This scenario pits a large NKPA force of infantry, HMGs, SMGs, mortars and trucks against a smaller force of ROK infantry with some HMGS and mortars. ROK troops have to try to keep the town hexes under their control and eliminate NKPA forces from getting 20 steps off the south end of the table. In addition to the town hexes, they get 3 entrenchments to help slow down the invading forces. I set up 2 strong stacks in each of two hexes in each town, with infantry and a leader in each entrenchment, leaving the mortars and one infantry with the sergeant that I set up in some central woods hexes, where the mortars could be called to hit anything approaching the towns or entrenchments. I felt somewhat like I was defending with a sieve, with lots of holes for the NKPA troops to get past for their exit victory conditions, but also forced them to stop in enough strength to take the towns. My plan was to delay with the entrenchments but then pull back before the troops got cut off there, and use those to reinforce the towns. This worked well with two of the 3 entrenchments, but the more central one got cut off before I could pull the troops out. A NKPA assault on the town hex held by a ROK 10-1-2 LT found itself badly damaged, and then itself was the target of assault when the ROK Colonel lead more infantry into the town hex and demoralized what remained of the NKPA there. My opponent tried to pull out the troops but lost most of them to the free assault shot. It became stagnant as the NKPA commander pushed to take the towns by force while also trying to eliminate the central position of mortars and the Sergeant. It was amazing to see the Mortars defend and damage the NKPA attacker while passing their own subsequent morale checks. The situation became similar to the role of Bastogne during the bulge. It was not as strategically important but it became a moral fixation to eliminate this road block, so after 12 turns of play, the NKPA player conceded. Losses at that point were 5 NKPA steps to 6 ROK, and no NKPA unit was anywhere near the south edge of the board for an exit. Great little battle, and my first face-to-face with a local player I found.

Played solitaire in 6 hours.

Why did it take me six hours to play a 15 turn scenario with less than 80 units? Because the second half was very intense and I spent lots of time considering activation priorities to give both chances a real shot at winning.

I deployed 1/3 of the ROK on board 94. The plan was for two front line units to be sacrificed to gain time and the remaining units to fight a withdrawal battle. My hope was this would prevent the opposing NKPA force to help the fight on board 92 or to be able to exit steps too early.

The remaining 2/3 of the ROK were deployed in or near the town on board 92.

The ROK strategy on board 94 worked well, so much so that midway through the match, the NKPA position became critical. Time became critical and had to commit forces on board for specific task (exiting, killing) with very little flexibility remaining.

In the end, the ROK proved to be just enough resilient to win.

I rated this one a strong "4" solitaire and would not be surprised if it played better opposed. Despite the South Koreans 4 to 1 score so far, I believe its balance is excellent but the North Koreans are tougher to play.

Some basic advice. The South Koreans should put enough units on board 94 to ensure the North Koreans cannot concentrate on one board. Time is your friend and a delaying action on board 94 will make it very difficult for the North Koreans. For the North Koreans, it's hard to gauge if you're on schedule as to the number of step-loss eliminated. Keep in mind your artillery will be very effective late in the game eliminating demoralized units who forced out of town.

Wow...I didn't realize its been almost 5 years since my last AAR here. The good news is that I'm playing PG again. The bad news is...where did 5 years go? Anyway, on to the scenario.

As the ROK, I set up one entrenchment as a roadblock to a town on the Map 92, which I defended fairly heavily, another on a ridge crest on the Map 94 and the 3rd to protect the mortars on a hilltop on the Map 94, which turned out to be a big deal. The NorKs sent a very large force to brush aside resistance on map 92 and a smaller pinning force on map 94. The NorKs made steady progress on map 92, pushing towards the town, and that's where my plan went off the rails. By turn 9 I had only eliminated 5 ROK steps, and was trying to take the town to get to 8, losing focus on exiting. Meanwhile, part of the map 94 force had worked through the ROK lines and a large stack assaulted the 2 entrenched mortars, only to see them roll a 12 with their first fire, totally stalling the attack, and giving the ROK time to rush some reinforcements there.

Thanks to the mostly messy terrain, the effects of artillery were muted despite the big superiority possessed my the NorKs, and I was unwilling to risk friendly fire (perhaps a mistake). I didn't exit any units until turn 10, and suddenly on turn 11 I realized that I only had 8 steps off, and only about another 12 steps were in range of getting off the map even at full speed. At that point, I declared a ROK victory.

