In Templeton's Crossing, the Last Day, the Japanese are trying to hold three villages and prevent the Australians from getting past them to the trails on the northern map. The Japanese are outnumbered, but have higher morale.

The Japanese set up first, putting pairs of platoons in positions just in front of each of their villages. This allows them to cover the both the villages and the trails leading to the north. They plan to keep the Australians back as long as possible then fall back into the villages if necessary.

The Australians plan to use their superior numbers to overwhelm the center of the Japanese position, while using a company on either flank to block the trails that would allow the Japanese to attack the Australian-held villages near the south edge.

The Aussies approach to close range (the only range that works in this jungle), losing a few casualties, plus several platoons disrupted and a few demoralized. They set up several concentrated fire teams adjacent to the Japanese and begin an intense fire fight for the Japanese center.

[Players note: Due to their superior numbers, the Australians were able to get two stacks of three against one Japanese stack of two counters in most of the center positions. This allowed the Australians to attack twice with a one or two column advantage, versus the Japanese attacking once on a lower column (the three-unit-target modifier was not enough to compensate for their low firepower)]

At first, the Japanese hold their own. They manage to survive the storm of fire pretty well, inflicting enough disruptions to force the Aussies to slacken their fire while platoons regroup. Slowly though, the Japanese casualties mount up and they are forced to pull platoons from their flanks to shore up the center. Now the Australians on the flanks begin to attack the weakened Japanese positions, although they never really put a dent into the Japanese flanks.

It takes a little over two hours to wear down the Japanese center enough for the Aussies to feel confident in assaulting it. Full-strength Australian platoons assault reduced-strength Japanese. Again, the Japanese hold their own at first. [The Australians had a lot of lousy assault rolls at first] After about 45 minutes of back-and-forth savagery the Japanese postion in the center falls apart.

[On turn 15, The Aussies got 2x results in each of the two assault hexes, wiping out the Japanese in one hex and leaving only 1 reduced-strength, demoralized platoon in the other. Fog-of-War meant the one platoon did not not have to try to recover. On turn 16, the platoon failed recovery, fled, and was annihilated. The Aussies in the hex had not activated yet, so they immediately assaulted the adjacent hex and achieved a demoralization on the Japanese platoon there. That platoon promptly fled and was also wiped out.]

Japan has nothing left to hold the center, and their units on the flanks are tied up defending villages against the Aussies there. Nothing prevents the main mass of Australian troops from advancing up the trails into the Japanese rear.

By capturing one village, inflicting 23 step losses, and getting 17 steps onto the trails in the Japanese rear, the Aussies win a major victory. The Japanese did manage to hold two villages, but only inflicted 7 step losses.

[This was a good, hard, infantry-only jungle scenario. It took a lot of patience to wear the Japanese down, but patience was rewarded when they swiftly and completely collapsed. I think next time I play this I'll try having the Japanese set up in stacks of 3 in the villages instead of stacks of 2 outside them. That will give them better firepower, and the dug-in status in the villages will compensate for the 'crowded hex' DF modifier. This strategy, however, may make it easier for the Australians to bypass the Japanese positions and get into their rear.]