Japanese forces of the 4th and 124th Infantry Regiments begin to move north at night. But, they got a bit disorganised, and their formation is in tatters.

Defending the American line are members of the 1st Raider and 1st Parachute Battalions.

American Goal Do not allow the Japanese to pass (3 or less Japanese may exit the north edge) 21 turns = 5 hours, 15 minutes

Japanese Goal Inflict casualties on the American (at least 6 steps) OR Penetrate American lines (at least 8 units exit north edge)

American Casualties will be presented by (x).

Errata: Artillery refers to Special Rule #6. There is no Special Rule #6. As the rules for this scenario are almost identical to the special rules for Scenario #14 (The Second Night), I used Scenario #14 Special Rule #6 which refers to American requirement to pre-plot artillery.

The Battle

(visibility = 1 hex)

2300 – Japanese begin to push forward and are scattered throughout the jungle. Americans of A and E companies (northwest) begin to dig-in at their current position.

Hindsight gameplay note: This was a mistake. Americans should have advanced these troops to “fill/block up” the American line to the east. They also should have pulled back the American troops at the southern tip of Edson’s ridge as they are VERY exposed and VERY alone!

2315 – Americans fire at Japanese as they begin to reach the southern tip of the ridge. This surprise attack eliminates on Japanese platoon (2X!)

2330 - 2345 – Japanese advance at the tip of the Ridge and initiate assault against the defending Raider Company.

midnight – Japanese hit the Americans hard at the southern tip and both sides suffer major casualties (2)

0015 – Americans fail to rally and their HMG platoon is eliminated by a Japanese Banzai attack. (4).

0030 – American Raiders at the southern tip are isolated! Japanese troops continue to advance haphazardly.

0045-0100 – Japanese reach and assault the American line in the east. The Americans attempt to consolidate the Parachute defenders to defend against the Japanese.

0115 – Raiders and Parachutes take casualties at both the tip and in the east (7)

0130 – Parachute platoon is eliminated in the east from Japanese assault (8)

Comment: Having already taken severe casualties, enough for Japanese victory, the American must stop the Japanese from exiting 4 units to obtain a draw

0145 – Parachute Company tries to rally, but is further hit by the Japanese assaulters (9)

0200 – Japanese continue to push the assault (10). Americans flee the assault to open the Japanese up to direct fire.

Japanese make a break for the gap in American lines and come under direct fire.

Comment: Running out of time! The Japanese only have 2 hours to exit four units to the north.

0215 – Americans win initiative and fire at the Japanese before they can advance. Slowed, the Japanese still break through into the jungle.

Strategy Comment: Americans face a dilemma. If they move adjacent to the Japanese to harass with direct fire, the Japanese will not be disorientated (ie. Just get to move away from them). Americans decide to hold back.

0230 – Japanese win initiative and run under fire through the night! (taking moderate casualties).

Americans manoeuvre to block them from advancing through the northwest.

Japanese focus their attention on the northern troops (unlikely anything else will matter at this late stage)

0245 – Americans fire first and demoralize two Japanese platoons! (They are unlikely to recover and advance in time!)

0300 – The first Japanese platoon exits to the north. Another half platoon of Japanese infantry is eliminated.

0315 – The Second Japanese platoon exits the map. (Need two more!)

0330 – The Third Japanese platoon exits the map. Some of the Japanese troops, disorientated, move back into the Americans! Another half platoon is lost.

0345-0400 – Leaderless, a number of Japanese troops are left near the exist zone with no idea how close they are to the rendezvous point!!! Unable to gain leadership, the Japanese sit still.

DRAW.

Aftermath

Japanese inflicted severe casualties on the Americans, but were unable to move enough troops to the airfield (off the map north edge) to claim victory.

I think that a single turn more is all that the Japanese needed to win this one by exiting that fourth unit.

This scenario was another Japanese night attack in which with or without jungle would equal assault time. In a bit of a twist from the previous scenarios, the Japanese could not allow themselves to get too bogged down in assault, but rather continue to push forward.

Note: If the Japanese were not hindered by the disorientation rule, I believe this scenario would have been a complete slaughter. The disorientation is required to maintain balance and give a (roughly) historical result as the Japanese really did spend most of the night lost.

