Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 11

This is the last post for "War Plan Orange 3".

It is deliberately just a stub to facilitate navigation on the "Last Post" list.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 10

This mission went much better than I anticipated.

Going in I was worried about the Japanese AI aggressiveness and its employment of artillery. Less so about tanks because my Anti-Air units are dual-mode and can double as Anti-Tank if/when necessary.

When artillery shells start raining on a unit its efficiency drops quickly enough that combat just generates unsustainable losses and particularly at this difficulty level the Japanese are the only ones that can shrug off that kind of damage.

Either by design or by dint of river fording delays the Japanese artillery didn't play a significant role, the other units weren't as aggressive as I feared and at least at first proved quite manageable.

The JP air units also didn't seem to have a consistent plan and mostly flew all over the place. Once the auxiliary mountain artillery appeared on Turn 10 the G3M Rikko beelined towards it leaving the other units unmolested. That was helpful because strategic bombers are flying artillery units.

The JP tanks were manageable until the point in Turn 14 when four new Chi-Ha appeared. The two on the East flank were either too far or foiled by Bunker B4. The two on the West flank just couldn't be stopped with the forces at hand. Luckily they were too late to take any Secondary VPs although the ZoC of my defensive line must also have had a role in it.

It is said that the best defense is a good offense. Operative qualifier is "good". You need to have the right units and the right terrain.

Attacking without at least air parity and the means to negate enemy artillery is suicidal. There's also Murphy's laws of combat (Google it, they've been hilarious for over thirty years), the very first one being "if the enemy is in range, so are you" and the thirteenth "If your attack is going well, you have walked into an ambush".

In OoB this means that one should try to attack the enemy when it is in poorly defensive terrain while doing so from decent defensive terrain because the enemy will likely counterattack and cause at least as much if not more damage to you as you did to it.

The U.S. and Philippino Armies in this scenario don't have the resources to go on the offensive.

Yes, prior knowledge helps. This (and the next) mission are the primary reason why I groomed three Engineer units during the tutorial. I hadn't planned on purchasing "Burma Road" and having No. 1 IC available. Blowing up bridges is mentioned in one of the random "loading screen tips" but you as the player have to mull on it. I was lucky to have Mr. Abernethy do it for me.

A blind player that heeded the advice in the briefing and studied the map carefully might be skilled enough to come to the same conclusions as me. An over-confident one might just scrape through a major victory (i.e. both secondaries) with a much depleted force.

IIRC when I played this mission in "normal" difficulty I had three Engineers, 14th "Punaluu" Bty retained its transport and I deployed one 105mm M2A1 howitzer. That meant I had two fewer regular Infantry units and I think the Porac/Floridablanca position crumbled fast in the last two turns because of it. I was somehow still able to get both Secondary Objectives.

This concludes my report on "War Plan Orange Three", the second mission of the U.S. Pacific campaign for Order of Battle: World War II. Thank you for your time and hope you'll join me on the next one.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 9

Figure 1 lifts the Fog-of-War at the end of Turn 15 i.e. reflects my actions during that turn.

Figure 1 - Fog-of-War lifted, turn 15

There's some conventions regarding captions: "regular" Infantry don't get name plates and 10-efficiency units don't get the "battery" button; everybody is Japanese, no need to belabour the point; dismounted units with organic transport get the truck icon (the Type 90 75mm artillery has a Type 98 So-Da tractor).

As it turns out half of the Infantry present during the deployment phase remained in their initial locations throughout the mission.

The Type 92 Osaka reconnaissance only has 7 (out of 13) health points and as we have a recorded 9 damage inflicted it had repairs worth 3 pts.

The AA/AT Guns, the artillery and the Heavy Infantry didn't incur any casualties.

The three Ha-Go tanks end with a combined strength of 22 pts and the five Chi-Ha 50 pts. As they total a nominal strength of 104 pts and we have 42 recorded damage they had a combined repair bill of 10 pts (22+50+42=114).

The three Engineers end with a combined strength of 24 (out of 39) pts and the 17 Infantry with 185 (out of 221) pts. As we inflicted damage worth 79 pts they repaired 67 pts.

The two G3m Rikko end with 14 pts of health and as we inflicted 12 pts of damage they didn't take repairs.

The three fighters end with 22 pts of health which added to our recorded damage of 18 pts translates in only one point of repairs.

... and the above paragraphs probably merited a table in .jpg mode.

Figure 2 has the datasheets for the JP unit types not present at the deployment phase.

