Posting #1

*One small but important errata: The second group of Allied troops enter from the West edge of Board 34 NOT the East edge! My fault on this one.

*Ok, I having a go at day two and hoping not to repeat some mistakes I did with the Allies on day one, which they should have won but lost. Day two is even harder on the Allies in Koepang but I have learned and now I have an Australian Brigadier General leading the Australian & Dutch troops. The Japanese start with some remnants from day one as do the Allies but both have reinforcements on turn one. The Victory objectives are the same as day one, eliminating units for both sides, exiting units for the Japanese and preventing the two exiting hexes from being exited for the Allies. I am ready for the challenge or the second round!

Posting #2

*I just noticed, I forgot to use fire-first rule in the jungle on day one scenario! Dang, that would have made it a tighter game that scenario. Now back to day two!

*Learning my lesion from scenario #2, I decided not to confront the Japanese but to defend both exit points with an equal mix force of Dutch and Australians because the Australians have a higher morale value that really helps out against the Japanese 9/8 morale.

• At his point the Japanese decided not to spilt their forces and go all out for one exit point on the map, the west one. After the Japanese had pretty much committed to a one exit point focus the Allies pulled most of their units guarding the Northern exit point to the battle in the middle which cause the Japanese to have to fight on two sides in many case. The Allies had some good dice rolls for a change and inflicted some good casualties. The Japanese were eventually able to exit some units off the West edge exit point but not enough. The Dutch/Australians win a minor victory and one point away from a major victory. The Japanese should have spilt their force like day one where they had more success. The Australian Engineer unit was useful to offset the Japanese assault in one of the major areas of fighting and the Australians General carried the day but as we all know, his army’s days were limited.

Where have I seen this scenario before? Oh yeah the last one. Well this time around both sides attempted to get units into blocking positions to slow enemy reinforcements. Both were successful. This left these forces at a disadvantage and both got bloody noses, but the Allies got the worse of this encounter. They lost 2 full platoons of Inf and a 9-0-0 Major, a 9-2-1 Lt. were swallowed up by the Axis reinforcement column. The Axis suffered too. loosing a step of Inf just outside the village hex 0507 on bd 34.

Eventually though the Axis ground through the mostly Dutch force guarding 0208 on bd 34. The Axis kept just enough strength advancing toward 0701 to force the allies to defend it. Meanwhile every one else dashed for 0208. This was aided by the early capture of the road juncture at 1008 on bd 34. Their ancestors must have been with them because only 3 platoons got "lost" in the jungle and then only temporarily.

Once the jungle between hex 0909 & 0807 (bd34) was crossed the Axis used ther morale & assault column modifiers to quickly gobble up several companies of Allied Inf and Hmg. Those that were not eliminated melted away demoralized.

Mean while at the other exit the allies now had a solid line in front of the Axis & were even counter attacking. But the Axis had slipped 2 full platoons and a 10-1-0 Ensign in to hex 0504 blocking the road to the western exit hex. This was the killer. The Axis quickly reinforced this position. Again most units found their way through the jungle while retreating to the 0208 exit. The Allies did harass this move and caused several 11 hour step losses on the Axis. They took a couple too. Finally at 1645 the last Axis platoon exited. Axis minor victory. Rating 3. I liked the situation and the jungle navigation rule too. The problem was having to check every unit on just about every move got tedious. Less pieces would have solved that. I would have given this scenario a 4 if it was not for that.

Author	Reconquista (Japan)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Australia, Netherlands
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2024-02-24
Language	English
Scenario	NiSi003

This was a frustrating and high energy, 6-session go at trying to beat the Treadasaur and his Australians and Dutch in Indonesia. I played the Invading Japanese. We used the FOW, hidden units, consolidation, strategic movement and excess initiative optional rules. This play-through was harder for the defending Allies, but I still lost it for the Emperor by not getting my few remaining troops off the edge of the battle map. That First fire rule was the greatest and best card in my opponent's deck. His second big advantage was that he fought using mixed Allied stacks, concentrated around the exit hexes. I lost lots of leaders, had generally bad luck, lost many soldiers, and threw a great many combat 7-die rolls in this disappointing loss. Truth is, that you just can't predict how a close assault is going to work out!