Still on my Japanese kick, I decided to do my small part in improving our play coverage by tackling this dinky scenario. The scenario seemed simple enough - Japanese are ensconced on a sandy ridge and the U.S. Army is sent in to uproot them. Sounds like a typical Pacific theater scenario. Well, it gets bizarre quick once you try to play the thing.

First oddity: while the Japanese get a token 8 points of OBA (equivalent to one 81mm platoon), the Americans have 62 points of OBA in their back pocket. That's a respectable concentration of guns in any theater. In the Pacific this is so uncharacteristic that it makes one wonder if it's a typo. This massive firepower is never explained away as coming from offshore cruisers, for example, which would help one accept it. Checking The Seahorse II, its sister scenario taking place on the following day, one finds a similar OBA allotment so we must assume this was what was intended. All the better for the U.S. Army!

Second oddity: Japanese starting hexes are 0221, 0322, and 0431. They may place one entrenchment. The U.S. Army needs to capture hex 0221 to win. Thus, the only sane location for that entrenchment is 0221. Why even give someone the option?

Third oddity: American units enter the board at an irregular pace, appearing on the map's edge either in 0121 or 0122 -- in other words, dead adjacent to your Japanese entrenchment (these are clear hexes, amplifying the queerness of this entry).

By now you've put 2 and 2 together and realized that the VC hex is adjacent to the U.S. entry hex, which means the entire 20 turn scenario takes place in a 3x3 hex box, ignoring the odd demoralized straggler who runs for his life.

The flow of battle can now be summarized without having so much as begun:

1. U.S. enters
2. Japanese fire from adjacent entrenchment
3. U.S. shrugs it off and begins to grind them down OR U.S. forces are slaughtered and the scenario ends

As it happened, via a deadly cocktail of poor Japanese direct fire, brilliant Japanese OBA friendly-fire, and sharp U.S. shooting I was able to survive this version of Whack-a-mole and clear out the entrenchment with only 1 American steploss. (2 = Japanese victory).

This is quite a bit more successful than the historical result, and I expect the sister scenario (which I shall play next) to be even more of a walk-over, seeing as how the Americans receive some hefty reinforcements while the Japanese struggle onward with their same puny garrison.

This was a difficult scenario to rate. In terms of tactics, strategy, and action this is probably closer to a 1 than a 2, but I enjoyed the 60 minutes I put into it, so a 2 it gets.

• Recommended for solo-play only if you have a burning desire to complete Jungle Fighting.
• Not recommended for multi-play under any conditions.