I went ahead and played out a series of Alaska’s War scenarios to last couple of days and Moore Ridge looked good on paper with a fair chance for either side to win and there is even off-board Battleship Bombardment! This scenario had enough American units to make a big line or wave of units to march a path right through the middle of the map, securing the runway and a corridor 5 hexes wide. They also had units follow behind to fill the gaps when needed, due to other units tied up in combat. Every once in awhile your plans work perfectly and this one did for the Americans with very little casualties, the Americans had the victory much to my surprise, as I thought it would be more difficult, as most of the scenarios in this supplement are and 40 turns were a good thing to have!

Despite all the advantages the Allies had in this scenario they would have to wipe out the Axis in order to gain the victory conditions, which they did at 0645, but it was not easy. The Axis chose to set up on the east hill overlooking the airfield. This would force the allies into a prolonged approach. With the cold weather and the forced march variable it figured that the Allied advance would become strung out. It would also force the Allies to cross the airfield to approach the Axis foxhole postions. Hopefully by then the sun would be up and the Axis would have plenty of targets coming across the airfield.

The Allies entered the west edge following a rolling barrage of naval fire. No contact was made so they continued on. Along the way east some units failed activation checks, several became mired. But the Allies were ready for this and had leaders in position to scoop up stragglers. As the Allies followed the rolling barrage finally the Axis foxhole line was hit. This caused a couple of step losses and a slew of disruptions and demorlizations. The Allies took advantage and quickly crossed the airfield to the Axis line to be in a position to assault on the next turn, and it was still dark! The allies had plotted for their Naval fire to "walk" back and forth across the east hill so they had to be careful not to get caught in their own fire. Over the next several hours the Allies conducted assaults on Axis positons on the East hill. Both sides had their ups and downs during this period. Allied on board Artillery ran out of ammo at 0330 via special event. A key moment came at 0430 when naval fire knocked out the Axis mortar. This went a long was toward the Allied victory as the Allied condition for victory is to have a five hex wide corridor free of Axis direct and BOMBARDMENT fire. Then Allied naval fire hit a friendly platoon which had failed it's activation check. Fortunatly for the Allies no step loss was incured. Once the Axis mortar was knocked out the Allies had only two more Axis positions to reduce. Both were within five hexes of the airfield so had to be eliminated to fulfil the Allied victory conditions. This the Allies did by 0645. The battleship guns were the difference in this game. Just two rounds of naval fire so destroyed the Axis power to resist that after that only fantastic luck could have reversed the situation. But despite that the Axis remained a formitable foe, bleeding step losses from Allied assaulting units and delaying the inevitable for many turns. Because of the high Axis morale they would recover when just about anyone else would be eliminated on a double demoralization roll. Another tough win for the Allies. Rating 3.

An update on Lt. O'bannon. He is still alive. I'm not sure why. He has looked elimination in the face on several occasions. Here are some of his stats to date. Keep in mind he is still a 8-0-1 leader with the rifle skill as he was at the start of this scenario set. He has been in assault 12 times. He had been under direct or bombardment fire 40 times. He had passed 16 morale checks. He had failed 8 morale checks. He had recovered 8 times. He had credited with 12 enemy steps eliminated. He currently had 8 saved leadership points. He had been on the verge before of gaining some skill or a morale boost but lost all saved points when he became demoralized and disrupted several times.

Late on the night of May 16, 1943, American 7th Infantry Division advanced toward a Japanese airfield site on the island of Attu. The Northern Force followed a rolling barrage east toward the airfield through the cold and darkness with some disruption due to the muskeg crossing. After they had reached the summit of the ridge at midnight, they encountered fire from a picket of the Japanese 303rd Independent Infantry Battalion. OBA was called in and softened up the Japanese infantry platoons, which were eliminated by 0115 hours. Another US task group had already cleared the ridge and arrived at the outskirts of the unimproved airfield. The US units began to take fire from the hill east of the airfield at 0200 and were assaulting the Japanese front-line infantry there by 0245 hours. The front wall was cleared by 0400 with the Japanese survivors having moved to the hilltop. Both sides spent the next hour reforming their units and exchanging small arms fire, along with American bombardment of the Japanese troops that proved relatively ineffective. As the horizon lightened, the Americans began to move up the hill, and the Japanese responded by splitting their remaining forces, leaving a small rearguard on the hilltop while the others headed east into the muskeg. By 0545, the US had dispatched the Japanese troops from the hilltop and began pursuit of the others in the east muskeg. The final Japanese surviving platoon, a service unit, was eliminated at 0700 hours resulting in an American victory.

The primary objective of this scenario is for the Americans to establish a five-hex wide secure corridor that includes the airfield hexes and runs from the western edge of the map to the eastern edge. This forces the US to leave a rather spread-out perimeter force since the Japanese can set up hidden anywhere on the long western north-south ridge and wait until late in the game to move in and compromise the corridor. In this playthrough, the Japanese set up a single picket on the west ridge and chose to consolidate their forces on the hill east of the airfield since it would take the many turns for US to get there across the muskeg, while also needing to leave some rearguard in case of hidden Japanese units in the west. In this playthrough, the US brought two groups in from the far southwest corner along the arctic hill to spot any Japanese units there; since the Japanese must set up on hills, that only left the northern perimeter with a need for patrol. With the limited 2-hex spotting range, it takes a while for the US to be able to use its OBA, so much of the opening involves slogging across the muskeg until the clear terrain of the airfield is reached. Once the US was there in strength, it became very difficult for the Japanese to hold off the sheer numbers of US units moving in to assault. The end result in step losses was 21 for the Japanese (the entire force was eliminated) versus only 4 for the US. While this scenario has some similarity to the previous one (AKWar06), it is an improvement since then of the airfield and gives the Japanese player the actual direction that the US must take for victory.