Figure 2 - JP units' datasheets

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 8

Victory is declared on turn 16 (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Victory

All secondary objectives were achieved and there will be $202 carried over to the next mission (Figure 2). Technically it will be $203 as half of the $2 spent repairing X/A Coy will be returned.

Figure 2 - Turn Overview

Figure 3 is the cashflow report for this mission. It does not include the Philippino Army by oversight but as there's $87 left at the end of the mission (it doesn't carry over to the next) I must have spent $3 repairing minor damage on XPH/A Coy on turn 14: starting with $40, turn income 15@$2 equals $30 and turn 10 reward $20 totals $90.

Figure 3 - Cashflow

Figure 4 is the usual summary report on experience gained, engagements entered,  casualties incurred, repairs undertaken (and their cost) and damage inflicted (no enemy unit kills in this mission).

Figure 4 - Units' achievements

It is curious to note that on average my core units inflicted two points and suffered half a point of damage per engagement. It is probably just a coincidence as it is skewed by the fighter and anti-air units data.

Also of note is the cost to repair one point of damage: Cav/C Sqdn ($9), USMC/B Coy ($8) and 1/D Coy ($6) vs the regular infantry ($3.5). This is just a rough and ready analysis, there's a lot going on inside the repair cost black box.

Even though this was a fundamentally static defense I still managed to take losses on my core units equivalent to a quarter of their nominal strength (12 units at 10 strength i.e. 120 strength vs 31 casualties). The largest contributors were 5th "Hickam" Sqdn, Cav/C Sqdn and Sgt McNeil (1/D Coy) who account for 18 of those casualties.

Figure 5 is just me flexing on the tutorial message soap box as these are actually from two "unofficial" runs of the mission.

Figure 5 - Tutorial message soap box

Figure 6 is a peek behind the curtains of the mission as it lifts the Fog-of-War  to display the Japanese force at the deployment phase including the datasheets for the various units.

Figure 6 - Fog-of-War lifted, deployment phase

The U.S. force doesn't look too badly outnumbered as we're deploying ten infantry units to the Japanese eleven and we have parity in armor. We are outmatched in the air but the "Hickam" twins will do (have done) solid work versus the JP fighters and bomber(s).

The trouble lies in that the Japanese will receive a good number of reinforcements during the mission as per Figure 7. There's actually 17 rather than 16 Infantry units at the end of the scenario.

Figure 7 - JP Order of battle

I did something novel during this play. As the game generates a save file at the activation of the player's turn I took the opportunity to lift the Fog-of-War with a console command and take screenshots of both the Strategic Map and the "normal" battlefield. Every single turn.

I wasn't (am not) worried about it influencing my decisions, not on this mission (spoilers, the naval missions to come may be a different matter particularly where submarines are concerned) but I think it will be best to generate a quick save at the end of each turn in future missions and use that. There's a reported bug (or rather a belief) that the console command grants the AI the same benefit. Reloading a save file from before activating said console command should negate that problem.

I was thus able to generate the unit tracks on Figure 8. They record the positions and movement of Japanese artillery and armor units during this mission (I didn't bother with mapping the Infantry). The NATO symbols indicate the turn and location of deployment, the path is approximated with the hash marks representing the following turns locations (multiple hash marks for multiple turns) and the (blue) boxes the area where the unit kept moving back and forth. As the screenshots were taken after the JP turn the deployment location may include movement during the deployment turn. It certainly does in at least one instance, the Chi-Ha attacking the Calumet Bunker B4 certainly wasn't deployed adjacent to the bunker on Turn 14.

Figure 8 - JP Armor and Artillery movements

Even though I think I didn't let this knowledge influence my play I was very worried when I saw the JP artillery deployed on Turn 05 and became very intrigued with its apparent indecision. I think the designers tasked them so that they will punish an overconfident player that counterattacks too rashly or doesn't retreat fast enough. Or maybe the AI just can't handle blown bridges effectively enough. It very much helps that only two of the artillery units have organic transport (the Type 90 75mm that enter on Turn 10).

There was one instance where I did allow this peek behind the curtain sway my actions. I saw the second G3M Rikko strategic bomber materialise on Turn 10 and that definitely moved me to deploy 5th "Hickam" Sqdn. I'm not entirely convinced that was a wise choice and I hope I won't regret the expense.

One other expense I hope I won't regret is Cav/C Sqdn's cash-for-experience. I can't shake the feeling that "Fleet Command" could have gone differently if I hadn't boosted the experience of 1/B and 1/C Coys in the "Island Hopping" mission.

