On to the thirteenth battle of the Kokoda campaign, The Trail to Gorari, Day Two. It’s actually the fourteenth and final scenario, but we are currently skipping Scenario 19, the mother of all Kokoda scenarios. In this scenario the Australians are trying to occupy the east-west trail (long axis) or village hexes, thereby cutting the Japanese positions off from the Kumisi River bridge. The Japanese are trying to prevent the Australians from occupying the trail/village. Each undemoralized Australian step on the trail scores a point for the Australians, and any other step scores a point for the Japanese. Each side also scores a point for every eliminated enemy step.

The Japanese set up an engineer (unled) in each village, a blocking position as far up the north-south trail as possible with the spare engineer behind on the trail, a stack to either side of the trail to prevent flankers, and one stack to the east guarding the far side approach and two stacks halfway between the edge and the trail to stop western penetrations. The Australians send in six Inf and two HMGs with four leaders to the west, and everything else comes in against the trail head.

The Japanese immediately go on the assault against two Australian stacks occupying the trail and hit the Aussies for four step losses. (Yes, the game started with me rolling nothing but sixes on assaults, and finished with mostly 1s and 2s.) The Australians try to support the assaults, but turn 2 brings another three Aussies step losses versus one for the Japanese. The north end of the trail is a complete mess. The western force continues pushing while the two Japanese stacks slowly fall back.

The Australian position on the trail looks very weak, and on turn four the Japanese make a desperate attack with one Inf into a mangled group of Australians. Things go horribly wrong for the Japanese who roll a 1 against an Australian 6. No effect on the Australians, two step losses for the Japanese, and the Japanese blocking force is in trouble. To make matters worse, the Japanese forces on the trail are blocking forces still to the east in the jungle, and the Australians look at sending forces from the trail head to a west angle, sending a leader with two inf that eventually reach the trail.

The Australians feel bold on the north end, with one assault hex cleared and the other containing only a single Japanese one step unit. The Japanese take a useless direct fire shot into the now dangerous Australian force on the trail. The emboldened Australians choose not to fire into the other adjacent force, and the other Japanese force heads into the hex. This time the Japanese roll a 6 to the Australian 1, and the two Aussie step losses begin to crumble the entire trail force (nine step losses total, and two units demoralized, but amazingly resilient leaders.)

The two Japanese western stacks try to interfere with Australian movement, and eventually use opportunity fire and assault to pin two of the four Australians stacks (leaving the HMGs alone). The other two Australian stacks eventually reach the trail, as does one inf from one of the pinned stacks (demoralized, run, recover, another leader tracks him down, and moves it to the trail.) A freed up Japanese Lt reaches the village, but the Aussie HMG-supported positions on either side of the village keep the Lt and engineers hiding in the village. One HMG and one step of Inf are the only survivors of the trail battle (not counting the two inf that left earlier), and they eventually get pinned by three Japanese stacks and never reach the trail.

The Aussies that broke from the trail battle to reach their objective eventually undergo a Japanese assault as well, but in the end hold position while the Japanese lose a step and cannot afford to carry on the battle.

All told, 14 Australians steps occupy the trail, five do not, the Australians lose 21 steps, the Japanese lose 5. Final score, Japanese 26, Australians 19, a minor Japanese victory.

The scenario was better than I expected. Both sides have a very thin and underled force. The Japanese have to accept that some Australians will reach the trail, but ensure that number is not greater than they can kill or interdict. Battle was vicious, and every step loss was a big hit. Maneuver was important, and the Japanese are at the disadvantage with a smaller number of stacks. Success on the north end of the trail was critical for both sides, and the Australian success in the west was overcome by the Japanese success in the north. Quick moving scenario with good action. Neither of us felt it was the end all be all, but this scored a solid 4. A couple of die rolls different could have led to a completely different ending. One issue is the scenario length. The first day scenario (#29) was 16 turns, while this one was 20. That’s too long for the Japanese to make delay an effective tactic, and a long time for Australians to survive on the trail. I went in believing 16 turns would be a better scenario length, and was vindicated by the fact that we finished the scenario in 15 turns, and agreed that neither of us had any desire to engage further (Australians blocked, Japanese couldn’t afford more potential step losses in exchange for potential Aussie losses) and talked out the final positions for scenario end. Playing out would have changed the end by one point in either direction at most. It really was a 16 turn game.

Campaign score: Japanese 478, Australians 109.