We
will launch the main assault through the
Uijongbu corridor. Two infantry divisions supported by tanks are poised for the
attack. I have to operations left so I can activate both. The 4th Division and
the 107 Tank regiment will break the ROK units and the 3rd Division supported
by the 109th Tank regiment will race to Seoul.
4th
Division will activate first. We will do again a normal attack, both with tank
and air support.
Because
tanks are involved we will have to perform a tank combat procedure. A KPA tank
regiment has a tank value of 8, the ROKA 1st Regiment an anti-tank value of 1.
8 to 1.
With
0 as result... no effect again. but this
is just for the armor combat.
The
normal combat will be 6 to 1 in clear terrain and with +1 for the KPA air
support.
5+1=6. The results is D2, the
defender must lose two steps. With the 1st regiment having only 1 step it is
completely destroyed
The
victorious KPA units can now enter the hex without expending Action points, instead
it will use the 2nd action point to launch a new attack on the second stack of
ROKA units.
Again
tank and airpower will be committed.
This
time the armor combat ration will be 8 to 2, 4 to 1 because 2 ROKA units are
defending each one with an AT value of 1.
3...+2 on the final die roll, and +1 for air.
No bad terrain stopping our KPA blitz.
12
to 4 become 3 to1 in clear terrain.
I
got a 3 modified to 6.
D1
result. 1 ROKA step will be eliminated. In this case the 9th regiment.
The
4th division is now fatigued.
Now
as my last KPA operation I will activate the 3rd Division with the 109th Tank
Regiment.
I
will spend one point to give them a tactical movement action.
Now...
I cannot end a movement action with more than 1 infantry division or three
infantry regiments/brigade in the same hex, so just moving south on the road is
not possible. I will have to use the broken country (dark green) on the east of
the road. To put myself where I want and then use the last action point to
launch a normal combat against the 3rd ROKA regiment.
In
my previous combat example I have forgot (due to the loopsided combat) to
mention the fact that friendly units adjacent to attacked enemy units
participate in the combat. Now both the 3rd and 4th KPA divisions with their
attached tank regiments. Air power will not be used, I will keep it for another
attack.
Armor
combat is 16 to 1...
8 on
the die... +4 bonus to the combat die.
Combat
ratio is 18 (12 + 6 the fatigued 4th division is less effective) to 2 for 9 to
1 in clear terrain with +4 bonus.
2
modified to 6... DR2 result. It meant 2 step eliminated and the defender forced
to retreat. Because the defender has only 1 step the unit will simply be
destroyed with no need to retreat. Another ROKA regiment overwhelmed.
The
KPA first operation of the war, after a lousy start in the east has cleared a
path toward seoul. Yet the fact that the defense of the two combined ROK
infantry regiments has required two attacks meant that Seoul has not been immediately
attacked. How the ROK army will exploit the situation will be the topic of the
next post.
Now what is a step? Military units usually
comprises lot of people and equipment so you cannot kill them outright except
in the most extreme situations. To represent the progressive reduction of
combat effectiveness you use steps. In The
Korean War divisions have three steps, regiments, equivalent to one third
of a division, only one. The game uses divisions as the basic units. Regiments
serve to specific purposes. In the first turn they represent the scattered deployment
of the South Korean Army, later they allow US units to arrive piecemeal and
also to cover more ground both in the defense of the Pusan perimeter and in the
push into North Korea.
On a secondary note, while the attack plan
has been inspired by the real KPA invasion I have modiefied it a bit to show
how a wargame can be used to explore alternatives approach using the feedback
of what, at least in this case, is a solid combat and logistic model. If we
examined the action of the 3rd and 4th Divisions it is a quite effective reproduction of the
initial moves of the KPA. The use of T-34 tanks against an unprepared ROKA
defense and units lacking effective
anti-tank weaponry (represented by the 1 AT factor), allowed the KPA to overrun
several ROKA defensive positions. In our little example the 3 regiments of the 1st ROKA
division were deployed in depth to force the northerners to lose time and “steam”.
Yet the use of tanks (in the game providing the modifier) allowed the North
Koreans to effectively overcome the defensive positions. Also note the
importance of the Uijongbu corridor. It is clear and flat terrain representing
an ideal avenue for an attacking army.
Moving in the more hill terrain on the two sides would have delayed the north Koreans and tank
would have been less effective (as we will see soon in the game).
