Sea of Tranquility PTO (id:#61900)
(ASL 13 - Rising Sun ID: 72)   [next]   [previous]
Prior Publication: ASL 9 - Gung Ho!
See Also: Sea of Tranquility by Avalon Hill Sea of Tranquility by Multi-Man Publishing
Designer: Pat Jonke
Starter kit scenario?:    Deluxe scenario?:
 
Balance:
American (USMC)Japanese
47.5%

Overview:

Although the island of Peleliu had been declared secure on September 30th, about a thousand Japanese remained in an area some 900 yards long by 400 yards wide. In some of the fiercest fighting of the entire Pacific campaign they had repelled in succession the 1st Marines, the 7th Marines, the 321st Infantry, and the 7th Marines again. The terrain in the pocket comprised jagged coral ridges and outcroppings, cut through by natural and man-made caves. Weeks of aerial and naval bombardment had stripped away most of the vegetation. What remained bore a resemblance to the surface of the moon. When the 7th Marines withdrew for the last time, the fresh 5th Marines were called upon to finish the job. . .
Attacker: American (USMC) (Company L, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division / Company A, 710th Tank Battalion)
Defender: Japanese (1st Battlion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 14th Infantry Division)  
10.5 turns
    Players: 2     OBA: American (USMC)     Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:12.0 D:7.0
AFVs: A:4
M4A1 x 4

AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:4
Year-41 Type Mountain Gun
Type 97 Curved-Fire Infantry Gun
Type 1 Machine-Moved Gun x 2

Victory Conditions:

Exit VP: Building Control VC: Area Control VC:
Unit Based VC: LOS Style VC: CVP Cap:
Misc Rules: PTO (Exc: some roads exist), Buildings are Crags. D: Caves14, Mines
Overlays: NONE
Errata (source)
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Scenario info

Last Played:
DateReporterOpponentBal.ResultTimeComments
2020-01-14(D) Will Willow vs M. LaPlante Japanese winVASL
2018-01-01(D) Jeff B vs Scott Sherer Japanese win14.5 hrsOur first foray into caves and I think it went fairly smoothly. I had read somewhere that the hardest part about cave scenarios is the setup and I would probably agree that is true. Once play started we didn't have to delve into the rulebook too often. I did learn that elite Japanese in caves are very hard to dig out. The American approach in the south got ripped up fairly early. Soon all that was left there were half their tanks. Later in the game the northern approach suffered the same fate. My opponent used a multitude of half squads (which I probably would've done too given their plethora of support weapons), but I don't think that was the way to go as they died easier and suffered a loss of smoke capability. They had planted a kill stack on the eastern hill, but these guys didn't start shooting well until the 10-3 left them to go do some rallying. Every time the Marines got remotely close to the caves they got ripped to shreds. The 60mm OBA was a joke. It wasn't even all that effective against the emplaced mortar (the only unit stupid enough to be outside the caves). I didn't expect much help from my mortar, but he pulled his weight nicely during the course of the game. I got a little nervous when I was down to one wounded leader left, but he just stayed in the cave complex at that point and it wasn't much longer before the Americans just had nothing left.
2018-01-01(A) Scott Sherer vs Jeff B Japanese winAmerican strategy was to assault the southern approaches to BB5 with the AFVs and a small band of Marines, while bringing the main assault in from the east. Also broke off a smaller force to split the middle of the two heights with the idea that they could either help the main effort towards BB5 or go grab some VC hexes on the other hill. I thought I could get from crag to crag a bit easier, but the middle force quickly bogged down and got trapped in the palms and crag hexes in U1/U2/V1/V2 by the mortar on the ridge line so they were of little use. Got some WP down from the tanks, but three of the four depleted WP on their first shot of it (with a WP8 for being elite!) and only two total shots of WP actually found its way into a cave. The American AE's never got into the fray in a meaningful way, as repeated efforts to assault the peak in BB5 were repulsed by Jeff's skillful defense. Only ended up getting one DC successfully placed (broke a squad but didn't eliminate the cave), and only got one FT in place for a shot (malf'ed on it). The Marines seemed to fail alot of NMC and 1MC for 8 ML units, which, along with a lack of coordination in the attack, spelled doom for the American effort to clear the Umurbrogol Pocket on this day. The final result was pretty clear by Turn 6, but we played it out for the practice with the cave rules. Cave rules definitely don't seem as intimidating now.
2015-09-06(D) Martí Cabré vs Txema Mainez Japanese winDuplicate. Original recorded in Gung Ho!
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ActionDate
Pte Parts Linked the scenario to ROAR2024-07-16 05:40:54
Honza Rated the scenario2022-08-24 14:04:50
Hutch Modified the unit counts2021-01-13 11:43:23
Hutch Modified the Defender's Guns2021-01-13 11:43:23
Hutch Modified the unit counts2020-11-24 17:51:04
FileDescriptionUserViews
Marines on Peleliu (peliliu.png)Imagehoxson11005
(usmc-jap.png)Imagehoxson1972
(72 Sea of Tranquility.png)Map Imagehipsu1142
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Marines on Peleliu
 
Statistics:
Avg Rating: 7.83Votes: 6
Views: 4570
To-Play list count: 2
Estimated Play time: 7.6 hours
Recorded Games: 3
Archive recorded plays:
American (USMC)0
Japanese3
Drawn:0

ROAR Data: (as of today)
Sea of Tranquility [Confirmed]
[A] American 19
[D] Japanese 18
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