Hi everyone! Jersey here with some Pacific list ideas from Gung-Ho. I’ll be covering two different types of lists, next week we’ll cover the Pacific points forces for generic and island missions. This week we’ll cover Late war armies for each company. Each list comes with a little intro as to why I picked what’s in it.
Please note these are not tournament or optimum lists, I haven’t had enough time to really find winning formulas, instead what I’ve tried to do show you what you could take and I’ll leave any meta changing discoveries to the pros!
Now onto the late war lists and this time I’ll start with the tanks as you can get some bigger units. I’ll work to the current late war points of 1420, obviously this may go back up in future years meaning more fearless veteran units, but at low points its hard to pick this list.
The artillery units are in to provide smoke and pinning as most of the army is taken up by 11 tanks, three of which are ‘zippo’ tanks… the problem is they’re not soviets and don’t have tanks meaning three hulls are one hit wonders!
Marine Tank Company HQ (2 M4A2 Shermans, Improved Tank Assault Armour and Bulldozer): 190 points
Marine Tank Platoon (3 M4A2 Sherman, Improved Tank Assault Armour): 290 points
Marine Tank Platoon (3 M4A2 Sherman, Improved Tank Assault Armour): 290 points
Marine Flame Tank Platoon (3 M4A2 ‘Zippo’): 220 points
Divisional Recon Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 4 Rifle Teams): 155 points
Marine Rocket Launcher Battery (3 4.5in Mk7 with extra crew): 105 points
Marine Artillery Battery (4 M1A1 75mm pack): 140 points
Sporadic Air and Sea Support (Destroyer): 25 points
Total: 1415 pointsWe might not stay at 1420 for long so lets take a look at 1750 for the tanks! This list has to be about the assault so no M4A3 still!
Marine Tank Company HQ (2 M4A2 Shermans, Improved Tank Assault Armour and Bulldozer): 190 points
Marine Tank Platoon (4 M4A2 Sherman, Improved Tank Assault Armour): 380 points
Marine Tank Platoon (4 M4A2 Sherman, Improved Tank Assault Armour): 380 points
Flame Tank Platoon (3 M3A1 Satan Tank): 175 points
Divisional Recon Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 4 Rifle Teams): 155 points
Marine Artillery Battery 155mm (4 M1 155mm Guns): 305
Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Platoon ( Cmd Rifle Team and 2 M1 90mm Guns: 165
Total Points: 1750Now for the infantry in late war, something I want to work as I’ve spent money getting a USMC force together! So lets see with this list what i can do. If it were Pacific points and I were taking a sherman I’d be looking at the army flame tank platoon because you can swap out a couple of tanks for a CT M4A3 105 or a M4A3 (Late) tank at CT which is cheaper than the Marine tank platoons as they’re FV… the problem in late war is that the one unit of tanks that might be taken has to survive and a few CT flame tanks with a 105 in it won’t and won’t do what I’d need, so I’d seriously being considering Stuarts instead.
So it’s six platoons with an aircraft in it and two big FV platoons backed up by guns and air… if points raise in future years then a mobile element would be added but for now, this gives you something to defend with and covers all the main bases and has smoke, flame, recce, ways to kill tanks and infantry and will be hard to dig out… best of all I mostly just need gun platoons and the Corsair!
Marine Rifle Company HQ (2 SMG Teams): 55 points
Marine Rifle Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 6 Rifle Teams): 165 points
Marine Rifle Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 6 Rifle Teams): 165 points
Marine Assault Section (2 Flamethrower, 2 Pioneer Team, 2 Bazooka Team): 160 points
Scout and Observer Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 3 Rifle Teams): 130
Anti-Tank Platoon (Cmd Rifle Team and 2 M3A1 37mm Guns): 50 points
Marine Artillary Battery (4 M2A1 105mm Guns): 210 points
Marine Artillary Battery 155mm (4 M1 155mm Guns): 305
Limited Corsair (with Napalm Bombs) 180
Now to make that a 1750 list I’d add tanks! Tanks will get added and I’ll be using the Army Flame tank platoon.
Army Flame tank platoon (Confident Trained)(3 M4A3 Zippo, 1 M4A3 (late) 1 M4A3 105mm): 320 points
I’d also consider a few swap outs to get a small 8th platoon, perhaps some AA to ensure four platoons on half on, half off missions or, only take four tanks from the above tank platoon; however, 1750 gives you a little more to play with on a fearless veteran list!
Summary
So, you’ve probably got to this point and thought, well those lists might struggle… and you’re right, they will in late war, but the Pacific is a different beast to Europe and someone with more skill than me might do better with the lists. Ben’s Japanese tank ideas look good though and they could be a fantastic oddball list for late war (you can see the list on Wednesday).
Where these lists do work though is in the Pacific Theatre, with very different mission rules the USMC companies can do very well agains the Japanese and I’m looking forward to trying the ne units, i hope though, I’ve given you a good idea of the sort of units you can take!
Jersey
They seems to desperatly lack some kind of decent AT… Do they have access to any more appealing or late-war competitive guns? 76mm Shermans or M57 AT guns, maybe?
They do lack AT as they did lack AT. You need to remember as sherman in the Pacific’s Tiger tank, the 75mm was over kill so they never needed to send other better equipment. It’s part of the reason the Pacific is it’s own era.
I’ve seen photographic evidence of M10s on Okinawa so they should get tank destroyer platoons, do they?
No M10’s in the book. I always understand the M10/M18’s were used as fire support and not as TD’s in the Pacific.
I get the point.
But than, do you actually think that there is any ludic interest in playing “Late War Pacific” rather Pacific in its own metagame?
In the Pacific, Marines should historically get demo so as to be pioneer teams for tank assault like the Devil’s Brigade list – not sure if the book, which I have yet to see, reflects this. Any comments from those who have seen it? You should have, for Marine lists reflecting the Central Pacific island hopping campaign (but not necessarily Guadalcanal), a LOT of naval gunfire and close air support to make up for lack of AT guns.
Frankly, for a late war list with American fearless vet troops, I would forego any tanks (except maybe the Satan or a platoon of LAV-7Ms if I needed to cross a water obstacle) and load up on infantry, engineers, air, artillery, and naval gunfire. Get all the bazookas you can carry (and machine guns against Japanese). I have good success with similar late war US Airborne and Devil’s Brigade lists. I have even attacked armor units and crushed them. US national artillery rules with fearless, demo-equipped infantry overloaded with bazookas is a devastating combination overlooked by those who love to play with toys. A ToT from a Marine 155 battery ought to handle even IS-3s or King Tigers, much less what the Japanese lists can throw at you.
The M-10s mentioned by Matthew Burger would have been with the Army corps at Okinawa, not the marines.
I still want to see a Phillipines/Malaysia/Singapore/Burma early war book, with the 26th US Cavalry (horse), British and American/Filipino fortified companies (Singapore and Correigidor), and Japanese bicycle troops.