Mount Tapotchau may be the biggest hill on Saipan but I didn’t know how many map hexes it would actually cover on the final version maps so the victory condition were a little difficult to gauge on this scenario. The victory conditions are simple: whoever controls the most hexes of Mount Tapotchau wins. The Japanese will find themselves spread thin trying to defend the large area against the Marine force of almost twice the size.

I setup my Japanese defensive blocking the two trails leading into the mountain and any light jungle or open terrain hexes leading into the mountains as well. This spreads their forces out a bit far but they have two entrenchments to block things up a bit as well but only 5 leaders to run back and forth through the jungle to redirect forces in weak spots. The Marines exploited the weak spots but first lost a step to a combination of mortar and off board Japanese artillery and then paid a price on the initial approach losing another step and a couple of demoralized units but once they punched a hole or two into the Japanese weak spots, the Japanese could not push them out again and the Marines controlled two more hill hexes then the Japanese for a clear American victory and I only needed 20 turns before I pulled the plug on this one. If I had known the complete maps, I would have tweaked the victory condition a bit more but still a fun one to play. I would rank it a 3.5 but since I can’t I will give it a 4, as I don’t want to hear about the Designer who ranked his own scenario below a 4.