With my first play I was interested in the invasion scenarios to see how they had been updated. This first one is a good one, their is plenty of powerful Marine units, including amphibious tanks. The Japanese have a good force too. Plenty of AT guns and entrenchments to hold them. The key is how to spread them out to defend the beaches. The Marines will need to move quickly to land as they will be vulnerable at sea. The Japanese will not be able to take on the Merines directly but will need to look for weaknesses to exploit. The Marines need to take and hold most beach hexes with the Japanese need to get step losses. Both have tough goals and not much time to do it.

The Japanese setup has the AT guns spread out just behind the beach hexes but covering most advances to the beaches. Setup in the entrenchments and grouped with HMG's and INF's they are powerful defenses. Casements were positioned in towns and jungle to give them a powerful effect. A company of Japanese INF with the Type 95 hold the the beach town on board 80. The Japanese mortars are placed in the hills behind the beach to provide support once the Marines land. This should make the defense simple, kill as many LVT's at sea, then maneuver to disrupt the Marines beach control and kill as many as possible.

For the Marines, they are forced to enter the board loaded on the LVT's. They will need to move as fast as possible to land. They will need to try to stay out off the AT fire and minimize the losses. Once on land, they will need to get into assault groups quickly and clear the entrenchments and casements. Morale is good and with good leaders they should be able to clear the beaches. Losses will be tough to keep down.

The invasion starts with LVT A's advancing from the south west on board 81 and from the north west on board 80. This exposed them to just one AT shot per turn and one hit on a LVT A1 reducing and demoralizing it. As they continued the advance the LVT 4's with the Marines appear right behind them from the nortwest and southwest. But given there numbers they need to spread out and are exposed to more AT fire, particularly from the 75/88 positions on the point that straddles boards 80 and 81. The force advanceing from the southwest takes the fire from this gun and takes out one LVT 4 with the Marines and leader riding in it. Another AT shot from the 47mm hits another LVT 4 and a critical hit on a LVT 4 carrying the Marine Colonel. (This is where I slightly deviate as I played with the decapitation rule at sea. This has been subsequently clarified.) While stuck at sea two more LVT 4's are destroyed before they are able to get to the beaches. The southwest force looks to be in trouble.

To the northwest the Marines advance a little better as the LVT A's are able to land and drive a covering INF away so that the LVT 4's can land. But here to AT fire destroys one before it can get to the beach. Once on land the Marines deploy and begin to advance to the large beach town on board 81. As the Marines move forward Japanese HMG fire disrupt and demoralize several Marine units, while the Type 95 advances to deal with LVT 4's. The Marine LVT A advance up the road to take on the Japanese tank. Heavy fire from the LVT 4's help disrupt the Japanese HMG's but leave them vulnerable to the the Type 95. But in the next turn there is an exchange of kills with a LVT lost with the lose of the Type 95. Assaults on the town start with the Marine units. They are able to eventually kill the Japanese but take two step losses as well. This make a total of 15 losses within 6 turns.

Back to the south the Marines land and go directly for a AT/HMG entrenchment, but the HMG fire is devastating with two step loss on the first Marine unit. The AT hits another empty LVT 4 as a second group advances on the jungle strongpoint. This time two INF's with a FLM unit get close and assault. They are able to kill the AT gun on the first attack, but the Marines are demoralized. Japanese OBA slam the exposed Marines with a step loss and a double demoralization. This is going to be a long slog for the Marines. They eventually take the entrenchment, killing all the Japanese, but they lose another Marine step.

To the southern end of board 81, the Marines have better luck with the an attack on a casement and INF hold up in the town. The Marines are able to advancing into the assault unmolested and score a kill on the casement and demoralization on the INF. Next turn it is cleared.

To the north the Marines push the town as the Japanese move out into the jungle to save some units to attack weaker parts of the Marine line. This is also where Japanese OBA score step loses on three straight turns, wiping out four Marine steps. But what was more devastating was the 75/88 on the split board point. It was able to destroy another LVT 4 and keep the LVT A to the north in the town, while Marine INF moves to eliminate it. After a quick advance, the Marines are next to the AT gun. But they will need to deal with an INF with the gun. Again the assault takes out a Japanese step but demoralization's hit the Marines. Japanese OBA hit the bunkers with the Marines on top of the bunkers, double demoralizing both units for step loses. At this point the Marines have lost 24 units giving the Japanese the first half of their VC's.

To the south, the Marines push north, but mortar fire disrupts units as the advance and force a Marine platoon to go after them on the hill. The others advance but are forced to attack the second AT bunker with the 47mm and 2xINF's. This attack gets ugly for the Americans as the force is hit again by OBA demoralizing them, followed by DF from the INF's with Marine losses. A second group advances and are able to assault the hex and get a step loss on the INF's. But the Marines are forced to pour more men into this fight for several turns as well as take one more step loss.

The Marines eventually link up in the split board, but Japanese units infiltrate back into the north board 80 and recapture beach hexes. This forces the Marines back to the north, but Japanese OBA hit them again and disrupt and demoralize them. They keep pushing but run out of time to get all the hexes needed for the VC. The Japanese have successfully disrupted the American invasion. The final losses are 32 Marine steps and 22 for the Japanese.

In the end a good fight tough, but achievable VC's for both sides. The Marines have the numbers but the Japanese can be wily and try recapture beaches once the Americans are stretched. The must also hit as many LVT 4's at sea, with a three step loss with a loaded LVT 4 they cannot pass these up. As for the Marines, morale issues were the issue. Demoralized in assaults with Japanese OBA raining down was hard to overcome. They eventually became stretched and the remnants of the Japanese were able to deny the Americans.