Had to stop and remember for a moment - this was an historical situation at the start. Australians start holding all 3 hexes of the village, Japanese start 2 infantry and leaders on the beach, the 3rd infantry and leader with the tank on the trail. I figured this would give the Japanese a bit of a pincer movement, attacking the village from both sides simultaneously. It took 3 turns for the Japanese to get into position. Australians in the southernmost hex of the town split up, the infantry joining the Cpt and an infantry platoon in the northernmost hex and the LT joining the infantry furthest away from the beach, giving both remaining stacks a little more of a chance. DF from the Australians who hadn't moved yet had no effect. Then started the two Japanese assaults. Tanks and infantry against 1 platoon and a leader, and 2 SNLF platoons with 2 leaders the other 2 Australian platoons with their Cpt. In 4 rounds of assault, Japanese sustained no injury at all, while Australians lost 2 of the 3 infantry platoons and one of the leaders. The Japanese consolidated their infantry in the assault against the CPT and a platoon while the Japanese tank moved into the hex behind it. By turn 10, Japanese assault die rolls finally caused a last step loss to an already demoralized surviving platoon. The following morale check failure took care of the rest. The Cpt failed the survival roll, making it a 100% loss for the Australians. Another interesting scenario, with, for me, the continuing challenge to try to do better next time.

The game began with the Japanese aiming to push down the trail supported by the tanks, with a smaller force moving along the coast to get behind the defence. Over the first half dozen turns the Australians traded ground, however one Japanese platoon managed to get around the defence and eventually captured a town hex. The defenders retreated into the remainder of the town, and comfortably withstood assault attacks. In the end, the Aussies had a marginal win by one VP due to the sole step loss by the attackers. A good little scenario.

Played my local opponent. His Aussies set up five hexes east of town while my SNLF units (plus the single tank step) set up on the trail on 0612. I advanced west and was able to dirupt/demoralize his troops on the trail before they could dig in. He then retreated west along the trail while my Japanese continued to advance. I assaulted his depleted units and defeated them. By games end the Aussies had a single unit remaining in the town. A fun scenario that could go either way depending on the strategy each uses.

A small and quick scenario. The Japanese advance along the road, and the Australians try to slow them down. The Japanese advance with a company to confront the Aussies head on while sending a small force to circle behind the Aussies. The Aussies and Japanese fire point blank for several turns with no effect, while the flanking Japanese force slowly circles through the jungle. The Japanese main force eventually achieves a 2X result ont he main Aussie force, and the stalemate is over. Meanwhile, the flanking force finally gets around the blocking Aussie force to gain VP's for controlling road hexes. The scenario ends shortly thereafter with a Japanese victory.

I have played one of the larger Milne Bay scenarios before, so why not play this very small one as well. There really isn’t too much to this scenario, trail & village control get you points and do eliminated enemy steps. Also it is night, in the jungle or trails so all combat is adjacent or same hex assault combat. Both sides are about equal in size, except the Japanese have one step of Type 95 tanks but the key difference is the Japanese higher morale. The Australians do get a little jump on controlling more victory hexes to start with. In the end however, it was won by the Japanese by one point and the Higher Morale help in the assault hex and the recovery rolls, which really did make the difference in this battle, even if it was only a one point victory.

The seven tenets of Bushido are rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, loyalty and honour. One has to wonder what in heaven's name the Japanese commander was thinking when he probed the Austrailian positions with what amounted to a superior force and just walked away (see the scenario description and summary. It is hard to square that with the normal Japanese navy's approach to such actions early in the war.

This is the first of three similar scenarios all linked to the same action at Milne Bay. The Japanese have landed and are preparing to move inland. They have sent a company of SNLF troops to probe for Austrailian forces and have found a company of them defending a village. The goal is to push down the trail and get to the village. Not surprisingly, the Austrailians are charged with stopping the Japanese.

Helping the Japanese are a couple type 95 tanks. Useless, by and large but they do give a little extra firepower.

There are two ways to get to the village, straight up the trail or along the coast line (which is actually clear terrain, something missing otherwise on this map). The Japanese in my play use both routes, sending two platoons and the tanks along the coast and one platoon along the trail. With the morale differential and Japanese infantry bonus, the platoon along the trail does surprisingly well and the group along the coastline has the firepower to do well and both reach the village, wrapping up a victory.

In reality the Japanese found the Austailian position, took a couple pot shots and went back to report.

A very straightforward and small scenario which can orient you to the terrain and relative strengths of the two forces.

Looking for a quick scenario to fill in a odd hour or two I randomly selected this one. Two fairly equal forces engage in a jungle fight centered around a small village, the Japanese have a reduced tank unit which is forced by terrain to move down the east-west trail, supported by three platoons of Navel infantry, the Australian defenders set up near the village and the game comes down to a series of assaults around said village, which see the Aussie's slowly pushed out to the north of the village but in the process causing slightly more casualties to the invading force. **At game end I reread the VCs and noted that each side get one VP for each east-west trail hex controlled as the Japanese start halfway down the trail and push up the said trail they actually won easily. This slightly made the attack on the village less decisive that I thought and a little tweak to the VC might be in order. However not a total waste of two hours.*

An outnumbered, outgunned, lower morale force with fewer leaders must come into close contact (night) with expert night assault combat forces with high morale. With three column shifts for assault combat (leader, morale, Japanese) for Japanese units, that is exactly what the Japanese player wants to see. With equal rolls the Aussies are most likely doomed.

In my case the rolls were slanted towards the Aussies. They started out holding their own, and in fact inflicted the first step loss. Overall they performed well in combat, inflicting two steps to three received (plus a leader on either side). But the Japanese break through and scarf enough hexes to win while the remaining Aussies are locked in assault combat with no leader (demoralized hiding in the village).

Just too much advantage for the Japanese.