The Land of the Morning Calm Tourney FINAL RESULTS

[TheBigRedOne]

Participants:

Rabbit 125
Laza 105
fastphil 95
Jeff Conner 90
NikB 80
Richie61 85
Hog of War 80
jomni 75
KG_RangerBooBoo 75
Der Landser 45
Compass Rose 45
Landser34 30

Scenario Scoring:

25 = Major Victory
20 = Minor Victory
15 = Draw
10 = Minor Loss
5 = Major loss

Tourney Bonus Points:

1st Place -- 100 points
2nd Place -- 75 points
3rd Place -- 50 points
All Others -- 25 points

The tourney, ideally, should be played as a simultaneous mirror in order to 1) aid in getting the scenarios finished in a timely fashion and 2) avoid potential advantages given if the games are played back-to-back. It's up to each pairing as to how to play, of course. Timeliness is the crucial part here.

Optional Rules to Use:

Vehicle Fire Over
Quality Loss Modifier
Fog of War

You MUST use these two rules and nothing else for all scenarios.

[TheBigRedOne]

The Land of the Morning Calm Tourney Round One:

High Tide, Low Hopes (H2H Variant)

Inchon, September 15, 1950, 1700 Hours

Historical Background: General Douglas MacArthur's moment of greatest glory had arrived. In spite of great opposition from the JCS and other gainsayers, the General would have his way. After making an impassioned speech to his superiors, seeking their approval,his voice dropped to a horse whisper and he ended by saying, "I shall go to Inchon and I shall crush them!" The invasion got the "go" sign.

On September 15th, the landings began in Inchon Harbor and more or less proceeded as scheduled. Even though a typhoon had threatened in the last weeks of preparation, the weather was not a factor. There was no massive response either from Moscow or Peking, and generally speaking, the natural difficulties were overcome.

It was, as amphibious assaults go, one of the most successful in history. Invasion forces included the First and Fifth Marine Regiments, to be followed by the Army's 7th Division, ROK forces, and numerous independent infantry, engineer, artillery, and armored battalions.

After a devastating air and naval bombardment, the island of Wolmi-do was overcome, with no allied loss of life. At 5:00 PM Marine amphibious and assault craft proceeded into the harbor, and the landings began. The LCVP landing craft would slam into the seawalls, engines wide open to hold it in place, and landing troops would scramble up ladders from the front of the craft onto the seawall. There was practically no response from the enemy. One officer later stated that "a single well emplaced enemy machine gun could have chewed the Marines to pieces and badly interfered with the landings."

The landing areas were designated Beaches Red and Blue. The Red Beach landings were relatively smooth. Blue Beach, the objective of Chesty Puller's First Marines, was a different story. Although the first wave made it without incident, the foll owing troops were confused by the haze and smoke. They accidentally fired on the first wave of friendlies and then eventually got lost.

Puller was able to bring order out of chaos, and by nightfall, both landing areas were secure. The primary cause for such success was the confused and inconsistent response of the NKPA to repel the invaders. There was only some resistance at the landing points. Casualties were extremely light. That would change in the days to come.

Optional Rules to Use:

Fog of War
Vehicle Fire Over
Quality Loss Modifier

You MUST use these rules and nothing else for all scenarios.

Matchups:

(Allied v Communist)

Mad Dog (25 Major Win) v Landser34 (5)
Landser34 (5) v Mad Dog (25 Major Win)

Laza (5) v jomni (25 Major Win)
jomni (15 Draw) v Laza (15 Draw)

KG_RangerBooBoo (5) v Compass Rose (25 Major Win)
Compass Rose (5)v KG_RangerBooBoo (25 Major Win)

Richie61 (5) v Der Landser (25 Major Win)
Der Landser (20 Minor Win) v Richie61 (10)

Hog of War awarded two major wins due to game abandonment.

fastphil (25 Major Win) v NikB (5)
NikB (25 Major Win) v fastphil (5)

Rabbit (25 Major Win) v Jeff Conner (5)
Jeff Conner (5) v Rabbit (25 Major Win)

[TheBigRedOne]

The Land of the Morning Calm Tourney Round Two:

The Bowling Alley

The Bowling Alley, Sinjumak, August 17th, 1950, 0800 Hours

Allied Commander: A stroke of luck has fallen on the 8th Army today. G-2 informs us that a battalion sized element of NKPA has been spotted moving en route to the Sinjumak area to stage for a predicted assault against Taegu City. Gen. Walker has been waiting for the chance to go on the offensive and now that we have caught the NK's during the daylight, the time to attack will be no better than now. You are instructed to move your battalion as rapidly as possible into the Sinjumak AOR and destroy the enemy force that is moving en route. Charlie Co. 1st ROK Div. is also moving to the sector, so check your targets. Here is our chance to show these politicians back in Washington we can win this war. All eyes are watching your battalion. Good Luck Colonel.

NKPA Commander: Comrade Colonel, due to unfortunate circumstances, your mission has been altered. Enemy reconaissance has exposed our divisions movement into the Taegu area and we have very little option as of this time. So that the rest of our forces may move into position, your battalion has been tasked with fighting a diversionary action to stall the Capitalists. It is dire that you hold the enemy at Sinjumak. Failure will not be tolerated. If fortune befalls you, our brave Comrade General has given you permission to take the fight to the Western Devils in an offensive manuever. Our people are behind you in body and spirit. For the glory of the revolution!

