MiG Alley

I have a few of these mini games from Decision Game and can happily recommend them. Under £15 for a quick to play but challenging and clever game seems like pretty good value to me. 

The air war in Korea is one of these things which interests me so it’s nice to have a compact simulation of it. 

Usual nice map and counters. 

It’s a two-player game but I played it through solo.  My initial UN offensives may have rather lacked subtlety and soon the broken aeroplanes were piling up.  

There seemed to be thousands of those bloody MiGs!

I then tried fighter sweeps…

…which soon created a few broken MiGs. 

The cards which partly drive the game are an interesting lot. This one was a nasty shock for the UN. 

My first effort resulted in a win for the Commies. This is a tough game for the UN!  Like I said, simple mechanisms but LOTS to think about!

Task Force Smith again - part 3

I've somehow managed to get the photos in a jumble but here are a few more from this game.  The result was a win - albeit a costly one - for the NKPA.  A very jolly game which we cracked through in only about 2 hours.

Air support featured  - all of it WW2 surplus.  Here an ancient P-51 attempts to shoot up the NK column.

Here's an even older YAK-9 keeping the TF's heads down.

Some of the tanks managed to force their way through the pass, while some tried to outflank....

...giving the US gunners a worrying time!

The youngest element of the air support - this Sturmovik dates from only 2017!

The US figures were a mix of CTS, Deetail and TSSD

Another Mustang - but too late to stem the NK flow.

Task Force Smith again - part 2

 

The mighty NKPA armoured column advances!

An intimidating sight from the TF's point of view.

A lucky artillery round soon found it's mark!

An overview of the whole sorry mess.  Note the NKPA infantry battalion at the end of the column.

Much unpleasantness as the first tanks cross the bridge

The photos are a bit out of synch - this shows the tank column.

Predictably, Russell's new JS-2 was the first tank model to die.

TF Smith's few bazookas and the RCL platoon were kept very busy.  Would the NKs prevail?

Task Force Smith again - part 1

OK - confession first.  There has a been a slight* delay in posting this report - the game took place in early May!  

Russell and Pete joined me for this trip to 1950 Korea - the photos were contributed by all three of us.  Above - one of the North Korean Peoples Army (NKPA) battalions - mostly made up of CTS NK figures.

Meanwhile at Regiment HQ, the Political Officer (a pre-painted metal figure) carefully takes notes...

Another NKPA infantry battalion - mostly an assortment of WW2 Sov figures.

The 76mm gun battery was a Rgt level asset.

Most of the NKPA Tank Regiment - each pair of tanks represents a company.  Russell also contributed a company made up of a T-34 and a Js-2!

Major Smith makes an urgent 'phone call.

The 8x6 foot field of battle.  Mostly hilly ground bisected by a road and a small river.

1/32 North Korean Peoples' Army

These chaps recently arrived from their maker - Classic Toy Soldiers in the USA.  "Why" I hear you ask "do you need such figures?"  As always with such matters, 'need' is a word open to many interpretations.  But here they are.

 Just to prove that before I set about them they were rather nice figures - here they are after cleaning and basing on my usual mdf bases.  The bag contained 16 figures in eight poses.

 

 After painting - I went for a faded khaki look - the comrades were finished off with a coat of Ronseal satin light oak varnish.

 I particularly like the chap with the DPM LMG - he really looks as if he is carrying some weight.  Having once had to carry a (replica) MG-42 up a hill I can feel his pain.

Time to dust off the TF Smith scenario again, methinks.....

Task Force Smith - a Little Cold Wars game

Last Wednesday I ran a test of a scenario I am working on for the follow-up to Little Cold Wars.  So now you know why I was painting all these North Koreans and the Great Patriotic War surplus Sturmovik and Lavochkin.  I also made some new hills - they're the brown ones in the photos - and roads.
In the event the scenario needs a bit of tweaking as I felt is was unsatisfactory - though all four players enjoyed it.  We'll try the revised version next year but I thought you'd want to see the photos anyway.  John was Col. Smith with Graham as his artillery officer.  Martin and Tim led the commies.
The situation is pretty well known.  Basically an under-strength US infantry battalion (1/21st) has been hurriedly flown from Japan, driven across Korea for several days and them dumped on a wet and muddy hillside which sits astride the NK route south.  What could go wrong?
As usual with Little Cold Wars games the figures are 1/32, vehicles 1/50ish and aircraft 1/72.  Stands are US platoons or KPA half-companies.
So exciting was the game that I kept forgetting to take photos.  Above - TF Smith having dealt with the first T-34s the others begin a flanking move.

US infantry (Britains Deetail) gloat over their early success.

Just in front of the burning T-34 can be seen the 75mm RCL platoon which did the damage.

Col. Smith keeps an eye on things.

KPA infantry trudge unimaginatively forward.

Each turn dice were rolled for air support - needing a 12 on 2D6.  There was dancing in the streets of Pyongyang at this point.

Soon my recently completed IL-2 was in the air  - and supported only by a bent wire clothes hanger it flew down the road bombing and strafing.  To no great effect.

Next turn an further 12 was rolled and the LA-5 came out to play....

...with similar lack of effect!

By now KPA infantry was surging across the bridge and things were getting quite unpleasant.

At this point we drew a veil over the action and discussed revisions to the layout and briefings.