Battle of the Imjin River (April 22nd - 25th, 1951)
A HOTT Battle Report by Paul Grace
Chinese forces tried to break through the UN lines on the Imjin river during the Korean War. The 1st Battalion (The Gloucestershire Regiment) held on for 3 nights until eventually overwhelmed and over run. They held the Chinese long enough to break the momentum of the attack and for the UN forces to regroup and establish a new front. On April 22nd - 25th 2001. Paul Grace and friends (primarily my son James) played a series of HOTTs games based loosely on the above events. The objects of the exercise:
Here's a report of one of the battles:
Chinese Army
1 Magician General (High command directing artillery and mortar fire).
2 shooters (Heavy weapons)
16 horde (Human wave attacks)
UN / Gloster's
4 artillery (1 of which was general)
3 shooters (HMGs and brens)
3 spear (Dug in infantry)
Stronghold: Command bunker.
In this first battle the only departure from the rules was, that in order to replicate the battle the table was set up with a river (200 paces wide) running east - west along the centre of the table. The defender then placed the terrain (one wood and one hill with gentle slopes on each side of the river) and the attacker chose which side of the river he was attacking from (i.e. only a choice of two table edges).
The UN defender (southern edge) placed their artillery in line in such a way that they could advance to the riverbank without contacting the bad going on the way. Spears and shooters were placed on the flanks. The stronghold was placed halfway along the western half of the table edge.
The Chinese attackers (Northern edge) formed two columns of horde - five deep on either flank with a central line of six horde with the Magician general positioned centrally behind the line. The shooters supported the western column.
The Glorious Gloster's raced to position their artillery on the riverbank supported by the shooters and spear. The Chinese tried crossing the river with its two columns. The Gloster's kept back the eastern column with just one shooter but the western column crossed with the loss of one of their shooters. Once installed along the river, the artillery provided a near impassable barrier in the centre.
The magician was planning to disrupt the artillery and support the hordes crossing - but the -1 effect of the river on the magician made it impossible to destroy any artillery. We had to reason out that a mist over the river hampered forward observers with the magician unit.
The Western column marched through the wood, fighting off spears and managed to reach the stronghold but at the loss of their second shooter. However a Gloster shooter and spear managed to despatch all hordes on the southern side of the river within the next couple of turns. The Eastern column was also suffering casualties and the Gloster's were able to mount a limited counter attack across the north side of the river. Unimpeded by running water, the magician destroyed a shooter and the accompanying spear decided to fall back to the safety of the guns.
New waves of hordes kept threatening the Gloster's but without their shooters the Chinese lacked the punch to deliver a killer blow. The Gloster's were holding out well but needed to destroy the magician general if they hoped to win. This was a most frustrating time for both sides. The ability of hordes to re-appear at any part of the edge meant that UN shooters kept having to dash from one side of the table to the other to help drive off new attacks. Eventually the magician (supported by two horde) managed to force a crossing, destroying a shooter and spear in the process. Because the Chinese commander was now along the eastern most edge - many of the hordes were now out of command distance - The Gloster's started to pull back towards their stronghold but good PIP scores enabled the hordes to push on.
Having rolled a one in magic combat, the magician was reluctant to risk further magic attacks, as ensourcellment would lose him the battle. As a Chinese command group was unlikely to turn into a frog, we reasoned the following: Two poorly co-ordinated artillery strikes would come to the attention of the political officers - they will question the element's revolutionary zeal or commitment and send it to a re-education camp (replace unit with small dunces cap). The magician now broke away from it's supporting hordes and made a dash for the stronghold. The defenders were unable to catch it (having to negotiate the forward edges of various horde dotted around the allied rear). I think the magician made five unsuccessful attacks on the stronghold (three draws) before a shooter managed to make front edge contact with the magician's flank. The magician lost the next round of combat but could not recoil with the shooter on its flank (new rule in the revised edition) and was destroyed - victory for the Glorious Gloster's.
I would be wary of fielding more than 12 hordes in an army in future (probably 8 would be the optimum number - which is how we played later games). Nor would I wish to employ more than two artillery elements again. The game highlighted the importance of fielding a balanced force. The game had the right feel - If you drop the fantasy 'tags' and use appropriate terms for the elements - it felt like a Korean war battle. It was a frustrating, tense - and long battle (not the average 45-minute job, but well over two hours). The new rules are working well. Once again HOTTs proved its versatility. If I only had one rule set to play with it would be HOTTs. Above all it was fun.
The Korean War will remain in my HOTT repertoire - and I am now setting up a Korean Campaign using our 'Linear Campaign System'.