A Second Chance for Disposable Heroes

I'm human. I make mistakes. 

In this case, it was writing off Disposable Heroes. Something kept gnawing at me to give it another go, this time for an actual game scenario, and with 1) card activation for each unit and 2) the use of the optional rule that any one '1' rolled to hit a unit can take out the officer or special weapon.

So yesterday, I set up the same scenario I used for THW's War Against Japan (beach assault). I modified the unit sizes to use those suggested in Red Sun, Red Death.

Here's the setup (I gave up on the photos this time around):

The Japanese are randomly determined using the War Against Japan guidelines. Both of the full squads, on the left, have LMGs.

My squads hit the beach but my Platoon HQ had no room to land.

Turn 1
My first order of business was to get my squads off the beach, with the end goal being to take out the Japanese defenses.

FYI, the yellow circles are first pins, red is the second pin a row.

 As you can see two of my units suffered two pins and heavy losses (the lower left was reduced to a man alone). But my HQ was able to land.

Turn 2
I managed to rally on the right and drive back the Japanese unit opposite.

Close combat erupted on my center right, and I destroyed a Japanese unit (a rifle team) while the LMG team of the same squad suffered a pin result.

Unfortunately all was not rosy; on my left, I lost a rifle team and my HQ was pinned with the loss of some riflemen.

Turn 3
The man alone on the left (the squad's sergeant), joined the Platoon HQ (which is why 1a looks like it disappeared).

I completely over ran the Japanese center and put the hurt on their LMG team of their remaining squad.

Turn 4
My marines continue to advance - not without loss, a rifle team from my 2nd squad was taken out. But the Japanese were dealt heavy losses and were unable to rally their LMG back into action.

Unfortunately, real life intervened and I had to call the game.

I have no doubt it would have been a marine victory, but a costly one at that.

Below you can see the figure counts remaining on the table:

Not very encouraging if this was a campaign!

I had a great time playing and it was the most engrossing attempt at playing this scenario. The rules are so easy to memorize that they disappear after awhile. 

Are they perfect? No, but they were a good bit of fun. 

So I withdraw my lack of enthusiasm for these rules. Time will tell if they become a regular staple (I realize recently that the only wargaming rule set I use with any consistency is G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.) or if this was a fluke.