Following the historical precedent Gavutu was the scene of most of the initial fighting. The US paras moved cautiously towards the caves on the main hill of Gavutu. A few hidden Japanese units gave the para pause for thought and quickly the US was down a couple of steps (if more than 6 US steps are lost the Japanese win.) The dug-in Japanese defenders were soon swept aside by the more numerous US para. The US became far more cautious after these initial losses. Within a couple of hours of the start of the scenario the Japanese on Gavutu were pinned back in the caves. A Japanese unit had managed to retreat into the caves to bolster the defences, the Banzai rule limits the ability of Japanese units assaulted from exiting assault combat. The caves in hex 0506 were the most heavily defended and so the US deployed their engineers there to assists in the assault, it still took several hours but the Japanese were eliminated from this position just before darkness fell on the first day. The Japanese defenders in the caves on 0406 managed to take out half a platoon of paras as they approached the caves. The US assault on these caves did not go well and soon the Japanese had gained a +2 tactical assault advantage as well as another US step loss before the US decided to call off the attack and retreat, fortunately taking no more damage from the ‘free shot.’ A Japanese sniper shot eliminated a US leader (random event.) A renewed attack on the single remaining cave on Gavutu just as darkness fell was successful but the US did lose another step bringing their total losses to 5, meaning they had to be careful in taking Tanambogo. Not wishing any surprises the US reinforcements landed on Gavutu rather than on Tanambogo.

No further action took place until the arrival of the M5 the next day at 12:00. The remaining ships and planes (they have a 1 in 6 chance of being removed after each use) fired onto 0202 for several turns but achieved little. The US player still anxious about further losses awaited the arrival of the remaining reinforcements on the 8th of August (turn 91) In a coordinated attack from land and sea the US stormed Tanambogo. The caves eventually fell but not after the US had lost another step (now on 6 – one more and they would lose.) The last of the Japanese troops were discovered on top of the hill on Tanambogo. The M5 quickly hit reverse as the once hidden Japanese 75mm gun opened fire on it from the summit – however the tank got away without a scratch. Now fully revealed the Japanese did not last long from the awesome amount firepower the large amount of US forces could lay down.

US victory but it was a close run thing. Ending on turn 112 the game took about 3 hours to play as a lot of those turns were spent without any action. The game was quite fun for the US player but there was really little the Japanese player could do the whole scenario. Maybe an interesting scenario for solo play.