Combat Commander Pacific – After Action Report – Scenario F – Stalemate

Sometimes when you’re playing one of the most fun games on the planet (a slight exaggeration, but not much!), things just happen in a way that doesn’t benefit you.

It’s not exactly random chance, because often the luck evens out during the course of a game.

But maybe just one thing breaks against you, and things steamroll from there.

Sometimes that’s me, and sometimes it’s not.

Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that great monthly tournament run by the unequalled Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.

He is famous!

He definitely has more followers than me.

Ok, that’s not saying much, but he still has a lot.

In September and October, we move from the European battlefield to the Pacific, so everybody has to relearn rules that they haven’t used in 10 months.

Especially when there are caves involved.

This month’s opponent was Doug L, a guy I played against in March 2024 in a Sea Lion scenario that was also a blast to play.

This month’s scenario has a force of US Marines storming the hills on the island of Peleliu against a small Japanese force that were hiding in a bunch of caves.

Don’t forget that you can always click on a picture to blow it up

Both sides have scouts, so they could set up their mortars out of line of sight of the enemy and still rain fiery death (or, in my case, smoke) down on them.

The Japanese (white, Doug) set up first and Doug concentrated them mostly on the big hill in the centre of the map, with his only leader (other than the Scout) looking down and leading a big Japanese machine gun.

The Japanese Scout was up on the north on another tall hill.

The Americans (green, Me) set up 3 hexes from the left side of the board and were basically hiding in the jungle for the moment.

I had Sgt MacGowan and three squads in the south, hoping to storm the middle hill, while the bulk of the firepower was grouped with Captain Van Dyke.

That firepower included a huge .50 Caliber MG that could wreak havoc.

The American scout was situated so he could have the mortars fire smoke both at Atsuda and the Scout as well, aiding in the American advance.

Three special rules, but literally none of them came into play this game.

First, the Japanese can give up initiative to activate all Japanese units and they can form fire groups even if they are not adjacent.

Secondly, the Americans can give up initiative to get access to a naval bombardment, a 13-firepower Artillery attack (otherwise the Americans cannot get artillery at all).

Finally, Captain Van Dyke has a +2 strength in melee.

After setup, the Americans went first.

Could I pull this out? I got annihilated as the Americans by my friend Michal the last time I played this scenario.

Let’s find out!

Thankfully I had a Fire card and a couple of Moves to start, so the mortars set out to unleash smoke on Atsuda’s position with the machine gun.

And they did very well!

Then both groups of Marines moved out, with one squad in the south breaking while coming out of the heavy grass.

The Japanese mortars then let loose, making me realize I should have smoked the Scout instead of doing the second smoke with Atsuda.

The first mortar missed, but caused a sniper that broke Van Dyke!

The second mortar opened up on Van Dyke’s position and had a total firepower of 22 after the die roll.

That meant Van Dyke would require a 9 or higher to survive. If he died, the American attack would be gutted before it ever got off the ground.

The squad and weapons team had no chance, and they broke.

But Van Dyke drew an 11!

He was safe.

Which was good, because I had a Revive 5 card in hand, meaning everybody could rally.

It was time to open up with said firepower, using an Enfilade order as well.

That resulted in a massive 14 firepower attack (before the roll) against the Scout. Rolling a 12, Doug gave me the Initiative and I rolled a 7.

That’s still 21, causing everybody to break, even with the cave they were hiding in.

Scout nullified!

Except Doug immediately revived him.

Oh well.

The mortars managed to break Van Dyke and his men again, but I once again had a Revive card so they were fine.

Both sides traded Asset Denied cards, with Doug breaking my .50 Caliber MG and me breaking one of his mortars.

Van Dyke and his men also repositioned a little bit to get ready to charge the hill if necessary.

I fixed the MG and then opened fire on the still viable Japanese mortar and its crew.

That not only broke the crew but also drew a Jammed result that ended up breaking Atsuda’s MMG.

Here’s the situation at that point.

I also took the opportunity to smoke out the Japanese Scout, though it was only a 3 Smoke, so not that greatest.

After some non-helpful Japanese fire on MacGowan in the south, Van Dyke moved his deadly firepower towards Atsuda, especially because the smoke in his cave had dissipated. He hadn’t been able to fix the MMG yet, but it could still be deadly.

What ended up being a 26 firepower attack broke everybody in the cave (the US firepower is just overwhelming if they can get a group together).

Atsuda being broken gave MacGowan’s men room to move. They did face a little light MG fire coming down from the ridge, but it didn’t result in anything…other than a Japanese reinforcement MMG and team.

