This one really was like a game of American football, kind of. The Japanese have to exit 8 units off the north edge of the map, with plenty of marine linebackers in their way; or eliminate 12 American steps for a victory. The Americans will have a tougher time at it; if even one Japanese unit makes it past their lines and escapes off the north edge then a victory is out of reach and the best that they can hope for is a draw. Well, this time around disorientation was not as much a problem for the Japanese and 50% of the time units actually moved where they were supposed to go early on and contact was made with the American line in the northeast very quickly. That's the problem with disorientation; once adjacent contact is made with enemy units in the jungle the rule is negated. Enough Japanese strength was mustered to breakthrough early on before the marines could successfully reform their lines, thanks much in part to fog of war and the initial American deployment. By 19:45/turn 6, the Japanese had already managed to get one unit off the north edge making an American victory impossible. After that there was a lot of wiggling going on with the Japanese to get 7 more units to safety and a sizeable amount of American step losses in the process. Eventually, by 01:00/turn 27, the eighth Japanese unit had broken through and this one ended in a Japanese victory. The Americans didn't make it easy but somehow units were able slip out and get through; whether it was from surviving blasts of opportunity fire and OBA or fleeing assaults. It was really tough keeping the enemy pinned down, even when the horde of marine reserves from the 2nd Battalion were released early at 23:30/turn 21, after some wiggling Japanese had moved too close to their positions. Step losses were very close with the Japanese losing a few more but the losses really only mattered to the marines for VCs. It didn't look good with the marines losing 6 steps to the Japanese 9 considering the circumstances. What it came down to in the end was rolling for Japanese units that had initiated assaults to voluntarily exit the assault hexes due to the banzai rule. These guys were too hungry to fight or follow any honor code and the last 2 units were able to breakout and escape the north edge before getting whacked thanks to a very lucky and timely initiative roll.

So it ended with 15 turns left to go as a Japanese win. A few lessons had been learned from the night before (Scenario #13 -Edson's Ridge, the First Night), that the best way for Japanese units to escape was to barrel on through whenever possible. Having more time (42 turns compared to 21 turns the first night) helped also. One thing that may have worked better for the marines would of been to disengage the enemy as soon as contact was made instead of firing away with opportunity fire or even assaulting in order to let the disorientation rule have it's full potential. Of course this was realized much too late and after the first Japanese unit had managed to exit. Eventually the marine lines had fallen back as far north as they could anyway. It's hard to judge this one but know I could do better with the marines in a replay, so it gets an average "3" rating out of me, plus, I like football; American or otherwise and that's kind of what this one reminded me of. A lot better than the first two 'Edson's Ridge' scenarios at least.