Korean War: Counter-Attack, scenario #64: Rakkasans

I had to get actual paratrooper drops back into PG after doing Nihon Silk, so Counter-Attack has one. The Leyte part of the Philippines will see the Japanese with them again, Sicily with the Americans and Intervention with another American drop as well, whenever those might get published but for now I had to play this published one from Counter-Attack.

The first couple of turns in just about the American airborne drops and is fun to go through the process to see what happens. After the first two drops I lost two Leaders and one Infantry step plus had 3 disrupted units, not to mention scattered units and leaders. It took me a couple more turns to reorganize my airborne troops, which left me about 11 turns to try and conquer and take the two village hexes, one bridge hex and two 60 meter hill hexes from the North Koreans which are pretty much all reduced steps except the ATR unit and all have a very low 7/5 morale but this was a real challenge regardless!

I managed to take both village hexes, the bridge hex and even lost another Airborne Infantry step in the process but the last 60 meter hill hex was not taken until the last turn on the last dice roll for an American victory. I am not sure how they pulled it off in fact, one dice roll number difference in the last combat and the Americans wouldn’t have made it happen, not to mention the initial airdrop wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I got lucky, and believe the NKPA, even with the weaker force should win this one most of the time.

This is an excellent scenario to play solitary, as the North Koreans won’t have much to do but defend but the Americans will have the pleasure of trying out a fun airborne landing and exercise and try to perfect it in this fun situation. The NKPA will naturally setup to defend the Villages, bridge and 60-meter hill. I really had fun playing this and it is worth reading the extra rules in the Counter-Attack booklet to get this action in.