Thursday, November 7, 2019

Bonus November Grumble Jones Scenario - GJ077 "Objective AF"

Yeah...look at this...a bonus scenario for 2019...you're either doing a happy dance or going...oh good grief not another scenario from Grumble Jones...hopefully most of you are happy about it!!  I was super inspired this past October to work on scenarios and so after finishing GJ076...I plunged right into GJ077 which as you might have guessed is based on the Battle of Midway. 

In 1976, I was 11 years old and fascinated by all things WW2. So suffice to say, I was super excited to head to the theater and see Midway. And I'll admit that I'm very partial to this version of the movie. Hopefully the 2019 version will be super awesome as well.

Midway is one of those amazing battles where planning, luck and courage paid off and gave the US Navy one of its most amazing victories. It was certainly not without great sacrifice. The first US squadrons to attack the Japanese carriers were practically wiped out with large loss of life. Over 300 Americans were killed in the fighting. I can't imagine the courage it took to attack the Japanese fleet against such long odds. Something for us all to consider this Veteran's Day. 

After ASL, Midway is the Avalon Hill Game that I have played the most. I absolutely love this game. It was my go to game in college with many...many playing's. I've won it as the Japanese with a sneak move of getting the Kaga and the Akagi on the east side of Midway and successfully pounding the island into submission with a single massive wave. I landed the troops on the next turn and had the win. During another playing, my battleship Task Force ended up in the exact same square as the American carrier Task Force. Nothing like blasting away at Carriers with battleships....I highly recommend it!!! 
A quick look in my Midway box reveals a history of playing's on the old record keeping sheets. One dated 1984 recalls a college era game played in Alumni Hall at Valparaiso University. Great times!!!










So...if you find yourself unable to play ASL...then definitely find yourself a copy of Midway and may your Strawberry 5 find the enemy fleet!

So as I thought about the Battle of Midway, I wondered how to integrate that into ASL. Then it hit me, what about a hypothetical scenario depicting a Japanese landing on the atoll. So with that in mind, I bounced the scenario off the mind of my regular Saturday opponent...Dan Best. Dan helped me figure out what Japanese force might have participated in a landing. 

The map of the Midway Atoll above clued me in as to how to write up the scenario. I had originally envisioned a Japanese submarine landing a Marine strike force on the airfield island...but a quick look at the map quickly reveals that a submarine probably couldn't approach the island. It's also barren of any concealment terrain to hide a strike force. But the smaller island...Sand Island shows both a potential approach route for a submarine and available cover to shelter that same strike force. So a scenario was born!!!

This scenario imagines that two companies of Japanese Marines are landed in the early morning hours prior to the scheduled air assault. They silently approach the opposite end of the island where Shore Batteries are controlled by a garrison of US Marines. Then as the sun rises, they assault the shore battery under the cover of the ongoing Japanese Air Assault. 





So here now is the bonus November scenario. 

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.


Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 


And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).


This scenario is dedicated to the memory of the courageous US Naval Airmen of Torpedo Squadron 8.

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