Banzai! Using Arisakas to maximum effect.

[Comassion]

First off, you should generally not use Arisakas to shoot at medium range. Their best abilities are used up close, so use their assault phase to move them up closer rather than firing. The only times you should consider shooting is when your target has a defense of 3, like disrupted infantry or an AT gun or mortar.

I've found that the best use for Arisaka Rifles is to calculate when a Banzai charge is a better option than a regular close-range attack. 8 dice is decent, and can potentially hurt your opponents. The 12 dice in hand-to-hand is brutally effective when it can be used, but an inexperienced player will get his troops killed trying to use it.

Understand that the Banzai charge is not your main attack. It is a finishing move that can bring a damaged force of enemy infantry crashing down in waves. Used improperly, your pristine Arisaka infantry will suffer sudden and terrible deaths.

Defensive fire is your enemy.

Basically, in order to banzai charge you have to overcome your opponent's defensive fire. The first step in doing so is to assume that defensive fire of 8 dice or more will always disrupt your unit - because more than half the time, it will.

Defensive fire comes from non-disrupted units. The easiest way to overcome defensive fire is to use supporting fire from mortars and machineguns to disrupt and destroy the units you are charging. Once disrupted, Banzai away and finish them off.

If the enemy is not disrupted, you will need to sacrifice (that is, allow to be disrupted) one Arisaka in a Banzai charge for every non-disrupted enemy unit. A single non-disrupted target needs to be charged by two Arisakas - one to absorb defensive fire, and the other to successfully charge the target. Once you do that, four or five successes are good odds on 13 dice, and your target will most likely die.

To use them successfully, you need overwhelming force. If you have 2 Arisakas for every infantry unit the enemy has, you will kill them all if you can reach them. You will suffer casualties on your way to your targets however, and these must be taken into account. Don't try and cross too much open ground - supporting fire is a necessity, both to disrupt enemy units for the eventual charge and to keep your opponent from mowing down your Arisakas with machineguns in open ground.

If you look at the situation and find that you cannot reliably charge this turn (your opponent has too many non-disrupted units), then use your Arisakas to fire normally at close range instead. You should disrupt some enemy units and improve your chances to charge next round. Focus your fire on geographic locations that aren't well supported by infantry units next to them - you can charge this area, and round by round sweep up an enemy's flank. A concentration of disrupted enemy units is better for you than several disrupted units spread out over a line.

Finally, try and go second in the initiative order. When you go first, Arisakas that get disrupted by defensive fire can then be fired on in their disrupted state during your enemy's assault phase. When your assault phase comes second, the disrupted counter from defensive fire will be removed before the unit can be fired at.

[Panzer]

Excellent post.

[Dr.Cornelius]

Have you tried Arisakas against SS-Panzergrenadiers? In my experience SS-PG backed up by the SS-HStFu is nigh impossible to beat with infantry.

[Der Leiter]

Comassion,

I agree completely with you there. I've seen a lot of people play an all Japanese army and lose simply because they "had to" do a Banzai charge, despite running at two MGs in a fortified position, etc. The Arisakas need to close where possible, while the support pieces (as you said) disrupt the hell out of everything. Unfortunately this means you have to tie a substantial amount of points into your infantry. The Arisaka need to keep moving up where possible to close in as much of their force as possible. Keeping in cover is obviously a good move.

If you're not playing Axis in general, and not Japanese in particular, I'd recommend throwing in a few of the dreaded SS-PGs since they will soak up a lot of fire, and also give you some decent medium range support. One other tactic you can use if playing all Axis, is load an Imperial Sergeant up on a half-track and zip him around to inspire your troops. I'm not sure I'd recommend it since it's expensive and fragile, but it IS a possibility.

Herr Doktor,

It's difficult but not impossible. Whereas with JP infantry you need to disrupt as many of the enemies as possible to get in and Banzai them, against SS-PG's you need to concentrate your fire against them.

