Good scenario, with the Australians on the offensive near the end of the Kokoda Trail campaign. The Japanese force is nearly equal in numbers and has high morale, but no heavy weapons support.

The Japanese set up in company-sized groups along the north-south trail to prevent the Aussies from quickly reaching the east-west trail (the Australian objective). The remainder set up along the east-west trail to react to any Aussies trying to bypass the blocked trail.

Neither side had any leaders with combat bonuses. The Australians got three (of nine) with a morale bonus of one each. The Japanese got only one leader with a bonus: a 10-0-1 Lieutenant. He set up out front with the first company blocking the trail. The Japanese disrupted the first two platoons to come down the trail, while the units behind them spread out on either side to degrade and assault the defenders. On Turn 2 the Japanese Lieutenant and two of the three Inf with him were demoralized by Direct Fire. The LT recovered to Disrupted, but the two Inf headed south.

On turn three, the Australians assaulted, but were unable to drive the Japanese back. It took two more turns to win the assault, as more Japanese moved up the trail and the Australians moved to bypass the blocked trail.

The remainder of the scenario was very tense. The Australians did very well with Direct Fire, inflicting few casualties but often demoralizing the defenders. They did less well in assault, taking multiple turns to drive back the Japanese even when they had them outnumbered and Disrupted or Demoralized. The Japanese did not shoot well at all, inflicting very few casualties. A few Australians leaked around the trail but were met by the rest of the Japanese.

The Japanese shooting continued to be poor, allowing two reduced companies of Australians to slip by them (well off the trail) with no losses and only a couple of Disruptions from Opportunity Fire. At the end, the Japanese still held the north-south trail just north of the Australian objective. On the last turn, the Australians were able to get one company around them and assault a Japanese platoon on the east-west trail. Although they did not drive the Japanese off the trail, they did get half of their platoons onto it to meet their objective.

Combined with the heavy Japanese and light Australian casualties, the result was a Major Australian Victory. It was closer than it seemed at the end. Had the one Australian company reached the trail one turn later, it would have been a minor victory. If the Australians had not gotten the early demoralization, or the Japanese had shot better, this one could easily have gone the other way.