Another tough one for the marines where they must prevent Japanese from infiltrating their lines and exiting units off a certain portion of the west edge while somehow managing to not lose more than seven steps in the process. Setting up a solid, unbroken and effective line is next to impossible without spreading units too thin so I stacked up marine units leaving a few gaps through the line but never more than one hex apart in order to catch units attempting to pass through with heavy opportunity cross-fire. Should small-arms fire not slow the enemy down then there was a good amount of OBA (3 x 18; 3 x 10) available as a back-up. There were also a few platoons of reserves deployed further west of the line to try to catch any Japanese units that manged to get through but it was a very wide area to cover.

Right from the start at 19:45 a thunderstorm began lasting for an hour which slowed the Japanese advance to only being able to move one hex each turn regardless of the terrain. This was a benefit to the marines as they were prohibited from moving the first three turns so that by the start of turn 4 they were able to manuever a little before contact was made at the front line. Once the storm cleared up the Japanese began to hurl themselves into the marine positions in the south and went straight for the HMGs. Opportunity fire immediately takes out a whole platoon's worth of advancing infantry but more kept on coming, seemingly unphased by the punishment. At 21:15 the first Japanese assault is made and though first-fire takes out one step one of the defending American HMGs in turn becomes demoralized and has to flee the assault, leaving just one HMG behind. Then another thunderstorm began at 21:30/turn 8, literally putting a damper on both side's recovery efforts. Meanwhile, another Japanese attack group begins to near the coastal postions further north before movement is again slowed down to one hex becasue of the storm. This second thunderstorm in fact would last almost three hours (10 turns). Japanese losses continue to mount and soon they also lose both a Captain and Lieutenant along with more INF steps but they keep on coming. Then tragedy strikes when American OBA friendly fire reduces a HMG platoon defending in an assault while another assault is carried out on the other HMG that was forced to flee earlier. Marine reserves are moved up to try to reinforce but again the ongoing storm slows them down before they get to the lines in time. Japanese stragglers have passed through and bank north through the jungle to reach the elephant grass and palm groves in hopes the storm will clear up in time to make a faster get-a-way.

Meanwhile contact is made by the coastal positions and they too are soon assaulted at the weakest point. Soon enough a marine postion falls at the cost of a 37mm and a platoon of MAR infantry. Now there are two breaches in the American lines both north and south. Fog of war becomes a huge problem for the and to make matters worse OBA is way off the mark. With American positions tied-up in several assaults the floodgates are opened for a good amount of Japanese to make a run for the west edge in more than one area at a time. There is not much that the marines can do about it but they do manage to get a raiding party together to try to stop them by the border after the storm clears just in time. More OBA is called down but it is again ineffective. In desperation an assault is made on Japanese units poised to escape and goes awry resulting in the Americans losing their LT.COL, furher resulting in decapitation and catastrophic loss. The Japanese counter-assault with brutal efficiency and wipe-out their remaining attackers and at 00:45/turn 21 the first Japanese unit is able to exit the map preventing an American win. Even worse there are many other units just hexes away from exiting and by this point the marines can take no further step losses. Privy to this every available Japanese unit in close-quarters range either initiates or resumes on-going assaults to force that needed loss while all others keep running. All at once it happens at 01:15/turn 23; a total of six Japanese units manage to exit the west edge and one of the many assaults takes out the eighth American step making the Japanese victory clear and decisive with 13 turns left remaining in the scenario. There was no point in going on further with not even a chance of an American moral victory to be had; they had been thoroughly shamed and utterly humiliated.

The Japanese kept up attack after attack; assault after assault, rarely ever using direct fire or their OBA. This cost them many losses with: 3 leaders (CAP, 2 x LT), 13 INF and 2 steps of HMG eliminated but still managed to reach both of their VCs with ridiculous ease. As for the Americans they were really let down by their OBA, especially with the friendly-fire step loss. Also, though they had superior DF and first fire in most of the assaults the higher Japanese morale continued to prevail. Even just one full, good ordered platoon of INF and a leader got through to assault after passing their morale checks it was enough to make a mess out of the defenders. I don't know what I could of done differently with the American deployment other than to of spread out units thinner but don't see how that would of made things any better but far worse. Again, early, night-time fog of war played a huge role in this one and even the thunderstorms (14 turns worth) seemed to benefit the Japanese attack. It's tough to say whether this one was imbalanced or not due to the many random occurences but for what it's worth rate it a standard "3". On a good day (night), weather and fog of war permitting the Americans will be able to do a lot better, at least with a draw but this time it was clearly not their night.