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.