Tale of 3 Gamers : MW Japanese tactics

The new Japanese lists present the biggest mix up to the FOW meta since the Russians appeared, and that was over 5 years ago!

If you haven’t read my article on all their assaulting, night attack and spamming ability then check it out here.

While powerful, the Japanese need to be handled with a lot of care. I view them as a more expert army which you will need to have a deep understanding of more advanced tactics and assault rules to get the most out of. Crucially you need to understand how to time them to meet your mission objectives rather than out shooting and breaking companies.

Overview

At its core Japanese are an assault based force who cant be stopped in defensive fire but will take a lot of casualties due to the 4+ save. They have capable infantry and well priced artillery but lack AT with their tanks topping out at AT8 and field AT guns at AT10 with the 75mm AA.

This means medium armour is going to be tricky. The Lee or T34 is a real problem as there will be limited options to disrupt their attack and/or destroy hulls. At first glance you might think there is little you can do, but you must remember you can win games without killing anything….its all about the objectives.

Playing the objectives

One thing that separates a good and a great FOW player is the ability to time a game and play the objective. By that I mean understand how they are going to win. This may be as simple as saying I am going to push that obj and ignore that one but can be complex, alongside timing where you place yourself in the right place for when an obj can be taken (eg turn 6).

An example

In game 5 of the AAR from Buningrad I played Nobby. He was defending in Counterstrike. In this match up I won 8:1 and this was due to timing and playing the objective. I knew I couldn’t win until turn 6 (mission rules). That meant I that by the end of turn 5 I needed to be on the objective, ie within 4″ (10cm) and ideally with no or few enemies to contest. From that point I can work out my plan. In this case I knew I could spend at least 3 turns bombarding his infantry and guns before i need to move my SU76s up to contest. It also meant I could keep forces out of the line of fire and only expose them in the open at the end of turn 5. If i went and sat on the obj too early I would be exposed to his Pak40s. On the flip side Nobby knew he had to have forces on the obj at turn 6. As he went first r he only had to throw troops onto the obj in turn 6 allowing him to hide his recce and AA until that point. He had bad luck that his infantry failed to unpin when needed meaning they couldn’t get to the objective in time.

Defending objectivess is all about timing. You win by there being no enemy within 8″ (20cm) of them after turn 6 (in defensive missions like hold the line). Therefore it is likely you will need to push the enemy back, unless you have managed to keep the enemy well back (hard to do). You don’t want to push the enemy back on turn 4, likely at cost to yourself from casualties only for them to come back on in on turn 5. However, on the flip side if you want until turn 5 you may fail the assault.

Japanese defence nuance

The key thing with the Japanese is that they cant be stopped by DF therefore if you defend, so long as you have enough troops to survive the defensive fire and the morale to pass your counter attacks you can push the enemy back 6 inches as they break off clearing them further than 8 inches (20cm) from the objective for the win in your turn 6. That said, to do this you need to have considerable forces in front of the objective making the enemy come to you.

Therefore I actually rate the Japanese as a defensive force even with their poor AT and horrific reserves structure (you will have 3-5 platoons in reserve ). In defensive games you need to accept you will take a battering for 6 turns and then plan to win. ie you will be a bit of a punching bag while you are bombarded, and maybe (foolishly) assaulted. At the right moment (turn 6), hopefully with some reserves providing smoke or additional pink bodies, you assault and win the game.

The key here is that you want your platoons, if able, to assault as 1 in turn 6. ‘Normal’ armies tend to assault a platoon one at a time to limit defensive fire and also allow multiple chances for an assault to succeed. In the Japanese case you want bodies, and you want the defensive fire split between platoons maximising the chance of stands surviving. This is a good time to keep a Human Bullet card to hand if you are facing armour and then its down to luck. You want your HQ close, and with either cards or base stats can easily produce a 2+ counter attack with a re-roll.

Now of course this is all situational, its quite doable to in a game like no-retreat but is scrappier defending in something like counter strike, but the principle is broadly the same. Reserve wise if you get some artillery on early then you can go for some pinning on turn 5 and/or smoke the enemy on turn 6 ready for your counter assault.

