On to the seventh battle of the Kokoda campaign. As I rate scenarios, the ratings will be based on the scenario as a stand alone scenario, not part of the campaign. I’m not sure if early scenarios benefit one side with the intent to gain a point lead, with later scenarios designed to close that gap, so I need to consider each as a stand alone.

The Australians are trying to delay the advance of the Japanese troops. They start with half their forces on the map near the village, and the remainder enter from the south. The Japanese, who are numerically superior, but do not have the luxury of HMGs (Aussies get four), enter from the north. Victory is based on step losses and trail/village hexes controlled.

My opponent starts his on map units in the village, and advancing down the trail will have me staring down the barrels of HMGs supported by two Inf. My opponent is very used to my Japanese strategy of move near en masse, rush the defenders with everything, suck up Australian direct fire, and then pounce in assault. This time I decide to completely change things up, confusing my opponent. I send my troops through the jungle and begin to move around both sides of the village and continue moving parallel to the trail, leaving a small force to the north to threaten any moves out of the village. In fact, by turn ten (out of 20) I have yet to move adjacent to an Australian. But his intent to hold the village and defend the trail is thinning out his defenses.

Finally on turn 11 I decide he is thin enough just south of the village. I send four stacks adjacent to three stacks of troops he has just moved, and prepare for assault without taking fire. On turn 12 I get a miracle initiative roll, and have three activations before his first. I go in with three assaults. Long and short, one goes my way quickly, one goes my way gradually, and the third goes my way slowly. But they all go my way, and he loses several units in the assaults.

By this time we are both stretched over the length of the board, I hold both ends of the trail, and I am slowly picking off trail hexes in a game of maneuver, assisted by the troops that win their assault hexes. He has plenty of HMGs, and I’ve learned to respect them. The remaining turns are spent mostly in maneuver, with him picking off a step of mine and vice versa during the moves. In the end, I pick up 16 trail or village hexes while inflicting 13 steps, while he keeps four hexes while inflicting three steps. A major Japanese victory.

End score for the scenario, Japanese 29, Australians 7.

Rated this scenario as a 3. Having a scenario where the Japanese used maneuver for the first half of the scenario without a shot being fired was pretty neat. But the Australians are significantly outnumbered, and can soon be spread thin. The village hexes are a great defensive position, but defending them might not be the best bet in the end. Slowly yielding them to maintain a defense line further south might prevent a Japanese end run. And that would drive the Japanese back to assault tactics, which can be messy against HMGs. But in the end I think the Australians might be playing for a draw in this scenario. If they give ground, the Japanese score points. If they don’t, they get flanked and the Japanese score points. Good scenario, and I enjoyed it, but perhaps a little balance issue.

Campaign score: Japanese 221, Australians 43.