This scenario starts with the opposing sides, basically two hexes or more away. The Marines need to clear the large hill centered around hex #0505 of undemoralized Japanese units, which include one cave counter. The Marines have some armor assets in the form of a M4 & M3/75 platoons to go along with their Infantry. The Terrain is a real killer in this one. It turned into a real shooting match at close quarters in the jungle and in the hills. The Marines cleared the cave but had problems in other areas of the hill, with me having the brilliant idea of pulling my armor unsupported by Infantry adjacent to a stack of Japanese Infantry thinking I could get some good Direct fire on them the next turn but instead the Japanese assaulted my armor rolling high and knocking out two steps, one Sherman and one M3/75 Halftrack step due to my lack of patients. I finally had the last stack of Japanese units where I wanted them but I could not finish off the last two disrupted Infantry units or make them demoralized in time to win the scenarios, so a very close Japanese victory!

This short scenario has Japanese holding the hill mass on the north end of the board, and gives them one cave to put in there anywhere in their setup area. I placed the cave in the southern ridge of that northern hill mass, in the one hex with light jungle surrounded by heavy jungle hexes. I placed infantry mixes of full and reduced units to keep the Infantry integrity as much as possible to get that extra benefit in assault, and placed one HMG with the AA gun in the hex outside the cave with the Japanese Captain so he could assist or coordinate fire from the infantry units around him, and gave the last Infantry and HMG to the Sergeant. Marines have to set up at 2 hexes or more from the nearest Japanese force and off the hills, so I massed them just to the south of the hill mass, and put the tanks and halftracks in light jungle where they could advance up the hill to a place on the northern 40M level hill where they could fire on the Japanese AA gun but from the light jungle hex that would give them some protection from return AT fire. The Marine Sgt got the Mortar platoon and was to move with it to the 40M hilltop where he could also direct his own fire on the Japanese AA gun or be in a place to fire on anything else the troops might call in on. Right from the start, Japanese dice rolls were mediocre while Marines rolled either hot or completely cold. The Marines were successful in several early assaults and direct firing on outlying Japanese troops, and by turn 6, had successfully assaulted and eliminated the Japanese Captain, the AA gun and the HMG platoon on the hilltop. Japanese troops that failed their morale checks fled to the east side of the hill in heavy jungle to lick their wounds, while the Marines continued the slaughter on the rest of the hill. In the last two turns, the Japanese force from the east returned after the remaining Japanese troops were wiped out, and that last force of a LT and a reduced platoon assaulted the Marine LTC and the 2 platoons with him, doing little damage but surviving the return fire. It came down to the Marine assault on turn 12, with the Marine Flame unit having moved over from an adjacent hex to join the assault for a first fire, and a Marine 12 roll finished off the small Japanese force. It was entirely possible that the small force would have survived that roll and held out for a Japanese win as the hill had to be free of undemoralized Japanese infantry. Great little game, fast but challenging.

The Axis set up in the SW portion of the hill in a triangular defensive formation. The cave was in hex 0604. The Allies circled their armor around to 0602 and with the help of the Lt. Col. obliterated the Axis position. So it went all game long. The Axis only managed to inflict two step losses on the Allies during the whole game. Marine firepower was just too much. The U.S. could fire on the 30 col get a good result and another powerful stack could assault. The Japanese were wiped out by 1730. Normally I would have given this scenario a 2 but after having played so many scenarios where the Japanese can savage Allied assaults with their assault bonus this had to be rated higher. Consider this, a lone, demoralized, one step Japanese Inf piece still rolls on the three column on the assault chart. This provides the Japanese with a 1/3 chance of getting a result on ANY opponent and also a chance to get an M1 result, which ANY assaulting stack could fail. Add a Japanese leader and it just gets worse. Talk about dangerous. Sorry, but after suffering so much at their cardboard hands it felt good to grind them into the map board for once. Jesus have mercy. Imagine how real Pacific vets feel.