There's more images to post and no more budget for them in this post. Hope to meet you on the next one.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 7

Turn 14

Two JP fighters jump 5th "Hickam" Sqdn and leave it badly mauled. Both sides take roughly the same amount of damage but the JP are able to split it between two units (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Air combat

A substantial JP force now threatens the Porac/Floridablanca blocking force. At least two units in the area receive replacements for their casualties. Both XPH/A Coy and USMC/B Coy are attacked and suffer casualties (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - JP repairs

The enemy South of Porac is now in too good a shape to be profitably attacked, casualties are replaced and trenches are reinforced as well as possible (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Floridablanca

Over at Guagua the situation is not so dire but there's a serious risk developing. Two infantry units (one a Heavy) are close enough to Minalin that they can attack XPH/C Coy, possibly induce its retreat and in the subsequent advance take the Secondary VP. X/A Coy moves into the river to assist 1/A Coy in dealing with the threat (this action will be reported in Figure 5). Over at Calumpit a Type 97 Chi-Ha tank attacked Bunker B4 inflicting and taking minor damage. Bunker B4 returns fire and causes additional casualties. No. 1 IC has been ready to blow the Calumpit bridge for quite some time. There's no need to do it yet (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Guagua

1/A and X/A Coys provide flanking support to each other against the JP Infantry on the river. 1/A Coy has the better odds for the initial attack and inflicts very heavy casualties on the enemy (top left row). X/A Coy can now concentrate its fire on fewer targets and inflicts much more casualties (middle left row). Eng/C Coy joins the fray but is unable to destroy the enemy unit (bottom left row). Slightly North 1/B Coy attacks the Ha-Go on the river and inflicts two points of damage (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Guagua

Figure 6 is a pivotal moment in my playing of this mission. 5th "Hickam" Sqdn is so badly damaged that it has become somewhat of a liability. It may land at Floridablanca airfield or it may try to run away and hope the JP fighters lose interest. I just saved the game at this point and tried both. Landing at the airfield resulted on all the enemy aircraft beelining there and destroying the unit on the ground. I played Turn 15 to the end and saved that outcome as G(ame)1. Then I reloaded Turn 14 and flew 5th "Hickam" as far South as it could go. The A6M2 is thus out of the equation as it has 10-movement to the P40's 11-movement. The Ki-43 Hayabusa could still reach and there's another one somewhere that might be in range. If the Ki-43 had followed through and shot down 5th "Hickam" I would have proceeded with the campaign as per Game 1. It didn't and what you'll see next is Game 1B. I might be stretching the mulligans a bit thin here, you decide. It's not that the P40 Warhawk is so valuable that I can't part with it, I won't ever use it again in its current configuration. It is rather the sentimental value of the core unit that fought bravely at Pearl Harbor and whose history I want to carry on when I upgrade it to a much more useful piece of equipment further on. Reforming a dead P40 to then upgrade it would only set me down at most $80 and at the time frame when that would happen I most likely would be well able to afford it.

Figure 6 - 5th "Hickam" Sqdn

Turn 15

There is now one JP artillery that can fire on the Porac/Floridablanca blocking force. Only the hapless XPH/A Coy is in range and the artillery was tasked to fire after the infantry had attacked (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - JP Artillery

At Calumpit Bunker B4 was once again attacked by the Chi-Ha tank. It is so damaged that return fire is ineffective. No. 1 IC will not blow up the bridge (saving me $10) because this is the last turn and the Japanese have run out of time. The secondary objective is in hand (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - Calumpit

At Porac/Floridablanca 5th "Hickam" Bty (I'm starting to realize that my naming convention can be a bit confusing) takes advantage of a Ki-43 Hayabusa straying into range to take a final parting shot and earn some experience. So does Sgt McNeil taking a potshot at an hapless JP Infantry. USMC/B Coy realizes the futility of attacking enemy armor and opts to replenish its strength (Figure 9). This position is irretrievably compromised and I'm very thankful that the mission ends now, I wouldn't want to have to extricate my units. The only outcome would be grief, damage and even the loss of a unit or two.

Figure 9 - Floridablanca

At Guagua X/A Coy took a serious beating and is barely alive. A, B and C Coys 1st Btn U.S. Army take the opportunity to earn some experience with the promise of no casualties in return to hit a JP Engineer and Ha-Go tank. The image is a bit deceptive in that the tank is shown still on the river and still at 3-strength. That was the situation after 1/B Coy's attack (the Ha-Go had 5-strength). With 1/A Coy's attack the Ha-Go dropped to 2-strength and retreated into the fog of war (Figure 10). 1/A Coy's attack from a river tile is taking advantage of this being the last turn otherwise I would never have entertained it, the fate of X/A Coy illustrates the vulnerability of such a position quite clearly.

