The Japanese attacked the Minahasa peninsula on the northern part of the island of Celebes (now known as Sulawesi), from 11–13 January 1942 as an attempt to open a passage to attack Australia through the eastern part of Dutch East Indies. The defence of Lake Tondano and the airfield at Longoan was under the responsibility of the so called Tactical Command Kakas with commanding officer Captain W.C. van den Berg. Shortly after 09:00 on 12 January, 334 Japanese paratroopers were dropped on and around the airfield. Having heard the dropping, Captain van den Berg ordered the two remaining overvalwagens to attack the airfield. Although the Japanese paratroopers suffered heavy casualties, they succeeded in capturing the Langoan airfield. Enraged by the heavy losses, the Japanese executed a large number of KNIL POW's. Knowing that the battle was lost, van den Berg ordered his remaining troops to retreat inland and start a guerrilla war.
Attacker: Japanese (1st Company, Yokosuka 1st SNLF)
Defender: Dutch (Elements of D Company, Manado Battalion)
6.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:14.0 D:7.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:1
Braat Overvalwagen AA Armoured Car
Guns: A:0
Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 3
D:0
Misc Rules:
PTO, LJ (Exc: roads exist) A: Paradrop w D: Dutch use MMG per G1.611. AFV is radio equipped
ROFL....OK...I setup all my DP's on the to map pretty much to the left of the road leading to the "Airfield" (a non term in the ASLRB, is it a RUNWAY or components of a larger construct?) Could cause setup issues if the term isn't defined by the players.
SSR is pointless babble...just make it SAN 3
Anyhow...Jack split up all units spread out as much as possible.
My DP's all missed.. 2 landed on the middle board...B row and T row...the third ended up top map GG....you can't get any better. ROFL...GG units all floated onboard for the most part...nothing lost...ALL MTR's were here...probably needed to split the MTR's up @1 per DP.
T row guys (all the MG's and 2 leaders) did ok...got moving fast enough...
B row...dropped like 5 hexes off map...lost a squad and both MG's and DC pregame...other units came on board and got to work...wasn't too bad but poor decisions led to the loss.
EPIC point of scenario when MTR gets 5 ROF's on SMOKE and just BLANKETED the left part of the board!!! ROFL... Multiple banzai charges, 2nd banzai was done with a couple mistakes but didn't really matter.... TOTAL Banzai...6.
Fun enough for the Japanese player...Dutch might not have a lot to do....
2024-02-12
(D) Jack Wilson
vs
Steven Stewart
Dutch win
As Stew said, the wild Para Drop probably bought me a turn. In this scenario, it is not a question of can the Dutch defeat the Japanese, but can they have at least one man still standing in a VC Location when the buzzer sounds? As it turns out, Stew came up one turn short of getting his last VC Location.
An overall fun scenario. I learned a lot about the crazy Para Drop mechanics (honestly, could it have been possible to make that section of the rules a little simpler to understand and implement without detracting from the beauty of the chaotic airborne experience)?
I also got schooled on the dangers of the Japanese Banzai tactic. Stew is an excellent player and a great source of ASL rules knowledge. Thanks, Stew.
2022-12-18
(A) walter mcwilliams
vs
Tom Kearney
Dutch win
Langoan Airfield (LAF)
BLUF: A total crap shoot but still fun as hell! PLAY IT!
I formulated three possible plans for my assault on LAF Airfield.
I tasked organized my force as follows:
Wing A: 5 squads each with an LMG, Mtr and DC Led by a 9-0.
Wing B: 2 x crews, 3 x squads, 2 x MMG and a Mtr. Led by the 10-1 and an 8-0.
Wing C: Mirrored Wing A (-DC).
Wing D: Consisting of a single squad.
I developed 3 possible CoA:
A: All wings drop as close to “being on” LAF as possible and just try to overwhelm the Dutch as quickly as possible.
B: Envelop LAF from the north, East and South.
C: Drop everything on board 33 or 35.
