Korean War: Pusan Perimeter, scenario #25: Rock of Chickamauga

I think originally this scenario was called The Big Push, as I go back and look at my notes. This was my first Panzer Grenadier scenario played in 2019, as I have been really busy. When I first set this scenario up, I noticed the American leader setup was a carryover from the previous scenario but since the situation on the Americans side dictates confusion and lack of control, having only five leader counters kind of show this aspect of the scenario off very well and since everyone else has been playing it this way for years I went with it as well. But if you don’t do very well with the Americans on this scenario, you can add 3 more leader counters.

The North Koreans enter mostly from the north edge of the map with a smaller group entering from the west. The American setup anywhere south of the river not dug-in but have time to do so while the NKPA enter the map and it’s still dark the first six turns. The Americans must also setup a small blocking force on the western edge of the map to prevent the small NKPA force that enters from escaping behind their lines and must spread out five leaders wisely as they will get lot of action tonight. Both sides get points for eliminated steps but only the North Koreans get points for exiting steps off the southern edge of the map.

The Americans are spread pretty thin but with a lot of fire power and off-board artillery and have time to dug-in before the NKPA make contact with them. The North Koreans try to enter the map spread out across the northern edge of the map hoping to exploit holes in the U.S. lines which many have been their first mistake and maybe they should have punch through in force in two points. The NKPA smaller western force is stopped by the smaller American blocking force and shot to pieces by the American off-board artillery.

The desperate fighting is going on from east to west in a number of different engagements. This is the prefect one map scenario for this battle and with only 20 turns it plays really fast. The 7 morale for both sides makes recovery more difficult and the NKPA have two KOMs that will be very busy throughout the game.

As the game progresses the American 26th Anti-Aircraft Battalion enter the battle on turn 13 to take care of any remaining, scattered NKPA units that might exit the south edge of the map and change the victory results and a M19, M16 and a reduced M24 have a nice punch, if they don’t enter too late to make a difference.

In my game the Americans eliminated 22 North Korean steps and 3 leaders, while the NKPA only eliminated 2 American steps and exited 8 steps off the southern edge of the map for an American Major Victory winning by 22 to 10 in total points. It really helped that the Americans roll very well with their off board artillery in the beginning of the game and that the NKPA didn’t groups stronger forces together early, to punch a big hole or two through the American lines. I would say having only five American leaders make this scenario more balanced and tense for both side, so I wouldn’t change that. I can also see the replay-ability for this scenario being very high, as there are many variables in setup, entry, defense, attack and luck of the dice to make this one play out differently each time. I really enjoyed playing this scenario again. The perfect size for a quick one map, medium size scenario.