J7 Slow And Steady is a very attractive-looking scenario I'd been wanting to play for some time, and when Bryan Register mentioned he wanted to play some PTO at our gameday, it jumped to the top of my list. Since some of my closest games have been with Bryan, I was looking forward to a great time.

Slow And Steady features a 1944 Burma battle between the Japanese and an American trained and equipped Chinese force. The Japanese have nine squads and a very nice array of support weapons to stop the Chinese from exiting 16 VP. The Chinese get fifteen 5-3-7s, three M3A3 Stuart tanks, and 70mm OBA, but only three leaders and have only nine turns to move 27 hexes across the streams and hills and jungle of boards 36 and 37.

Bryan decided to take the Chinese, and I sat down to concoct a defense. It's tempting to go with an upfront defense, as the Chinese are forced to cross a stream and climb a hill right off the bat. Covering that difficult terrain with fire would make it even tougher on the Chinese. Upon further reflection, though, the idea lost its luster. Given that the terrain -is- so difficult, the Chinese could only move one hex in the MPh anyway. Suddenly the thought of exposing my troops to the 5 FP squads, cannister from the tanks, 60mm MTR fire, and 70mm OBA just to slow the Chinese by a hex didn't seem worth it.

So, starting a trend that would last the entire game, I set up my Japanese out of LOS, ceding control of the stream to Bryan's Chinese. I did HIP a crew with an MMG to cover the road and ford just in case any leaders tried to run stacks forward. I also HIPed a 4-4-8 with a DC fairly far forward, and another crew with an HMG as a backstop towards the rear.

Bryan then got to set up his massive force. With no visible targets, his only real decisions were what to do with the tanks and the OBA. Since the Chinese have to set up on a hill and then immediately descend to a stream, the resulting double-crest really limits where the tanks can cross. Bryan chose to send all three down the center along the road (not a trail by SSR), which wasn't a bad choice although I may have detached one along the flank at another of the rare crossing points. Finally, Bryan opted to set up a leader/radio to begin bringing in the OBA immediately. This looks like a good plan; the jungle is so dense and the OBA so hard to use I think its only real use is to blast the Japanese off the hill should they choose to fight for it.

It was ironic that I had already decided to give up control of the hill, because Bryan started the game by pulling a red card for the OBA. The rest of the turn went quickly, with the Chinese slogging down into the stream (4MF to go one hex!) and then advancing vs difficult terrain back into the jungle on the far side.

With the Chinese artillery silenced at least for the moment, I pushed a few squads back onto the hill. The plan wasn't really to fight for it but instead to force the Chinese to move through the jungle and not the open ground. The only other highlight of the turn was Bryan's hapless radio operator fail to make contact.

Things didn't get any better for the Chinese OBA on turn two, with another red card being pulled and a sniper (off the Japanese 5 SAN) taking out the radio man even before he could smash the radio in frustration. So much for the OBA. The rest of Bryan's Chinese were undeterred and pushed on. My MMG crew was discovered and defanged when a tank parked on its position. Elsewhere, in a true display of gung-ho, one 5-3-7 wading through the stream went berserk after taking fire and charged forwards, only to boxcar an NMC from a 2-2 shot.

Meanwhile, on the Japanese side of the map, I routed away my MMG crew, picked off a CX 5-3-7 that advanced onto my HIP 4-4-8, and then generally rearranged my lines out of the Chinese LOS, again with an eye towards denying access to any terrain with only 1 MF. I wanted those Chinese ground-pounders to be CX every turn! My only aggressive action was to advance a concealed 4-4-7 onto a 5-3- 7/tank hex. I got the ambush, needed an 8 to kill the squad, and could only roll a 9 for the CR, leaving us locked in Melee. Despite this little mishap, I was feeling pretty good about my position. I had already killed 1.5 squads and a leader, and the Chinese infantry had a -long- way to go with 7 turns remaining.

Bryan can count just as well as I can, though, and was determined to even things up. Looking my defense over, he realized it was pretty up-front, with almost all my troops along a single hex row and 1.5 of my 2 HIP squads already revealed. Bryan was also well-aware of my pathetic anti-tank capability, which consisted of a single ATR (6 TK vs 6 and 3 AF) and 3 tank hunter heroes. Possessed with these facts, the wiley philosopher savant concocted a plan that was almost diabolical in its simple effectiveness.

Turn three for the Chinese started quietly enough, with Bryan AMing his 5-3- 7s through the jungle, trying to get at least one concealed unit next to my troops wherever he could. His infantry also began an almost imperceptible shift towards my right flank, where the terrain was somewhat more open. In the CCPh, my 4-4-7 which had previously been trapped in Melee went out with a bang, killing a 5-3-7 and 8-1 that Bryan had aggressively advanced in. That left the Chinese with a single 8-0. Mostly, though, my Japanese bided their time, opting to keep concealment when advanced upon rather than risk CC and generally acting more as roadblocks than soldiers.