Figure 10 - Guagua

Also a product of final-turn-itis is the last attack of 5th "Hickam" Sqdn (Figure 11).

Figure 11 - Final-turn-itis air combat

This concludes my report on the mission events. Analysis and evaluation to follow.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 6

Turn 12

The enemy once more moves into contact with the Porac/Floridablanca blocking force. These look rather spent but there's two full strength Infantry beyond Porac (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Floridablanca

Over at Guagua the 5th "Hickam" Sqdn does what it set out to do providing support to 1/A Coy under attack by a G3M Rikko (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Support fire

Faced with the choice of assisting Bunker B2 against the farthest G3M and staying on station and hitting the closest G3M, 5th "Hickam" Sqdn chooses the latter inflicting heavy damage (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Air combat

The blocking force South of Porac engages the enemy. To the exception of XPH/A Coy everyone hits the unit directly North of their position. The results of these engagements are displayed in the top right insert. 1/C and 1/B Coys hit the JP Engineer spotted in the previous turn which thought it was a good idea to cross the river. It takes heavy damage. 1/A Coy declines to attack the Ha-Go on the river, it might be tricked into finding out the hard way that 14th "Punaluu" Bty has gone into Anti-Tank mode. X/A Coy has reached the jungle Southwest of Guagua and will be ready to assist in its defense in the next turn (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Counter-attack

Turn 13

The JP Engineer moves out of the jungle/river and replaces some of its casualties (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - JP repairs

5th "Hickam" Sqdn can hit either of the G3M that struck X/A Bty. It takes a position where it can provide support to both the artillery and Bunker B2 without being pushed aside if either (or both) are attacked, targets the undamaged G3M inflicting heavier damages than expected and suffering its first casualties (Figure 6). The JP 9-strength plate insert is the remaining health of the G3M after combat.

Figure 6 - Air combat

South of Porac the two JP Infantry attacked the line suffering heavy losses but are still combat-capable so the U.S. Forces take replacements and the opportunity to re-entrench. Cav/C Sqdn falls back: it is damaged, only lightly entrenched and in serious risk of being outflanked. Further East 1/C Coy hits the Ha-Go tank following the JP Engineers inflicting minor damage while 1/B Coy takes replacements. 1/A Coy still won't engage the Ha-Go on the river and is joined by X/A Coy. I only had a screenshot of X/A Coy final position from an aerial perspective, that's why they look so tiny. Also the weird-looking frame started as a "doughnut" but had to be cropped to show 1/A Coy's strength plate (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - Combat

HQ announces that Manila is an open city (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - HQ broadcast

You may have guessed it, image weight budget. Hope to see you again.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 5

Turn 10

As the JP G3m Rikko seems to take an interest on 14th "Punaluu" Bty that can't be countered I take advantage of the ability to convert to Anti-Tank mode. Guagua is a Town tile i.e. grants concealment and there is/are tank(s) on the San Fernando side of the river. I lose Anti-Air support against the JP fighters but those deal minimal damage to my infantry (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - 14th "Punaluu"

Figure 2 - Reinforcements

HQ releases reinforcements (Figures 2 and 3) and a much welcome $100 as a reward for holding all Secondary VPs for 10 turns. These come in the form of XPH/D Coy (Philippino Recruits), X/A Coy (Infantry) and X/A Bty (M1 75mm mountain gun) that enter the map at Dinalupihan, the westernmost Primary VP.

Figure 3 - Reinforcements

I'm still not entirely sure if it isn't a waste of resources to deploy 5th "Hickam" Fighting Sqdn in this mission. In any case I took advantage of the cash for experience programme. Disbanding the damaged unit only adds $4 that will offset the reform cost of $80 for a net $76 outlay. The magnificent men of the USAAF in their green flying machines take to the air at Floridablanca airfield as the one at Abucay is too far from where the action is (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - 5th "Hickam" Sqdn

Turn 11

The Japanese take out Bunker B3 (Santo Tomas) during their turn. This will be the last bunker to be destroyed. Bunker A2 (Magalang) fell on Turn 02, A3 (San Fernando) on Turn 05 and A1 (Angeles) on Turn 07 (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Bunkers

