EDSON'S RIDGE CYBERBOARD GAMEBOX

EDSON'S RIDGE

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I'm breaking out of the Metagaming rut with this one. This is a gamebox for One Small Step's EDSON'S RIDGE magazine issue game, from issue 10. Edson's Ridge simulates the fighting around Henderson airfield during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The game is small in scale, with a low counter density and a one page map. A perfect "small game" for internet play.

Game Description (from the OSS Website)

"Although Edson's Ridge was a relatively small engagement when compared to other battles fought during the Second
World War, it helped secure the Lunga perimieter on the island of Guadalcanal for the Marine occupational force. The
battle also demonstrated the extraodinary leadership and heroism of Colonel Merrit A. Edson, whose future
participation in World War II would prove so vitally important.

In Edson's Ridge, Michael Smith has created a game that is simple to learn, yet embodies enough tactical nuance to
keep even the most veteran of wargamers returning for more. The game is ideal as an introductory tool to teach new
wargamers the joy of and challenge of wargaming.

The games include many old standbys such as zones of control, stacking limits, and simple odds ratios. However, it
also includes rules seldom found in games of this size, such as reaction movement, exploitation, Japanese banzai
attacks, and night movement. Once again the staff at One Small Step show just what can be done in seven pages of
rules, an 8"x11" map, and 100 counters."

EDSON'S RIDGE is copyright, One Small Step, 1996.

Designer: Michael Scott Smith

This gamebox is VERY true to the game it is based upon. I have included the map, counters, "banzai track," and turn track. I threw in some markers for sequencing and targetting. The game counters in the game (improved position, reserve, fired, and banzai!) are in this gamebox as markers, not counters. The P-400 and Turn counters are real counters.

Turn Phase	PBeM Action
Japanese Reserve	View Replay From Previous Turn; Place Reserve Markers
Japanese Move	Move IJN Counters
Japanese Combat	Execute Combat Actions (mark targetted counters, figure out odds, roll die, apply results)
Japanese Exploit	Perform Exploitation Actions Email Turn file to US Player
US Reserve	View Replay; Place Reserve Markers
US Move	Move Marine Counters
US Combat	Execute Combat Actions (mark targetted counters, figure out odds, roll die, apply results)
US Exploit	Perform Exploitation Actions
Mutual Phase	US player performs mutual recordkeeping during which arty fire & banzais are tracked (arty fire allowed once per turn and banzais once per game per unit.) Email Turn file to Japanese Player

Suggested PBeM Turn Sequence for Edson's Ridge (feel free to invent your own)

The Action

A hot fight near the airfield

The graphic above shows some of the fierce fighting going on near the airfield, and shows just about all of the counters and markers in the gamebox. General Kawaguchi leads a piecemeal attack of the 1/124 regiment on the mixed force of Marine Raiders and Paratroops holding the cordon around the airfield. An attached unit from the 2/4 goes BANZAI to attack the Raider force on the bottom right. Kawaguchi has one element of his force in reserve. Marine Para platoons B and C have dug in in expectation of attack. A P-400 is on the map, provided ground to air support.

Banzai Tracks and Turn Tracks

I added the Banzai track Yeah, I know it should be brown and not yellow. I probably will go back and change this eventually. It's just one of those things... I didn't want to spend the time to recreate the counter sets in brown. It was late, don't get on my case.

The Turn Track (not pictured) doesn't have the cute moon and sun graphics, but does have dark blue squares for night turns and light blue squares for day turns.

How to get the files

Download Gamebox:

Edson's Ridge Gamebox (zipped)

Download Scenarios:

Not applicable with this game

But WAIT! There's MORE!

Related Links:

One Small Step Home Page (The publishers of COMPETITIVE EDGE.. the magazine Edson's Ridge appeared in)

USMC Operations in WWII, Part One (A great historical overview of the Marine Corps role in the Pacific, contains Guadalcanal information)

Guadalcanal Online (great battle overview site, contains great write up of Edson's Ridge battle)

Pacific War Maps (excellent atlas of the Pacific War campaigns)

Edson's Ridge Review (on Web Grognards)

Edson's Ridge Replay (also on Web Grognards)