Clash on the Matanikau - The Matrix Games version of Rising Sun

Matanikau, 8km SW of Lunga Point, Guadalcanal: [Best played as Axis] By October 20th 1942, the American forces on Guadalcanal were beginning to wonder what had happened to the thousands of enemy troops landed by the Tokyo Express through the middle of the month. They were about to discover the hard way that a new offensive aimed at the battered and barely operational Henderson Field by the Japanese 17th Army was about to begin. The first to feel the weight of the attack on the 23rd was Lt. Col. McKelvy's Group, with the 3rd/1 and 3rd/7 Marine Battalions in advance battle positions covering the Matanikau River and the coastal approaches southwest of Lunga Point. The task of crushing the right flank of the US perimeter and clearing the east bank of the Matanikau fell to General Sumiyoshi's Force from the newly arrived 2nd Division. A two-pronged attack had been ordered for the 23rd. However, the 124th Regiment was delayed in its southern sweep through the jungle, leaving the two battalions of Colonel Nakajuma's 4th Regiment and the 1st Independent Tank Company to force their way across the muddy Matanikau and through the Marine defenses alone. Design Note: Special thanks to Tom Herrschaft for the use of his Guadalcanal map.