Ben Hull - Jun 12, 2005 11:30 pm (#10141 Total: 10145) Designer - GMT's Musket & Pike Battle Series, Great Campaigns of the Thirty Years War and Fields of Fire MMP's Bloody Ridge My son and I went head to head over "Bloody Ridge" over the last couple of days. This gem from MMP is a perfect size and situation to teach my soon-to-be 10 year old son TCS. We didn't use the command rules. I chose to concentrate on the core movement and combat mechanics. Given the situation, the command rules add little, until you play the campaign. We started with the initial Japanese attack scenario. I was the Japanese, Benjamin the USMC (like his old man). Basic situation is lots of jungle with a ridge running roughly North-South in the middle. The area his held by the 1st Raider battalion (Able, Baker and Charlie companies at full strength, a weapons company, Easy, and an 1 platoon understrength Dog Company) and the 1st Parachute Battalion (Able and Charlie companies understrength and a full Baker company). The Japanese attack with two strong battalions, the I and III of the 124th Regiment. The Marines had the artillery sighted elsewhere so the Marines only had some 60mm mortars for support. The Japanese had 81mm Mortars and 70mm Infantry Guns in support. The USMC front had Charlie, 1st Raiders on the west side of the ridge next to the Lunga river. Holding Hill 80 on the southern tip of the ridge was Baker, 1st Raiders. On their left was Able, 1st Paras. Forming a line behind them in front of the highest point on the ridge, Hill 123, was Able, 1st Raiders, Charlie 1st Paras then Baker, 1st Paras extending out into the jungle. The Marines being from the elite, hand-picked Raider and Parachute battalions had Morales of 1 (very good - in TCS the higher the morale number the worse it is), that and being dug in made them exceeedingly tough. The Japanese plan was simple, I/124 attack and seize the Log bridge west of the Hill 80 (held by Charlie, 1st Raiders). II/124 was to attack and seize Hill 80. The Japanese troops were veterans and have a Morale rating of 2, which is very good. That and a special night and morale rule helps make the Japanese very dangerous in large, bayonet assaults. Here is where its gets complicated, the Japanese infantry move 6, mgs move 5, mortars 4 and guns 3. Moving through jungle costs 3 MPs, so all your infantry can move 2 hexes, everything else is 1. This means that in order to attack both objectives before the sun comes up (which is bad for the Japanese) you will need to push forward and attack with the infantry and have the weapons catch up later (would barely come into play until the last turn of the 1st scenario, so you could almost leave the MGs out of the first scenario, they will never get there before it is over) I/124 sliced up Charlie 1st Raiders, though they didn't go without a fight, they were overwhelmed in the end. The objective was secured a little after midnight. One platoon and a MG section survived and retreated to the base of the ridge. II/124 started well with a good initial attack on Able, 1st Paras, but the last Able platoon and MG section then held an entire company at bay through the night. Baker, 1st Raiders also did great service smashing everything I threw at them. By the time alotted for the first scenario, Baker 1st Raiders was shot up from repeated charges, and mortar fire, but was hanging onto Hill 80. My sone wanted to continue into the campaign from that point. He had won scenario 1, but wanted to see it through. In the day, the Marines get the artillery support lacking from the previous evening, air support, and two companies from the 1st Marine Division's Engineer Battalion. The Japanese get a fresh battalion, II/4 Regiment. It is not quite as powerful as the battalions from 124th, but they do have good morale (2). In addition some miscellaenous support troops arrive that can be thrown in as cannon fodder. The Marines did not have enough troops left to reform a complete line, so in the early morning, the remainder of Baker 1st Raiders is blasted off Hill 80, but with US air and arty the Japanese can't occupy it until after dark. I/124 with all its heavy weapons advances through the gap in the Marine lines west of the ridge into striking distance of the prize, Hill 123. II/4 moves wide to roll up Baker, 1st Para, and try for Hill 123 from the East. The Marine engineers dig in around Hill 123 one company on each side tying in with Able, 1st Raiders. During the afternoon II/4 started the attack on Baker, 1st Paras and the