FT SmR6 Fox’s Fretful Night After Action Report (AAR) Advanced Squad Leader scenario

Victory Conditions

Eleven squads of North Koreans got 5 turns to clear 4.5 squads of Marines off 7 hill top hexes.  All Marines setup HIP’d and had Trip Flares and a 100+mm OBA with Variable Time (VT) Fuses.

After Action Report

So the North Koreans had 5 turns to push the Marines off 2 hilltops. The Marines looked very understaffed at first glance but my opponent is never deterred by odds, big or small. I look at terrain differently at Night. Open Ground offers +1 LV straight up especially when most Marines should be on hilltops (equivalent to having Woods everywhere). Walking into Concealment Terrains required +1 MF though which made Open Ground more appealing. This was especially significant when you look at the hilltops. Getting onto a hilltop Brush costed 5 MFs, same of course for Woods. Five of the seven hilltop hexes were covered with Brush or Sparse Woods. So  getting into CC in most cases meant going in CX’d. While it’s harder to rally at Night, Marine squads self rally at 3 and get rid of their DM counter at 8.

Running around in the open when a Star Shell was overhead means certain death against Marine firepower. The threat of Proximity Fuses in the Marine OB is a big cause for concern. We needed to fish out the radio guy as quickly as we can.

We approached the left hilltop from both sides. The way we setup, it would be tough for Korean leaders to get to everyone, but we only have 5 MPh’s to get things done. Not many Americans popped out of HIP but we broke the Marine MMG team early on.. We surrounded the left hilltop but we were too relaxed about the broken MMG team wandering about. No Hipped unit popped up the top though.

We approached the left hilltop from the bottom with the other half of the force coming in from the right. Marine firepower broke up our initial entry but the sunken road offered the Commissar a safe space to talk sense into the chaps.

Two turns down. Marines were not going to show themselves unless we get even more aggressive.

We ran NK squad up the hilltops to see if there’s anyone there.

NK piled into the left hilltop CX’d and commenced Close Combat!! We kicked off some wires for trip flares but nothing flared up. We had the left hilltop almost cleared apart from a fireteam taking us into Melee. 

The bad news was that we allowed the broken MMG team to self rally and join the right hilltop defence! The good news was the Marine radio malfunctioned and was inadvertently pushed off the Steep Hills without a shot! The Koreans kept close with the Marines but their concealment were getting rapidly stripped by the insane firepower.

The Koreans reinforced the Melee on the left hilltop but that fight continued. Well placed Marine star shells prevented us from getting too feisty in the open when the Marines had -1 leaders in choice places.

The right hilltop unfortunately saw the Americans got their act together and blew some of our troops away now that most of the sticks and branches we held up for concealment were decimated.

The left hilltop finally got that Melee over with. The star shell situation convinced the North Koreans to stick with their Concealments as they pushed to the right. It was a mistake as I have only 1 MPh left.

Over on the right, the shot up Koreans were rallied by their fearless Commissar to have one last go. We finally had a DC bearing squad in position to launch a DC hero but the union cited personal safety concerns (the boys sat back down for more tea and cake). The Marines consolidated into solid chunks. We got a Melee going anyway which kept some of them from shooting.

Bob came back from his bio-break and the chaps quickly volunteered him to be the next DC hero. Someone suggested the moniker ‘The Flash’ but they decided that might not be entirely auspicious. So Bob went off screaming, the Marines opened up and Bob was practically doing the Matrix bullet time all the way up the hill!  He was about to dive into the Marine foxholes when he tripped on an empty coke can, smacked his head against a rock and died. Bob did cause enough distraction for the rest of the band to move up to CC position though! Some of the Koreans got close enough on the left side of the hilltop as well when CC time comes around. 

We couldn’t clear ALL the HDPs at the end though. Plus you know what? It wouldn’t have mattered. A HIP’d fireteam popped up from a hex the left NK team never checked and reoccupied the left hilltop.

`Ah well.