World's Bloodiest Tennis Court
American and Japanese Marines in a Death Match 80 Years Ago Today!
Marines vs. Marines? This … will get messy.
Join Oriskany Jim and Piotr as they face off in another anniversary wargame smackdown. This time we’re looking at the assault on Tulagi Island, a landing undertaken alongside Guadalcanal on 7 August, 1942. It’s one of the first “hit-and-stay” landings that begins the long road to Tokyo in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
The system we’ll be using is the classic Valor & Victory WW2 squad-based tactical system, pitting the leathernecks of 2nd Battalion / 5th Marines and elements of 1st Marine Raider Battalion (Edson’s Raiders) against Japanese Marines of the 3rd Kure Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF).
So it’s Marines vs. Marines in an all-out jungle smackdown.
Yeah, this won’t be pretty.
2PM East US Time, 7PM UK Time
The overall situation in the Pacific, Summer of 1942 (from Ops Center Episode 16)
As we can see, Tulagi and Guadalcanal was just one of the initial steps in the much larger "Operation Cartwheel" undertaken in the Southwest Pacific during World War II. Australian and New Zealand forces would also play key rolls. The fighting on Tulagi would be wrapped up on the second day. Guadalcanal would grind on for months until newspapers called Guadalcanal "The Stalingrad of the Pacific." 
Tulagi in detail. The scaled game map is shown in bright green. The panel at lower left shows Imperial Japanese Army ... we'll be featuring SNLF Marines of the Imperial NAVY, but the equipment is very similar.
The Valor & Victory map for tomorrow's game.
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