In this scenario, a large group of high morale (8/6) North Koreans, with lots of SMGs and 4 HMGs marches down the road against some similarly high morale, dug in South Koreans who have 5 HMGs of their own and a couple of 81mm mortars as backup. Neither side has much in the way of OBA (10 for the NorKs, 18 for the ROK). The scenario is basically "who kills more", although their are VP for a town that is behind the North Korean lines, which I think are basically free points for the invaders. It also makes me wonder if the maps or VCs were changed at some point during development, as there is little incentive for the South Koreans to attack, and the VCs could have just been adjusted to take into account these 4 VP.

Here's what I did for the ROK defense. Since the North Koreans get points for controlling the north-south road, I more heavily defended that, with a strong HMG position towards the front, and another one on the hill to the west to discourage infiltration along that side. The eastern hill was less heavily defended, again to discourage infiltrators. Weaker positions were across the gorge to use as a reserve, and the mortars were on a tall hill to the rear which gave them a good view of the battle.

With no way to really do a prep bombardment (10 factors isn't going to do much to dug in troops), the North Koreans just basically had to charge ahead. I did group all 4 HMGs to suppress a position on the eastern hills which was less heavily defended by the ROK. I also overloaded that with SMGs, trying to just overwhelm the ROK with short range firepower and assaults. In the center, the North Koreans had slow going, suffering a fair number of casualties for little gain. They did push onto the hill in the center threatening to outflank the defenders on the road, however concentrated mortar fire and flanking fire kept that threat at bay. Things on the eastern hill went better, however it was still slow going and the MG position on the high hill there was very difficult to crack because of first fire. In fact, that was a recurring theme. First fire by dug-in troops on the 13 column or higher will slow up most assaults. The North Koreans weren't helped by units passing morale checks but leaders getting demoralized and fleeing and taking their sweet time to recover. Several assaults were conducted by leaderless troops who were already in the hex. North Korean casualties were mounting, however there were enough invaders that they were slowly wearing down the South Koreans. With the town VP, this allowed the NorKs to keep the game in the draw range.

2 North Korean leaders deserted during the fight, and several others were shot and killed. The 10 morale Komissar was having a bad day, and ended up eliminating 2 steps of badly needed front line troops. It took about 16 of the 22 turns to clear the positions from the eastern hill, and the North Koreans surged towards the gorge (a great place for demoralized troops to hide, btw) and the weaker troops there. Even here, though, they had to close for combat. Going into the last turn, the South Koreans had eliminated 20 steps, the North Koreans had eliminated 12 steps of their neighbors and controlled the town for 4 VP, for a total of 16. A 4 VP margin was a South Korean minor victory. However, the North Koreans got the initiative on turn 22 and rolled a 2 and a 3 on their 1st 2 shots. They were both adjacent shots, one on the 16, one on the 11, and suddenly 2 ROK steps were lost (and the survivors did miserably on their morale checks, so they weren't doing much firing back) and we were back in draw territory. However, the ROK wasn't done. When it came time to fire their OBA and their mortars firing over open sights (okay, I know mortars don't do that), they also go into the snake eyes and boxcar parade, and took out 2 North Korean steps. Final score, 22 points for the South, 18 points for the North and a minor victory for the defenders of K-Pop!

This scenario was very tense and, while I think the North Koreans have a tough job, not having leaders demoralize and desert may have given them the victory, or at least put it in solid draw territory. Despite all the losses, the North Koreans could have regrouped for another good strength assault and had now penetrated into the South Korean rear. Now, just like you only get 10 frames in bowling, not the 15 you get if you're Amish, you only get 22 turns in this scenario, so the extra time isn't relevant.

I rated this a 4, although for solo play it might be closer to a 5. Very direct, very bloody, very tense. I only took it down a bit because the South Koreans are fairly static here. While they do have choices of where to shoot, they don't do a lot of maneuver. Still, it was very enjoyable.

Korean War: Counter-Attack,scenario #17: The Eastern Corridor

This is kind of a puzzle of a scenario to figure out defensive and offensive strategies. First, the North Koreans (NKPA) start out with four victory points for controlling the two villages in their setup area worth 2 points each but this might give the South Koreans (ROK) incentives to attack as well instead of just hanging back on the defensive. The South Koreans setup a defensive wall with dug-in units on their side protecting the North-South road which is worth 5 points if either side could ever control the whole stretch and each enemy step eliminated counts as 1 point each.

The North Koreans decide to attack in the center which went nowhere and caused casualties, on the right flank which amounted to nothing and on their left flank which produced some ROK casualties. The South Koreans also sent out a small attack force to try and take a village hex or two, passing by the NKPA center and right flanks. As you can tell the battlefield was becoming confused.

The ROKs took casualties trying to take the villages and the North Koreans lost 11 steps while the South Koreans lost 7 steps but the NKPA got 4 points for controlling the villages. A 100% Draw, as one side needed to win by 4 points of more just to have a minor victory. I’ll have to try this one again.