The Australians fought gamely for the village and delayed the fall substantially. They retreated to the airfield in good order and seemed poised to gain a draw or better but a final Japanese assault overran one end of the field and the dominos fell. A very good scenario to get the feel for the Japanese strengths.

I rate games on my enjoyment, history being a bit higher on my list than balance. So, as I enjoy this little action, I rate it a 4. I placed one Aussie infantry unit with a leader in each of the 3 village hexes and in each airfield hex. Japanese entered on the trail near the town, using the chain of command to get most of them forward on turn 1 but not close enough to assault on turn 2. So, the Australians in the village took advantage of the next turn, as the Japanese moved adjacent, the Aussies moved back and formed a 3-unit stack in the western-most village hex. Instead of 2 stacks of Japanese attacking 2 small Aussie forces, this made the Japanese attack 3 to 3, which at least diminished their ability a little bit anyway. The Japanese sent two stacks around the town to head towards the airfield, but walking through the jungle, they still barely made it to assault before the end of turn 8. With a lot of 5 and 6 die rolls in pretty much every fight, both sides were doing little damage, but Aussies were having a much tougher time when they did get demoralized. In the end, the Japanese did manage to keep two village hexes and took one of the two airfield hexes, and eliminated 1 leader and 3 steps of infantry while the Japanese lost a single step. End results 11 VP for the Japanese to 1 for the Aussies.

The Japanese Commander has to make a decision in the first move. Once that decision is made..... no time to regroup. He made the wrong decision (this time). Amazing how resilient a couple of platoons can be when in a good position.

Honestly, what did you expect? With direct fire taking a -2 column hit due to darkness & jungle, and there being only 8 turns, assault is the only acceptable method... and the Japanese are utterly unstoppable in assaults for this scenario.

• +1 column shift for higher morale than all enemy units (9/8 vs 7/6 - even when reduced they're higher!)
• +1 column shift for good order leader
• +1 column shift for being Japanese

(and soon thereafter)

• +1 column shift for all enemy units are demoralized

Good luck!

Assault was hot in both directions - lots of 5s and 6s came out to quickly wear down the forces involved. Had the rolls been weaker perhaps some Diggers would have survived when the clock struck 0415 and all the Japanese turned and ran home to watch the morning news? I dunno.

Ugly, ugly scenario for the Diggers.

Shad's Campaign Thoughts

Morale is... low.

As the Australians I somehow managed to do even worse than the disastrous first encounter. When the battle ended not a single Digger was left alive, although two of my officers thankfully managed to escape the Japanese.

This would be a tough loss to accept under any circumstances, but when you're emotionally invested in your leaders and watching them quite literally run for their lives across your table... well, it's stressful.

I always play both sides equally passionately, but the Australian defeat was so total - and compounded with Oivi so frustrating and demoralizing - that I was honestly bummed out for about two hours of real life afterwards.

As the Japanese, things couldn't have gone much better. Having the two Australian officers escape was a disappointment, but Lt Rider earned a decoration and both he and Lt Kuwabatake were able to raise their base morale.

Currently sitting on a 32 to 4 lead in Campaign Victory Points, the Japanese are feeling pretty pleased after only two battles.

A quick scenario with the Japanese advancing on an airfield. The Aussies set up with two platoons in each eastern most village hex and one INF in reserve. The Japanese enter onthe eastern edge and move slowly through the jungle. As the Japanese approach the village, they split into two groups to circle around the north and south of the village. Two INF and two ENG platoons approach the northern village hex with two Aussie INF platoons. The southern Japanese force circles around the southern village hex headed for the airstrip. The northern forces trade fire for several turns with no casualties, but the Aussies become disorganized. The southern Japanese force captures the airfield as the Aussie moves his defending platoon into the village with the other forces. The southern Japanese force then returns back to engage the southern Aussie force in the village. The Japanese capture the 3rd village hex and trade fire with the southern Aussie village hex. No casualties are sustained by either side, and with only an 8 turn game, the game ends with a slight Japanese victory based on location control.

This is a very short scenario (only 8 turns).

A little Australian force (5 infantry platoons) must defend Kokoda and a nearby airstrip before the attack of a powerful Japanese force (10 engineer and infantry platoons). Moreover the Japs are an elite force (morale 9/8). The Australians, however, are a weak militia (morale 7/6). The battle takes place at night and it is solved by means of assaults. The Australians are annihilated easily by the Japs in seven turns. The Japs have a decisive advantage in the assaults, since automatically they go up three columns (+1 higher morale, +1 leader, +1 Japanese infantry).

Rather poor scenario. The Australians do not have any opportunity.

Played solo in 1 hour.

The Australians set up 3 x INF and three leaders in 0504 and 2 x INF and two leaders in 0505. The idea was to get one turn of opportunity fire on the 22 column and then either fall back or stand and fight in the village.

The Japanese took three turns to get south of the village to prevent Australians from exiting the map and then moved in for the attack. The Australians do well at the beginning, eliminating five steps before they suffered one step loss of their own. But then disaster struck and the all but one infantry unit is demoralized in two assaults. The Australians won the initiative the next next turn and although one unit recovers (preventing a free shot), the fleeing units are caught up and eliminated by the Japanese. The Australians do not have enough units left to have a chance at winning.

I would have rated this one a "3" but I took a point off because I believe it's too unbalanced in favor of the Japanese. I replayed it two other times using different strategies and the Japanese always won without much of a struggle. Best played solo and maybe more than once to experiment with different strategies.

Now on to the second battle of the Kokoda campaign. As I rate scenarios, the ratings will be based on the scenario as a stand alone scenario, not part of the campaign. I’m not sure if early scenarios benefit one side with the intent to gain a point lead, with later scenarios designed to close that gap, so I need to consider each as a stand alone.

The Australians set up with three platoons in the two village hexes nearest the Japanese entry side, and one platoon in each of the two airfield hexes. I consider rushing the village or using two turns to try and position the Japanese to attack across a wider front. I choose the rush, putting three units immediately next to the three Australian platoons. Opfire demoralizes one of my platoons, but no steps lost. The remaining Japanese fill in behind, with a couple infantry units attempting to get south of the village. The next turn I throw the two platoons that survived the rush directly into assault against the single platoon. The Australian platoons in the southern part of the village immediately run before my flankers can get into position, and end up escaping the map for four Australian points. The remaining platoon in the assault hex ends up dying for two Japanese points, and the village falls for nine more.

The Japanese then begin moving towards the airfield from the northeast, east, and south. The Australians wait one turn too long before bugging out, and end up being chased down and wiped out. Four more Japanese points for casualties, and four more for the airstrip. No more for the Australians. Final score for the scenario, 19 to 4 Japanese over Australians.

While not inherently broken like the first scenario, this scenario seems very unbalanced towards the Japanese. Too much force structure at a high morale in darkness against a weak foe. If the Australians hold, they die. If they run, the Japanese capture all the objectives. The only enemy of the Japanese is time. The initial rush seemed the best plan since the final Australians died on turn 8. Better than scenario one, but still only a 2 due to balance issues.

Campaign score: Japanese 29, Australians 6

The Australians defended the village resolutely for the first couple of turns, and used a platoon to try to stop the Japanese from swinging around to the south and blocking a potential retreat. After a few turns the attackers had advanced into assaulting both easterly Kokoda hexes, with a third force moving south, then west to capture the airfield. This was successfully done, with the first (vacant) village hex captured. Over the next few turns the Japanese crushed the defenders, aided by a couple of splendid rolls. All Australians platoons were eliminated. The Japanese just lost one VP for one step loss.