Historical Background:

From the Appleman Index

"General Walker's primary objective in August was to retain a foothold in Korea. From this he intended to launch an attack later when his forces were of sufficient strength. Walker kept saying to his key staff officers and to his principal commanders substantially the following: 'You keep your mind on the fact that we will win this thing by attacking. Never let an opportunity to attack pass. I want the capability and opportunity to pass to the offensive. Until that time comes I want all commanders to attack-to raid-to capture prisoners and thus keep the enemy off balance. If that is done, more and more opportunities to hurt the enemy will arise and our troops will be better prepared to pass to a general offensive when things are ripe.'

General Walker wanted the foothold in Korea to include the rail route from Pusan north through Miryang to Taegu, eastward to Kyongju, and back to Pusan. This would make possible the logistical support necessary for a breakout offensive later. To retain this circumferential communication net, General Walker had to combine a fine sense of timing with a judicious use of the small reserves he was able to assemble at any given time. He had to know just when to move his limited reserves and where. They had to be at the right place and not too late. A study of the defensive fighting of the Pusan Perimeter by Eighth Army and the ROK Army will reveal that Walker proved himself a master in it."

Optional Rules to Use:

Fog of War
Vehicle Fire Over
Quality Loss Modifier

You MUST use these rules and nothing else for all scenarios.

Matchups:

(Allied v Communist)

Rabbit (25 Major Win) v Hog of War (5)
Hog of War (25 Major Win) v Rabbit (5)

jomni (5) v fastphil (25 Major Win)
fastphil (25 Major Win) v jomni (5)

NikB (25 Major Win) v KG_RangerBooBoo (5)
KG_RangerBooBoo (5) v NikB (25 Major Win)

Compass Rose (10) v Laza (20 Minor Win)
Laza (25 Major Win) v Compass Rose (5)

Richie61 (25 Major Win) v Landser34 (5)
Landser34 (5) v Richie61 (25 Major Win)

Jeff Conner (25 Major Win) v Dog Soldier (5)
Dog Soldier (25 Major Win) v Jeff Connor (5)

[TheBigRedOne]

The Land of the Morning Calm Tourney Round Three:

Whipping at Wolmi-Do

Scenario Size: Medium
Estimated Playing Time: 45 Minutes

Wolmi-Do Island, Inchon, September 15, 1950, 0830 Hours

Design Notes: This scenario can be played from either side or as a 2 player game. The NKPA has a marginal advantage so the players may want to give the USMC an edge by spotting 20 points before play.
Time is the key to winning for the US player. The Marines did it in 47 minutes. You have one hour.

USMC Orders: Captain, your company is to clean out sector 2 on the map. A number of enemy troops may still be active and could present a problem with flanking fire on Blue Beach when the main landings begin. Check all enemy strongpoints and caves and clean them out. Supporting tanks should be joining you shortly.

Historical Background: The tiny island of Wolmi-Do sat in Inchon Harbor like a menacing boil on the face of the sea. Intelligence reports indicated a strong enemy presence with some big guns. From Wolmi-Do, the enemy could pour in enfilade fire on troops landing at both Blue and Red beaches at Inchon.

To neutralize this threat, attacks from the air and the sea hammered the island for five days. In the first encounter, six destroyers crept into the harbor and opened up on Wolmi-Do. The large North Korean guns carefully hidden responded after ten minutes and a serious fight ensued. Des troyers Collet, Gurke and Swenson were all hit and some sailors killed. By the end of the free-for-all, however, many of Wolmi-Do's guns had been knocked out.

Just before dawn, on September 15th, Joint Task Force Seven again approached Wolmi-Do. After more naval gunfire and napalm attacks by Marine Corsairs and Skyraiders, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines came ashore.

Nearly all the enemy's fortifications had been knocked out but some 500 enemy soldiers and a few larger weapons would still have to be taken out. Shortly after the Marines disembarked, nine tanks, 3 of them equipped with flamethrowers, came on shore.

In some areas the enemy fought to the death but in less than an hour, the American flag was flapping in the breeze from the highest point on the island, a grim, bloody indication that Inchon would be next.

Sources:

Conflict, The History of the Korean War, Leckie
The Korean War Almanac, Summers
Fire and Ice, Varhola

Optional Rules to Use:

Fog of War
Vehicle Fire Over
Quality Loss Modifier

You MUST use these rules and nothing else for all scenarios.

Matchups: (Allied v Communist)

Rabbit (25 Major Win) v fastphil (5)
fastphil (10) v Rabbit (20 Minor Win)

Laza (15 Draw) v Richie61 (15 Draw)
Richie61 (5) v Laza (25 Major Win)

jomni (20 Minor Win) v KG_RangerBooBoo (10)
KG_RangerBooBoo (25 Major Win) v jomni (5)

Jeff Conner (25 Major Win) v Landser34 (5)
Landser34 (5) v Jeff Conner (25 Major Win)

[TheBigRedOne]

This tourney is now officially final!

1st place: Rabbit 125
2nd place: Laza 105
3rd place: fastphil 95

Congrats to the winners and thanks to all of you for being so patient for this fairly extended tourney!

[Hog of War]

Thanks for the tourney and congrats to Rabbit and all the runners up's.

[Laza]

Many thanks to the organisers and participants of very enjoyable tourney and congrats to Rabbit on a job well done

bravo Zulu

Laz

[Rabbit]

A big shout out to Alan for all of his hard work putting on the tournament! These things take a chunk of time and effort and can be tough to coordinate. He picked out three scenarios that were quite different from one another and posed very different sets of challenges.

And kudos to all the participants, it was fun playing everyone ... which of course is the primary mission.

[Richie61]

Way to go Bill!

Thanks to Alan for all his hard work and time invested!