Colonel William J. "Wild Bill" Whaling's 1st Marines had just captured the airfield at Gloucester, located in the west of the New Britain landing sites. The residual elements of the Japanese defense, led by Colonel Koki Sumiya's 53rd Infantry Regiment, remained unknown. Overlooking the airfield to the south was a feature known to the Marines as Razorback Ridge. Assigned the task of securing this objective was Colonel John T. Selden's 5th Marines. In an area previously thought deserted, Lieutenant Henry w. Stankus, commanding officer of 3rd Platoon, Company F, stumbled upon a small outpost located near a hill feature just north of Razorback Ridge. Like a swarm of angry bees, Japanese from the 53rd Infantry emerged from the neighboring jungle, ravines, and streams. Soon Stankus faed a full Japanese company supported by heavy weapons.
Attacker: Japanese (1st Company, 53rd Infantry Regiment and Service Troops)
Defender: American (USMC) (3rd Platoon, Company F, 5th Marine Regiment)
5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:15.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:1
Year-41 Type Mountain Gun Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher
1st turn Banzai won the day vs the on board US troops
2024-01-18
(A) Eben Johnson
vs
Ernie Cameron
American (USMC) win
Tight, tight, and my Americans won by one pip on the absolute last CC DR of the game. Historically, my average DRs have been higher than my opponents' in 63% of our sessions (and, when I do roll lower, it's only by a scooch), but just one pip was enough to win this one. I need to do a better job remembering to throw smoke and WP. I liked my two mortar teams' position on 39F7, but both teams had 0.00% effect on all of their fairly plentiful TH or IFT DRs (I'm thankful they didn't malf.). Ernie's sniper was on a tear while my IJA-SAN-activating DRs didn't really help me much (e.g., I'm thankful that I passed this MC, but I also activated his sniper!). Great scenario, fun opponent.
2023-08-19
(A) Len Kay
vs
Vic Provost
American (USMC) win
[Imported from ROAR]
2023-03-01
(A) Simon Staniforth
vs
Mark Blackmore
Japanese win
Tough ask for the USMC, as the IJA player I pushed out cautiously T1 to slow the oncoming forces then gradually fell back into the victory area where the Gun was situated. Whilst the US took both pillboxes, there is a fair bit of Advancing vs Difficult Terrain and the Japanese took advantage of this in the final Close Combats
2022-06-16
(A) Eric Partizan Eric
vs
Gerard Gambin
Japanese win
2022-06-02
(A) Rich Weiley
vs
Neil MacPherson
Japanese win
Had the defending Japanese in this one. My opponent setup the 9-1 MMG and one squad from the at start force in the level 2 jungle hex in his setup area. I setup my long range weapons to waste this hex in my initial prep fire phase. Most of my remaining units were dedicated to expanding my perimeter to deny the US easy entry and allow me to trade space for time. Net result of the opening salvo from my mountain gun, mortar and two leader directed MMGs was a pinned squad. The bulk of the US forces entered on board 39 around A7. The 9-1 stack decided to stay and duke it out and prep fired in his turn. My return fire was much more effective, resulting in a broken leader and reduced squad and I had enough fire power to break most of the remaining half-squads. A quick counterattack reduced this force to two half squads and while the 9-1 managed to rally he fled into the jungle and spent the remainder of the game trying to link up with the reinforcements. With that flank relatively secure I was able to leave a force to garrison the huts and redeploy the remainder to hold off the US assault from the north and west. The US attack was able to capture one hex of the trail but with a turn remaining he had no chance of achieving the rest of the the victory requirements so he conceded.
2022-03-16
(A) Eric Partizan Eric
vs
Japanese win
2022-03-04
(D) Paul Legg
vs
Craig Benn
Japanese win
Heroes 2022 - Friendly This was over by turn 3, my elite 8 morale troops did what they always seem to do for me; fail nearly all morale checks and refuse to rally.
2022-03-01
(A) Stefan Fiedler
vs
Mike Crogan
Japanese win
The japanese did some aggressive perimeter expansion in order to play for time, WOrked out well especially as the initial on board American forces got badly mauled by MMGs and Inf gun. American ran out of time,
2021-12-03
(D) Jonathan Kapleau
vs
Anderson, Paul
Japanese win
2021-11-07
(D) Vilis Pavulans
vs
Matias Dahlbäck
Japanese win
Nasty start with an american squad dead in the opening volley. A pretty large force coming in from the northwest made good progress and setup mortars on the northern hill. Later they swung down and managed to capture the whole trail. A little weak attack from the eastern side along with a few unlucky sniper hits made progress painful in the southeast and despite getting pretty good progress the japanese managed to block the approach to the last hut in the final turn preventing american victory. Very well played by my nasty opponent and very enjoyable!
2021-06-21
(D) Jason Nichols
vs
Eric Topp
Japanese win
I brought my Marines in from both left and right and immediately plunged three squads into a CC versus a concealed Japanese squad. "Suicide" my opponent cried. But I was lucky with the dice and they wiped out his squad. However my units on the right got caught in the valley and couldn't get out. I lost two squads and a hero to a well placed shot from the arty (CH) and that set my attack on the track hexes back a turn. My mortar didn't play much of a role and I should have placed it with a half-squad not a full squad. I had to try to run around the top with a lone squad on the last turn to have any hope of capturing the required two track hexes. Unfortunately, having roles an average of about 5.5 for my MC's for the whole game this squad failed a NMC and that was the end of my chance. I think another turn would have seen the Marines in control of the required hexes. A good game to play as the American. I'm not sure my opponent enjoyed it as much. I did have some lucky rolls.
2021-04-20
(A) Jeff B
vs
Steve Etzelmueller
Japanese win
Really difficult for the Americans. They setup subject to a turkey shoot, and the Japanese can scatter to cover every avenue of approach. This will force the Americans to either risk immediate CC with the Japanese, or try to cross a lot of open ground. I would've tried the CC approach myself, but my opponent surprised me with a heavy NW attack. Between blasting the men in the valley and gunning down the reinforcing Americans, the Americans were a net 4 squads and a leader down after two Turns. Even with the SSR prohibiting the Japanese from deploying and simply ringing the VC area, there were just too many of them left for the Americans to stand a chance.
2021-04-16
(A) Eric Partizan Eric
vs
Japanese win
2021-04-12
(A) Dave Mareske
vs
Dennis Dowd
Japanese win
Tough one on the Marines trying to fight the Japanese and climb a hill. Dennis did a two prong attack coming from the west and reinforcing the east. Two early CCs went the way of the Marines, but then the Japanese were exchanging 1/2 squads for full squads of Marines. By Turn 4 the Marines had 4 squads killed and 2.5 broken and not enough to take both the huts and the path.
