Newb Review of Forgotten War: Two-Toned Counters Blow

stuh42asl

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Only one battle honour was awarded to Canadians for Korea - for Kapyong. That action was already covered in the module's scenario mix by a treatment of other Commonwealth forces there (Royal Australian Regiment also got the Presidential Unit Citation, along with the Gloucestershires and 2 PPCLI). The Canadian involvement was not especially decent scenario fodder, no matter how heroic the troops behaved. Basically the Canadians were outnumbered something like 8 to 1, and called artillery into their perimeter while they stayed in their trenches. A little reminiscent of Hedgehog of Piepsk, perhaps, but the other parts of the action were probably seen as more interesting.

The rest of the war was mostly spent in comparatively smaller actions. FWIW I submitted an article on the Canadian brigade to MMP for consideration for the Journal and am hoping to put a scenario together to accompany it. I seem to recall there were one or two Canadian scenarios in the playtest but wasn't privy to their eventual fate. Perhaps we'll also see them in the Journal in future.

There were some notable actions but also bear in mind the Canadians didn't perform all that well in Korea (certainly not up to the standard set in the First World War). Not to say they weren't brave, but they weren't exactly out in No Man's Land dominating the way they did in the two World Wars. I think the most interesting of the post-Kapyong actions by Canadians might actually have been Chinese victories. In time, I hope we'll see these added to the pantheon, but may take time as designers find new and interesting ways to simulate the majority of fighting - night raids on fortified positions.
When I was very young we had a neighbour who served with the Patricias in Korea. He told me and dad about the night at Kapyong. It was a nightmare. I think the reason that we did not do as well as WW2 etc , was the fact that the shock of dealing with Chinese infantry waves made it very hard to really plan an effective strategy. In short it goes like this

"First it started with the bugles, they seemed to come from everywhere, then the first wave of old men, each had a grenade in each hand, then a second wave with mostly grenades, but a few rifles. By that time, all the barrels of the support weapons were starting to melt and the ammuntion was either so low or gone that they switched to small arms. The third and following waves were rifles and regular infantry by that time, so most of the ammo for the small arms were gone, with hand to hand at some trenches. Then we got the call to fall back that our radio guy was calling in artillery on our position, so we moved to the next line of trenches and hugged the trench sides as our artillery crashed around us...... " My neighbours name was Jack Turford, and this story still sticks in my mind. "

We could say that they did pretty good for themselves....when you are outnumbered, and surrounded well to survive is to prove you are good. The fact that little warning was given says a lot.
 

Justiciar

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Just my luck to hook a Political Officer who can read.

Mao apparently doesn't encourage writing. ;)
Re-education camps are a bitch. Even Canadian bourgeoisie have typos don't they? Or do you want to erase that evidence (Post 59) in the manner of Mao?

BTW: Mao "didn't" encourage writing, other than his own.
 

Will Fleming

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Any tips? Seems like I will put the identical ones in with the traditional stuff (T-34/85 for example), but make new spots for Pershing tanks since they now have unlimited APCR.

No clue on the infantry, but PLANO/RAACO type stuff is a bit hard to find in Singapore, so that will probably have to wait a bit anyway.
 

Justiciar

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Any tips? Seems like I will put the identical ones in with the traditional stuff (T-34/85 for example), but make new spots for Pershing tanks since they now have unlimited APCR.

No clue on the infantry, but PLANO/RAACO type stuff is a bit hard to find in Singapore, so that will probably have to wait a bit anyway.
Here is one option, this is how I did it for 3701s.

Box 1: All CPVA and all KPA one box. Basically the first 2 rows ate CPVA MMC/SMC, then same for KPA, except their vehicles go here too. The bottom row is then KPA ?, all KPA guns, all KPA SW, all CPVA SW, all CPVA guns, CPVA ?

Box 2: All OUNC

Box 3: ROK and KMC (pattern akin to Box 1, but better distribution)

Box 4: US and UK specific to Korea.
 

Spencer Armstrong

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Any tips? Seems like I will put the identical ones in with the traditional stuff (T-34/85 for example), but make new spots for Pershing tanks since they now have unlimited APCR.

No clue on the infantry, but PLANO/RAACO type stuff is a bit hard to find in Singapore, so that will probably have to wait a bit anyway.
Don’t bother. Play VASL. ;)
 
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