In this scenario, the Americans ringed the hill, with the machine guns and Shermans on the right and other Marines all around., For the Japanese, I set 2 guns on each hill, with HMGs supporting one of them. In retrospect, I should have put the one with the better AT factor where the Shermans were more likely to be. I was using the 4th edition jungle rules, which are different than those printed in the scenario book. As such, the Marines spent a whole lot of time wandering around the jungle trying to find the top of the hill. The Japanese took pot shots at them whenever possible, and eventually the Marines slowly made it to the hill in force, although their engineers were reduced and a lieutenant killed along the way. The HMGs were able to keep one of the entrenchments disrupted part of the time. With a maximum of 2 negative column shifts, a 24 shot is still powerful.

The assaults started off slowly, with the Japanese holding their own. The Shermans rolled up to point blank range on one entrenchment and because that one contained the Japanese gun with the 1 AT factor, it was pretty safe there. Intense HMG fire from the 2 platoons plus the ones in the hulls of the Shermans chased off the gun crews. And then in an assault on the other entrenchment, both sides rolled 12! 5 step losses, and the Japanese were cleared out of that one. This was on trn 12. The flamethrowers and other troops rushed over towards the 2nd entrenchment, arriving on turn 14 (the hex between the 2 entrenchments had been cleared out when the Japanese rolled terrible morale rolls and all ran away from an assault. On Turn 14, the last Japanese were cleared out of the 2nd entrenchment, and the US got the narrowest of victories.

There's not a lot for the Japanese to do here after set-up. They probably won't move much, and they won't assault, so they just take some direct fire shots. The Marines fight the terrain as much as they fight the Japanese. As a solo exercise it was interesting and nail biting. As a 2 player game, I would only rate it a 2 or 3.