This scenario had a lot of interesting things to offer, Americans, Australians, Japanese SNLF & Regular Army. The Infantry slightly favored the Japanese by a few more units but the quality the Allies. The hardware was about even, one Japanese, reduced Type 95 Tank vs. a 40mm AA Gun. Leadership would go to the Japanese as the Unfamiliar Allies rule prevented the Americans & Australians from working together in this scenario. So I did not mix these groups. The Morale clearly favored the Japanese but being on the defense in the jungle favored the Allies. So this makes for and interesting scenario!

As the Allies, I intended to use the Australians the first line of defense, more forward to where the Japanese would enter and then fall back. The American with Engineers, HMG’s and that 40mm AA Gun would be defending around the airstrip, which I added a home made airstrip counter for. They would also benefit from the Firing Lanes special rule in this scenarios and rained fire down on the Japanese and hopefully this defense would bring victory to the Allies.

As the Japanese, I would slug down that single trail with half of their group and than if they got too tangled up there, plan B would be to break off half of the Japanese force down the coastline beach hexes, which are consider clear terrain hexes for movement and right on to the Airstrip.

As the battle progressed, here are some of the highlights and strategies. First I risked making some of my unit combat stacks with three combat units, as there is no bombardment, as there is no on or off board artillery. Yes some direct combat column modifiers would be used for direct fire but I thought the risk was worth it to get into assault combat with three units. The fire first in Jungle came into play in assaults but using the Japanese with a column shift for all unit with higher morale, one for being Japanese, one for having a leader and one for have an AFV with INF was very nice. The Australian first line of defense didn’t workout so well, as either the Japanese assaulted or went around using the beach highway instead of the jungle trail. When the allied unit went demoralized in the jungle it was hard to gather them back, especially with a much lower morale then the Japanese. Once the Japanese got around the Australians they ran into the American defense line and paid a price with the Firing Line around the airstrip, eventually losing units and their reduced step Type 95 tank unit to the 40mm gun, which was also lost latter as well. The Australian did regroup some of their units and head back to help the Americans, after being flanked on both sides but by then the Japanese were pretty imbedded in around the airstrip and the American were hurting. The Japanese 9/8 & 8/6 Morale prevailed and the Allies just could not around up enough strength for a third push and many of their units were off in the jungle in a demoralized or disruptive state. And the unfamiliar Allies rule hurt in trying to pull units together for sure. All the air strip hexes but one contested one, were in Japanese hands. So because of the one contested airstrip it was a Japanese Minor Victory but it could have easily have been a Major one. Step losses were 11 Japanese & 13 Allied.

This was a very enjoyable scenario. I think worth a replay or two even in the sea of PG scenarios. Next time, I will not space my two lines of Allied defense so far apart and I will defend the beach highway better. This should give the Allies a better chance for achieving a victory but maybe not? I would rank this high on the PG scenario list of must play scenarios. It just an interesting subject, battle setting and mixes some cool nationalities. Also the scenario is not too large, has an interesting mix of units but not too many and terrain and is a cool puzzle to try and solve. I will try this one again someday. Besides, how offend do you get to put a wreck counter, on an airstrip, for a blown up Japanese tank in the Pacific? I guess no planes will be landing there.