The Australians have to try to slowly give ground and cause casualties so they can hold onto a majority of the trail hexes and cause more casualties than they receive. The Japanese have lots more troops to try to take trail hexes and cause casualties while trying to keep their own down. The Australians need to fire and withdraw, avoiding assaults, while the Japanese need to get into assaults and pin down the Australians while flankers move around and take more trail hexes. My fighting withdrawal lasted just a few turns before disrupted units got pinned down in assaults while causing few casualties among the Japanese troops. The Japanese did lose their initiative rating first when they hit the 3 step mark but the Australians matched them soon after with their 5 step losses, and all too quickly, flanking forces pinned the whole Australian column in assault while others skirted them and took the rest of the trail. Australians managed to hold the initiative most of the game but it did little good when the dice were not on their side. Good column shots ended up with lots of 7s while low column shots by the Japanese disrupted and demoralized troops, and then the assaults tied them down. Even with passing morale checks turn after turn, they just got pounded again next turn. After 17 turns, one Japanese stack of LT and 3 Infantry platoons had managed to hit the southern most hex of the trail, and the only trail points the Australians could claim were the 3 they occupied while surrounded and trading shots. In the end, Japanese had 30 points to only 9 for the Australians for a Japanese Major Victory.