Despite the 195 turns given to complete this amphibious assault this play was finished after just 22 completed, ending in utter disaster for the marine paras. The actual landings went surprisingly well without any of the LCVPs being eliminated from any Japanese weapon units and those guns were quickly dispatched by combined air strikes and warship support. The Japanese had most of their units holed up in caves on both islands with a few SER units dug-in at the base of the hills on Gavutu. A random event occured early on with a change in American orders allowing 2 more step losses than the original VCs stated. Foolishly the paras advanced adjacent to the defenders on both islands hoping to get lucky first with DF and got nil results. Instead, the Japanese defenders easliy picked off step after step of the invading force, most benefiting from a +1 Df modifier from firing at higher elevations. The first American loss did not occur until 13:15/turn 8, but after that casualties continued to multiply. The best overall American leader, a Major with a 9-1-2 rating was also soon eliminated by 14:30/turn 13, with 2 more para step losses and dropping the American initiative down a notch. The Japanese were able to roll "snake eyes" more than once firing on the 16 column of the DF table while the Americans were only lucky enough to cause a few disruption and demoralization on the defenders but those always managed to quickly recover before further results could be gained. More than once I considered withdrawing the paras further back to wait for the turn 24 reinforcements to arrive which had better direct fire values but instead pressed on the futile attack. Ultimately, as a result, the Japanese were able to claim a victory from American step losses reaching 10 before those reinforcing units would even make it to their LCVPs.

So my advice to anyone reading this is to not do as I did playing the Americans. The paras are just not strong enough to cause too much damage on their own. It occured to me, too late, that with the caves on Gavutu being at a higher elevation that it was not necessary to get so close, that the same ineffective results could of been done from two or three spaces away instead of adjacently. The one cave on Tanambogo was an exception as it was on level ground. In retrospect that one cave should of been singled out first but only 2 platoons of paras had landed there to take advantage of the higher ground. For all their efforts not one step of SER or SNLF Japanese foot units were eliminated. When American losses totalled 10 at 16:30/turn 22, there was no point in going on any further as there was no longer a chance of an American victory or draw. This one requires a lot of patience on the part of the American player and if they are bent on winning most likely that would have to wait until the second day since once night falls, all American units are disrupted no matter what they do; even after firing.