Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario C – Ichiki Attacks

Have you ever played a game where the worst mistake you made in the game was 2-3 days before you played it?

Now I have!

Welcome to another adventure in the exciting Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of the finest games out there where you too can be a victim of gods you didn’t even know existed.

The ladder, administered by the impeccable Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials Youtube fame, is also a great place to play pick-up games where maybe you can kind of even out your odds a bit throughout the month.

The September and October scenarios on the ladder are from Combat Commander: Pacific, so we all have to relearn a bunch of different rules that probably haven’t been used since last October.

This month, I was matched up against Ted L, a second-time opponent who beat me handily in a game last August where I also made one of the most colossal blunders I’ve ever made.

Coincidence?

Anyway, much like last September’s scenario, Patrick had the lowest-rated AREA player choose which side they wanted to be.

A couple of days beforehand, I chose the Japanese.

Yeah, in this scenario, that was really really really stupid.

Did I mention it was stupid?

The scenario is Ichiki Attacks, where the Japanese are doing a human wave assault against American positions on the island of Guadalcanal.

Here’s the setup.

(Don’t forget you can click on a picture to blow it up)

The Americans (khaki, Ted) set up Wire as shown in the picture, which thankfully the wonderful Scott has the Vassal setup already do so you don’t have to.

(That may have been there before Scott started doing VASSAL updates, but I still want to give him credit for all the incredible work he does)

They are in Defend mode and get 4 cards.

The Japanese (white, me) then set up one hex deep on the bottom of the board, so basically one squad per hex and your only choices are which squads go in which hex and where to put the leaders.

They start in Banzai mode, which has a couple of interesting (and potentially deadly) rules.

First, they only get 3 cards in hand.

Secondly, they can use the Charge order, which rallies all broken Japanese units and activates them to move.

However, all enemies are activated to fire without a Fire card.

Finally, all eliminated Japanese units go to the next space on the Time Track to come back as reinforcements, rather than going to the elimination track.

I’m terrible at attacking, but I lost this scenario to my friend Michal as the US, so I thought maybe this might be fun and educational?

Well, it was both!

Educational in the “Think Better Next Time” sense.

The only other special rules are that when a Japanese unit enters a river hex, the Americans then get to place their reinforcements on the next Time Track space.

When a Japanese unit enters a palm or jungle hex on the American side of the river, then the Japanese can do the same with their reinforcements.

How’d I fare?

Well, you can probably guess, but it was still an entertaining game!

As you can see from the setup map (I’ll post it again so you don’t have to scroll), the initial Japanese advance is out of sight of the Americans due to the swamps right in front of the river, unless you’re advancing up the beach.

So I spent the first part of the first Time period just moving forward.

Until I entered the river, triggering Ted’s reinforcements and finally giving Ted some targets.

Which he promptly fired at, because of course he had a Fire card.

As a Defender should, he took a bunch of low-firepower attacks to run through my deck, firing at the guys on the left.

He managed to break one of them, but thankfully I had a Revive 1 card to bring him back into action.

(In Pacific, you don’t play a card and try to rally every broken unit. Instead, you have Revive cards 1-5 and you can automatically rally (or remove suppression from) one unit per Revive point you have).

More movement from the Japanese and another broken squad, which I promptly over-paid a Revive 2 in order to rally him (he’s in the River, so has terrible cover).

I also finally had somebody to fire at with my own guys, though most of the Americans are in foxholes so my low firepower attack probably won’t hurt them.

So I went after the squad that’s not in a foxhole.

More US fire on the Japanese left didn’t do anything except break his Howitzer.

Oh, and caused me to draw a 2-Time trigger (in Pacific, 2 is the Time trigger, not 12).

I had 39 cards in my deck.

Why do you care about that?

Keep reading.

It did bring out the American reinforcements, which includes two American Heavy Machine Guns.

Ted brought them out in two separate stacks, on the right and left with an HMG in each.

It also got him a radio.

With more Yanks coming out, I needed to do something, so I fired again and used my Revive 4 card as an Enfilade action in order to make sure I broke that squad I was firing at.

And later I cried as I never saw another Revive card again until literally the turn the game ended.

I also cried because even with the Enfilade, nothing happened.

(Actually, I did see a Revive 1 card that rallied a Japanese unit that got hit by a sniper…but that was it)

Ted continued the low odds attacks on the left, with nothing happening…except me drawing another Time on my first morale check.

With 56 cards left in my deck.

I reshuffled my deck for the second morale check…and drew a Time.

With 68 cards in my deck!

I couldn’t have that so I gave Ted the Initiative and rerolled.

I advanced in the center with Dainichi being the first Japanese stack to enter the Wire.

More fire back and forth did little, and then Ted activated his new radio for the first time.

It landed accurately, drifting slightly to hit four Japanese hexes.

The first morale check…I drew a Time!

With 45 cards left in my deck.

I now had three broken units.

