A nice one map scenario, where Marines with decent OBA and a lot of heavy weapons have to try to take a hill full of dug-in North Koreans. Now, from a quality standpoint, the Marines have all the advantages. 8-3s are better than 4-2s, and 12-5s are better than 7-4s, however there's the whole issue of going against dug-in guys uphill, and not a particularly long time clock. Plus, the victory conditions give the NorKs more points for holding the hill hexes than the Marines, so the Marines can't just say "Okay, we took half of the hill, we're good."

I spread the North Korean defenders across the 2 hills, concentrating on the highest hill hexes and also where there were light woods. I did leave a couple of units in the town near the start, which may have been a mistake. They didn't delay the Marines much at all. The USMC entered mostly from the southeast and east, attempting to take out the lower hill first before tackling the higher hill. I initially tried to use massed firepower to eliminate some of the NorKs, and this wasn't working fast enough. Being dug-in generally reduced the firepower to where I was not getting rid of many of the Commies, and their return fire was at least annoying. Plus, their small OBA and mortars kept causing issues. So, it was time for the assaults. Even here, things were tough, as the first fire by the NorKs kept causing casualties and disruptions. About 2/3 of the way through the scenario, the NorKs still had a a big VP lead. However, they were also becoming increasingly fragile. Once those 7/6s rout, they don't come back when the leadership was mediocre. Finally, with 4 or 5 turns left, the North Korean position on the eastern hill collapsed, and I rushed every healthy Marine I could find at the western hill. US artillery found its mark, and there just weren't enough healthy North Koreans left to put up an active defense. The Marines swept through empty hill hexes, and while they didn't totally clear both hills, they took enough hexes to give them a victory by several point.

This was an exciting scenario, as it didn't become clear until about 2 turns from the end that the Marines could win it. However, I think it's better suited for solo play than competitive, because the North Koreans are mostly sitting in their foxholes waiting for the onslaught. They don't have a lot of maneuver room I'd probably rate it a 3 or 4 if being played with 2 players.

Korean War: Counter-Attack, scenario #3: Fox Hill

Fox Hill was next up on my list to play. I have to admit, I really like the victory conditions that were changed in development in this scenario, they give either side a fair chance. So thank you John, Daniel and Matt. The North Koreans are defending dug-in on Hill 342 (Fox Hill). They setup on both the larger 40 meter hill sections with more concentrated on the 60 meter hill sections, north of the river, as 40 meter hexes give the NKPA 2 points each and 3 points each for the 60 meter hexes, while the American Marines must dig-out the dug-in NKPA units and only get 1 point for each 40 meter hex and 2 points for each 60 meter hex. Both sides get 1 point for each enemy step eliminated as well.

The American decide to enter units from both the south and east edges of the map to go after both larger hills at the same time but splitting their forces into two groups for a while until they merge to the middle. The Marines also get four Navy air-strikes in the first four turns and some off-board artillery, as do the NKPA. The Americans are able to hit the far eastern hill mass first and the North Koreans defend with fewer units here but enough to slow the Marines down, as the NKPA have far more units defending on the larger hill mass. A Naval F9F Jet hit some dug-in North Korean units with a nice roll of 12 knocking out a step of NKPA units at a critical time and opened a nice path for the Marines attacking from the east. The terrain definitely favors the defender, being up higher and dug-in throughout. But after heavy fight on the north-eastern hill the Marines cleared it and I though this might be too easy but then came the north-western hill and the nightmare began in a blood bath. Both sides tried to get an advantage at one time or another by stacking three units in a hex adjacent to enemy units to get a numerical advantage and both times were shoot up as the other side would get a +1 modifier when firing direct fire for a three stack. Sometimes when pressing to clear dug-in units with a 20 turn time factor you have to take the risk and hope to activate first but my Marines got burned twice in their hurry to push North Korean units off hill hexes and surprising to me their casualties started to mount as high as the NKPA units.

Even a reduced 2 value unit gets an (M) morale check with a dice roll of a 3 on the direct fire as I found out the hard way and both sides start with the same Initiative of 3 and morale of 8/6, so this is a real bloodbath scenario, much to my surprise. Toward the last two turns it was still anyone game but the Marine’s attack was staring to fall in some disorganization and they could not get control of any of the 60 meter hill hexes but managed to control 16 of the 40 meter hill hexes for 16 points and eliminate 10 North Korean steps for another 10 points with a grand total of 26 points. But hold on to your socks, as the North Koreans controlled 7 40 meter hill hexes and 2 60 meter hexes for a 20 points and eliminated 11 Marines steps for a total of 31 points, winning a minor victory by one point for having 5 more points than the Americans. The Marines got too bunched up in the end and made easy targets. The North Koreans had the crazy Lieutenant with 10 Morale and 1/1 factors that wouldn’t die while this is normal for the Marines leaders.

I was totally surprised at the outcome because I did not count points until the end and had to recount them three times just to make sure. This was not historical outcome of:

Marines succeeded in capturing and holding the crest of Fox Hill. Company D of the Marine battalion lost 8 men killed, 28 wounded including 3 officers. The enemy losses are unknown but estimates range from 150 to 400. I am not sure what the other companies lost but it was similar to Company D. But that is why we play the games/scenarios, looking to play Monday Night Quarterback and change the results. Another fun one to play and PG plays great solitary no doubt.

Small scenario just right for getting back to the game. I spaced out the NK units across both hills with good fields of fire for the HMGs and keeping the SMG platoons forward to act as speed bumps for the Marines. USMC came on from the south (and now I remember some could have entered from the east edge, but didn't turn out to be a problem) in 2 formations centered on the two senior officers. Pretty much pushed on the NO right flank while the Major lead a pinning action N towards the villages in the middle. Basically, the right held for all the game before lucky rolling turned in the Marines favor and the 60m hill was cleared and taken. From there it seemed pretty straightforward as the NK flank collapsed. By turn 15 the whole big hill was cleared and the NK was down to one Captain and a handful of troops on the smaller hill. Oddly, the 2 turns I managed to get air strikes failed to do any damage, and US artillery got the right hex every time, but only once or twice did it actually do damage, while the lesser NO guns and mortars caused the only Marine casualties. I'm the end, the only thing that kept the last two 40m hill heard was running out of turns. 52 to 9, an outstanding US victory.

The 40 and 60 meter hills are the objectives for both sides. The North Koreans want to keep them and the US Marines want possession. My set up was flawed. Prior playing wwith Bruce has him stack one squad and a MG or WPN in Marine parlance. Gives him 20 points of fire power and a leader. The Marine leaders are good. He puled 2 out of 14 with 0 - 0 ratings. Most have a value for both combat and morale.

I set up along the 20 meter corners to cause him to fire up hill and get adjacent for OP fire. @#$%& 2 morale bonus on 6 leaders canceled that idea. The reason the Norks need to be on the 40 meters is compactness. I had 4 leaders with 1 combat rating. Pulling an 8 Commissar did not help. Putting my troops on the 40 meter hills will max my fire team potential.

As I retreated to the higher elevation he got me his artillery. Most of my leaders lacked a morale modifier. Lost 2 with morale mods due to modified snake eyes on leader causality check.

One bright spot was that Bruce forgot bout his planes. First four turns he gets one Navy aircraft for support. One each turn.

With his 20 point fire power in each stack and forming a two hex team give him 40 pints. Down 2 columns for dug in and 3 hexes distance. Turn after turn he rolls. Something is going to give over 25 turns. Another reason to be farther back ion higher terrain. Eats up the clock. PZ GR is like US Football or basketball. One side can run out the "clock".

Another solitaire scenario.