Korean War: Counter-Attack, scenario #29: East of Taegu

An interesting scenario where a stronger South Korean Infantry force with a few heavy weapons and Bazooka Teams must stop the North Korean from breaking through their lines. The North Koreans have a weaker Infantry force but are very heavy in armor to off-set this.

The ROK forces setup in kind of a stone wall across the line, covering every hex dug-in, with the Bazooka Teams close to the road and the 75mm Pack Howitzer supporting from a hill top. But the South Koreans also have to cover the whole map, as the NKPA could also come on either or both flanks of the road, which stretches the ROK lines a bit. The North Koreans entered the map on the east side in three locations with the main bunch of armor-infantry mix up the center road and some flanking infantry on both flanks and a BA-64 armored car.

After North Korean hit the South Koreans stone wall, I thought no way was I going to break through but over time holes began to form with stacks of NKPA T34/85 tanks shooting point-blank adjacent to dug-in ROK Infantry. Not being too wise, the Bazooka Teams attack the NKPA armor unsupported and were the first units to die without achieving a result to boot. The North Korean Infantry paid a heavy price on either flank but the Infantry supported in the center by their armor and the cover of heavy woods, by the road had more success. After a very stubborn fight, and a nice hole opened by the road, where two units of T34/85s rolled a two on the dice against dug-in ROK infantry and even with the dug-in modifier they still suffered a 2X or two steps loss of ROK units. Once the hole expanded even larger, the T34/85s rolled through, one even with tank riding Infantry, the NKPA armor car followed as well. I quit after turn 12, after 12 steps of NKPA units had exited the west edge of the map, with another reduced step of armor waiting to exit as well. I think like eight steps of T34/85s, two steps of Infantry and a leader and two steps of Ba-64 exited the map but a ton of NKPA Infantry was left behind in bad shape but still a NKPA victory.

Two things I needed to do or try differently as the ROK player; maybe instead of one long defensive line, a defensive in depth, in layers. Also, I should have risk leaving my dug-in positions and assaulted the NKPA armor. Sure, they would have paid the price but it would have slowed the armor down and maybe winning the game. I could clearly see this scenario being played many ways and won by either side. Fun stuff!