"Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it - checkmate ends the game"
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Battlefield Location: Bataan, 1942 Conditions: Clear Time of Day: Near Twilight
American Order of Battle Japanese Order of Battle |
Morale All American Units are Rookie. All Japanese Units are Veteran.
Terrain and Setup The map should be laid out in a rectangular shape, at least twice as long as it is wide. Use this as a guide. A single long road should run from end to end of the map, and at the American edge of the map, a small bridge should span 1 MU. The American player should set his forces up in a column moving along the road, all of which have passed over the bridge. The Japanese player is to set his forces in an ambush position within 20 MU of his edge of the table. The American column is to move along the road in peaceable fashion, Turn by Turn, until one of two things happens:
The American player may not deviate from his unsuspecting movement pattern until then. If a Japanese unit is detected by an American unit, both sides roll for initiative as per usual. If the Japanese player chooses to open fire first, a single attack may be made by a single unit, after which initiative will be rolled normally and a new Turn will begin. On the turn that the Japanese are detected (or reveal themselves) the bridge near the American edge of the map will be destroyed by radio-controlled demolition charges, cutting off the easiest means of American escape. |
Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands have steadily driven back the U.S. Army and its stalwart Filipino allies. Under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, Allied forces have evaded a Japanese plan to crush them in Manila by instead falling back to the rugged natural defenses of the Bataan Peninsula. However, President Roosevelt has given MacArthur direct orders to withdraw himself and his family via PT Boat and escape to Australia. His friend, General Jonathan Wainwright, has been left to command what remains of a decaying situation.
Night is creeping over the jungle and the blood-warm waters of the South China Sea on March 26, 1942. General Wainwright, escorted by an ad hoc armored column, has completed a lightning tour of the remnants of his army's position on the Bataan Penninsula. Doing what little he can to shore up morale and improve defensive positions, Wainwright now hurries back south to the city of Mariveles, where PT Boats will return him to the island fortress of Corregidor, which defies the Japanese from its commanding position at the mouth of Manila Bay.
Unfortunately, slack radio discipline has already put him in danger. An English-speaking Japanese officer, monitoring Allied radio frequencies from Manila, caught the code-phrases representing Wainwright in a series of transmissions on the morning of March 25. Working by process of elimination, he and his staff used the intercepted transmissions to determine that Wainwright would be vulnerable on the Bataan mainland long enough to attempt the insertion of a small attacking force aimed directly at him. This force was landed by fast motor launches between the coastal towns of Limat and Tobang, and has waited in concealment for almost two hours. Now the American General's column is in sight.
This scenario is Medium Mission Priority for both sides.
The Japanese objective is to kill or capture General Wainwright. Capturing him will bring more prestige to the men of the attacking force and will be more useful, but killing him may be the more realistic option. Nothing matters to the attacking force if Wainwright can be neutralized. If that necessitates a suicide mission, so be it, for the glory of the Emperor.
The American objective is to protect Wainwright by any means necessary. Nothing else matters save his survival and escape from the Japanese trap.
Nightfall
Eight Turns after combat actually begins, night will fall.
Designating Wainwright's Vehicle
Number the three jeeps 1, 2, and 3. The American player should write on a scrap of paper the number of the jeep containing Wainwright, and not show it to the Japanese player until the General's jeep is destroyed.
Getting Wainwright Out Alive
There are three ways to do this:
1. Destroy all the Japanese units in the scenario;
2. Move Wainwright's jeep off the Japanese edge of the map via the road, or
3. Hold out against the Japanese for twelve Turns of combat, after which a rush of American reinforcements will appear at the Japanese edge of the map and end the scenario.
Moving Wainwright off the map into the jungle will do little good, since getting lost in the jungle at night with an unknown number of Japanese infiltrators in the vicinity is not a rational act.
Getting Rid of Wainwright
The Japanese player may remove Wainwright from the scenario in one of two ways:
1. If Wainwright's Jeep is destroyed, he will be assumed dead or mortally wounded, or
2. If a Japanese unit enters the same MU as Wainwright's jeep, he will be considered captured.
In the event Wainwright is captured, the unit holding him may secure the capture by moving off the Japanese edge of the map. Alternately, Wainwright may be killed at any time if he is in Japanese possession. If the unit carrying him is destroyed, there is a good chance (1-4 on 1d6) that he will also be killed. If Wainwright is captured and then miraculously released by the destruction of his captor unit, he will escape into the jungle and be lost for several days, effecting an inconvenient stalemate for scenario purposes.
A year or two ago, I played chess with a friend of mine named Scott ("Skippy") Bercaw at a pleasant little cafe in Minneapolis. I won the first game and he won the second- we were a pretty fair match. I was crushing him materially in the third match, when he moved his King and told me that by willingly leaving it in a position from which it couldn't legally move, he had forced a stalemate. I accepted this a bit petulantly, thinking it to be a cheap cop-out, not excusing the fact that I had most of my pieces and he had but a handful of his. Over time, I began to realize the depth of the lesson. The point of chess is to take your opponent's King, not to remove his forces from the board in their entirety. By wasting time doing so, I had forgotten the sole purpose of the contest. I haven't seen Skippy in a while, but I think I at least owe him a beer or something for impressing this point upon me. Annihilating an enemy and defeating him are not always the same thing.
This is the situation the players in this scenario face. The sole objective is to kill Wainwright or to preserve him. No sacrifice by either side is too great in achieving their goal. If the smaller, deadlier Japanese force spends time knocking out Wainwright's guardian forces, the taking of the General may prove easier. Of course, if they do so, they may be delayed long enough to lose the scenario. An all-out early assault may reach him swiftly, yet invite swift destruction by his guardians. Choose well.