A number of JP units are probing the Porac/Floridablanca road block. Eng/B Coy attacks the Infantry, Sgt McNeil hits the Type 95 Ha-Go tank and Cav/C Sqdn targets the Type 92 Osaka reconnaissance (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Floridablanca

Minor damage on the U.S. units, substantial damage and induced retreats on the JP side. The Ha-Go will be hit by USMC/B Coy and forced to retreat beyond Porac (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - Floridablanca

 5th "Hickam" Fighting Sqdn declines to engage the G3M Rikko or its escorting A6M2 Zero in favor of providing support to the Infantry North of Guagua. In doing so it spots another G3M Rikko and a JP Engineer riding in their trucks. 1/C and 1/B Coys resist the urge to hit the JP Engineers, they would lose some efficiency traversing the jungle, abandon their entrenched positions and end their advance on a river tile (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - Guagua

Image weight again requires this report to be adjourned. Hope to see you again on the next.

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 4

Turn 05

Figure 1 - JP Artillery

A new threat emerges during the JP turn as Bunker A1 (Angeles) is fired upon by artillery (Figure 1). Just in case we weren't paying attention there's a message from Army HQ recommending we stay out of range of the big guns (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - HQ advice

1/A and B Coys report contact with JP units on the outskirts of San Fernando. As they're unable to do meaningful damage to the enemy they're ordered to fall back beyond the river North of Guagua. Eng/C Coy and No. 1 IC proceed to detonate the explosives set on their assigned bridges. Bunker B3 reports strafing from two JP fighters (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - San Fernando

At this point I took a calculated risk on the mission secondary objectives hinging on the Allied Blue truck being alive and in San Fernando on its Turn 05 (which is the last, the order goes Japanese AI, Player and Blue AI). It paid off.

From the point of view of achieving the mission goals it is irrelevant whether the Blue truck survives. From a personal satisfaction point of view I wish I had delayed No. 1 IC demolition task. It is a gamble on the JP attacking the unit causing it to retreat and preventing the demolition that I wasn't prepared to take.

Turn 06

Bunker A1 is still under fire from JP artillery (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - JP Artillery, round 4?!

Army HQ reports the successful evacuation of San Fernando (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - HQ report

All units are at their designated final defensive positions, it is time to entrench and await the arrival of the enemy. Eng/C and 1/A Coys swap positions on the line so that 1/B Coy and 14th "Punaluu" Bty can also benefit from entrenching assistance. Bunker A1 is not long for this world as the JP strategic bomber decides to assist the artillery and the JP Engineer. Also not long for this world is the hapless Blue truck trying to ford the river next to Bunker B3 (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Taking stock

On the top right corner of the image can be found a excerpt of the data plates for almost all units (Eng/C is missing for whatever reason). Some units don't get to have their names spelt out but they're grouped by type and sorted alphabetically.

Turn 07

The Blue truck must have been chock-full of explosives given how far its bits and pieces are thrown (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - Boom!

Turn 09

Turn 08 was uneventful. The JP Ki-43 Hayabusa decided to strafe Cav/C Sqdn during Turn 09, I don't know who was more surprised to see it take one point of damage, me or the JP pixel-aviator (Figure 8). Both vignettes were meant to be inserts in larger pictures but ended up orphans so here's a preview of the G3m Rikko bombing 14th "Punaluu" Bty at Guagua during Turn 10.

Figure 8 - Air attacks

It is just a coincidence that Figure 9 is 14th "Punaluu" Bty assessing its odds of damaging the G3M Rikko. While quite adept at damaging lighter, low-flying aircraft the 37mm Anti-Air struggles to even reach "Large Aircraft". Once in a blue moon they can cause minor damage. 

Figure 9 - No point

5th "Hickam" Bty on the other hand has no trouble reaching out and touching the A6M2 Zero that came into its range (Figure 10).

Figure 10 - Now that's more like it!

A lone, damaged JP Infantry ends its movement in front of Sgt McNeil. I don't remember if it attacked during the JP turn but it is likely (8-strength and 8-efficiency). In any case Eng/B Coy and Cav/C Sqdn assess their odds and defer to Sgt McNeil to do the honors, forcing a now badly mauled JP to retreat beyond Porac (Figure 11).

Figure 11 - Floridablanca

Again I find myself approaching a self-imposed limit of 1 MB of images per post. Hope that you'll join my in the next one(s).

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Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 2: War Plan Orange 3, Part 3

It is now time to start reporting on the actual playing of the scenario.