The all around best unit at taking out SS-PG's is the Red Devil Captain. The 5's aren't so bad to tie/beat, it's the 4+ save that makes it so hard to finish them off. Simply reducing it to a 5+ makes it that much easier.

Vickers, Garands, and M2 Mortars can all make short work of the SS-PG's. Flamethrowers are perhaps the best, and don't need the Captain, but I find mine are usually preoccupied with toasting enemy armour (and rarely surviving to tell the tale).

Vickers MG Teams only get 6 long range dice, so won't do much unless you roll fairly well (one roll of 6, or two of 5), at short-medium range they chew apart SS-PG's. Double shot is good since if you're lucky enough to get a good roll, you can attempt to at least disrupt another and make it easier for the next gun to take them out.

The M1 Garand Rifles with the Red Devil Captain trailing behind them (out of sight if possible) gives almost as many dice as the Grenadiers (Same at long), and the all important -1 cover save. However, if you can fire at them they can fire back.

The M2 Mortars work similarily to the Vickers. At medium-long range they need 3 successes out of 6 rolls, on a 5+, so slightly above average, to potentially kill the SS-PG. Again the RD Captain helps out a lot with the saves (Yes, I keep saying that but I can't stress enough how good he is). For 2 more points I'd still rather go with a Vickers when possible though. More dice closer up, and double shot can be lethal.


Great post on the Arisaka and Banzai Charge! Apologies if I went off on a bit of a tangent answering Dr.Cornelius.

Just curious, how many Imperial Sergeants do you think is enough? I usually find two is enough, but not always. A third is very costly though.

[Comassion]

For imperial sergeants, one can be too few, as there are too many situations where you might be forced to lose him. Plus, with one your options are limited as to where you can put him for an effective Banzai charge. Your halftrack idea is decent, but too costly - even a lowly bazooka is a significant threat at medium range, and he's still just one commander. (That halftrack should only cost 9-10 points, IMHO). I think a second Imperial Sergeant is a better deal for the cost.

In general I think that two imperial sergeants is more than enough, if for no other reason than that they're one of the most survivable commanders in the game. If your terrain is good, you might be able to get away with just one, and take an extra support unit instead.

Why is that? Because he can stay back until he is needed. This is because his command ability is only needed right at the moment of the charge - he doesn't need to stay with his troops like other commanders. Determine where he needs to be when you will banzai charge, and look for a safe spot two hexes away. On the turn you banzai charge, he can move 1 hex during movement, 1 hex during assault, and use his ability. If you go second, he won't even be fired at - meaning that during the previous turn, if you went second, you could have him a safe spot as far as three hexes away in the assault phase. If your opponent guns him down in the phase you use him, then he just wasted shots that could have helped stop a later Arisaka charge. The Imperial Sergeant isn't absolutely necessary for the Banzai Charge, he just makes it go faster and gives the enemy less time to shoot at you. Once your Arisakas are in the same hex as the enemy, they're doomed next turn (though your own losses will be higher). If you can 'banzai' during the movement phase, the Imperial Sergeant is almost unnecessary.

Now that I think about it, a player willing to expirement might want to try fielding a sIG with the Arisakas. The sIG will discourage the enemy from grouping his infantry, which is exactly what he needs to do to defend himself properly from the Arisakas. And as you said, SS-PG's are excellent units to field with them, and can also banzai charge - and defensive fire is less likely to affect them. Send in the SS-PGs first to absorb defensive fire, and follow up with Arisakas. If the SS-PG gets through, they can hit the enemy pretty hard themselves.

A single Haupsturmfuhrer can help greatly, as any disrupted Arisakas wouldn't be able to banzai charge - and when the Arisakas are in range for a charge, you're likely to lose some or have them disrupted. He helps with Initiative too. But don't skimp on the support units for too many commanders - disrupting the enemy is your first priority, and with Arisakas, an even trade of disruptions is in your favor.

