US Navy leaves on Turn 6 and that's about the time that the marines begin to slow down due to exhaustion.

But, I see that we're off to a good start. The island is completely empty so I'll just occupy the VP hexes and win the game. Should be a cake walk. I'll tell John Wayne to stand down and Clint Eastwood that there can't be any letters from an empty island.

[John B.]

Whoops. Well I guess the Japanese decided to defend this island after all. In the first half week the Marines took Mt. Surabachi but the Japanese counter attacked in the north and drove back the 24th Regiment of the 4th Marine division. It's down to 50% strength and this battle has just started. The Japanese have also targeted the carriers with their shore guns (not sure CVs would get into range but we'll pretend those are airstrikes/Kamikazes) but they're all still in the fight.

[John B.]

As you can see, it's already a costly operation with the losses to bombardment as the Marines landed and the first turn's fighting. More reinforcements are lined up to come ashore and the Marines do have an impressive amount of firepower!

[John B.]

The rest of the week did not go so well for the Marines. In the indicated hex two Japanese companies held off two separate attacks. And, American disengagements cost a lot of movement points.

[John B.]

Meanwhile, American casualties continue to mount!

[John B.]

We're just about the finish off the second week on this god foresaken island. At least some progress has been made in the center.

[John B.]

More casualties.

[John B.]

Tanks seem to be holding out ok.

[John B.]

The Japanese engineer company held out against two regiments of marines this turn. But, in the center a large force of Japanese (including two infantry battalions) were pushed back. My plan is to try to kill that stack, attack the artillery in the north, and see if I can go around my right flank to get behind the other defenders.

I'm not good at figuring out how to get artillery to support. Sometimes it does and sometimes it does not. Should it be in reserve mode or does artillery automatically join in?

[John B.]

Turn 5 and the Marines are now starting their third week on the island. More heavy fighting but they did take the second airfield and pushed the Japanese back on both flanks. But, you can see the toll it's taking on a number of American units. Yellow, brown, and red boxes are starting to appear on some of the units and there is still a lot of the island to capture.

[John B.]

And there were very heavy casualties on the Marines this turn. The number of rifle squads out of action has climbed up significantly and the big VP hexes are still in Japanese hands. Also, the navy may withdrawal a number of its ships next turn and the Marines are close to the time when there overall effectiveness goes down due to fatigue.

The fact that artillery units are in low supply even with the very rich supply numbers on the hexes is a good indication as to how fierce the fighting has been.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm having a particularly hard time discriminating the Jap units from The Marine units. I wish the Japs were a tan color or something similar.

[John B.]

Larry, I did not notice that on my postings but you're right. Both sides units appear to be the same color. That's odd because in the game the Japanese are tan and easy to distinguish. I'll see if I can fix that somehow.

[John B.]

Larry, I went back and looked at the game file and both sides have green counters. But, the Americans have blue boxes in the middle (see e.g. the armor battalion with black circle around it a couple of posts above this one. It's american) and the Japanese units have yellowish boxes in the middle. Let me know if you still can't distinguish them and I'll highlight them a different way. Thanks for letting me know.

[John B.]

Start of turn 6. Part of the Navy withdrew (looks like the New Jersey and a CA TF have left). But, before they left the marines made progress on their right and left flanks. Marine engineers were able to hook around and make it to the north coast and the Japanese defense on the left collapsed leaving the road to Bloody Gorge seemingly open.

[John B.]

Casualties on turn 5 were not as bad on previous turns. I tried to give the regiments some sort of respite and only had two prepared assaults. The Marines still have time, but they will become less combat effective due to the intense nature of the conflict.

[larryfulkerson]

Do you have enough troops to rotate fresh ones in and tired ones out?

[John B.]

I have one regiment that I kept off of the line last week and it recovered somewhat. I've been pushing the units pretty hard the first 4 turns but these last two I've tried to calm the attacks down somewhat. It does seem like the number of additional casualties was down last turn. But, there is a short time frame on this game (I think I only have 4 turns left) so the guys can't stay out of the line too long.

[John B.]

The marines have now spent three long weeks on this godforsaken island and they are inching ever closer to victory. The failed assault on bloody gorge was a surprise since the prognoses was excellent. Tell the intel boys to sharpen their pencils and get with the program. Still, as you can see, the Japanese are pushed up almost all the way to the northern coast. There is just one more airfield to seize and there are two weeks (four turns) in which to seize it.

In a somewhat ominous sign, the American turn ended early because of a failed proficiency check.

[John B.]

The butcher's bill grows long with each passing turn.