by Keith Tracton, 12 March 2026
Continuing our mission to clear the island!
Turn 7 brought a breakthrough and clearing many of the Japanese units! The final actions on turns 8:00 and 9:00 devolved into a northern action and a southern action that I’ll cover in a little more detail. Turn 8 rolled around and the weather continued to cooperate. But casualties had been high and the reserve is being regenerated offshore.
click images to enlarge
I am running out of time! Some of my units have only 1 or 2 hits left and the offshore reserves will not be reconstituted in time to reinforce. It’s all or nothing for the Marines on the island! The northern force of Marines have only one position left to take so the third regiment may rush south to reinforce the southern pincer.
But…instead I decide to finish off the last bastion of Japanese in the north with all three regimental teams. Tanks and flamethrower teams combine to attack the unknown strength of the Japanese defenders. IN the end they cannot stand and are eliminated!
The south has very few marines left but a reinforcing regiment form the north is on its way. A simple attack plan: push from the southwest and the south with the reserve regiment’s artillery providing support.
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth from Neva Game Press; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article
The plan is organized and the remaining southern tanks and flamethrower teams approach the enemy positions, with Marine artillery raining down on the trenches of the Japanese. Suddenly, Japanese counterbattery fire erupts and the battle sways first one way then the other! The Japanese, being on their hidden side drew form the bag and picked artillery support as their unknown extra firepower.
The Japanese successfully withstand the initial attack. It is revealed that their actual positions are indeed just trenches (defense value “C”). A wonderful subtlety that gives this game such a realistic solitaire flavor is the Japanese Raiding rule. This rule allows the Japanese to reach out to any (and sometimes every) Marine unit adjacent to or within two hexes of one of their units and inflict a step loss. At this late stage of the game, this can yield extra victory points for them.
One raid succeeds and inflicts a step loss, one raid succeeds and eliminates a Marine regiment and the long range raid on the artillery fails. The Marines have one attack left, and it succeeds. Iwo Jima is cleared of Japanese military presence.
The final positions and casualty count. The U.S. Marines prevail but at a high casualty count.
Another bonus: there are actually enough bags to store things easily back in the box. Well designed!
All in all, an excellent experience. I look forward to playing this again!
Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth AAR
PART 1 ~ PART 2
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