P&F Bloody Tarawa team game - calling all participants.

[Marc Bellizzi]

Jeff,

Banzai charges will come out.

I had tried to address the issue of fire support by providing the static small craft with the ANGLICO teams on turn 1, which gets withdrawn on turn 2 iirc. My thinking was that by turn 2 or 3 the USMC has so many leaders arriving w/ radios or radio-bearing teams around that they can take over the calls for fire. But maybe you're right, a more dedicated & set-up NGF team would be better.

Historically the fire support stopped about 5-10 minutes prior to the landings; this allowed the defenders to recover a bit and inflict a heavy toll on the Marines. NGF didn't resume until 20 minutes after H Hour (2 destroyers swept in close to cover Green Beach during that time, but otherwise nothing - this is why the Marines on Green Beach were able to advance further than the other battalions).

An aerial observer unit would be perfect, I believe a Kingfisher or two were tasked to rotate back and forth from the carriers in that role during the Day 1 landings, but I don't recall anything in the SB series that would fit the bill to reflect that plane ( I don't want to edit the vehicles, loads or weapons files). I found that the static team I added had limitations too; unfortunately where-ever I placed the static unit, there would be blind spots - if I put them too close, the Japanese clobbered them. I had considered adding an 'island' way out on the map-edge and making it a sort of 'permanent vessel' to place NGF teams on, but the dang AI kept shooting at it. Visibility is limited to like, 19 hexes in the scenario to reflect the dust and haze. When I made visibility unlimited so the NGF could see the island, the Japanese were massacring the Marines way, way out; that was the wrong direction to try and go, unfortunately.

Still, that might be a viable option, keep visibility as is and put the teams in a Pillbox on a 1 hex island set at max visibility, and if the AI or player wants to waste rounds, they can fire away. You still cannot see the entire island from that pillbox, though. It's more an issue of visibility.

I could make the guns & NGF leaders A quality, which would lower the scatter error; that might work.

I'll fiddle with it some more.


Marc