SWPA Campaign: Elizabeth Islands, Part 2 -- Set-up and Forces

As cited in an earlier post, the origin of this campaign was a search for simple World War 2 rules that could be used with 54mm toy soldiers, painted or not. Having discovered that even cheap toy soldiers sod at dollar stores, online, and even in hobby shops, could with a little bit of effort produce an acceptable figure as illustrated by the photos in the last few postings. As for rules, I set my sights initially on the one page Fubar rules ( www.fubarwargames.wordpress.com/downloads/) and these will be the ones used in this battle.

But, as with most sets of rules that come into my possession, I inevitably will tinker with them at least somewhat. These are no different! One of my pet peeves with most WW2 rules is they assume the unit, e.g. squad/section/gruppe always start at full strength. Even in peacetime, that is usually not the case. My first platoon (2nd Platoon, B Company, 1-101st Inf) back in 1972 had a strength of 27 men out of the T.O. & E. strength of 43. In a wartime situation, that is even more likely. So what to do? Use dice of course!

 The E-series USMC rifle squad had a nominal strength of twelve men in two teams of six. The Japanese squad had a nominal strength of thirteen. So for this battle, I started with a base of six plus a D6 die roll. for the Japanese, I followed the same procedure but added plus one. The results were as follows:

USMC 1st Squad: 10 men                                IJA Squad: 11 men 

USMC 2nd Squad: 8 men

USMC 3rd Squad: 9 men

For the purpose of the actual battle, the Marines will have two squads, the IJA one. We'll see how that works out game-wise. Next time, I'll go over the game and its result. Until then...

USMC Fire Team

  

 

IJA Rifle Squad

 

 

SWPA Campaign: Elizabeth Islands, Part 1-- Nomans Island

 I've often found in my many years of gaming, that some of the interesting games occur within the context of an ImagiNation or Historical campaign. My preference is the ImagiNation type which provides a great deal of flexibility. Hence, we have decided to use some islands off the coast of Massachusetts, transferred to the Southwest Pacific, as the stage for a series of games using painted toy soldiers representing both the US Army and USMC against the forces of Imperial Japan. Our first stop is a small (612 acre/248 hectare) island currently a wildlife refuge but in a previous iteration was a US Navy bombing range (until 1996). Off limits to visitors, due to the unexploded ordnance leftover from those days, it is rarely visited, indeed illegal. Until 1942 a privately owned island, it was leased to the Navy for WW2. An airstrip was constructed and manned by a small naval contingent. The aircraft stationed there were likely used for anti-submarine patrols. Here are a couple of photos of the islands today. 

 

The southern coast is a series of sandy cliffs and rising ground. If you enlarge the photo, you can see the remains of the airstrip in the lower left. The northern coast is more even with a large sandy beach. Here's is where the Americans will land.

 

 

 

Another view of the island looking north. The cliffs are readily visible as well as the scrubby vegetation. The air strip was to the left. The Japanese have a number of defensive options.

 

 

 

 

 

Next time, I will go over the opposing forces. Until then...