I mentioned earlier that I had two false starts. In the first one I retreated from Angeles on the second turn and as the third turn started I thought to myself "Wait, Sergeant McNeil cleared the bridge on the first turn and I night be able to get Eng/B to also blow that one". Second false start and I tried that only to lose Eng/B in a most dismaying way.

What follows is thus my third start and my very first play of this mission at this difficulty level.

Turn 01

The Japanese start their turn by sending two fighters towards the Floridablanca airfield. The A6M2 Zero arrives first, stops right above 5th "Hickam" Bty and strafes it. The Ki-43 Hayabusa follows suit. Defensive fire punishes their aggression to the tune of three strength points. When my turn starts 5th "Hickam" targets the Ki-43 and damages it further (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - 5th "Hickam" Bty

Over at Angeles two JP Infantry approach on the road. The forward one attacks Sgt McNeil and takes three points of damage. Sgt McNeil attacks the Infantry on the bridge inflicting an additional four points of damage losing one point of strength and efficiency in return (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Sgt McNeil

Cav/C Sqdn advances toward Angeles to investigate the near bank of the river (it is reported as enemy owned) and guard the flank of Eng/B Coy, spots a Type 92 Osaka reconnaissance car on the river and proceeds to inflict four points of damage and induce a retreat (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Cav/C Sqdn

The Japanese attack Bunker A2 near Magalong inflicting substantial losses while taking minor damage. A counterattack by 1/B Coy is pointless, the U.S. forces can afford one-for-one losses and the position is untenable so 1/B and XPH/C Coys retreat beyond the river, the Philippino unit will continue towards Minalin (VP). After their retreat Eng/C Coy blows up the bridge and so does No. 1 IC. XPH/B Coy leaves its position by Bunker A3 and starts moving towards Calumpit (VP). Bunker A2 takes the opportunity to fire on the JP Infantry for no visible damage but still earns XP which means that damage was inflicted (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Magalong and San Fernando

Turn 02

Figure 5 - JP Artillery

Cav/C Sqdn finds itself in range of a JP artillery, this position can't be held for long (Figure 5) but C Sqdn will take the opportunity to damage the JP Engineers that traded places with the armored car on the river. Close by at the Angeles bridge the damaged JP Infantry was replaced by a fresh one. Sgt McNeil attacks it suffering minor casualties in return (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Angeles

Turn 03

Figure 7 - JP Artillery, round 2

Cav/C Sqdn is again hit by JP artillery (Figure 7). The JP Infantry on the Angeles bridge moves on to the river trying to bypass Sgt McNeil's position and the one damaged earlier takes its place while receiving reinforcements (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - JP repairs

I don't remember a previous occasion where the OPFOR during Boot Camp had the resources to conduct repairs so this may well be the first time the player is introduced to the possibility. A JP strategic bomber (G3M Rikko) attacks Cav/C Sqdn and there's now no less than three JP Infantry units on or across the river near Angeles. It is time to abandon this position and blow the bridge on the road to Porac (Figure 9).

Figure 9 - Angeles-Porac road

There's a minor mistake in Figure 9: Cav/C's position at turn's end is depicted in grey, it should be the other way around.

Sgt McNeil was able to retreat along the Porac road because no JP unit entered the river between Bunker A1 and Angeles to attack Eng/B Coy. If that had happened ZoC would have forced him to retreat towards San Fernando (and further to Guagua) leaving the Porac/Floridablanca defensive line undermanned. That's the reason why 1/A Coy remained in reserve during deployment, it will now be deployed at San Fernando together with 1/B and Eng/C Coys (Figure 10).

Figure 10 - 1/A Coy deploys

Figure 11 is from a pop-up window at the start of the turn. It informs the player that two new units have become available. It also gives me the opportunity to point out that turns can represent the passage of time. The only Boot Camp mission that did not take place on the same calendar day was "Fleet Command" that spanned over three days (20 turns per day). "War Plan Orange Three" started on December 30th, 1941 and by turn 03 we have reached New Year's Day (January 1st) 1942 i.e. one calendar day per turn.

Figure 11 - New unit types available

Turn 04

Nothing truly relevant happens during this turn. The units that were defending Angeles retreat along the Porac road, Bunkers A1 and A3 were attacked by the Japanese and at San Fernando 14th "Punaluu" Bty and Eng/C are retreating towards Guagua. Figure 12 mostly illustrates the unsuitability of open terrain for defensive operations, neither of the U.S. Infantry can achieve better than parity of losses even with flanking support from Bunker A3.

Figure 12 - Not a good idea

As there's already close to 1 MB of pictures in this post I'll adjourn here.

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