This was a very close one up until the final turns and it ultimately ended in a Japanese victory though in most cases the American player can at least expect a draw. One deciding factor that came into play was choosing to use the optional rule that can randomly either increase or decrease the amount of Japanese forces alotted to the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment before the start of play. In this case a 6 was rolled giving the Japanese an additional 2 platoons of INF and a platoon of HMGs along with a Lieutenant added to the defense of Tasimboko. Had those additional units not have been added to the line-up then the outcome would of certainly been different.

The initial American advance was stalled by Japanese units who flung themselves haphazardly into the way and blocked or slowed passage along the trail. It took quite a while to clear the way of these units and by the time the Japanese screening force was eliminated it had achieved it's goal of delaying a good deal of American forces and even managed a step loss before the Americans reached the Tasimboko perimeter. In fact, due to one prolonged assault combined with fog of war, a few platoons of raiders from the initial force never managed to catch up with the rest of the marines, not even the reinforcments. Also, the Japanese reinforcements arrived early, only one turn after they became available and were able to dig-in ahead of Tasimboko's defenses which also succeeded in biding more time and inflicting a few more marine losses. The Americans had a lot of airpower available to them to begin with, in lieu of any OBA but those units were used up trying to weaken the the Japanese screening forces and by the time the raiders had made it to the village area they only had one aircraft unit available which wasn't much help by then. By 10:30/turn 21 all American air-support had ceased. In hindsight I should of held onto the air-support until the village was reached because as long as they aren't used they can be held back for later use up until 16:30/turn 45. Each time an aircraft is used, with 6 initially avaiable and being able to draw 3 each turn, a dice is rolled and a 6 removes the aircraft from the pool. Saving those air units for later would of really helped later on in reducing enemy firepower and American casualties -without them the marines were subjected to a lot of effective opportunity fire and indirect fire from on-board artillery units.

Initially, once the village perimeter was reached, Japanese resistance began to crumble along the outer defenses and it looked like the Japanese were going to get driven into the sea but then the marine attack began to run out of steam for a while. The Japanese counterattacked with some desperate suicide charges and managed to bite back; eventually causing enough Amercian losses to prevent an American victory by 13:15/turn 32 and cause more delays as the marines attempted to rally for one final push. Now the Americans had to eliminate or drive off all Japanese units from within 3 hexes of the village to salvage a draw. The second marine attempt went much better and Tasimboko did eventually fall under American control but time was on Japan's side ultimately, and in the end there were still 4 Japanese units left in the vicinity of the village; a platoon of HMGs along with an 81mm and two batteries of 75mm guns -not much left but just enough to spoil a draw. I liked this scenario though it did seem to drag on for while during the course of 50 turns. There were were more high than low points though it was quite frustrating for the marines, especially the the last few turns being so close to forcing a draw and knowing that if the optional Japanese deployment rule wasn't used that it would of been much more balanced; a few extra platoons available really did make a difference. But I liked the overall challenge knowing that the Americans had to face the full force of the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment. I think this one merits a replay, at least for a shared match though it would be a very long one as most likely all 50 turns would have to be played out should the Americans find themselves on the losing end fighting for a draw as this play panned out.