And US Air Support! Which ended up in the reinforcement’s hex.

This was one time that Doug didn’t have a Revive card, so Van Dyke opened up again on the next American turn, using Enfilade again (that’s just devastating), blowing Atsuda and all of his men out of the cave.

Even in their death throes, though, they were able to call in a sniper that broke MacGowan.

MacGowan, needing to get out of the open and out of range of the Japanese on the hills, threw some smoke in their path and Advanced behind it…right into a Japanese Panji trap (essentially Mines).

Doug rolled a 12 on the Mine’s fire attack, which I needed to give up the Initiative to get lower.

Doug rolling a 10 did not help matters.

MacGowan’s squad broke and MacGowan himself succumbed to his wounds.

I was leaderless in the south!

But Doug was completely leaderless (not counting the Scout, of course).

I didn’t mind that trade-off.

With Atsuda gone, and with mortar shells raining down on his jungle hex, Van Dyke decided it was time to get moving towards the hill and maybe take advantage of his melee bonus.

At least he’d be out of sight of those mortars.

Also, one of the squads in the south jumped up onto the hill, throwing some smoke out there in the process to be safe.

With that, the American deck ran out, giving us our first Time trigger (the game was at least an hour old at that point).

Van Dyke continued moving forward, and a US Asset Request brought a bombing run down on the reinforcement MMG in the south.

The crew broke, but there was nobody around to take advantage of it.

Van Dyke managed to get his men up onto the ridge, but a Japanese Asset Denied order broke the .50 Cal!

That wasn’t cool.

Finally, it happened.

I had to discard, and Doug brought out a Hidden Unit.

Which just happened to be a B Division squad showing up right on Objective 3 in my rear!

And another Asset Denied destroyed my valuable .50 Cal MMG.

It was nice knowing you, Cal.

It was time to attack the Japanese Scout again with an Enfilade (though not as effective without the .50 Cal! *sniff*).

A still-withering attack broke the Scout, but also resulted in the B Division squad in my rear scrounging that .50 Cal!

(In hindsight, it may have been better to have the A Division squad up on the heights scrounge it, but who knew at the time?)

Van Dyke and his men moved forward to get out of sight from the .50 Cal and also get closer to the top of the ridge.

The new Japanese MMG also advanced up onto the heights so they could open up on Van Dyke, as well as the Americans in the south.

Having moved further, and now not having an Advance card, Van Dyke decided to just open up on the mortar team in the caves in front of him.

A blistering attack broke them with no problem.

The second attack killed them, since once again Doug didn’t have a Revive card.

With the heights clearing, and with a total of 6 Revive in my hand (a 1, 2 and 3), it was safe for Van Dyke to storm the heights.

While only one American squad broke in all of that, an American sniper did break the B Division squad with the .50 Cal behind my lines.

Bonus!

The American squad quickly recovered.

I still didn’t have an Advance card, so Van Dyke instead opened up on the A Division squad that wasn’t in a cave (because he couldn’t actually see the one in the cave).

They broke easily.

I used the Dive Bomber on the Japanese squad with my machine gun, but they barely survived the attack.

I finally drew my Advance card.

Van Dyke and his men stormed into both hexes, though in Pacific, melee doesn’t happen until the beginning of the Allied turn.

This gave the guys Van Dyke himself was attacking a chance to scatter into the adjacent cave.

But the other Japanese squad fell to an Ambush and we didn’t even need a melee roll.

At that point, Doug figured that he didn’t have any avenue to victory.

My huge firegroup was up on the heights and able to rain hellfire down on any Japanese units in the area.

I could easily have also exited a couple of my guys for huge points.

There just wasn’t really anything he could do with the meager forces he had left.

Here’s the final situation, with objectives revealed.

Doug was once again a great opponent and I had fond memories of 2024. It was the same in this game.

It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning, playing one of my favourite games.

Hopefully Doug won’t get caught in a meatgrinder in the October Pacific scenario.

This win puts me at 34-29 in my ladder career, which is probably the best ratio I’ve had (at least that I can remember).

Next month, we are once again in the Pacific, this time using a scenario from the New Guinea battle pack.

Hopefully I will be as fortunate as I was this week.

If you enjoyed this write-up, why not join us on the ladder, where you too can play a monthly game and also probably a bunch of other games as well?

It seems you can always get a game in unless you are trying to actually plan one.

But spur of the moment?

You’re probably covered.

Before we head out, my advice to you is that Enfilade is your friend.

It just you better than how good you already are!

See you next month.

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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