Kakazu Ridge - The Gorge

Craig Benn

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Going to play this after a long hiatus from caves with my old nemesis Ben Jones.
Currently setting up a defence worthy of the emperor against the filthy gaijin.

Couple of questions about Kakazu, I take it PTO is not in effect as nothing on the scenario card or Kakuzu SSR's says it is.
1. So are the yellow blobs rice paddies or grain?
2. Caves start HIP - if the cave hex is in concealment terrain, is the cave revealed when
 

jrv

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Going to play this after a long hiatus from caves with my old nemesis Ben Jones.
Currently setting up a defence worthy of the emperor against the filthy gaijin.

Couple of questions about Kakazu, I take it PTO is not in effect as nothing on the scenario card or Kakuzu SSR's says it is.
1. So are the yellow blobs rice paddies or grain?
2. Caves start HIP - if the cave hex is in concealment terrain, is the cave revealed when
PTO terrain is not in effect.

Grain.

Cave counters are always considered to be in concealment terrain even if the hex is otherwise not concealment terrain [G11.3]. This has little practical impact as fortifications are put on board in concealment terrain when observed at < 16 hexes (unless G.4 (or night) applies, which is not the case in Kakazu).

JR
 

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... Cave counters are ... put on board ... when observed at < 16 hexes (unless G.4 (or night) applies, which is not the case in Kakazu). JR
... except in Debris (KR3), wherein '... E1.16 applies ...', and which is very common on the Ridge.

Enjoy, Joshua
 

jrv

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I wouldn't have made it through the Kakazu Ridge scenarios without Three Rules to a Better Cave Game.
Cave concealment loss is #2 in the three rules. As Joshua points out, there is terrain that invokes E1.16 so caves don't necessarily lose concealment on LOS. I did not go through the Kakazu SSRs except to confirm that PTO is not in effect, I'm afraid to say.

Because of the potential for HIP caves you need to be careful when ending the turn adjacent to potential cave locations. If your opponent has a HIP cave adjacent, he may wait until his APh to send out a unit for CC. There are several ways to mitigate this. Searching will reveal caves. You might send a halfsquad as a screen into a potential adjacent hex to reveal any caves, following on with the "real" force if none is found. You might also fire at potential cave locations; fire against concealed units in caves is not halved (oh, but that Japanese SAN of 6 in The Gorge).

The American player has to be just as knowledgeable about the cave rules as the Japanese player. The Americans need to make a cautious assault in The Gorge. The gullies will probably be mined at the cliff line and covered with fire. Search the gully for the mines. I would use my assault engineers to try to clear a path through at least one gully under OBA Smoke. I might try a second too, just to keep the Japanese occupied. I would have other units that climb the cliffs. Be sure to fire on the cliff edge hexes first lest you advance off a climb into a HIP Japanese unit and you being all CX after the climb.

JR
 

ibncalb

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It was a great game.

We didn't finish. I'm waiting for Craig to a-bitch and b-record the end positions so I can aar the game and post the VASL file for the collective delectation.

B e n
 

Craig Benn

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I'm not going to bitch about your weighted dice or inability to throw properly. I'm not even going to mention you declaring harassing fire and then when it deviated where it would have blocked your advance for a turn changing your mind. Or re-rolling the search casualties in the FFE. No I expect you to cheat moderately and I regard it as an appropriate handicap for your poor tactics. I'm just glad to get a cave game.

Sorry no record - I put it away as I figured it wasn't worth recording as it would be a year before we got to play it.

Shame as it was heading towards a tight intriguing end game - I reckon you had the advantage. Casualties were 3 Japanese squads and both leaders with two crews striped vs 5 squads and 2 crews - proportionally just over a third of our forces each. The Americans have to have 15 CVP of good order units on the hill at the end of the game and you were well placed to get the rest up there.

It is 16-4 in the Japanese favour on ROAR - it didn't feel unbalanced, reckon a lot of Yanks must fail their PMC taking their licks on the way in.

One of the most enjoyable games I've had in a long time - 7 hours of intense concentration with us both competing for the smallest sliver of an advantage and plenty of trash talk. It was only my fourth cave game ever and the rules flowed very easily. Think we had more trouble with the dry stream-woods.

Anyway a new instant tradition - we'll play the Kakazu ridge scenarios in order every December when Ben comes back.

Speaking of which - there are five in Journal 2 and American Tragedy in Journal3 but did the two others mentioned being play tested in J2 ever get finished? (Hara's horror and one unnamed depicted the gorge action on a larger scale with an additional company)
 
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