An interested Axis player can give this army a shot:

9 Arisakas (27)
1 Panzergenadier (5)
1 Imperial Sergeant (9)
1 Haupsturmfuhrer (9)
2 MG 42s (20)
1 Panzer IV (30)

It's deficient on anti-tank capability, so the Panzer IV will have to work hard. If needed, drop an MG-42 or some Arisakas for a PAK gun or a Panzerfaust.

[rom]

Thank you comassion. you've figured it out. I thought the banzai was useless based on Defensive fire. charging same hex on second turn is the way to defeat the distruption....this should apply to some other situations...I can use those now...cool...thank you!!

[Anpu42]

How do you deal with a Killer Croc?

[Der Leiter]

Don't play a '44 game, or don't play all Japanese. They just can't handle medium/heavy allied tanks very well with what they have now. If you are playing a '42-44 game, then you had better be packing some good antitank units... at least one Panzer IV.

[XAos]

I've found that the best use for Arisaka Rifles is to calculate when a Banzai charge is a better option than a regular close-range attack. 8 dice is decent, and can potentially hurt your opponents. The 12-13 dice in hand-to-hand is brutally effective when it can be used...

Where does the "13th dice" come from.? the Arisaka is H2H:12. I can't think of any ability that adds another dice. if you banzai thats not a 13th dice. :confused: It's 12 dice but with 3+ tohit. i.e. about the equivalent of 16 dice on 4+.

Understand that the Banzai charge is not your main attack. It is a finishing move that can bring a damaged force of enemy infantry crashing down in waves. Used improperly, your pristine Arisaka infantry will suffer sudden and terrible deaths.

Having played japanese a lot I disagree with that. Yes, a banzai against an un-disruptred opponent can get the arisaka killed. But;
(a) If the enemy infantry is in a cover-hex then the Arisaka will be in the same cover. And since H2H:12 ignores cover the enemy will die and the arisaka may survive because of the cover roll.
(b) If the arisaka dies it can still kill the enemy (simultanious fire) and thats always a good trade.

[Der Leiter]

Where does the "13th dice" come from.? the Arisaka is H2H:12. I can't think of any ability that adds another dice. if you banzai thats not a 13th dice. :confused: It's 12 dice but with 3+ tohit. i.e. about the equivalent of 16 dice on 4+.

Having played japanese a lot I disagree with that. Yes, a banzai against an un-disruptred opponent can get the arisaka killed. But;
(a) If the enemy infantry is in a cover-hex then the Arisaka will be in the same cover. And since H2H:12 ignores cover the enemy will die and the arisaka may survive because of the cover roll.
(b) If the arisaka dies it can still kill the enemy (simultanious fire) and thats always a good trade.

Problem is that you get to choose which hex the defencive fire occurs in, so he's very unlikely to allow you in the same hex as him. And while you'll still get to fire at range 1 you're only averaging roughly 3 hits on 8 dice.

[Comassion]

rom: You're welcome, let me know how they work out for you now.

Anpu: A croc is trouble for the army I put up (or any Japan-heavy army). Your best bet is to engage with a German tank at range, preferably from the rear. If it comes down to it, you can banzai charge the Croc - You'll get 6 dice that need 3+, which on average still won't hurt the croc, but if you can disrupt or damage it you've got a reasonable shot. And best of all, there's no defensive fire from the Croc, so you can Banzai Charge it all day. If you take Panzergrenadiers in addition to Arisakas, they stand an excellent chance of hurting Armor when combined with Banzai Charge. If the target is already damaged / disrupted, you can kiss it goodbye against a Banzai Panzergrenadier charge (they would only miss on rolls of 1!).

If you want to get fancy, note that an anti-tank gun can perform a Banzai charge - and it can move at speed 2 in the assault phase.

Xaos: You are correct about the '13th die' being a mistake. I mis-read the Imperial Sergeant's ability.