Scenario Rating 4/5: An entertaining scenario which was down to the wire. Very hard for the Americans to win (again). I believe the Americans should have adopted a slightly less static defence. (refer above)

A horde (well, actually three hordes) of Japanese who have been starving in the jungle finally approach the Marine lines south of Henderson field. They have taken losses from the march and are terribly disorganized on the approach. The Marines know the area and can move with some determination. The Japanese on the other hand don't really have the slightest idea where north, south or anything else is (they are subject to disorientation while the Americans are not).

The Japanese have two objectives, to exit the north end of the field and to eliminate six steps of Americans. Both sides have about a billion leaders so it will be the odd unit that doesn't have direction. The Americans just need to stand tall, delay the Japanese and try to keep from dying. Adding to the excitement is the Fog of War rule for Guadalcanal that starts rolling after each player has made two activations, fails on a roll of 15, oh and it's night so it fails on a roll of 14 for this scenario.

So, the Japanese have to attack, they don't know where they are going, they only have a 1/3 chance of going where they want to and they have too many troops to expect to actually get everything done in a turn because they are in the jungle and there is no chain activation. Given the situation we were not surprised to find that halfway through the action there was virtually no chance for the Japanese to get off the board. This was primarily due to a very strong stand by the point company of the Marines on the southern end of the ridge. Any attempts to move around this position got dislocated by the disorientation rules and those that actually got there were blocked by the reserves.

On the east edge of the field, the Japanese were able to eventually assemble sufficient force to have a three platoon group together with a leader with a combat modifier, giving them an assault on the "18" column. The Americans were able to strip away the supporting forces and in the final hour of the scenario the Japanese still needed to take out two more steps. A roll of "6" did that. At some point it probably made more sense for the Americans to try to disengage. I didn't because I thought it would be better to try to cripple the assault group by assembling enough counter force, I guessed wrong.

In the end no Japanese made it off the board, giving the Americans a win while with the 6 step losses the Japanese also won - a draw. I found the tension of each turn to be excruciating for the Japanese player. While to an extent the Japanese player is fighting the system I found it fascinating to feel how difficult it can be to organize an assault in the jungle at night. I give it a "4".

This is an interesting scenario as the Japanese have an overwhelming force but will have great difficulty getting into place to attack as a whole.

I planned for the Japanese to move due north and hit the entire marine line as much as it could and then to exploit any break through when gained. At first I planned that if the was success on any flank to turn into the ridge and try to support the main effort at the tip of the ridge. if a breakthrough is achieved on the ridge, the Japanese could then scurry off the board with out suffering disorientation.

The set-up rolls to see where how far forward Japanese units could be were mediocre with the center getting close as well as part of the right flank; but only a few units ion the left got close to the Marines.

Without having much firepower available, I decided to assault whenever and wherever I could and hope the superior Japanese assault modifier would help. At the tip of the ridge, the Japanese assaults stalled and then stalemated (mainly due to inaction due to FoW rolls). But on the right flank the Japanese destroyed the marine company defending that sector and broke through. Seeing that only half the game was left, I decided to not go for the ridge (The Marines had reinforced that part of the ridge) but fight the Jungle and try to get four units off the north (by now the Japanese had eliminated six USMC steps and thus achieved their VC; now they had to prevent the Marines form achieving theirs).

Two units threatened to break through with a few more following. The Japanese had a chance to win this one. But LtCol Edson sent his reserve company over to that flank and they intercepted the two Japanese platoons beating through the jungle and the rest of the marine line adjusted to seal off the flank from any following units. One reduced platoon and a captain made it to Henderson Field but no one else did. the marine mechanics and cooks dispatched them by morning. The rest of the Japanese fell back into the jungle to regroup to try again.

This is a good scenario; especially for solitaire play. It is tough on both sides and I can see that draw is the likely outcome; but it is fun to try. It seems to replicate the Japanese desperate situation of becoming fully disorganized trying to slog through the jungle to be met by withering USMC firepower.

(If you are member of Consimworld Forums, there are turn by turn pictures of this playing on my CSW Blog: Blackcloud's Military Analysis Blog.)

Battle Report: Long after darkness on September 12, 1942, units from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Japanese Battalions moved north toward the 1st US Raider and 1st US Parachute Battalions that were manning a ridge south of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. They took fire from Raider B Company at 2300 hours and moved to attack the left flank of the American position. By midnight, they were assaulting Raider units on the south ridge and Paratroopers on the east ridge, but it was slow going uphill for the Japanese. At 0045, the Japanese infantry from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, 2nd Division overran the Paratrooper position and established a foothold on the East ridge. The US right flank became took fire shortly thereafter but was seldom threatened the entire battle. Japanese infantry continued to push the American left northward, and a Japanese infantry platoon finally reached the ridgetop at 0230. Half an hour later, the Japanese broke through the American left and center, and three platoons were north of the US position. Fortunately for the defenders, their right flank had held and they kept control of the ridge despite significant casualties inflicted by the Japanese.