Unfortunately, my troops weren't any sort of an obstacle at all to armor, and therein lay Bryan's plan. When his first 17 MP Stuart blitzed down the jungle road, I knew I was in trouble. I had one CC RF attack, one tank hunter hero who didn't get an ATMM, and an ATR shot at the small moving target in dense jungle. Needless to say, I didn't even manage to scratch the paint on the first tank. It went CE after getting out of harm's way and exited for an easy 6 VP.

The second tank then started its run. Since it had further to go, it went CE sooner, exposing itself to a 12+2 shot from my HIP HMG. I got an NMC, but that that tank happened to be carrying the 9-1 AL, who laughed it off, and drove the tank away for 8 more VP. Bryan now needed a paltry 2 VP with another tank to exit and 6 turns left in the game. I was kicking myself for my poor defense, and was convinced I had lost the game. It was small consolation indeed when I realized that Bryan's third tank had to climb a hill and couldn't quite move to complete safety away from my troops. I was still in deep trouble, but at least I'd get a few CC attacks on the Stuart before I lost.

My turn three witnessed a 'Japanese fire drill,' as I sent everyone possible after the last Stuart. The rest of my troops fell back, scrambling to reestablish some semblance of a defensive line. I managed to turn the tank into a burning wreck in the CCPh, but Bryan still had 6 turns to exit a single squad and my troops were now scattered far and wide.

Bryan tried hard to take advantage of my disarray, pushing hard across the entire map, but the dense terrain made it really tough on him. Over the next few turns, the scenario devolved into a classic jungle fight. Both sides were firing some units and keeping others concealed for the inevitable CCs. In these conditions, the unique Japanese advantages really came through for me. Being an unbreakable stealthy defender in Dense Jungle let me pull all kinds of tricks like ambushing people and withdrawing behind them, maintaining concealment if I didn't ambush and then AMing out in my next MPh, etc.

All these tricks were really slowing the Chinese down, and as our forces became more intermixed, the fact that the Chinese broke became more of a disadvantage. I was able to eliminate a few squads for failure to rout and even killed off Bryan's last leader in a CC. At the same time, though, the swirling melee action that had developed also raised the odds that a Chinese squad could leak through and win the game.

At this point, with about three turns to go, Bryan decided to push hard down my right flank where the terrain consisted of kunai and palm trees rather than the dense jungle. This was really the turning point of the game. I think committing to a single flank was a good move against anyone but the Japanese. The slightly more open terrain not only gave the Chinese faster movement, but also allowed them to bring their superior firepower to bear. Against an enemy that breaks, the Chinese would likely have blasted their way to victory.

Clearing out Japanese with firepower, though, is a different story entirely. The best attack available to the Chinese was something like a 16+2 and then a lot of 8+2. Painful, certainly, but incapable of generating the KIAs and K/s you need to quickly clear out Japanese. Instead, the focus on a single flank allowed me to concentrate all my forces and finally set up a defense in depth...something I'd been trying hard to do ever since that turn three tank blitz!

With all the action now on a single flank and a layered defense for the Japanese, there was no way a Chinese squad was going to slip through. I had been living in fear for most of the game, worried that a lucky CC for the Chinese or a boxcarred MC or something would open a fatal gap in my lines, but those worries were rapidly fading.

Bryan could see the handwriting on the wall and put together a last desperate dash for the board edge and victory. It was well thought out and executed and Bryan even generated a hero in the process, but in the end he came up a few hexes short. In hindsight, the loss of all three Chinese leaders was painful more because of the lost movement capability than the loss of rally capability...

Overall, I liked the scenario quite a bit. I think ROAR has it favoring the Chinese somewhat, likely due to the "Bryan blitz," but luckily this is one of those rare scenarios where the Japanese balance (add one 2-2-8, ATR) actually does a good job of evening things up. Most players will think twice before running the Stuarts past two properly positioned ATRs and a few squads. So, give the Japanese the balance, let him know he needs to set up in depth, and Slow And Steady is a scenario I'd really recommend. The 'rumble in the jungle' with the 5-3-7s is worth the price of admission just by itself, and the showdown between the Stuarts and the tank hunters heros is also classic PTO at its best. Thanks to Bryan for taking all my gloating over the ambush rolls with a philosophical calm, and thanks to Sam for hosting. Without him, none of this exciting action would ever have happened!

Zeb Doyle