Daniel and I were intrigued by this scenario given the mix of units (Dutch!, Japanese paratroopers, the ability to use the "oil field" counters, etc.), the air drop and glider landing mechanics, and the sheer scope of the Japanese assault and Dutch response. Sadly, the scenario as developed has a significant flaw which takes quite a bit of suspense out of the play. You see, the Dutch/British force really doesn't have any power to it (the 40mm AA gun is the only unit with any oomph to it and being immobile it is prone to getting destroyed by getting demoralized.

Having said that my Dutch colonials acquitted themselves quite well, knocking off at least 8 steps of highly trained and very expensive paratroopers. In addition, the intrepid Dutch engineers, despite close assaults happening in their own hex, were able to successfully blow all three hexes of oil refineries, a significant improvement over the historical record.

What wasn't an improvement over the historical record was the near destruction of the entire Allied force. You see the only unit which even has an even morale situation, and that is only against reduced Japanese paratroopers, is the 40mm AA gun. Every other unit on the Allied OB is at a deficit when it comes to morale. Add to that the fact that the Japanese force is primarily infantry with a few HMGs thrown in (and one incongruous AT gun to use against the Overvalwagens (armored cars) should they choose to stick their noses out.

Therefore most Japanese assaults had at least three column shifts (morale, leader and Japanese infantry) and these three were usually quickly followed by one for demoralized defender. My favorite is the reduced Dutch who have a morale of "5" and when demoralized a "4".

I put a smaller Allied force with the engineers in the oil field area while I saved a lot of my force around the airfield for a last stand. Once placed, however, it would be suicide to venture too far into the rest of the battlefield as any Allied force caught outside of the dug in positions risks being assaulted and destroyed in detail.

Now to the problem with the scenario, it is just too darn long for the Allies to have any chance at all. There was a fix that Daniel and I thought up about at turn 10 which was that this would be a very suspenseful 12-16 turn scenario. Unfortunately it is written as a 30 turn scenario which gives the Japanese ample time to capture the airfield (and get the victory points for that) and destroy enough Allied steps to make the oil refineries moot.

The other idea, which I came to later, was to increase the VPs for Japanese step losses to 2 per step, giving the Allies a reason to continue to engage. In such a circumstance I would extend the game as noted above to 20 turns, still well less than the advertised 30.

Having said all of this I gave the scenario a "2" since the Allied player really never has the operational initiative, has few choices once he has placed his troops and is forced to hope that he doesn't take too many losses on the 18-30 assault columns. We did have fun (I am reminded of the statement about a "bad day's fishing" being better than a day in the office anytime)and enjoyed the mechanics and techniques of working with an airborne force but it was just a little too off kilter for me.