This weekend, Neil and I played "Nee Soon": scenario 20 from the Fall of the Lion Gate supplement. Baluchs backed up by AT and Artillery elements defending a vital road junction on Singapore against a Japanese armour and infantry attack.

Fantastic game! For the first three quarters of the battle, neither side's infantry actually fired at each other at distance: all the action was close combat, with the Japanese sneaking through the jungle and then Banzai! charging British positions! About three platoon's worth of infantry were killed with not a single wound on the table!

The key points of the game were:

1)  The Japanese winning a 47 dice attack against a 45 dice defence by 11 dice right at the start, destroying an entire platoon of Baluchs and capturing the right hand end of the British position.

2)  The Japanese tank attack (eight tanks slamming right up the centre of the table) stopped in its track by two 2lb AT guns firing straight at them and two 25lbers firing over open sights at their flank.

3)  A Japanese platoon getting caught in the open by a single dug-in British MMG at 7" range and losing three quarters of two squads before getting a chance to charge the gunners.

4)  Just as the Japanese were preparing to smash forward and destroy the rest of the British, the 25lbers finally getting their range and landing a horrendously damaging barrage right on top of house where the Japanese MMG's were sheltering. Suddenly unpinned, the Baluchs could then resist the final Japanese charge. Well, they weren't all killed, I mean!

We eventually had to declare the game a draw, as there was just nothing left alive on the table. Every single Japanese tank had been destroyed or permanently immobilised: the British 25lbers proving their worth as good AT weapons.

The Japanese had lost all eight of their Big Men in close combat. The Baluchs were down to two effective sections of infantry and an MMG from the Norfolks, desperately defending one side of a box of trenches against the remains of two Japanese platoons on the other side, only about 4 inches apart.

Did it follow history? Well, not quite. Historically, the Baluchs threw back the Japanese attack...but we decided that without the incredibly successful Japanese charge right at the start of the game, they probably would have done again. We fought across a 6' by 4' table over about 3½ hours. A great game!

Robert Avery