Type 2 Ka-Mi Amphibious Tank

[General Di Caro]

I haven’t used the Japanese yet, but it seems to me that the special Bonzai charge can easily be stopped by defensive fire of soldiers.  It’s great against tanks, but doesn’t seem to help in an area where one would most need it.

[DFlynSqrl]

The funny thing about the amphibious tank, although I don’t really plan to use it too much, it seems really popular when I show my collection to my friends.  They always pick it up and say, “Now this looks so cool”, etc…

[killercelery]

I don’t think your enemy should get defensi-fire against banzai charge because defensive-fire occurs during movement phase, not assault phase.

[General Di Caro]

Defensive fire may occur anytime when a unit moves from one hex adjacent to an enemy unit to another hex adjcanent to that same unit… I think that is stated pretty clearly in the rules.

[djensen]

I second that.

[DFlynSqrl]

Well, I played US vs Japanese 150 pt. game this morning with a friend.  I wanted to field a total Japanese Army.  I have everything but the Type I Ho-Ni.  2 of these were the Ka-Mi Amphib Tanks.

It pretty much consisted of my whole army being annilated by 2 Shermans and an Easy Eight.  Neither of the Ka-Mi’s lasted to round 4.  I was pretty disappointed with the Japanese army as a whole.  Even the Sniper could do little more than keep a soldier unit suppressed with it’s 5 dice attack.  I’m hoping Set III will beef them up a little bit.

Interesting tactic, my friend used 3 BAR’s.  Since the unit attacked by the BAR can’t make an attack that turn, he managed to keep 3 of my Anti-Tank Guns basically out of the fight while he maneuvered his Shermans.  So Jeeps can transport other good things besides Bazooka’s.  :)

[General Di Caro]

Seems like the Japanese aren’t so tough.

Well… during the war, the Japanese suffered much much greater casualty totals than the U-S Marines who were charged with eliminating them from the tiny Pacific atolls where they had entrenched themselves.  A recent History Channel special on Guadalcanal and Tarawa illustrated this… as the entire Japanese defense forces were wiped out through overwhelming U-S numbers, fire power (naval bombardments… whew…), and a refusal to surrender alive.  I believe just about all 15,000 Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal were killed after months of terrible fighting.

The going there for the U-S Marines was especially instructive but very tough, despite the victories.  1000 Marines were killed during the first 4 days at Tarawa.

These kind of battles can’t really be reproduced in this game… there are no jungles of dense hex-to-hex foliage… and the biggest reason is… there are no entrenchments or defensive positions factored into the game.  Yes there is cover… but it’s not quite the same.

As we all know… an assault on a well dug in enemy who has the high ground could result in very heavy casualties for the attacker…

Just some thoughts… We woudl all love to be able to really recreate the conditions… but we are at the mercy of hexes and dice.

[djensen]

@DFlynSqrl:

Well, I played US vs Japanese 150 pt. game this morning with a friend.  I wanted to field a total Japanese Army.  I have everything but the Type I Ho-Ni.  2 of these were the Ka-Mi Amphib Tanks.

The Ho-Ni should be able to threat the Shermans. In fact they are so cheap, points-wise, that if you have enough of them, you can really threaten a US team.

Japan needs the Ho-Ni. But it’s going to be hard to get enough of these for cheap $$ until the next set comes out and by then it may not be an issue.

In tournament mode, a Ho-Ni on your Axis army is going to be well worth it’s point value.

[General Di Caro]

After reviewing defensive fire rules… since each enemy unit (unless otherwise stated) can make only one defensive fire attack per phase, there is a good chance some of your banzai charging Japanese infantry will get through without opening themselves up to defensive fire.  For istance, if you rush two infantry into a hex containing one enemy unit, you are guaranteed one will get through to Banzai!!

That is really a great special ability.

I believe the Wermacht Oberleutnant can send his men into such a frenzy, also.

[bartok]