When I was a kid we frequently visited my grandmother's apartment east of Cleveland, OH. At the time, I'm sure my parents saw these visits as a chance to come home (we lived in Pittsburgh), visit old friends, and maintain important relationships. I, however, saw it as a beach vacation.

In the 70s, Cleveland became famous for the Cuyahoga River which was so polluted that it actually caught fire several times. My beach vacations were, however well before then and the river, then (and thankfully, now again) was clean and the beaches of Lake Erie were pretty much unused. I enjoyed swimming, beach combing (finding "beach glass", discarded bottles, broken and worn smooth by the waves and sand), and, especially on windy days, seeing if I could guess how far the next wave would get up the beach. I would draw a line in the sand with my toe and watch to see if the wave would get there or not. The most fun was when I guessed just right and the wave filled the line but went no further. It occupied me for hours to the delight of my mother who didn't have to worry about me for a bit.

This scenario felt a lot like that. Every time my Austrialians thought they had the line in the sand, something would tip off that the wave wasn't quite done.

The wave of Japanese Naval troops who are charged with taking the hills and town held by the Austrailians seemed irresistable in this scenario. There are hordes of them and they are supported by tanks and plenty of artillery and they even have air power. The Aussies have some HMGs and mortars but basically present an infantry force to the Japanese.

Rather than blunt themselves against the entire Austrailian front, the Japanese advanced em\n masse against the western hill. This was a bit of a risky strategy as there were only 16 turns and the goal was to take both hills and the town between, but I have had too many attacks stall due to lack of reserves, better to keep concentrated and count on mass, morale and the Japanese infantry bonus to provide the force to clear the successive obstacles.

With 6 turns to go, two town hexes and one eastern hill hex remained unconquered and all were in active assaults. It was only on the last turn of the game itself that the Austrailians were finally removed from the last town hex. The Japanese took heavy losses (18 steps plus 1 tank step, but the Austrailians were eliminated as a fighting force.

The tactical problem for the Austrailians is that once the wave reaches them they will have no maneuverability. The Japanese will assault and tie them down and then wear them down, especially outside of the town. As long as the Japanese have reserves they will maintain the only flexibility on the board and will crush the Austrailians. The Japanese need to remember, however, that their tanks do not provide assault bonsues so they are really just slightly move mobile HMGs in this scenario.

I enjoyed the balance of the timeframe and goals in this one but there is just so little to do as the Austrailians that I can't rank it any higher than a "3". I don't see this one as a good shared play game. Play it solo, and draw your own line in the sand.