Analysis: This 21-turn scenario was played using 4th edition rules; victory objectives involve US step loss and/or Japanese unit exit. The scenario is a difficult one for the Japanese because they have disorientation rules in effect. That issue, coupled with mostly jungle terrain and a one-hex visibility due to darkness, makes it almost impossible to coordinate troop movement. Then, the number of Japanese moves needed to make progress often results in fog-of-war ending turns early, e.g. FoW ended the turn in all but three turns, with the first 17 ending prematurely. The US also got a huge break when a “New Orders” event raised their step loss for Japanese victory from “6” to “8”. Despite that change in victory conditions, Japanese units eventually did take out 10 American steps even though 13 of the Japanese units never had a chance to move the entire game. The Japanese strategy used in this playthrough involved trying to get to the open ground on the ridge and take advantage of the open ground to exit down the track. The US bottled that up pretty well, but at the expense of their left flank. On that side, the Japanese units had a reasonably steady advance and some success in assaults. In the end, the Japanese exited three units, which was one from a victory, and the overall step loss was ten for the Americans versus 11 for the Japanese, so the match ended in a draw.

This was an initially interesting scenario that started to drag a bit because of the combined night/jungle environment. About a regiment of Japanese are trying to get past about a reinforced battalion of Marines dug in on the eponymous ridge, surrounded by jungle. The Marines want to keep Japanese units from exiting.

What makes the scenario kind of cool is the disorientation that effects the Japanese. Combined with the 1-hex visibility and the Guadalcanal night fog of war number (14!) this made it incredibly slow going for all of these Japanese stacks to get anywhere. The Marines sought to engage the Japanese as they got close to the ridge, since the Japanese Banzai rule prevents them from leaving assault hexes.

The Japanese tried to keep their forces together, but the disorientation rule says that you roll for each unit that moves, not each stack (PG units move individually, especially for opp. fire), so a company of Japanese might end up scattering in three directions in the Jungle. The Marines weren't affected by disorientation, so they could keep their stacks together, and they needed all that firepower to assault even a single Japanese platoon in the jungle. First fire and Japanese assault bonus are tough.

Even with this headwind, they managed to cause enough step losses to the Marines to fulfill one victory condition, but after 5 hours they had only managed to exit a half platoon, so it was a draw. Seemed pretty balanced though, so not a bad scenario.

Colonel Edson deployed his Raiders to defend the ridgeline at the edge of the Henderson Field line of defense. A and E companies stayed atop the ridge in reserve. B company manned the southern tip of the ridge in the center, while C company held the right flank in the jungles. Under strength D company held a position on the back of the ridge line maintaining lines of communication and serving as a reserve for the right flank. A and C companies of the Para Battalion held the left flank significantly north of the rest of the Marine line. Para Company B deployed behind the ridge maintaining comm with and serving as reserve for the left flank.

Three Japanese battalions moved forward through the jungles. Or at least so they thought. It became quickly apparent that moving in the jungle at night was a poor proposition. All Japanese efforts at maintaining command and control of their forces fell apart as officers led their troops in circles in the dark jungle. The battle plan fell apart, and the Japanese found themselves searching for Marine positions in vain.

Marine Raider Company C detected movement in the jungle well forward of their position. Risking exposure, they left their positions and moved forward to contact the Japanese. Luck favored the bold, and within no time the men from C company were cutting apart the lead elements of Japanese troops. The bulk of the battalion could not find their way forward in the dark until too late in the battle, and an entire company of Japanese, including their mortars which had somehow gotten forward of the lead elements, was wiped out. The Japanese would not mount another serious threat to the American right flank for the remainder of the battle.