initial attack went well, but then artillery came in and stung, which then postponed the rest of the attack until dark. Benjamin launched a counter-attack with the remainder of Charlie, 1st Raiders towards their original position, supported by air. This attack savaged the 3rd Company I/124 holding the log bridge, but in the end Charlie was surrounded and wiped out, though the attack left 3rd Company devastated. Darkness fell and II/4 had circled around Baker, 1st Para's flank and launched atackes against its Mortar section and the center of its line. They fought hard, but were overrun, leaving 7th Company, II/4 gutted. The last platoon remains tied in with Charlie, 1st Paras. The plane has rest of II/4 aiming for Hill 123 behind Charlie, 1st Paras and Able, 1st Raiders - not sure if they will have enough left. Benjamin had to hit the sack which leaves I/124 attack on Hill 123 and II/124 attack to capture Hill 80 and destroy the rest of Able, 1st Paras. The Marine artillery could spell the difference here, just as in the historical battle... The vast majority of the Japanese attacks are "Banzai" bayonet charges which highlights what I consider to be a weakness in the system, the Assault style combat rules, especially in this instance where both sides have good morale, the combats can often last 6 or more rounds. Each round has a Defender fire, Attacker Morale Check, Attacker fire, Defender Morale Check - four rolls per round, not counting results that call for rolling for numbers of steps lost. There must be a way to condense this into one table or matrix with one roll, even if it is one roll for each player. All in all, though, very enjoyable. Nice looking, fun to play game. Ben Hull - Jun 18, 2005 1:51 am (#10185 Total: 10186) Designer - GMT's Musket & Pike Battle Series, Great Campaigns of the Thirty Years War and Fields of Fire Bloody Ridge Finale I had to finish up Bloody Ridge campaign with my son as Uner the Lily Banners arrived and I need to clear the space and my son is leaving in the morning to visit his grandparents. The all out assault on Hill 123 failed at the end of 0400 14 September. My son had repositioned a 20mm AA gun on just below the crest. I hit the hill from both sides, I/124th from the South and II/4 from the North. II/4 only had one intact company that was planned for the main effort. I/124 using its 70mm Guns and it copious MGs methodically reduced Able, 1st Raiders and opened a narrow path to the crest. The other parts of the battalion were locked in a desperate firefight with Charlie, 1st Engineers. III/124 launched a supporting attack with success at Charlie, 1st Paras. The attack would have never gotten so close had it not been for a long string of no shoots and bad shoots from the USMC artillery. The Artillery did some service, but the full impact was far below what it could have been. Thus it feel to the Engineers and Raiders to stop the Japanese attack with small arms and Machineguns. At 0200 6th Company II/4 launched the bayonet charge that would decide the fate of the battle. They had to overrun the 20mm and supporting MG section to take the hill - the MGs and 20mm tore into the assaulting waves and cut down two platoons. 6th Company's third platoon overran the Raiders mortar platoon and with its MG section setup a blocking position for the advancing USMC reinforcements 2/5th Marines. With II/4 stymied, I/124 made a last ditch rush for the hill and again the 20mm blasted them back. 2/5 hit the blocking position and with artillery support blasted it open and then came sunrise and Japanese had no choice but to fall back into the Jungle... In the fighting from 2000 12 Sept '42 to 0400 14 Sept '42 the losses were: USMC # 1st Raider Battalion Able Company 10 of 17 steps lost # Baker Company 17 of 17 steps lost # Charlie Company 17 of 17 steps lost # Dog Company 0 of 5 steps lost (never got into the fight) # Easy (Weapons) Company 8 of 8 steps lost 1st Parachute Battalion # Able Company 12 of 12 steps lost # Baker Company 19 of 19 steps lost # Charlie Company 5 of 12 steps lost 1st Engineer Battalion # Charlie Company 10 of 17 steps lost # Dog Company 5 of 17 steps lost Special Weapons Battery 11th Marines # 1 of 4 20mm Guns lost and 1 MG section lost 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines # Fox Company 3 of 19 steps lost Total USMC losses 109 steps Japanese I/124 # 53 of 83 steps lost III/124 # 44 of 80 steps lost II/4 # 36 of 56 steps lost Brigade Troops # 30 of 32 steps lost Total Japanese losses 163 Good Game!