Xaos and Der Lieter: I think you've both made mistakes, though an exact ruling will have to come from the FAQ. Der Lieter is correct in that the defending player may choose what hex you are in when he uses defensive fire. If you're using Arisakas, he will almost certainly choose to keep you out of his hex. When he does so, I don't believe you would still get to fire - since you didn't move into the same hex as your target, you wouldn't get the Banzai attack, and thus an Arisaka that gets disrupted by defensive fire has used up it's entire assault action absorbing defensive fire.

[XAos]

... - since you didn't move into the same hex as your target, you wouldn't get the Banzai attack, and thus an Arisaka that gets disrupted by defensive fire has used up it's entire assault action absorbing defensive fire.
Obviously, :D and while I would agree it requires a small amount of tactical skill to actually deal with this issue. It is certainly possible to do so on most maps.
There are some obvious tactics to apply by the arisakas.
1) The best option is to get to the objective hex first.
Arisakas are axis units so in addition to the imperial sargents you want an SS-haupsturmfuhrer to win the initiative for 1st turn setup.
2) If your opponent gets there first, use support units to "distract" them while the arisakas advance. MG fire from HA-GO's are effective at this.
3) Use numerical superiorty on the turn you assault. With the exception of an MG-42 defending units only get defensive fire against 1 unit. So if you have more 3pt Arisakas than your opponent has (e.g. 5pt SS-PG's) just absorb the defensive fire so that your superior numbers can get some of your units to the same hex.
4) Some maps have almost continuos paths of cover to the objective hex. Advance along those and half the defensive fire will be inefective .

[Sean-Khan]

An interesting article, Comassion!

Still waiting for my minis :( So I haven't got much feeling for this game yet, but I keep wondering about this Imperial sergeant.

Is he really worth the points? He's 9 points, and you need to keep him in the front line (as we're waiting for the sufficient transport) to make any use of him. And, it's possible that you'd have to run over an open area controlled by enemy mortars and machine guns, and you might not be able to use the special ability at all...

I wonder how well can he be kept alive? And if you take another one, you've spent 18 points for your commanders, another of which is only there for initiative!

I prefer historically accurate armies, so I don't like mixing German & Japanese units, so German officer is out of question for me (whenever I get some of these).

[Comassion]

Xaos pointed out something that I'd forgotten - you do get a cover save against defensive fire, so if you can banzai charge your enemy from a hex that gives you cover then he will stop you less than half the time. So whenever possible, banzai charge out of cover.

As I mentioned before, the Imperial Sergeant is one of the more survivable commanders, because you don't need to use his ability until the assault phase that you need it in. This means that, unlike other commanders, he does not need to constantly be on the front line with his troops. He can stay as far away as three hexes behind his troops on the turn you want to banzai charge - which is enough on most maps to put him in cover, if not completely out of LOS. On your movement turn he can get one hex closes, and on your assault phase he can move another hex, putting him adjacent to the troops you want to Banzai charge.

For example, let's examine a pair of Arisakas (A) and an Imperial Sergeant (S) charging a single M-1 Garand (G) on a simplified six hex long, one hex wide board: Clear, Clear, Forest, Clear, Clear, Forest, abbreviated c - c - f - c - c - f.

We'll put the units on the board as follows: The Imperial Sergeant is on the far left, followed by the two Arisaka Rifles. The American Garand is on the far right, defending the objective. So the board looks like this:

Turn 1 movement: cS - cAA - f - c - c - fG

On turn 1, the Japanese lose initiative and are forced to go first. Both Arisakas and the Imperial Sergeant move closer to the Garand. The Garand remains in place.

Turn 1 assault: c - cS - fAA - c - c - fG

The Arisakas each advance a hex and the Imperial Sergeant stays where he is, because we want to try for the Banzai charge. Note that the Imperial Sergeant is out of line of sight, and cannot be killed. The Americans will have to focus on an Arisaka instead. Normally you should have support fire with you to at least disrupt the Garand, but for the sake of simplicity we'll skip it. The Garand fires and only rolls 3 successes on an Arisaka, for no effect. Having seen the Americans miss, we know that next turn it's time for a Banzai charge.

