The Korean War - Advanced Game: Part 2

-
Well, crazy stuff happened in turn 5.  Things started off with four NK divisions on the southwest side of the peninsula.  Two NK divisions were skulking around the outskirts of Kumchon, which was held by an ROK division and reinforced by a nearby US Army regiment.  Northwest along that road lay Taejon with another NK division.  Two US Marine divisions newly landed in Hannae were further to the west.

The NK player placed their depot along the road, midway between Taejon and Kumchon, hoping this would help keep the units defending Taejon from being overrun by Marines while simultaneously supporting the attack on Kumchon.

Sorry, map is rotated.  North is to the right, etc.

The UN threw a 2 point depot in Kunsan, a fortified and strongly held position along the west coast near where the Marines had landed in the previous turn.  Another 1 point depot was placed in Pusan to support the considerable numbers of US troops that had just broken out of the perimeter.  

The supply rolls were terrible for both sides and each depot was placed on a restricted commitment level, which meant that attacks in the primary range (10 MP hexes or less from unit to depot) were halved.  So it seemed at first that this might stall the UN push towards the north this turn as it would require considerable force to hit out at the North Koreans as they tried to delay and defend against the American units on the counterattack.

Unfortunately, the North Korean player's stupid placement of its 3 point supply depot along the road between Kumchon and Taejon left it completely vulnerable to the Marines, who quickly moved in and attacked the undefended depot with the help of armor and air support.  The depot was destroyed and now the North Koreans were now defending at 1/4 strength.  Oh boy did the UN go to town.

The North Koreans managed to pull back many of their units, completely withdrawing from the outskirts of Kumchon and abandoning their attack.  They also gave up the newly captured city of Taejon (quickly occupied and held by a division of  UN-friendly Nationalist Chinese that had just arrived in turn 4) as they raced units back towards Seoul.  It was too late, however, and the UN player quickly moved up an army regiment into Seoul proper while another regiment of Marines from around Kunsan took off north and tried to reinforce the gain.  On the east side of the coast, the UN player moved up a division of Americans just south of the 38th parallel and completely eliminated a North Korean division.


End of Turn 5, Action Phase 1


By the end of action phase 1 of Game Turn 5, the UN had made some major gains in the south, even managing to capture Seoul while getting one division right up near the border with North Korea.  

Seoul recaptured by Americans!


Taejon recaptured as North Koreans flee north towards Seoul.

A single US division moving along the east coast pushes up against the border with North Korea
Next up!  The attempted liberation of North Korea!  Let's see if we can't save this place from 60 years worth of overfed leaders with bad haircuts!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Designer's Diary Part 7: Historical Scenario 1 Background

-
Image
In my game, That Others May Live, the first historical scenario is called “Cauldron of Fire” on page 9 of the TOML rulebook. Here's the description: It is June 1968. While bombing enemy supply trucks at the north end of the A Shau valley, an A-4 Skyhawk is shot down by surprisingly heavy and accurate anti-aircraft fire. The pilot ejects, but is seriously injured. His wingman and a “Nail” FAC are already on the scene when the Combat Search and Rescue team arrives. High winds prevent the use of some special weapons in the rescue operation. Historically, the mission was a failure. It was abandoned after one of the rescue helicopters was destroyed by enemy fire. There were no survivors. A ground team was later inserted to find the pilot, but failed to locate him. This scenario is loosely based on the events of June 9 and 10 th , 1968 when US Marine Captain Walter Schmidt callsign Hellborne 215 was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire while on a bombing mission over the A Shau ...
Read more

Phoenix Command - The Rescue Mission

-
Image
Phoenix Command was a combat system for miniatures and roleplaying games (and whatever else you wanted) that was published in the 1980s.  This wasn't just any combat system.  Designed by NASA rocket scientists (I'm not even joking there), the system aimed for realism through an incredibly detailed rules set. Combat was segmented into two second impulses and half-second phases so everything - and I mean everything had to be accounted for (even flicking your weapon from safety to auto needed to be done).  Weapon damage and penetration was based on detailed ballistics tests.  Damage to the human body was based on computer simulations.  The first time I played the game, it really took me almost an hour to go carefully through the tables and figure out the modifiers and then apply damage.  That was for a single shot! Leading Edge Games, the publisher of Phoenix Command (and the Aliens and Living Steel RPGs) has long gone out of business. But a quick brow...
Read more

GDW Twilight: 2000 - Last Battle: A Review

-
Image
By the late 1980s, GDW was elbow-deep in both the roleplaying and wargaming business, pumping out an impressive volume and variety of award-winning titles.  The wargaming end of the business around that time saw the release of games like Stand & Die: The Battle for Borodino , Team Yankee , and Test of Arms , which were all part of the company's new (at the time) "First Battle" series.  This series was an attempt at producing wargames that were accessible to new wargamers, boasting an easy-to-learn basic rules set that allowed new players to get the game home and start playing right away.  This was quite a shift in GDW's previous approach to wargames, which were often quite complex and meant only for hardcore wargamers (see Assault , for example).  One game, "Last Battle" , was released in 1989 as part of the "First Battle" series and I'm going to talk about how and why I bought this obscure 25 year old game and the circumstances surrounding...
Read more