High Ground 2 Unboxing

“When the enemy occupies high ground, do not confront him. If he attacks downhill, do not oppose him”.
~Sun Tzu

Every army in World War II learned Sun Tzu’s lesson the hard way. Greeks clawed up Albanian mountains in the snow. German mountain troops stormed the Metaxas Line forts. Gurkhas fought for the ridges above the Tiddim Road. Whoever held the hill usually held the fight, and whoever had to take it paid in blood.

That’s the idea behind High Ground 2. It’s all about hills, and about prying dug-in defenders off the top of them. That’s famously tough in ASL, and in real combat too.

Getting It

The original High Ground! came out from Heat of Battle in 2000, with two boards and eight scenarios. Bounding Fire picked it up and released High Ground 2 in 2010. It keeps the two hill boards, updates seven of the original scenarios and adds nine new ones. My copy is the 2022 printing.

Contents

• Rules and charts
• 16 scenarios
• Four geomorphic boards, H, I, J and K
• One half-board castle overlay

Four Boards and a Castle

The components are a big step up from the original HOB release. You get four redone geomorphic boards. Boards H and I are remakes of the original hard-mounted boards, which put together form a massive four-level hill. Board J has a busy mountain village spread across three levels, with some tricky LOS. Board K has a wooded mountain chateau.

The art is far better than the hand-painted, slightly ugly boards from 2000. Next to MMP’s boards, the colors are a little off, though. The open ground is a saturated olive drab, and the wooden buildings are reddish-brown instead of brown. It’s a minor thing, and the boards still do their job.

There’s also one big half-board overlay, C1. It fits on board K and turns the chateau into a mountaintop castle, stairwell towers and all.

One Rulebook for Several Packs

The rule pages look like a master set for several Bounding Fire modules. You’ll find sections for Into the Rubble, Beyond the Beachhead 2 and Blood and Jungle in there. It’s easy enough to find the parts High Ground 2 needs, like the ford rules and how to place the C1 castle overlay.

Sixteen Hills to Take

The real meat is the 16 scenarios, and they’re heavy on uphill assaults, bunkers, wire and trenches. Chas Smith, Scott Holst, Steve Swann, Dave Lamb and David Roth all have designs in here, next to the updated classics.

The spread is wide. Greeks and Italians fight across a river between giant hills in Albania. SS troops and Russians brawl on a gnarly setup at Demyansk. There’s even a British landing against the Vichy French in Madagascar. Didn’t see that one coming. You also get a Slovak garrison fighting partisans in Ukraine, and US Army troops against the Japanese on Guadalcanal. Others go to Burma, France, Luxembourg and Hungary.

One scenario even puts the Indian National Army, using Axis Minor counters, against the British. Here’s where each one happened, and the numbers match the table under the map.

Where to Buy

Bounding Fire Productions

Ritterkrieg, $80

Debriefing

High Ground 2 is a great update to an old classic, with one caveat. It’s for experienced players only. Hills, bunkers, wire and multi-level LOS all at once can bury a newer player fast.

If you love the punishing puzzle of taking a hill, cracking pillboxes and digging out a fortified enemy, there’s plenty of high ground here to fight over. Bounding Fire did a fine job bringing it back. Just remember Sun Tzu before you charge straight up the slope.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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