The Japanese were looking for a little payback after their disappointing defeat in Scenario 1, they divided their forces into two groups; the main force would head down the west trail to the objective with most of the infantry & best officers, while two infantry platoons & the engineers would head down the east trail with the goal of taking the objective from behind. The two 81mm mortar units were to get on the board as quickly as possible to provide indirect fire support.

Australians drew some mediocre officers, with the exception of one charismatic young lieutenant, 10-1-2, who was given the task of holding the objective at all cost. His force was the two HMG’s & one infantry platoon. Two platoons were tasked with holding the village at hex 0414. The rest of the Aussies would set up blocking positions along the trail to the objective & fallback as necessary delaying the Japanese advance.

The east Japanese force easily overwhelmed the Aussie blocking force at hex 0414 with the help of the 2 81mm mortars and moved down the trail to get in behind the Aussie forces but they did not get into contact with any Aussie units before the scenario ended, actually they got lost in the jungle and were never seen from again.

The main Japanese force quickly moved down the west trail & come into contact with the enemy blocking forces as soon as they tried to cross the creek. They were able to get the upper hand on the Aussies forces so the delay was minimal. On the move again the scenario was looking good until the lead Japanese units come into contact with the Aussie Lieutenant in the village and then things started to unravel for the Japanese.

The young lieutenant opened fire at the lead Japanese forces coming down the trail with opportunity fire; disrupting, demoralizing and eliminating a step. The rest of the Japanese units piled up behind the lead stack, the Japanese needed to get more units adjacent to the village to suppress and assault the Aussie forces if they were going to have any chance to win the scenario, their only option was the jungle. The jungle disorientation gods were on the Japanese side this time as he rolled sixes & eights when he needed them the most, positioning a number of platoons adjacent to the village objective.

But the Aussie forces held against countless DF & BF attacks as the Japanese tried to soften up the enemy forces while they gathered enough full strength units for the final assault on the objective. When this came the young lieutenant was able to rally his forces despite the odds and beat off the attacking Japanese forces.

Even though the Japanese routed or eliminated most of the Aussie forces they could not dislodge the young Lieutenant and his command from the objective. So the game ended with another Aussie Victory.

Without this 10-1-2 Aussie Lieutenant, bending but not breaking, while holding the objective, this scenario would have been a Japanese victory.