Ordeal Before Shuri Unboxing

Before dawn on 9 April 1945, three rifle companies of the 383rd Infantry slipped across a gorge on Okinawa and climbed Kakazu Ridge without being spotted. By daylight they were on top. Then the Japanese hit them with everything they had. Mortars and machine guns raked the crest, and counterattacks came over it. By evening, the survivors were back where they’d started. Welcome to Okinawa.

That first grim day opens Critical Hit’s Ordeal Before Shuri. It’s an old module, from 1999, about the fight for Kakazu Ridge on the outskirts of the Shuri line. I covered another Okinawa module in my Blood & Iron unboxing a few weeks back, but this one zooms in on Kakazu, in the southern part of the island.

Getting It

Ordeal Before Shuri was released in 1999 as part of a three-module Okinawa series, though I’m not sure the series was ever finished. As far as I know, it’s never been reprinted. Critical Hit and Ray Tapio usually like to repackage older modules with new map styles or tweaked rules, but this 1999 version seems to be the only one. It’s long out of print. Happy hunting.

Contents:

• A 22″ x 35″ map
• 8 scenarios
• Rules and charts
• The Platoon Leader 2.5 campaign game, That Damned Hill!

The Battle for the Shuri Line

Tenth Army came ashore on Okinawa’s Hagushi beaches on 1 April 1945, almost unopposed. The Japanese 32nd Army was waiting further south, dug into a belt of ridges, caves and tombs around the old castle town of Shuri. XXIV Corps drove south and ran into the outposts of that line within a week.

Kakazu Ridge was the first big wall. It held. The 96th Division threw itself at it from 9 to 12 April and was thrown back each time. On 19 April, the corps opened its attack with the heaviest artillery barrage of the Pacific war, and the 27th Division lost 22 tanks trying to get around Kakazu.

Only on the night of 23 April did the Japanese pull back from the outer ring. Here’s that first battle on the map below. Its letters match the chronology beside it.

Two Maps of Kakazu

The box promises a “bonus extra-large map.” Large is a stretch. It’s about two feet by three. It covers both Kakazu Ridge and Nishibaru Ridge, and next to MMP’s Kakazu Ridge map from ASL Journal #2, it’s much more expansive. MMP’s version is a mini-historical aimed right at the ridge. The Critical Hit map gives you a lot more of the surrounding area.

I do have some gripes, though. The hex grid is a faint gray and the hex numbers are tiny, so they’re almost impossible to read against dark terrain like woods and hills. The hexes are standard size, too. With caves, fortifications and big stacks in almost every scenario, things get very cramped. If you’ve got fat fingers like mine, keep the tweezers handy.

Not for Beginners

This isn’t a module for beginners. Not even close. Between the Japanese rules, cave complexes, cliffs and all those elevations, it’s a very complex play. Even if you want a first historical module about this fight, I’d point you to the MMP version, which is far more approachable. This one is for hardcore ASL players and PTO fans who want the full, gritty Okinawa experience.

Eight Fights for Kakazu

The module comes in a notebook format, with eight scenarios in chronological order. They start with the first assault on 9 April and end with Rubble Trouble on 21 April. Every one of them is fought around Kakazu. So this map zooms right in on the ridge, and its numbers match the table right under it.

The early scenarios are heavy on infantry, caves and huge amounts of offboard artillery, including 120mm naval guns. The later ones start bringing in the armor. OBS6, Shimida’s Fist, is a night fight, and there are some wet weather rules to keep things interesting.

That Damned Hill

There’s also a Platoon Leader campaign game, That Damned Hill!, and it looks massive. It runs 48 dates, from 9 April to 24 April. There’s a catch. It needs the Platoon Leader 2.5 rules. You can’t buy or download them from the Critical Hit website anymore, though you used to be able to.

Since they were widely available for free at one point, I’ve got your back. You can download Platoon Leader 2.5 here. The old URL where they used to be free is even printed in the PDF.

Where to Buy

Long out of print. Try eBay or the community groups.

Debriefing

Ordeal Before Shuri is a fascinating look at how a third-party publisher like Critical Hit tackles a battle that might not make economic sense for MMP. It gives players a chance to fight a campaign that would otherwise be left to the history books.

The map could be easier on the eyes, and the scenarios aren’t for beginners. If you own it, download the Platoon Leader 2.5 rules before you try That Damned Hill!, and bring the tweezers. If you’ve played any of these, I’d love to hear how Kakazu treated you.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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