I have to admit that this one was probably more enjoyable for me playing the Americans against Wayne's "Sons of Nippon". The marines are tasked with holding a very sparsely defended line on the east bank of the Matanikau extending to the sea. There are just enough units to keep this line reasonably solid but every step loss suffered will keep the marines on their toes more and more as the battle progresses, trying to plug in gaps or reinforce positions on the verge of collapsing from the incessant Japanese assaults.

The battle begins right before sunset and the Americans get a few turns of air support before visibilty decreases. The Japanese advance with some caution before nightfall, mostly staying in the cover of jungle and attempting to get some hidden units in closer to the American lines. Unfortunately for Wayne all of his hidden units were discovered before they could get too close or get a surprise attack in. On the last turn that air support was available I had the most successful air strike result to date eliminating a whole platoon of Japanese infantry in one strafe. This seemed to stir the Japanese up more than cripple their morale and they decided to close in for assaults a little earlier then planned instead of waiting for the night to settle in. The next blow to the Japanese came in the form of some very nasty OBA blasts inflicting even more losses. After the first few initial assaults had got under way Japanese losses had reached 10 steps. Now the best Wayne could hope for was a draw before midway through the battle; if I was lucky as the Americans I could still get a victory.

However, as Wayne pointed out in his report, I had made a few tactical errors. First off I don't believe I deployed my AT capable units in the best possible areas. The M3/75 halftracks were intially away from the one point where the Japanese tanks could cross the creek areas and pose the biggest threat. There was the 37mm AT gun covering that area paired with a HMG unit but believe that the halftrack should of combined with it there instead of the HMG. Also, in near panic I extended two parts of my lines over and across the Matanikau, leaving their dug-in positions and forfeiting the river assault defense bonus. With so many superiorly moraled screaming Japs threatening to overrun my lines I became more concerned with them breaking through and gaining control of two of required hexes acros the river to force the draw. This was an attempt to delay what seemed to be inevitable but the Japanese did not need to take those hexes as long as they were able to eliminate 7 American steps. The other error occured after the armored engagement took place. It was a very quirky battle at start: 37mm AT gun eliminates a reduced Type 97 tank; Type 98 tank eliminates 37mm; then the M3/75 halftrack moves into place but misses the the Type 98: Type 98 eliminates one step of M3/75s but the remaining halftrack step passes its morale check; and then for 3 whole turns and until battle's end, at point blank range, both remaining armored units would keep missing each other. All this time I had a full unit of marine INF and a leader that could of assaulted the Type 98 across the creek and kept the Japanese tank from using it's AT firepower while the M3/75 could of continued to use it's AT fire to assist the assault without taking any return fire. Meanwhile, all of the American lines on both sides of the Matanikau managed to hold out until battle's end but only after desperately rallying and moving units just in time to reinforce them before they collapsed. Ultimately the Japanese assaults were able to eliminate enough American steps to reach one of their VCs just in time to end it all in a draw rather than an American victory. This was very much like how a lot of the early Guadalcanal battles went for the Americans, just barely keeping very thinly stretched lines intact, holding on to the last and this scenario simulated that desperation very accurately.

Anyway, rated a "4" for the sheer intensity of the battle and though it ended in a draw it was a moral victory for the marines to keep their line intact against a flood of attacks. I joked with Wayne about how this scenario should of been entitled "Restore the Line" instead of the earlier scenario because that is exactly what I spent most of the battle doing unitl there were no more units left to reinforce the lines with.