In this scenario a large Marine force that arrives piecemeal must clear a pair of connected islands of Japanese defenders. The Japanese forces are not strong, and made up of primarily service units, but they have caves to help with the defense. The Marines start with weak paratrooper units on the island, and gradually more powerful units arrive, to include one step of tanks.

The Japanese set up with the AA gun and the one platoon of SNLF Inf in the cave on Tanambogo, the SNLF HMG and one Ser in one cave on Gavutu, and one Ser in the other cave, and the remaining four Ser units hidden adjacent to the Marine starting locations. The arty sets up on the far end of Gavutu, not in a cave so it can indirect fire. The Marines have six Paras on the island, two in “town” (Japanese base) and two each in the hexes outside of the town.

I tell myself I should be patient with the Marines (reinforced by other AARs), but as I bring more Paras to the island the Japanese hidden units open up with opfire. The Marines go wild, and decide to fire upon, assault, and chase down the Ser units. Supporting fire from the AA gun on Tanambogo gives more Marines a chance to charge that position since it is already activated. The battle against the Ser units goes well for the Marines, but charging the AA gun turns out to be a bad idea. The Ser units crumble, but as the few survivors run for the caves the Marines pursue. Now the real reason for the Ser unit attack and retreat shines. As the Marine assault wipes out all but one step of Ser units (that one makes the caves), the Japanese HMG position rips into the Marine stack, rolling a ‘1’ on the 16 column, taking out two steps of Paras. Meanwhile, the rush onto Tanambogo also sees an end result of one Lt and two steps of Paras going down. The supporting aircraft and ships have been helping the Marines attacks, and manages to knock out the arty very quickly, but all aircraft and the CL leave the battle. By the end of ten turns the Japanese have lost eight of 18 steps, but the Marines have lost four steps, all air support, and some naval support.

The Marines withdrawal and hunker down, cramped into the northern end of Gavutu, dug in, waiting for nightfall. Both sides quiet down, since all fire is from too far away to do anything more than harass each other. Finally, the Marines use the cover of darkness to prepare for an attack on Tanambogo. As the first rays of light break the horizon, Marines landing craft, approach Tanambogo. The DDs prep fire against the caves, and eventually cause some disruption of the Japanese units. The landing craft go in, the AA gun blows one to bits with a one step unit and Lt on board, and the rest of the Marines form up supporting fire teams around the caves. The SNLF unit takes a step loss pretty quick, but the AA gun cannot force anything heavier than another disruption before it also disrupts. At this point the Japanese cannot recover fast enough to overcome the Marine firepower, and eventually the stronghold is destroyed at the cost of one step (five total now). The Marines shift units around, bringing the strongest units into positions facing the Gavutu defenders (but they dig in and are far enough away to prevent real damage), while stacking excess forces on Tanambogo.

Once again, the Marines wait for even stronger reinforcements, accepting the eight-step-guaranteed-Japanese-victory condition in exchange for multiple HMGs. Night arrives, and the Marines position on-island units adjacent to the defenders and have them dig in before first light, while landing more forces around the defenders and also digging in. The two landing units on the southern extreme (one Mar, one HMG) suffer horribly, taking repeated disruptions and demoralizations from the fire of both cave positions. Once the sun arrives, all Marines except the southern units are dug in and ready to fight with massive firegroups against the caves. The remaining DD never really accomplishes anything before withdrawing during the battle. The firegroups keep shooting at the Japanese, while the Japanese continue to pound the southern units. They finally inflict the sixth step against the southern Mar unit, but the firegroups eventually crack the HMG (plus 1.5 Ser platoons) position. Once the Japanese crack, they cannot stand up to the massive firepower pouring into the caves, and they die to the last man.

The remaining Ser platoon, with two ensigns, continue to try and resist, but they cannot stand up to the huge Marine force now surrounding their position. The Ser troops demoralize, then die in the Marine assault, and only the two ensigns are taken alive.

Looking at the victory conditions again, I realize the Japanese needed to inflict more than six losses, not just six, so it is a Marine victory! But at such a cost! It took 142 of the 195 turns to complete. Time is definitely on the Marine side, and they should use it to be patient and use the night to their advantage. Clear Tanambogo first since it is hard to approach without the landing craft, while Gavutu actually has some maneuver room. Overall, though, I give this scenario a 2. I really don’t suspect the Japanese can survive with any forces intact for 195 turns, so steps is really their only path to victory or a draw. I suspect they can do it, and the scenario is reasonably balanced that way, but that isn’t the real problem with the scenario. I cannot imagine this in face to face play if you are the Japanese. You can mostly watch the grass grow while the Marine player decides the timing and tempo. Of the 142 turns, really only about 40-50 had actual action going on. This scenario would be boring for the Marine player, and don’t be surprised if the Japanese player offered capitulation within 20 turns just to avoid the boredom. I’ve seen a squad level game on this, and while better, the players had the same complaints of lack of maneuver and little activity for the Japanese player. Nice piece of history, but not the best battle for wargamers.