Tom’s Defense was a classic deathstar of bunkers and trenches set up in the center of the airfield upon viewing it (minus the HIP stuff), I chose Plan B.
Wing A’s initial jump point was the north side of the airfield. They would fail to hit their initial drop point, with their final drop point still being on board 35 though significantly further to the west than planned. Wing B’s Initial jump point was the East of LAF and was on target, Wing C to the South on target and Wing D planned for the far west of board 33 also failed and ended up dead center of board 38.
All the sticks ended up in final land hexes outside the range of Dutch fire and after taking the requisite 1NTC/MC landed. Landing casualties were nil though many NTC were failed causing deployments and critically the 10-1 was wounded.
The Japanese immediately scrambled to recover weapons and support weapons while moving toward their final assembly areas. The north wing’s original mission was the woods center mass of the LAF however, they had landed to far west to get there in time, so they advanced due south along the west edge of the board and into the palm grove in the NW corner. The south wing assembled in the SE corner where they were joined by the East wing.
The wings assembled and moved into their assault position with few casualties and all, but a couple of squads/half-squads were fully armed. Sadly, the few casualties I did take were to the North wing where a squad was stripped. That wing was hurting, but because they dropped so scattered and had such difficult terrain to move through there wasn’t ample time to organize them properly. A a critical injury to two half-squads and a leader in the Eastern woods were the most serious injuries in the first half. I took a calculated risk with this group trying to recombine them. It was a +2 shot, but Tom got back-to-back 3’s killing the leader and dming a squad, losing a leader always hurts attacking Japanese.
Tom’s reinforcement came on unopposed and drove to the south/west side of LAF.
Turn 5 the Japanese were in place and the dice gods smiled on them. All three mortars put smoke down, which gave the Banzai’s a chance. Wing A banzied first through Kunai and into some woods and across the street. This was followed by all hands from Wings B and C minus the MMG crews. The Banzai’s were helped by the fact that Tom would beak 2x MMG, an LMG and cower an LMG fire lane. MG malfunction would hamper Tom for the majority of the game.
Wing A Banzai managed to cross the street but with only two ½ squad. Advancing fire was ineffective and two low odds HtH netted a loss and a mutual destruction, not good since there was little left to follow up with. The Wing B/C banzai was more successful securing one victory building and putting my troopers in heavy smoke and position to Banzai next turn. See Photo below.
The next Japanese turn saw more Japanese smoke (No mortar ever failed a Smoke DR, although they had no WP) Tom had managed to repair some MG’s. This time only one banzai, from the Wing B/C this Banzai too was successful with Japanese in all three bunker hexes however, crappy CC rolls would lead to only one PB secured. Group A’s surviving leader and ½ squad would advance into smoke and then into a victory building but end up in melee. Taking advantage of the Banzai, a DC hero would attack a final fire squad, make into its, hex where it would break in FPF, then be blown to smithereens by the DC. The parent squad would move up in the heroes wake and secure a foxhole in a forlorn hope to secure the western most buildings. During Tom’s turn his forces would fail to impose any damage on the Japanese although he did manage to create a berserker half-squad which was in a PB hex. Also, by this time he had succeeded in abandoning the vehicle with the 50cal See Photo
The Japanese final attack saw more smoke and some ineffective prep fire. Those squads not yet engaged in securing a PB or building objective maneuvered to do so. Two half squads and a full squad attempted to rush the far SW building but the 50cal cut them down with successive ROF shots of 3/3/2 guaranteeing Tom the win. The Japanese would secure one more PB but fail to capture the 3rd. See Photo below
This was a fun, tense battle while Tom didn’t have any big sweeping maneuvers (no Dutch unit ever moved more than 3 hexes) his maneuvering of his deathstar forces was faultless even when down to only 2 functioning MG my troopers were always threatened. The Japanese’s crazy smoke had a lot to do with my success and had it not been there I would have been slaughtered and the game would have been over on turn 5 but, that’s not the way things worked out and I for one am glad. This was a tremendous amount of fun.
