The UN Advances The Other Way - Fighting For Dear Life In North Korea

North Korea, December 1950. A piss-poor time of year to be a US Marine on the Korean Peninsula. The Chinese 10th Army Group has surged across the Yalu River and is crossing the rugged mountains north of Hungnam, threatening the US 10th Corps. They run into the 1st US Marine Division just below the Chosin Reservoir.

The opening positions.

This was a first for me. I've never played a game on the Korean War (indeed, OCS Korea is the only game I have dedicated to the subject), but what a game! I'm reminded of my poor tactics when it comes to OCS, as we'll see shortly, but it's an easy system to grasp once you've played through a few scenarios. 

The UN forces consolidate.

Contrary to the strengths of the system, the Chinese "volunteers" of the 20th and 27th armies elected for a head-on approach to take on the UN forces. The former battered away against the leatherheads of the 1st Marine Division, the latter against defending elements of the 3rd US infantry. The marines were lucky enough to hold against the first forward assaults, but the infantry were pushed steadily to the rear towards Koto-ri. The "advance" in the other direction, was stopped for a few days as the 3rd Infantry regrouped against the 27th army's onslaught. Counterattacks from the Marines, while valiant, were largely unproductive, but it proved a better tactics to keeping the 20th army off balance.

The 7th Infantry applies pressure to the Chinese line of supply.

The scenario only lasts 7 turns, and three turns in, head-on attacks have done little to dislodge the Americans. Confident of victory, elements of the 7th Infantry Division were sent on a isolated operation north along the Yalu to threaten the flanks of the Chinese advance. While successful at first diverting North Korean reserve regiments, combat losses and a turn for the worse to the south quickly change fortunes for the UN.

The 27th Army takes Koto-Ri!

Certain of my defensive position along the main roads leading south from the reservoir, I left the UN flank through the mountains undefended. To make matters worse, all of the UN air cover, which had been critical to the American defense until this point, was out of action rearming and refueling. In a quick exchange of artillery fire and a surprise attack from the 80th Chinese Division, the divisional artillery for the 3rd and 7th divisions found their positions overrun. The Chinese attack cut off the entirety of the 3rd Infantry Division. The bad luck didn't last for long, though. Armor from the 1st Marines, fresh air cover, and the expenditure of critical internal supplies by the 3rd Infantry led to an equally swift breakout, restoring UN lines. 

The final positions.

The damage had been done though and heavy artillery from the 20th Army had taken its toll on the Marines, who were soon dying in droves. The UN pulled the line back closer to Sudong, where the Americans consolidated and reorganized their defensive perimeters. Renewed attacks to turn the American flank at this point proved unsuccessful and on turn 6 of 7, far from the Chinese victory locations, I called it a game. UN victory! Well, a pyrrhic one at least. 

Getting Mauled in Released from the East

I was certain that I'd get a second post in for the month of April, but alas, my hopes burned brighter than my capacity to focus on various projects for the past month. I'm hoping, though, that that has now changed, and that we can get back to some small semblance of normalcy. 

The past five weeks or so have been beyond busy. I had to make a temporary relocation prior to moving this month, I had fall plans to take care of, and plenty of other distractions, goodbyes, and priorities to attend to, so much so that after a week of what feels like constant sleep and similar preoccupations to speed along my spiritual recovery, I'd say I'm nearly back to where I'd like to be. All of this to say, it's good to be back. We'll see how long it lasts, as I'm not one to sit on my rear-end for long, but I've got some more games in the works right now, so I have one last report to publish from my time in Washington.

One last game on Zach's table. Lots of good games and meals were shared on that table.

As a final parting game last month, Zach and I got together to play ASL Starter Kit scenario S6, Released from the East, which pits the Siberian infantry of the 78th Infantry Division (renamed the 9th Guards Infantry) against the grenadiers of the Das Reich Division on the outskirts of Moscow. Zach took the attacking Russians and I took the defending Germans.

To win, the Russians need to take 2 of 3 victory locations (large multi-hex buildings). Ever wary of Frederick the Great's wise words ("He who defends everything defends nothing"), I decided to concentrate my defense on the 2 closes victory locations, but that meant forfeiting a building outright.

Zach nearly takes the 2nd victory location early on.

Zach to the offense immediately -- I always forget that he's got a mind of aggressive offense. He laid a demolition charge in the closest victory location to his entrance hexes early on and I luckily wasn't too bloodied. A see-saw exchange for position in that building proceeded for several turns and as planned, his reinforcing units secured the uncontested victory location. Thanks to my reserves led by Sergeant Mauke, I still controlled the second victory location as Zach's assault troops forced their way in. 

As luck would have it, I managed to throw out Zach's main attack force in the 2nd victory location and it took quite some time for Corporal Loza to rally his broken troops. The mistake I made, though, was winning early in the 2nd victory location. 

After some collaborative strategy discussion, Zach went for broke with everyone that he had left for the 3rd victory location, bypassing most of my active forces in the 2nd building. It worked brilliantly.

A final look at the board.

He suffered some hits, but on the last turn, he secured his 2nd victory location. All efforts in vain, I didn't manage to fall back in time to retake the last location. In the end, it came down to my last good order half squad with their HMG throwing all caution to the wind, dashing across the only street in their way to get to the victory location in hopes of winning back control in close combat, but it never happened. The Siberian fire was too much and once my half squad broke, that was game over.

All in all a good game. After finishing this, we walked two streets over to Paul's place where we were just in time to see some real fire works in game 5 (or 6 at this point?) of Twilight Imperium that our group hosted last month. 

Coming up next, a more in-depth AAR on fighting in North Korea. Stay tuned!