Great place to play the Revive 4 I have!!!

Oh, I had…oops.

I moved up the beach a little and kept firing at that exposed American unit, drawing a sniper that broke the HMG squad (I think that’s the only American I even broke, much less eliminated, this game).

The team rallied on Ted’s next turn anyway.

Ted wanted to completely obliterate the one broken Japanese unit he could see, so instead of low-firepower attacks, he did a massive one.

Bye bye A Division squad!

After that, Ted’s deck ran out, causing another Time (the only Time actually triggered by a deck running out).

We were half-way through to Sudden Death and I hadn’t been able to do much.

In the center, I advanced off the Wire, triggering my reinforcements!

I advanced again in the center, actually getting adjacent to the Americans!

Would this be where the dominant Japanese melee ability would come into play?

Is the Pope Jewish?

Withering firepower would destroy one Japanese squad, but it did bring out the Japanese dive bomber!

And I had an Asset Request handy.

I alternated between dive-bombing the HMG or strafing both it and the American squad, but the firepower for bombing is higher and the jungle made strafing unlikely to succeed.

Either way, it didn’t work because Ted rolled high. It just suppressed the team carrying the HMG.

I also had my first Charge in my hand, so I thought it would be a good time to do that.

It rallies all broken Japanese units, and activates them to move, but you do have to move at least one unit.

So you can’t use it as a blanket “Revive” card without doing anything.

Time was wasting away, so I thought it would be good to start moving.

Even without a Revive card for the inevitable Japanese casualities.

Probably a mistake.

Endo and his men moved into the river from the beach, took some fire…and promptly drew a Time trigger.

With 39 cards in my deck.

My reinforcements did come out though!

More moving, more Japanese breaking, and the third squad on the beach…promptly drew a Time!

With 68 cards in my deck.

I decided to stop there.

Broken Japanese men littered the beach and the water.

More American fire (really, I don’t think Ted was ever without at least one Fire card) caused another Time trigger, though this time by Ted.

With 50 cards left in his deck.

See? Even when I’m not the one doing it, my luck was bad!

American artillery killed one of the Japanese units in the river, along with breaking another one on the wire.

Meanwhile, I finally had another Advance and Move card, so was able to move on the left and right.

One Time trigger away from Sudden Death.

Going through the log to write this AAR, I just realized that instead of advancing on the left, I could have advanced Dainichi and his men into the foxholes at Objective 4 in the center, most likely killing the Americans there and causing an 8 VP swing, though how much they could hold out against an adjacent American HMG, I’m not sure.

The next American turn, that became moot as Savage and the HMG and team moved into the foxholes themselves.

I moved up again on the left and right, with Atsuda on the left having visions of advancing into the lone American squad’s hex and taking some revenge.

Ted was having none of that and used another one of his endless Fire cards to break Atsuda and his men, along with killing another Japanese unit on the wire.

Instead of advancing into melee, Atsuda advanced into the jungle to try and recoup.

More fire killed another Japanese squad.

And more fire killed yet another Japanese squad.

Finally, more fire at Endo in the river, but Ted drew another Time trigger (with a super-low amount of 29 cards left in his deck).

Sudden Death went back and forth a couple of times before it mercifully ended the game.

Here’s the final map.

This is probably the worst luck I’ve had in a Combat Commander game in a long time.

And I’ve had some really bad luck!

I never saw an Asset Denied card to break Ted’s machine gun(s).

I didn’t see a Revive card (other than the one reviving Endo) through most of the game after the initial two (and the one I wasted).

Wasting the one good Revive card I had was totally my fault, though personally I thought I heard Ted mumbling under his breath and I felt compelled to do it somehow.

But I could be wrong.

I saw one Charge card the entire game, so not even that could rally units (and then I promptly ran forward and got some more broken units for my trouble)

Don’t get me started on the Time triggers when my deck wasn’t even half-gone yet.

It was just a menagerie of black cats crossing my path.

This doesn’t take anything away from Ted’s play.

He was amazing, using those low-firepower attacks to churn through my deck.

I saw Revive and Charge cards go past as my dice rolls.

That’s what you have to do when defending, and he did it to a T.

I don’t think he was ever threatened.

Anyway, Ted is a great opponent and really fun to play against. We had lots of laughs, and not just at my luck’s expense.

We also laughed at my randomly-placed Hero that ended up almost at my board edge (so a reluctant Hero then).

The loss puts me at 27-25 in my ladder career.

I have some breathing room, but it would be nice to win next month.

If you enjoyed this, why not join us on the ladder so you can get a monthly game in?

I’m looking at you, Zilla.

Next month’s scenario is from the New Guinea Pacific battle pack, so it’s going to be tough.

More jungle stuff!

Until next time, my advice to you is to smash all of your clocks and watches so Time doesn’t become an issue.

See you then!

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

To see all of my Ladder After Action Reports since May 2021, go here!