Battle for Iwo Jima

Battle for Iwo Jima, by Yobo Wargames, is an interesting beast. At first it seems simple; the mechanics are minimalist; just push units forward in the appropriate phase, and literally attack every time a unit is adjacent to an enemy. However... The game features 3 divisions of US Marines, the 5th, the 4th and the 3rd. Each is different in quality, represented by strength points ranging from 10 at the highest, to 1, which is nearly dead. Units have 1-4 "steps" that represent sequential losses; each step loss drops the unit strength significantly. They also have fatigue, which is gained through losses, movement, fighting in day and at night... Pretty much anything can cause fatigue. Fatigue degrades combat performance significantly regardless of unit strength. Fatigue can be regained by resting away from enemy fire, losses by allocating replacement steps. Unit types are infantry, which do the fighting; armor, which supports infantry from one hex back and adds combat strength, and a div...

yes, but: 1. It goes so extremely slow, mainly i think due to unnecessary graphic duration. The very worst is the flare shooting into the air at each nite attack. It goes dramaticly on & on, but, you know, after the very 1st time, ok, we get it. Actually same re artillery & j attacks, and movement in general - i think the units could move a lot faster if the sound&graphics were abbreviated. 2. I play over&over & lose EVERY time. OK i learned, but this last time was especially bad: Day 13 end turn, i've achieved green on 3 of the so-far 4 objectives, red on the 4th :(, several days remain to get to the next 1, only 235/320 j points, truly it feels the opposition is COLLAPSING, i am racing to the final objectives with plenty of time left, seems i've finally got this fig'd out, and suddenly "japanese decisive victory". WHY?

38 hours playing to lose after 7 days max every single game. jap artillery hits and always causes casualties, they can fire 2 hexes always causing casualties, they can ambush and always hit, they banzai and always hit, the Americans have support which does nothing, they cannot hit anything, they cannot assault. Pointless game made to look pretty and that is it.

This one turned out to be quite a disappointment for me. I've been a multi-year long fan of the "Map and Counter" games by GMT and other similar game makers, so I was attracted to this title after it popped up in my recommendations. I got thru game one ok (which was declared a loss for me in about turn 6 or so). The following times I tried to play, the game froze (always during US Marine movement phase) during turn 1, 2 or 3 and I was always forced to restart and the game would never progress further without freezing/locking up. I tried 8 times after my initial first game and that was enough. Following the mass of bugs with my PS4 version of Cyberpunk 2077, I am very tired of this new game company management style of believing its ok to release games that are practically unplayable before they've been duly tested and the bugs fixed. No thanks, Yobowargames!

This could be a fun little gem but alas... It plays a bit slow because of some unnecessary graphic effects. Assigning support to units in the beginning of the turn is a good mechanic but where actually is the support? There is no naval artillery or air support to call. The unit which is assigned support for the turn still takes horrific losses and fails to reduce a one-step Japanese infantry even with an armor modifier. Still, I could live with that but there's a much bigger problem with the game: Impossible to win. Don't get me wrong. I love a good challenge in wargames but in this game, decisive defeat just comes out of nowhere... For no apperant reason! Airfield 1 and Suribachi is captured on time, there's 4 more days for the next objective's deadline, casualties are moderate and Japanese points are below 320. And suddenly Nimitz decides to evacuate the island due to heavy losses. Why? Played 6 sessions. 3 of them ended just like that. I checked the manual inside and out but there...

The game tends to crash on the movement phase sometimes after only moving 1 unit. Otherwise the game is fun and has potential.

A fun inde game but I think the price is too high. the price should be closer to $5 not $12

This is simply a game to occupy your time .It's a hex movement based game but it's not historically correct! Nor does it incorporate all assets available to the Marines, It does depict the determination of the Japanese Commanding General to inflict heavy casualties on the Marines. I've played it for 20 plus hours and have been ahead of the actual, documented objective schedule , order of battle, and timetable by as much as two days AND HELD THE OPPOSING FORCE BELOW 320 POINTS and THE GAME WILL GIVE THE VICTORY TO THE JAPANESE BY VIRTUE OF " YOU BEING BOGGED DOWN". THIS BATTLE LASTED A MONTH- COST THE MARINES 28,000 CASUALTIES AND BOTH COMMANDING GENERAL DIED ON IWO. Also id does not include the use of Marine Aircraft from the carries, Marine support units ,BAR's, 37mm anti tank, motar or demolition assets or flame throwers. you'll only have tank HE and M1 Grands. It's a time killing game but not historically accurate

I like this game because it feels like a really old school tweezers and cardboard game. The problem is it has some bugs here and there that are basically gamebreaking, so I can't recommend it. Numerous times I got near the end of a multi-hour campaign and the game suddenly tells me that I've lost. It's pretty annoying. I can't find any reason why I lost other than that I have lost before, then started a new game.

I dislike the way the game decides when you have lost, by having met fanaticel resistance and not enough objectives Ended on turn 4 one game ( I had one of two objectives ) and turn 7 in another. Moving units is a chore, as they are always get directed past Enemy units, so they get fired on. It's a pain having to break down each unit's move multiple times to avoid this. Maybe that's the tactics/strategy, but it's cumbersome. It is not possible to enter certain hexes next to the enemy, which I find frustrating. Jap artillery is just random, it will hit units on the other end of the map and does not appear to support defending units sometimes. Enemy units do not move, ( which I suppose is correct for the defence ) so just advance, attack and repeat. There is no combining attacks from units just a piece meal one unit attack at a time against the defender, although you don't lose a step/strength or fatigue when attacking. There wasn't enough depth for me to play this time again to try a...