Soon after the firing started on the Japanese left, the center battalion made contact with B company of the Raiders. While much of the battalion was lost in the jungle, a significant force managed to reach the American positions. Wave after wave of Banzai charges into the Marine positions finally began to tell. A third of the company, including the third ranking officer, went down in the assault. The Marines were forced to abandon their position and retreat northward up the ridge as A and E companies moved forward in support. Continued assaults cut down more of B company, and only half the force made it back to the newly established line 400 yards behind the original position. Japanese Lieutenant Osaka, who had led the charges, received a wound to his leg, inhibiting his ability to mount another charge, yet still he moved his forces up the ridge. Another junior lieutenant, Kamaguchi, found a fresh batch of courage and led another company up the ridge in parallel with Osaka. Both moved their companies back into contact with American forces. Osaka's unit, having suffered heavily in the assault that overran the Marine position, acted as a diversion to allow Kamaguchi's men to lead an assault against the reinforced remnants of B company. Just as the Japanese were about to execute, the entire Marine regimental artillery battery rained hell down on Osaka's company, and B company opened up on Kamaguchi. Osaka's company was mangled, and would soon have to withdrawal to avoid obliteration. Kamaguchi suffered significant losses to one of his heavy machine gun platoons, but valor overcoming wisdom, prepared his men for the charge into American lines.

At this point Col Edson felt pretty confident in holding the line. C company was holding on the right, A, B, and E companies had firmed up the center, and D company had moved to link the two groups together. B company of the Paras was in position to head off any move between the center and the left. While the Marines had suffered too many casualties to truly call it a victory, at least the bravery and aggressiveness of his men had held of the Japanese from making gains towards Henderson.

Until this point the Paras had seen little action. Japanese lieutenant Tadjeki with one platoon had managed to make contact with the eastern-most position of the Marines, company A of the Paras. The Marines had kept him pinned with fire, and a total lack of support from the rest of the final Japanese battalion prevented any aggressive moves northward. He had thought to have finally gained the flank, and had sent back a runner to his Major that if the battalion moved around his right they could slip through the American lines. Unfortunately, by this time the entire command structure of the battalion had fallen into chaos, and with the exception of two platoons that had eventually been absorbed by the central battalion and one other lone platoon, the remainder of the battalion was lost in the jungle.

The one other platoon, led by experienced Lieutenant Nagumo, moved onto Lieutenant Tadjeki's left. While Para company A kept up fire on Tadjeki and Para company C fired upon Nagumo, the two Japanese platoons maintained a line of communication and sent out scouts against the American position. What soon became apparent to Nagumo was of the four Marine platoons, the one on the American right was not dug into positions but waiting to catch any Japanese assault in the flank. Additionally, there was an appalling lack of heavy weapon support for the entire American position. These were light troops. Nagumo ascertained he would get no additional support from the battalion, so he sent a runner to Tadjeki to follow his lead. He would gamble the entire Japanese right against the Americans to his front. If he could flank the Marine flankers, he could possibly roll up the American line.

Just as the Marine regimental artillery was ravaging Osaka, Nagumo ordered a banzai charge into the flank of C company of the Paras. Catching the Marine flankers by surprise, the Japanese platoon crashed into the American lines, shaking up the American officers and causing widespread casualties. Lieutenant Tadjeki, seeing the flashes and hearing the yells of Nagumo's charge, ordered his men to join the assault. C company, already wavering from Nagumo's charge, completely disintegrated when Tadjeki hit what had been their front. The entire leadership of the company went down in the hail of bullets and slashing of bayonets. By the time the assault had petered out, no more than a squad of Marines were left to surrender. A company, seeing their line of communication collapse under the Japanese assault, broke from their positions and routed to safety. The men of B company joined the rout, and the entire American left collapsed into chaos.

Col Edson, seeing a Japanese breakthrough on his left, quickly realized his position was untenable. While the Japanese in front of him were temporarily disrupted, more Japanese troops were moving to the ridge. Fearful of a successful flanking of his position from the left, he withdrew his Raiders in good order off the ridge and closer to Henderson field. The only saving grace for the Marines was that the Japanese command was still lost in the jungle with most of their troops. The Japanese were unable to press their gains, and moved no closer to Henderson Field than what was to be forever named Edson's Ridge. The Marines reestablished a perimeter between the Field and the Ridge by morning and prepared for another Japanese assault.

Observations: The confusion rules in any scenario involving the Edson’s Ridge map is painful. We tried moving a lone Japanese unit across the board and it took 21 turns. This scenario is only 21 turns. So, given no Americans to interfere, it would take the Japanese the entire game to cross the map if they didn’t find the ridge. Besides, the frustration on the Japanese player’s part is incredible when you can’t do anything but watch units that are stacked together wander in multiple directions when you try to move them. Can’t they follow each other? Can’t they hear the shooting and move in that direction? Does a great job of mimicking getting lost in the jungle, but that doesn’t make it fun. Would be okay on the Matanikau map, but horrible on this one.

