*Errata: The victory condition should state: the Japanese win if they eliminate three or more American steps, anything else is an American Victory.

*This is a pretty quick scenario with a low unit count. It’s pretty straight forward; the Japanese must eliminate 3 steps of American units. AP changed this scenario to include hidden units on both side but since I am playing this SOLO, I dropped that part of the rules. It might be fun to try face to face but if not, just forget the hidden rules in this one, as the Jungle already hides movement right up to the point of contact.

*The Americans are defending a hill, and I should of said, that they have to stay on that hill to defend it but no big deal. With small scenarios like this, a few dice rolls either way can change an out come of a game, so it’s always tense. The Japanese approach from one of the flanks from deep in the jungle and this takes about half the turns, so they must survive the initial adjacent dire-fire from the Americans and then assault and survive the Fire-First assault combat of Jungle hexes but they have a 8/7 morale with a short time period, so their best chances are to assault and get that column modifier for being Japanese. If the first assault doesn’t work assault again with a second group of troops, as I have two stacks of Japanese troops to try with.

*To my surprise the Japanese did survive with good dice rolls, the Americans pulled their demoralize units out of the stack, only to have them be assaulted by the second group of Japanese troops which actually won the game for them, the Japanese lost a step as well but that is not part of the victory conditions. The Japanese won this time but I am thinking it’s probably a 60/40 thing, that favors the Americans. The American should have stacked three combat units per hex in stead of two, which would have helped them out in this scenario.

The Allies set up in the designated hill hexes, with an additional two platoons and a Lt. in hex 0715. The Axis came on and finally made contact at 0815. On contact the Allies let go a volley and the Axis lost two steps right off the bat.

On the next turn the Axis assaulted up the unto the left flank of the Allied line. It was a vain attempt. Both assaulting platoons came up disrupted and with a 7-0-0 leading it looked grim for the Axis early. Then another two steps were lost by the Axis to Allied point blank direct fire. (Snake eyes on the 16 col.) All this happened by 0900.

The Allies then made a ill advised assault on the weakened Axis platoons. They did not get the best of it. By 0930 the Allies had lost a step and had several other units disrupted and demoralized. And to make matters worse the Axis were no worse off than they were before the Allied assault began.

Then at 1000 the Allies got a change of orders via special event. This change now allowed the Allies to loose an additional two steps toward their victory conditions. The Axis now would have to eliminate a total of 5 Allies steps to win.

By 1015 the Axis had only two full strength platoons left and one leader (10-0-1 Capt.). All were demoralized. Then the rains came. The Allies then decided to sit tight. They had a winning position. To mix it up with the Axis now would just mean trouble despite their weakened state. Let the Axis come to us was the plan.

It rained till 1130 at which point the Axis still had one platoon disrupted and one still demoralized. With only 5 turns left and the Axis now having to eliminate at least four more Allied steps, the Axis retire.

This was an interesting little scenario, as a historical recreation but as a balanced scenario it did not pan out. With the horrible luck the Axis had in loosing 4 steps early, plus having a 7-0-0 Lt. who got offed anyway, just made matters worse. The weather did not help either. The only bright spot for the Axis was when the Allies counter assaulted and got a bloody nose for their trouble.

Having said that I would play this scenario again. The Axis have a chance but must do it with assaults. They must take advantage of their assault bonus, which is in effect regardless of the state of the particular Japanese Inf type unit being assaulted. Even a demoralized one step platoon with no leader present will roll on the 5 col of assault table, giving them a 1/3 chance of causing a morale check on ANY force then would assault it. With a leader present it becomes a 50/50 chance. In this scenario, as it was with the NVA a generation later, the Axis must "Cling to the American boot straps" to win.