From MilesR: The Island of Peleliu (850 Points)

 

Welcome to the tropical island paradise of Peleliu - one of the most sought after snorkeling and scuba diving spots in the world.  Well that's how Peleliu is billed today.  In September of 1944, it was anything but a tropical island paradise and was the sight of the one of the most hard fought campaigns of the Pacific war.  I'm building this project to be be both a convention game and the subject of a Little Wars TV episode.  It's also in teeny-tiny 3mm scale, which can be controversial scoring wise for the Challenge - are they mini's? are they terrain? are they just wargame counters?  All valid points and best left up to the judgement of my fellow minions and Curt.

The game itself will be "cooperative" with the players either commanding a US marine regiment or one acting as overall commander.  The GM (me) will play the Japanese and will be guided by a table and some preset actions.  Of course there may be a surprise or two in store for the players.  Ok maybe 3 or 4.....

Regardless of the scale, the terrain portion of this project was a bit intimidating as I wanted to make as realistic a depiction of the island and it's terrain as possible.  I think I got it to 80% correct, which is all my meager skills can manage.  Peleliu is a island shaped like a lobster claw and is roughly 6 miles long by 2.5 wide at it's widest point.  I'm using a scale of 1"=100 yards so that fits (along with the neighboring Ngesebus Island within a 10x4 foot footprint - with a little bump out at one end.

Peleliu, like most Pacific Islands, was formed by volcanic activity and consists of coral and limestone outcroppings.  It was also covered in dense jungle and mangrove swamps.  The Jungle is light green clump foliage (affixed with hot glue).  The limestone rocks are just carved EPS foam.  Lastly the coral outcroppings along the coast are made from ground up coconut husks which are commercially available to be used to line the pens of pet reptiles.  I'd like to think the coconut was sourced form the south Pacific.   It's super light and when mixed with matte medium dries rock hard with a very interesting texture.  I think you'll see me using this material a lot more in future projects.

The far right side of the US landing beaches. The island itself is made out of 1/2 inch cork board that is covered with a pre-mixed flexible tile grout (my goto for ground texturing).

The left side of the US landing beach (which I'm currently doing a small play test on).  The action depicts the initial landing of the US 1st Marine Regiment which was opposed by a Japanese infantry battalion and some bunkers.  In the background you can see the Umurbrogol Mountains.  The fighting was savage and during the first 6 days of the campaign the 1st Marines sustained 60% casualties and had to be withdrawn.  I do realize there is a stand there with unpainted mini's (M3 halftracks w/ 75mm guns attached).  I deeply apologize for that transgression.

This picture also has a nice view of the airfield which was the main US objective and fell on the first day.  Unfortunately, the US also needs to take the high ground to the north of the airfield and that will prove to be a much more difficult nut to crack.

A closer view of the fighting and the bunker complex that was known as "the Point".  Fire from this position destroyed 29 Amtracks during the initial landings and damaged just about every other tank that made it ashore.  It was finally taken by a Marine company from the 1st Regiment which was reduced to less than a platoon strength during the fighting.  The Amtracks were a critical resource for the US - both for the initial landings as well as supply distribution.  There will be consequences in game terms if the US player looses too many of the Amphibious tractors.

The next 3 pictures are of the main part of the Umurbrogol Mountains and all of the major geological features are carved in.  This process was very painstaking as the terrain is super complex.  One very daunting aspect of the mountains is they were ringed by steep coral cliffs that were 60-90 feet high along the seaward side and are honeycombed with natural caves that the Japanese used extensively.  I've labeled some of the key terrain features that have been modeled into the board.

The Central part of the mountains saw the most savage fighting - a lot of which was centered on the Horseshoe - which had the islands only source of fresh water and both sides fought with desperation to gain access to it.

The northern tip of the mountains this are and the rest of the island were held by second class Japanese troops and saw some of these troops surrender after months of fighting.

The middle north section of the island,  You can see some of the mangrove swamps in the lower left portion of the picture.

The Northern most mountains were held by a Japanese Naval Construction Battalion and had a cave system that could house over 1,000 men.  The last hold out from the garrison made their stand here and did not surrender until 1947.  The US had to fly in a former Japanese admiral to convince the remaining 37 soldiers that the war was over.

Ngesebus Island was connected to Peleliu by a wooden causeway and had a secondary objective - a small air field for fighters that was nearing completion.

Lets look at the other side of the island which is dominated by Jungle and Mangrove swamps

An alternative US landing beach - its was not used because of the fear the US troops would get bogged down in the jungle and swamps.  

The backside of the airfield and the opening into the horseshoe.

Lots of swamps.  The US will need to get to the tip of this peninsula to capture a Japanese radio direction finder which must be put out of action before the Philippines invasion fleet sails.

The water was made using a paintable latex caulk and three shades of blue paint which were wet blended along the edges.  The colors does impact gampleplay as the US player may use only amtracks to traverse the light blue water and there will be (or should be) a lot of secondary amphibious operations to flank various Japanese positions.

The underlayment of the boards are 1/2 inch cork board, carved EPS foam which was then covered by pre-mixed flexible tile grout. The airfields are just chip board cut in the shape of the run ways.

Points

Hmmm, how to score this beast.  Well it's clearly terrain and we do have a unambiguos standard of the holy 6 inch cube - or more specifically 20 points for each increment of 216 cubic inches.

Lets calculate the volume - there are 4 2x4 panels so that's a foot print of 96 x 48 inches or 4,608 square inches.  The Ngesebus Island section is 5.5 12" square sections, so the adds another 792 square inches for a total footprint of 5,400 square inches.

The Mountain are up to 5 inches high so lets go with an average height of 1.5 inches, so this beast weighs in at 8,100 cubic inches.  If we dived that total by 216 we get 37.5 scoring "cubes" or 750 points.  I'll leave it to the Minions for a final determination on scoring.

Miles this is spectacular, love the accuracy and attention to detail. Significant bonus points are awarded, in case at the end of the challenge you are short of points. Good luck with the game

MartinC