Turn 2 movement: c - cS - f - cAA - c - fG

The Japanese win initiative this time and choose to go second. The American player realizes that things don't look good, but they might only get worse if he retreats (Ther Arisakas would have more cover). The Garand stays put. The Imperial Sergeant moves into the forest, and the Arisakas move up next to the Garand. It's getting hairy for the Americans

Turn 2 assault - the Banzai charge: c - c - fS - c - cAA - fG

The Garand player now has a choice. He can either try to kill one of the Arisakas next to him, or he can try for a shot at the Imperial Sergeant in cover. Since he gets more dice and wants to hurt your Banzai capability, he chooses to shoot at close range at an Arisaka rifle. This time he gets 6 successes, killing it. On the Japanese assault phase, first the Imperial Sergeant moves into the clear hex next to the Arisakas so that they can use his commander ability. Then the doomed Arisaka banzai charges the American hex and is disrupted by defensive fire. Then the other Arisaka charges, and the Americans can't use defensive fire on it. The HTH attack rolls 8 successes, destroying the Garand.

In this example, we kept the Imperial Sergeant completely safe until the turn came to Banzai charge. Depending on the cover afforded to you on the map, it may be possible (but unlikely) to keep your Imperial Sergeant out of LOS all the time.

Charging over open ground will still get you killed, as it would with any infantry except possibly Panzergenadiers. So when using Arisakas, don't neglect basic infantry tactics that call for staying in cover whenever possible.

[XAos]

I prefer historically accurate armies, so I don't like mixing German & Japanese units, so German officer is out of question for me (whenever I get some of these).

I also would prefer historical armies.
But I don't think that you can build a usable 100pt pure-Japanese squad with the current units. The 15 unit limit would force you to use too many of the support weapon units. And a 200pt squad would be actually impossible.

[Sean-Khan]

I also would prefer historical armies.
But I don't think that you can build a usable 100pt pure-Japanese squad with the current units. The 15 unit limit would force you to use too many of the support weapon units. And a 200pt squad would be actually impossible.
We're gettin airplanes soon - I guess Japan will get some support there :) They must get at least some units in the next set too, although not many.

And thanks Comassion for clarification. I understand it's use a bit better now. Still, the situation was strongly favourable for japanese and still they lost same amount of units - in that way not the best example :) But I get the idea. I guess it works much better against vehicles!

[Comassion]

Heh, not really - Arisakas are best at dealing with other infantry. The above example was rougher for the Japanese than it should have been because it didn't have any Japanese support units to disrupt the Americans. Also your field of battle will likely involve more units, and that Imperial Sergeant can get anywhere from 4-8 Arisakas to Banzai Charge on a single turn. Mostly that example was to illustrate how you can keep the Imperial Sergeant safe until it's time to use his ability.

[Sean-Khan]

Still, I think that charging Arisakas are not bad at all against vehicles. Well, I haven't tested without minis ;) but 6 dice attack to the back of a vehicle that hit on roll of 3+. Large amount of allied vehicles has 4 or less aft defence, plus they can't make defensive fire. There will probably be better units for this purpose later, but IMO Arisakas aren't bad in this either :)

[Comassion]

Yeah, they're not too bad. If you want to slaughter vehicles though, you can Banzai Charge with an AT gun. And they can move two spaces. How's that for ahistorical?

[Sean-Khan]

Yeah, they're not too bad. If you want to slaughter vehicles though, you can Banzai Charge with an AT gun. And they can move two spaces. How's that for ahistorical?

Just think of the bayonet they'll have to attach to the gun :D

[fifleche]

ROFLOL!!! Just pictured the Japanese MegaBayonet o'DOOM!

Kind of explains where all those japanese starships in them tv shows got all those huge blades protuding out of nowhere... They got an Imperial Officer on-board!

BANZAI ARCADIA!