Sugarloaf Hill Playtesting Underway!!!

witchbottles

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Both sides had a tough go starting this little armored assault scenario - Seems neither the Marines nor the IJA brought anyone capable of firing any kind of SW to any kind of effect :)

The Marines DC teams did get into position to climb and take out the occupied caves with their DCs, and the Japanese are pretty sure to lose both those caves- but the Marines got to get one more, and that is pending on the flankers to the right going for the far side of the valley and its cave making it with their DC. The Marine tank will be angling to support them from the left hilltop and maybe , the MG firebase can get back in action and actually hit something over there.

All the Japanese need to do to win is hold the rest of the caves to win, but I think that there is only limited resources in the cave complexes left to assist with that now.

This one is BD-01 the first scenario in the set - and is a really fun and fast paced cave complex game.

Chad asked us to post up info from the playtests as we go along - so here's the first of many more to come.

John Knowles in Taiwan is playing the Japanese in this one.

We have another playtest underway with BD-05 and the Japanese counterattack in that scen, with Jim Traver and myself underway, that one almost to the end and coming down to if the Japanese can sneak enough EVP off via the gully before the Marines can close and gun them down.

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One thing noticeable across these play tests- Marine Shermans are not long for the battlefield. They die pretty easy it seems, so their main help is to armored assault then move up and smoke the enemy before they get taken out - hopefully wrecking in positions like you see on the left in this scen- giving the Marines a rout path as F.1C is in effect per SSRs in all these scens and the CG.

Stay tuned,

Jon H
 

Tuomo

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Real purdy :)

What is the dark X-like artwork on some crestlines like F2 in the top of the first post?
 

DWPetros

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Nice! Incredibly brutal battle...

I've sketched this myself, but I like your version better
 

Tooz

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More pics from a playtest a while back. Hmmm. Broken Ground is coming out with PTO counters and maybe my next game should be one of these scenarios that showcase the BG Marines and Japanese. Thanks for posting this thread as I will chime in and revist this cool HASL.
86568657
As you see, not real large. There is also a CG which fits in well if you are on a limited time budget.
 

witchbottles

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Chad VanDerBoes (sp?) is the Designer. The playtest instructions are "...to proof and play as if it is to be an official ASL product submission".

So that's the marching orders. Chad asked us to get some photos and commentary on the playtest out there in public.

The Map is very well done, as are the rules and the CG and the 9 scenarios, insofar as proofing has been done. The VASL map works great and supports the "extra" HTML coding lines for dropping in things like SSRs etc as reminder text off to the sides. I have asked one of the VASL coding gnomes for a bit of help in VASL-izing the Cave Complex Chart/Play Aid to an extension tab. This should give some draggable overlays that can be HIP'd for use by the Japanese player when working with multiple complexes - for positioning units - when completed.

.
 

witchbottles

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I rather enjoy getting some Sugarloaf Hill into ASL - Shuri, its approaches, and Naha have been stealing all the "ASL Thunder" on the line for some time now. Glad to help see this one make it to ready for submission, for sure. :D
 

Honza

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Is this the next stage for The Bitterest Day?
 

Craig Benn

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I have a particular interest in Sugarloaf. One of the first PTO books I read was Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester who fought there. The 29th marines took some grim casualties. I'd love to see some historical info on the battle in the final product.
 

jtsjc1

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I have a particular interest in Sugarloaf. One of the first PTO books I read was Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester who fought there. The 29th marines took some grim casualties. I'd love to see some historical info on the battle in the final product.
Try reading Killing Ground On Okinawa by James Hallas. Excellent book. Thanks for the heads up about Manchester's book I'll check it out. The Bitterest Day looks very interesting!
 

witchbottles

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The terrain contrasts heavily between hills, peaks, and valleys. You're always looking all around as the Marine player trying to determine which heights do and do not have an LOS to your movement routes- so you can pre-position either Smoke/WP in the PFPh, or an OBA blast area in the DFPh or PFPh beforehand, to cover the advance. And this one REALLY makes you think hard about moving your Tanks to locations where when (not if) they get nailed, the wreck or burning wreck will provide advance and rout path cover.

KRL ,jon H
 

Justiciar

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There seems to be a 1/2 Green 1/2 Brown 5/8" counter that says Trench. What if anything is special about that?
 

cVan

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Just saw this today. Nice to see some play on Sugar Loaf map. I hope you are having fun and enjoying it, as that was my primary focus when it comes to ASL and Bitterest Day.

I think I first started tinkering with a map and roughed out rules starting back in 2006. As Tooz related, I did intend this to be a primer on caves without a lot of additional complexities. A version was sent in to MMP back in late 2015, and did some revisions in 2018 when I had a bit of free time. Unfortunately, the past few years have seen very little time for ASL by myself.

I want to say thanks to those who provided advice and input along the way.

Anyways, the battle for Sugar Loaf Hill, Half Moon Hill, and The Horseshoe vicinity always intrigued me after reading Hallas' book. The amount of carnage in that small area was very high.

If anyone else is interested in giving it a go for fun on VASL or just to peruse, please feel free to PM me and I'll email the materials when I can.
 
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