Frozen Chosin

[John B.]

RB and I are making our way through the shorter scenarios and this time it's Chosin 50. I"m the Chinese trying to cut off the UN forces and wreak as much havoc as I can. Here at the start you can see one downside and that's wretched supply for me. But, my basic strategy is going to be to run to the middle and try to cut everyone off.

[John B.]

In the middle of my turn I've made quite a bit of progress on some fronts helped notably by the lack of units in my way. It seems on the lower right (as you face the screen is an ROK division that is giving way pretty easily). Up north the US army TF on the right is already cut off and retreating. The Marines gave up some ground on their part. I've already come to dread the sound of jets because when he gets air support my losses go way up!

[StuccoFresco]

Pushing that marines out of Hudong-ni could be hard, couldn't you swing north with both pincers and concentrate on crushing the northern pockets first?

[John B.]

ORIGINAL: StuccoFresco

Pushing that marines out of Hudong-ni could be hard, couldn't you swing north with both pincers and concentrate on crushing the northern pockets first?

My goal is to cut him off, dig in, and make him take me out. I'm not sure what reinforcements he gets at Hungnam that he can use to push from the coast.

[John B.]

The second turn is here. At the start, it's clear that the Marines and TF 10 (right flank) have pulled back. Also, it appears that the ROK division on the south right flank is going to try to hold me as long as possible.

[John B.]

down further south towards Hungnam I'm about to cut him off and, in fact, I did. This leaves his supply point at Koto-ri as his only source of supply.

[John B.]

By mid-turn I had pushed back the ROK HQ and made progress against the 10th TF in the upper right as well as pushing the marines back a bit on the upper left. But, there will be many medals of pixel honor handed out (if any escapes) from the battle of Sasu-ri (front line upper right) were some disorganized companies held off two assaults and caused me heavy casualties. The intervention of the US airforce helped a great deal. Did I mention I hate the US airforce.

[John B.]

Turn 3. In the south I consolidated and moved on to capture the 10 VP hex at Majon Dong. That division's job is to not accumulate supplies and dig in as I suspect at some point the UN forces will come north from Wonsan.

[John B.]

In the north many of my forces forgot their socialist obligations and decided to reorganize. But, the Marines appear to be heavily engaged up and down the line and they are still cut off from their supply point at Koto Ri.

[John B.]

Here is the view in the north near the middle of the turn. The US forces in the right pocket are collapsing. But, I had one espeically frisky regiment that kept advancing and opening up holes in the pocket. [8|] Over by the Marines I launched one attack where I took 2-1 casualties and left it at that. One problem I'm having is my boys are not giving me much intel on the state of the units I'm facing so a lot of my attacks go in blind. Also, the Marines have tanks and I don't have AT guns so getting rid of tank units is more a matter of wearing down their cohesion than killing the tanks outright.

I moved two units up from the south to make a play for Koto Ri but the UN held onto it. If I take it then they are in huge trouble but I don't think I can get much force against it. over on the right in the middle, I seem to be too strung out and not in a good position to attack so I left it alone.

The UN air pirates continued their anti-proletarian ways and my units suffered a number of interdiction attacks this turn. And, the weather is supposed to be clearing.

[John B.]

Turn 4 starts out with the Chinese digging in to the south.

[John B.]

In the north, however, the marines appear to have been able to reopen a tenuous supply line to their supply point while the 10th army TF is hunkered down by the reservoir and sending forlorn last messages home. As you can see, there really is not a front line as more of a mishmash of intertwined units.

[John B.]

By the middle of the turn, the Marines are reduced to several nearly isolated pockets and the Chinese took the airfield at Kono-ri (not sure that that's good for, but it looks good in the papers). I appear to have received a couple of fresh formations on the flanks of the UN forces and the 10th army TF is now down to a couple of stragglers. I have to assume that there will be some large relief TF sent from the coast, otherwise, this is a very one-sided scenario.

[John B.]

It's turn four and a relief column is heading north. My boys down there still have some supply but they lost their entrenchments. However, they held their ground this turn. It is a 10 VP point hex but I have to imagine the UN forces can push their way in there with those forces plus any other reinforcements they get. My main goal is delay and exhaust!

One question, I have several units in full supply and in good shape who turn after turn only get one MP. Am I missing something with these?

[John B.]

In the north the turn started out with several Marine units engaged and the remnants of the TF to the right clinging to the shores of the Chosin. I think this is TF McLean that historically was basically wiped out but helped to keep the Chinese off of the Marine flank. They are tying down my units. Otherwise, a series of pockets all heading south.

[John B.]

Here is the scene from the middle of my turn. The Marines are getting chopped up into smaller pockets but the fact that my units on the right flank decided to reorganize prevent an attack on the supply head which is the critical hex right now. By the end of my turn I did manage to eliminate the Marine armor company near the top of the screen but TF Mclean held out and caused me some pretty serious damage!

[John B.]

Here are my losses through this turn.

[John B.]

Another turn and bad news from the South. My unit that was sent to delay decided to collapse instead and so the American relief TF must be well on its way. That really does make things tougher for my lads up north.

[John B.]

Ooops, well it seems that I forgot to take a picture of the southern front. In any event, in the north, the remnants of the right wing TF held off one attack so I opted to not go in for a second helping. A Marine HQ did significant damage in the other attack so my only really notable success was to push back the engineer company. The marines remain isolated but, in a feature of the game that I do not like, I can't get any intel on what shape is troops are in. All I can see is that they are cut off. I'm not sure of the logic behind that but there you go. Maybe the prisoners I capture are too hungry to talk.

Trying to keep the marines cut off and hoping that my units come of reorganizing so I can attack the supply point before the relief column shows up. If I hug him close he may have units that are engaged when he tries to back up.

[John B.]

Hello everyone. Here is the next turn. As you can see, the UN is making progress pushing on me from the south. At least my troops did not disappear even if the troops blocking them are not reorganizing. In the meantime, you can see that the Marines are chopped into two pockets and don't seem to be able to make much progress heading south. And, here are my supply levels.