The Marines did a horrible job of pre-plotting arty support. Cost them dearly in the end.

Assault can be deadly when done by Japanese infantry!

We considered afterwards if the Americans should only defend the front of the ridge with a small force and plotted arty to force the Japanese to stop and get blasted, then move all other units to the rear and watch the Japanese move in circles. The step losses are the only real way to win as Japanese (unless you can move lots of guys onto the ridge), so protect your guys and win by default. Would not play this one again. (Or Edson’s Ridge, Second Night.)

I picked this scenario because it took up a small area and the lack of hidden units made for solo play. It's a tough fight for the Japanese. In my game the mix of disorientation and early turn ends due to fog of war meant many of the Japanese never got into the fight. The Japanese got few enough units forward that they couldn't have exited enough for a victory. They concentrated on killing Marines to at least get a draw. They came close getting four of the six they needed, but in the end were too scattered and shot up to succeed.

I agree with the other AAR that it might make sense to move up the sides and avoid the ridge, but much of the tactics will depend on how the disorientation rolls go. In my games stacks were shooting off in every direction but often not towards the enemy. Despite these criticisms this scenario has the possibility to be a tense contest.

Most recommended for solo play since the Marines are generally on the defensive and won't do a lot of manuevering.

If there was ever a scenario that came close to getting a "1" rating (or less) from me it was this one; not so much because of the scenario itself but the way I chose to play it through with the Japanese. Still gets a "2" out of me though in hindsight as it could of gone much better but honestly, I was literally praying for "fog of war" to occur each turn midway through it.

Actually, I liked the randomness to start with; the variables in the Japanese deployment and the uncertainity that the disorientation rule provided. However, after a few turns of the novelties I realized that there was no chance in getting 8 Japanese steps off the north edge of the map but kept on trying to exit the units anyway, in hopes that at least 4 units would make it and then maybe eliminate enough American steps for a victory. As it turned out I was barely able to exit 2 Japanese units by the end of play and only one Japanese assault ever really materialized, which eventualy resulted in a modest 2 American step losses. There were a few moments when I wanted to start the scenario all over again but went ahead on with it as it sat. Disorientation was bad enough but the increased chances of fog of war was just as bad for the Japanese; over half of the OOB never even moved from their original starting points. In hindsight I deemed that the only way the Japanese could hope to win this one or get a draw would be to make as many assaults as possible as soon as contact was made with the American defenders instead of trying to escape them. Then, maybe if the disorientation rule permitted, they might make it off the map. However, just getting the Japanese together to make such assaults was a chore in itself. I didn't realize until it was too late that the only way out for the Japanese was through the marines. I suppose that on the other hand it was good that the Americans won this one as far as an overall campaign perspective is concerned as midway through 'Guadalcanal', in the course of 12 scenarios, the Japanese have 8 victories; America just 3 with this one and one draw. I also wasn't too pleased with the American pre-plotted artillery SSR; turns out that not one Japanese unit even came close to those bombardment hexes as they were placed to the rear of the American units deployed on the ridge. With all this in mind I pretty much know what to expect of scenario #14 'Edson's Ridge, the Second Night' and hopefully have learned a thing or two after this debacle.

Author	CavDo (United States)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2023-09-15
Language	English
Scenario	Guad012

This was a very rough go that we started in July and finally finished after 10 sessions when we could manage the time. A mostly unpleasant scenario to play, but it was 'sorta fun to learn how to move and fight in the jungle. Others have commented at length about this one, that I doubt was play tested properly and lacked specific rule language in the published edition, which Blackcloud 6 has noted elsewhere. I played with a very aggressive opponent as the Japanese player who tried everything to push his large force through the jungle in what may have been the longest movement-to-contact that we have yet played. This was tedious and I found myself hoping for the FOW to end the turns prematurely to give my Marines a chance to win this drudge. Some Japanese did indeed get through my defenses, but not enough for the win. Too many casaulties for the Marines to win out either.

This overlong slugfest, is probably best played for practice as a solo event. It is not much fun to play in shared, online play. I give it a generous 2, as it seems doomed to end as a draw.