Korean War: Counter-Attack, scenario #43: Red Beach

I love amphibious scenarios as you can tell by some of my previous designs and this is no exception. The American Marines have 4 objectives to obtain a major victory and 3 for a minor victory anything below that starts giving the North Koreans different victory levels. Red beach is not as big of a scenario as the previous scenario; Wolmi-do with a few less toys and units but was a blast to play.

The North Koreans have a nasty bunker and entrenchment counters to overcome but the Americans counter this with 84 points of off-board artillery in turns 1-7 and some mighty fine air-power as well. Believe me, I had to use all of these assets to drive out stubborn NKPA resistance in places. I worried in the beginning because I lost a couple of LVT3Cs on the ground that are worth double points for the NKPAs, so I was starting turns two or three with a negative 4 points/steps. But I took care of that North Korean 45mm AT Guns with a good dose of airstrikes. I saved just about all my naval fire power and concentrated it on the NKPA Bunker and entrenchment positions which paid off. After losing the LVT3Cs mentioned, I did not lose another Marine step but never could recover unit of demoralized and one unit of disrupted Marine Infantry for some reason, the dice were always high but that didn’t matter, as the North Koreans lost 14 steps, 3 leaders and all 4 objectives giving the Americans a Major Victory and by turn 15 at that.

Even though it was a thorough American victory and I recommend this scenario for solitary play more than a face-to-face scenario, it was a very fun, text-book clearing exercise for the Marines and I sweated it a bit in the beginning. At one point after clearing the Bunker hex/counter, I even occupied it with an LVT3C unit, fearing the NKPA might move back into it. Map 111 is a beautiful map to play on and I enjoyed playing this even against North Koreans with a 7/5 morale.