Preface: According to my play records, I hadn't taken a stroll through the jungle since June of 2009(!), and after finishing the largest scenario in Desert Rats, I was ready for something a little less epic -- that meant the smallest unplayed scenario in Jungle Fighting, Patrol Action...

This scenario has Raiders. I love Raiders because they usually have morale equal to that of their fanatical opponents. In this case 9/8 for both sides.

VCs are simple enough:

• the Japanese need to slaughter 2 steps of Americans, or 2 individual leaders, or 1 of each
• the Americans need to tuck 4 Japanese steps in for the long sleep

The setup is jammed way up into one corner of the map, and the entire scenario unfolded before me in about an 8x8 hex area. This is battle short and intimate.

The last major consideration is Fog of War. In this scenario the turn ends on 14 and above, which you have a 16.2% chance of rolling with dead-fair dice -- compare that to 4.6% for the usual 3d6=16+.

As It Happened

The onus is really on the USMC here, as they need to inflict 4 steplosses on a 9/8 morale enemy within only 13 turns and that massive FOW breathing down their neck. And yet you also have to step cautiously, since losing 2 anything will see you relieved of command.

As such, the opening few turns saw a lot of parries and feints as each side jockeyed for position in the jungle. FOW cut the first 8 turns short without so much as a bullet fired by either side, and I was beginning to think I had picked a stinker of a scenario.

But then the Japanese saw an opening and rushed adjacent to a lone group of Raiders, in ensuing activations both sides converged and suddenly a pretty traditional nose-to-nose battleline appeared.

Assaults broke out up and down the line, and in the blink of an eye it was the beginning of turn 12 of 13 and both sides had victory within reach:

• Japanese steplosses: 3 (Americans need 4)
• American steplosses: 1 (Japanese need 2)

...and no less than THREE assaults were in progress with lots of disruptions and demoralizations on both sides.

In a stroke of luck, the Americans won initiative 8 to 3 and used it to shore up their weakest assault and pour on the pressure in their other 2. By the end of the turn they had inflicted their 4th steploss and met their victory condition.

Turn 13 the Americans simply needed to hunker down and weather the Japanese storm, and though the Japanese furiously and savagely attacked all they got for their bloody efforts were two more steplosses to their own men. The USMC was victorious by the slimmest of margins.

Post-script

Partly because the battle "ended" with 2 assaults still in progress, and partly because we've recently been discussing gamey end-game nonsense on the CSW PG forum, I decided to continue this battle past the artificial turn limit.

3 full turns later the assaults were still churning away due to the ease with which either side could rally 9/8 morale men, but it was evident the tide was slowly turning against the Japanese.

The Americans would have gone the distance, but almost certainly would have suffered a few more steplosses due to the occasional freak die roll.

Several hours well-spent!