It had been over a decade since I played (face to face) the opening Tulagi scenario. I remember as the Japanese player I fought for the beach, and inflicted three step losses on the Marines in the opening moves. I decided to retry that strategy, but the impact was much less stellar this time…

The die rolls in this scenario were incredible. I’ve never hit the extremes so often as I did this game. The Marines, firing more often than the Japanese, benefited heavily. The Japanese could not manage an assault on the beach due to the heavy firepower unleashed into their positions. The Japanese managed to inflict two step losses on the Marines in the first turn, but return fire was awesome with five Japanese steps falling on turn one, and two more on turn two. The Japanese had enough, and the pitiful remains ran into the jungle where eventual destruction awaited. In the first ten turns the flower of the Japanese defense had been plucked. Eleven steps of Japanese cleared out with two steps lost for the Marines. Only the Japanese Commander survived, and that would have consequences for the Marines later.

The Marines split to cover the island, most of the force heading east while a smaller but strong force headed west. Most of the rest of the Japanese were hiding in caves, except half the service troops hiding in the east village (one unit hidden), the other service troops in the jungle trying to reach the caves, and one SNLF unit hidden in the west (with the very good Commander trying to reach them without exposing them).

The Marines are methodical. Even so, the western force fails to spot the hidden SNLF troops and the resulting ambush knocks out another step of Marines. At this point the Commander slips into the assault hex and provides his combat bonus to the platoon, adding an entire column shift. The Marines assaults to kill the platoon take another step loss from defensive fire, but they do also inflict a step on the Japanese. At this point it’s just a question of time until the Japanese force is wiped out, but the casualty count is four for the Marines, placing them in danger of losing.

Having learned from earlier plays that assaulting the caves is suicide, I build the biggest fire groups I can, surround the caves, and spend turn after turn with the exciting static action of die roll for combat, dice rolls for morale checks (with occasional step losses), die rolls for recoveries, and so on. The incredible die rolls appear again, the Japanese are always taking just enough damage to prevent a decent assault opportunity, and over time the Marines whittle down the Japanese force, often from compound demoralization. The service troops do attempt a breakthrough, but are caught just past the Marine line and, despite shaking the morale of the Marines multiple times, eventually die while trying to escape assault hexes in a demoralized state. Still, they last almost as long as the three platoons of SNLF hidden in the caves, which is a huge testimony for their bravery.

Once the caves are clear the Marines advance in earnest to the eastern extreme of the island. The hidden unit in the village is eventually seen and tries to join the other unit and leader who were forced up onto the hill. They never manage to combine as a full force (only three steps manage to combine), and they are wiped out fairly quickly, again while trying to flee in a demoralized state. Before sunset the Marines have completely cleared the island, and not one Marine step loss during the entire battle for the eastern end of the island.

Unfortunately I’m still stuck giving this a 2. It’s actually better than that for a solo scenario, but I try to judge against two player since that was the game design. As the Japanese player this would be a long boring play watching the Marines swarm the island. As others have mentioned, the first Tulagi scenario gets you all the benefit of the Tulagi experience without the extreme play time. Perhaps I should re-score the first to a 3, but that would be a strictly relative scoring. The map of Tulagi is awesome, and I love the premise, but Japanese players are stuck facing overwhelming odds with only so much decision space. I certainly had more fun playing the Japanese in scenario one than I would have here, but I can’t say it was awesome back then only because the Marine conditions were easy to overcome, so my opponent felt frustration playing for a draw after the first turn. The Tulagi scenarios deserve a second look to perhaps follow less history and make a more fun scenario using the excellent island map.