A few 100pt lists

Flood the zone

Lets start with my idea for focused infantry hold the line list focused on getting max infantry stands on table with reserves to ‘flood the zone’.

Naval infantry Company

HQ 2
Full Infantry Platoon
Full Infantry Platoon
Full Infantry Platoon
70mm Battalion Gun x 2
75mm AA Gun x 4 with transport command card
Naval Infantry Company
HQ
Full Infantry Platoon
Full Infantry Platoon
70mm Battalion Gun x 2
75mm AA Gun x 4 with transport command card

Support
Medium Sized Engineer Platoon
Scout platoon

All of that is bang on 100pts

There is an issue that you don’t have any Human Bullet cards but to do that you would need to drop a further platoon to medium sized and I don’t think its worth it. the idea is to win by taking objs not killing things.

In defence with reserves you get 4 x full platoons, double HQ and Engineers. That’s 54 stands of Infantry on table with the majority having 2+ counter attack and last stand.

Then from reserve you have 2 x good AT gun platoons with transports (which are cautious) to move up on the back line out of MG range ready to deploy and send AT10 across to at least whittle down a few tanks (32″ range!). You may just place the guns on the back line if you have LOS and are in range meaning you get 4 shots the turn they arrive). Remember your opponent cant shoot these and then assault the infantry line as they will not be within 8″ of each other.

You also have 2 x templates with smoke, recce and another Inf platoon in reserve. Therefore you can react to what you need for your 1st reserve depending on the situation.

Equally this list is great at attacking. It has 6 Infantry platoons, double smoke/templates, spearhead and double HQ to keep it moving. It maximises the Japanese advantages and even has 8 x AT10 guns with a long range to pick stuff off with AT10 and FP3+. Now there is one issue with attacking at night. The Engineer platoon RAW cant move out of the deployment as it doesn’t have night attack. I say RAW as the Engineer Company Command card does have night attack, so it needs BF clarification. You could change this platoon for a normal infantry rifle platoon if needed.

A bit more Balance

Now I fully admit the list above is a little hardcore. Lots of people will not want to defend with no guns and just sit being punched hoping for a counter punch at the end. So lets look at a more traditional defend list.

HQ 2
Full Infantry Platoon
Full Infantry Platoon
Full Infantry Platoon
75mm AA Gun x 4
2 x 47mm Rapid fire Guns
2 x 70mm Battalion Gun

Type-97 Chi-Ha Tank Company

2 x type 97 Tanks with 1 upgraded to 47mm
5 x Type 97 Tanks with 47mm gun
5 x Type 97 Tanks with 47mm gun

Support
75mm AA Gun x 4

In this list you get all of the Naval infantry formation plus the extra 75mm guns on table with reserves. That means you can cover the zone with 41 stands of infantry but with some respectable AT kicking out 16 x AT10 shots to prioritise killing those Lees (other medium armour is available). If they bombard your guns then they aren’t hitting your infantry which is a big bonus. You have to accept that you will lose units.

Reserves are more respectable with 2 x platoons bringing in most of your points. The Type-97s have AT8, although overworked. Not great but will deal with Crusaders, Italians and at least can worry AT5. Again they are a target which when shot at mean your infantry isn’t dying. On the down side they are FA3 and aggressive so please put them behind some cover!

While this is primarily a defend list I also go for the Type-97 as it has as it allows me to assault while there still a lot of MG defensive fire meaning it isn’t all on my infantry. This means it can help push infantry back from the obj and also means this list can do some pretty cool attacking shenanigans. It still has a lot of infantry and has 12 x tanks to assault with, maybe at night. So your opponent has to be nervous whether you will actually choose defend or go attack!

Conclusion

The Japanese at first glance look like a natural attacking force (and they are good at it!) however with a deeper analysis they are far more viable in defence than they first look. Do not be fooled by the poor FA and week AT tanks or limited AT gun options. Their strength isn’t in wiping out tank forces, its in holding and taking objs via assaults, and no-one can do it better. Every army has problems with something and Chruchills or KVs are an absolute achilles heel to the Japanese due to strong FA + SA and TA2. But they are expensive and you have to rely on playing the objs to win.

Remember okay players think kills, but great players think objectives.