American Casualties will be presented by (#).

The Battle

0800 – Americans land at Tulagi. Worried about hidden defenders they fire blindly into the jungle. Pounding the nearby terrain with all kinds of armament, shore bombards and air attacks. Their aggressiveness triggered a Japanese response who returned fire.

0815 – Japanese open fire on Americans on beach, but the Raiders are held together by great leadership and morale. The Americans follow up their attacks with an advance into the jungle to create a beachhead. The Japanese break under the superior numbers and firepower.

The first of the LCVPs begin for shore.

0830 – The American Raiders, somewhat impatient now, assault the second Japanese platoons to great effect! These Japanese suffer catastrophic losses and are completely eliminated attempting to flee.

0845 – Americans continue to assault and are very lucky and very deadly. Only a single Japanese platoon is still covering the beach.

0900-1000 – The last of the beach defenders is eliminated and the Americans begin to slowly sweep the land, concerned about hidden defenders. By 1000 a complete beachhead is established and the marines are coming ashore. As the Americans slowly advance Japanese presence is confirmed.

1015-1100 – Japanese are spotted near the caves. Realising they have been noticed, the Japanese retreat to the caves. It is very hard to stay hidden with so many American troops advancing. The perimeter is widening, there is still a hidden SNLF somewhere!

1115-1130 – USMC Raider is ambushed by a Special Naval Landing Force in the northwest! The Americans suffer their first major casualty (1). The SNLF is quickly eliminated and the island west of the beachhead is adequately secured. Approximately 6 hours remain to clear out the caves.

1145-1200 – Americans begin their advance to the caves.

1215-1300 – Bringing up their HMGs the Americans hit the caves with all they’ve got. But the entrenched defenders are just too hard to hit!

Rule Comment: Caves are special Japanese Only entrenchments which offer first fire and -3 column shift vs. direct fire or assaults. They also ignore the normal max. -2 column modifier for direct fire. This makes them EXTREMELY hard to crack, and way too deadly to enter! These particular caves are also in jungle (-1 Direct Fire) and have another possible -1 for hill. So, even firing adjacent, the attacks are limited in their efficiency. Combine this with the jungle which prohibits forming multi-hex firing groups, and you have some incredibly difficult terrain to capture!

1315-1400 – Americans advance against the other caves. A HMG platoons suffers a step loss from compound morale failure! (sigh, this should have been avoided). The Americans should be winning but they are plagued by poor attacks and morale rolls. The Japanese score a lucky direct fire hit (“snake eyes”) and Americans take their third loss. (3)

Frustrated, the Americans send a small force around the north of the caves to capture some objectives in the east. They also pull back from the caves to wait for nightfall.

Aftermath

Securing enough objectives, but taking unacceptable losses, the first day at Tulagi is declared a draw.

I did notice a few rule misunderstandings post play. Most notibly the terrain of the first two beach hexes should be clear, not jungle. Which would have had the Japanese set up a bit further back. I beleive the effect of this on the gameplay would have be negligible as the Marines would have fired and advanced through the jungle on the east instead, or had they advanced up the beach would have been shot (as they were). Guadalcanal has a few rule changes/additions that sometimes trick me.

Scenario Rating 1/5 - This is a LONG scenario which moves at a snail's pace because of those caves. They frustrated the Americans and they will frustrate you too! Be Warned. There are a number of good Guadalcanal Scenarios, I recommend you skip the first few though.