Part 36: Obong-Ni Ridge: Turn 11

Obong-Ni Ridge: Turn 11




Two T-34's are dead. One of them was knocked out by one of the M26 Pershings, and one of them was destroyed by a Marine Squad with an M20 Bazooka. It's amazing how much the enemy is willing to squander what may be their main advantage in this mission.



I move the Pershings up to the enemy defensive line to try and shock their northern force out of the way. Ordinarily, this would be a very inadvisable tactic, but we need to outflank the enemies quickly, so I'm taking a gambit.

If the gambit succeeds, the North Koreans will lose a decent portion of their forces, and be outflanked by a large force of marines (including a pair of tanks that they barely have the equipment to cope with).

However, if the gambit fails, this will probably degrade into a match of pure attrition that our small force is not built to handle. Ultimately, the survival of the Pershings for the next couple of turns will probably decide the mission. Fortunately, the only threats to it are a heavily buttoned Su-76 and a handful of infantry that have been cut down repeatedly.



This screencap gives you a better view of the smoke barrage that the North Koreans launched this turn. I have no idea what they were going for here; all this does is allow the marines in the center to attack the northern enemy with impunity. Also, it means that the North Koreans will have to pass through the smokescreen and get cut down in order to attack.

This is simply more evidence that the North Korean mortar teams in the region have defected and are now taking secret orders from their brethren to the south.



And yet another T-34/85 rushes through the smoke into an ambush. If the AI in this game is merely subpar at using infantry, they are downright abysmal when it comes to using armour (I have run experimental matches where Companies of M1A2 Abrams tanks have lost to third world T-72s). The AI will often just blindly charge ahead with their units, even though this is the best way to lose a tank to a unit that costs about 10% the amount of points.





Our support fire comes in at an excellent time. On our next turn, we will be firing at heavily pinned and mostly useless enemies. We've also cut down a few units at the fringe the main enemy cluster. If we can call in such an attack once every two turns or so, it will greatly slow down the enemy's advance (which is what we need more than anything right now).





The enemy is advancing dangerously close to the ridge, but their force is slowly coming apart. This is going to be a very close match, so any advantage that can be taken should be. The 2 Pershings are alive if a bit buttoned (not as much as one may expect, though), so next turn could very well be a turning point.

Also, remember that this is supposed to be a participatory LP, so please post. I really want your advice, even if it's terrible (especially if it's terrible).

Also, does anybody know if missions are graded the same way as normal battles? Like, if we don't make it for the whole 25 turns, but we absolutely decimate the enemy force, will it still count as a victory or draw?