I enjoyed the scenario. The NorKs have a lot going for them in terms of firepower and numbers, however the ROK can hide from them, making the 8 steps problematic, and the NorKs can't waste time hunting down units. They have to come in with a clear plan to exit 30 steps, and use the rest of the force to cause casualties. While I played it solitaire, I think this would be a good FtF match, too.

So this was the first play of PG in a long time (The only other PG game I have is Eastern Front Deluxe).

Decided on a fairly simple setup for the SK forces. Set up most of the units on 92 dug in, in and around the town, with the mortars setup on the hill nearby and a few units across the river to guard the flanks. A small number of units where on map 94 set up to catch the NK units as they cross the valley and a stack in the village to force a fight to clear the road.

The NK mostly attacked on map 92 the larger part of the force headed down the road, but a small force was sent to flank the units on the far side of the river. On map 94 only a small force moved down the road.

The battle around the town on 92 and the valley on 94 was tough. Since it had been so long, I hadn't realised just how hard it is to shift well dug in units. Eventually I hit on the tactic of concentrated fire and artillery strikes to DG a stack then throw units into an assault to clear the hex. A stack of 3 NK SMG units was especially effective in this.

I made the mistake of not pulling the SK units out early enough when they were in danger of being overrun, which cost them the game. Even though they held out for 7 turns before falling and then the NK units ran for the board edge to just get enough units off the board to win.

Highlights include: A rampaging stack of 3 SMG troopers and a Leader who successfully assaulted repeatedly and eventually cleared the town.

Dug in SK troops who just woudldn't break no matter what was thrown at them.

A NK leader who was disorganised early one, and failed every single recovery roll... I think he was sent to have a talk with the commissar after the fight.

Korean War: Pusan Perimeter, scenario #1: Ongjin Peninsula

I returned to playing a scenario from Pusan and it was nice to finally use the new die-cut counters. On the surface the Ongjin Peninsula looks like an easy North Korean victory but it is far from that. The South Koreans have both the terrain and time on their side. The NKPA must eliminate 8 ROK steps and exit 30 steps off the south edge of the map in 15 turns. The first 6 turns are night which helps NKPA approaches and they have almost twice the Infantry units, higher morale and more off board artillery support. But the ROKs dig-in, have three entrenchments and block the most important terrain areas.

As the North Koreans I had to first concentrate enough forces to eliminate 8 South Korean steps or exiting 30 units wouldn’t mean anything. Then I had to make a hole through the ROK lines with enough time to exit those units. The night turns really helped the NKPA at first, then daylight hit. With a hole opened up and 9 ROK steps eliminated it was a tense rush to exit 30 or more NKPA off the south edge with ROK units trying to fill the void and cut-off the openings. The NKPA step losses don’t matter as long as you have enough to exit in 15 turns. But I actually only lost 5 NKPA steps, as they pulled out of action as soon as the ROK losses reached 8 steps and headed south. Not until the last turn were the NKPA able to exit a total of 32 steps for a North Korean victory.

A very surprisingly tense scenario right to the end. The NKPA exited 32 steps and eliminated 9 ROK steps but it was touch and go and a few dice rolls either way and it would have been a ROK victory. I enjoyed playing this one.

Overall an interesting scenario that appears at first to favor the North Koreans, but after a playthrough I found that the opposite may be true. I began by deploying the South Koreans fairly far north, blocking the easy passageways through the map without much difficulty. I placed both entrenchments along roads spread my infantry out relatively evenly. The North Koreans spent the first 8 turns desperately trying assault my front line, causing few casualties while taking many. Despite artillery support, the dug in South Koreans only began to waver on turn 9 as a 4 steps were destroyed in North Korean assaults on the eastern side. Despite this, they were once again bogged down by one of the infantry units I had held in reserve and much weaker, but much more accurate, South Korean artillery. Breakthroughs on the western edge were achieved on turn 13, far too late to make a difference. On turn 14 the North Koreans achieved a general breakthrough, destroying around 50% of South Korean forces in return for a similar percentage of their's, but by the end of turn 15 they had only managed to exit 8 steps. South Korean victory.

Defending South Koreans managed to deny a victory to the North Koreans by steadily refusing their flank and harassing the NKPA forces trying to exit the board.

This was the first PG game for my stepson and me, and only his second wargame ever. We went for something simple without armour, with gradually improving spotting range and ended-up stretching this game out over five non-consecutive weekends. I started too late getting my thirty steps off the south map edge and would have won if we'd gone another turn, so whose fault is that?