Korean War: Counter-Attack, scenario #7: First Battle of the Naktong Bulge

I have been wanting to dive into the Naktong scenarios/battles for a while now and got setup last night. The North Koreans set up two underwater bridges the night before and maybe the normal bridges shouldn’t be in play on this scenario. The NKPA come in from the west edge of the two maps while the Americans enter from the east edge of both maps in one smaller group on the first turn and a larger reinforcement group on turn eight.

The North Koreans decide to spread out and enter one force on the northern map and the other on the southern map. This time the ATRs units might come in handy as the Americans have 4 trucks, 3 jeeps, 1 50cal. Jeep, one M16 AA Halftrack and one M24 tank unit to shoot at, so I’ll have to make sure to protect them and not use them as cannon-fodder as many time before. It takes about 4-5 turns before either side engages each other but the Americans decide to use all their initial forces to go after the north group of North Koreans, as they are not strong enough to go after both until their reinforcements arrive.

The fight in the north stagnates but with the arrival the American reinforcements, they head for the southern untouched group of North Koreans which have dug-in on hills. Both sides get points for eliminated steps but the North Koreans also get points for each step on the east side of the river, so the pressure is more on the Americans. Neither side has a lot of off- board artillery but the American do bring in M16 and M24 units for direct support.

In the south the Americans crush the North Korean and the NKPA make the fatal mistake of assaulting the stack of M16 and M24 units in desperation and eventually lose 4 step and 1 leader in a move that probably cost them the game/scenario. The only good news for them, was that the ATR units did finally contribute for a change, taking out one 50.cal jeep and one step of M16s before being eliminated. The American lost 5 steps, the North Koreans lost 19 steps but got 10 points for still having 10 steps on the east side of the river, as the Americans didn’t have to time to track them all down. This gave the Americans a 19 to 15 point advantage and a minor victory by achieving 4 points more than the NKPA.

An interesting spread-out fight and I’ll be interested to see how other gamers play this scenario. I am looking forward to some more Naktong action!