Korean War: Pusan Perimeter, scenario #18: The Battle For Ch’onan

I have been so busy lately designing more games that I needed to take a break from that to play another scenario. I picked this one, as it fit the bill for what I wanted today; a quick playing (about two hours), one map, small to medium counter count and another interesting battle from the Korean War. The North Koreans enter from the north of the map and the Americans defend the town hex/hexes. The victor is whoever controls it. Originally I thought there would be only one town hex on this map by the river but after production there in another one at one end of the map. Not a big deal as it gives a couple of variations of play. I chose to defend only the town hex in the middle of the map by the river as to defend both would stretch the small American force too much anyway and the middle town hex was the design intent originally.

The NKPA entered from the north but with a force this size and tough terrain to maneuver in, they entered in three locations, as not to bunch up and also to converge with as much force as possible on the town hex/victory objective. The T-34/85s force drove down the middle along the road but waited for their Infantry to catch up before they attacked the American forces dug-in around Ch’onan. The Americans used their dug-in status and terrain as much as possible to their advantage, as with 18 turns the NKPA really can’t mess around too much, other than to gather all their force, to try an attack all at once in force, as I learned my lessons previous scenarios not to attack piecemeal if possible.

It took a while and I sweated it out as the NKPA player but finally after 17 turns the North Koreans controlled Ch’onan with one turn to spare! The lower American morale helped the NKPA player gain the upper hand but a few different dice rolls either way, and who knows who would have won?