KOREA – Forces of The Chinese PVA

By Jacob Shober

In a war which echoes even to this day, nearly the whole world had turned their eyes to the Korean Peninsula, and the overt and covert politics playing out.

It was a war which turned allies less than a decade after the end of the Second World War against each other. None was more jarring than the Chinese joining the fight on the side of their communist brethren in the north.

If one observed closely, however, one could see the waves and ripples of the political turmoil and war in China itself that stretched to before the start of WW II, with the two Sino Japanese wars, the Warlord Era, and the Chinese Civil War.

This resulted in the Chinese Communist Party taking control of the country, and presenting the unified force of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA). This article will examine the differences between the fractured Chinese forces found in “Empire in Flames”, and the unified forces found in the book, as well as the new units and theatre selectors available to them.

One of the defining features of any army in Bolt Action is the army’s Special Rules, and the PVA follows along naturally from the traits found in Empire in Flames. Sparrow Tactics is an inch shorter in range than found in Empire in Flames, though it still turns all your infantry into “US Rangers lite”. The Regular and Veteran PVA infantry can make an 8” move after setup but before the game starts.

This can throw the enemy’s plans into disarray, as the front they were facing is suddenly different (surprise placement of an MMG comes into mind…), and it can give an already infantry-focused force a leg up on objectives.

The Flag Special Rule also lends itself to infantry-heavy armies, as it not only gives you a better chance at rallying but also gives you two dice to roll when determining how many pin markers are lost (pick the highest). Usually, my recommendation for any officer team, or any team that gives you the option to choose how many men are in it (medic, observer, etc), is the “Rule of Two”. Always have the officer/medic/etc have only one buddy.

This gives the officer an ablative wound (because come on, what other use is the buddy, really?), but also keeps them in the realm of Small Team, for that sweet -1 to be hit. In this case, though, as you cannot give the flag to an officer, I would recommend taking three men in this situation; one to be the redshirt, one to carry the flag, and one as the officer. That way, though you lose the -1, you don’t have to give up the pricy flag along with your first casualty.

Levy is pretty simple; free Inexperienced (not Green) 12-man rifle squad, with no other options. Also borrowed from the Russians, as with a number of other things, you never turn down both a free squad and the free order dice that goes with it. Another borrowed Special Rule, and this time from the Germans, is Short Attack. As with Germans where you can draw one more dice than usual when using the “You Men, Snap To!” rule, if you are only activating other infantry squads, you may do the same with your PVA Officer. In summary, all four Special Rules available to the Chinese PVA lends point towards a highly mobile, infantry-centric force.

The HQ units available to the PVA pretty much mirror any other HQ selection, you have your Communist Officer (available in all four rank flavors), your medic, and your Forward Observer, though the latter only comes as a Forward Artillery Observer. They also have access to a Political Officer, which has the same execution-to-reroll-morale-or-order-test bubble effect as the Commissar from the Russian forces. One might be detecting a bit of a theme here, and one would be correct.

 

On to the infantry squads themselves, the first two are your standard choices; Infantry Squads can be Regular or Veteran, though are rather light when it comes to options available. Conscript Squads are even worse, though at least they have Green to go along with their Inexperienced rating.

The SMG Squad that comes next, though, beginnings of the theme that runs throughout a number of the rest of the infantry selections becomes visible. With SMGs standard, you also have the amazing special rule of Fieldcraft; during the first turn, you can treat all rough ground as open ground during the first turn of the game. Combine that with the already free movement given by Sparrow Tactics, and you could theoretically be within SMG range on the first turn (covering the typical center 24” with 2” to spare in the enemy deployment zone)!

The Grenadier squad is pretty much the polar opposite of German Grenadiers; they have no options and are simply festooned with grenades, giving them the effect of being equipped with pistols. However, they also get the Fieldcraft rule, and would make a decently solid close combat force. On the opposite end of the scale are the Engineer Squads.

They have all the typical options of Engineers (lmg, flamethrower), and also have light or heavy demolition charges. Very, very nasty when it comes to fortifications, these can spell doom for any unit otherwise thought safe. With the option to be inexperienced, you can theoretically take a couple of cheap squads and give them demolition charges and/or a flamethrower, to send up the field a squad that the enemy can’t afford to ignore, but you can afford to lose.

Guerilla Cell is a squad first found in the Empire in Flames book and is brought forward to Korea. It is a nasty unit, with Fieldcraft (they can also start in Ambush), Forward Position (can be set up as Snipers/Spotters), and Infiltration, ignoring the -1 for the Order Test to come in from Reserves. With all these rules together, as well as a decent few weapon options, you can tailor make a squad to harass enemy movements from turn one. Deploying them up to halfway up the field on Ambush, the enemy is forced to either stand and shoot them, wasting a turn of movement, or suffer fire when trying to move forward. Two of these squads alone, with an LMG a piece, can cover pretty much the whole table in turn 1 suppressive fire.

The PVA also gets two flavors of cavalry; the standard Cavalry Troop with Carbines and Tough Fighter to set them apart slightly from other Cavalry options, and the Mongolian Cavalry. The latter, though more expensive, has the amazing ability Born In The Saddle, where they can all shoot their Rifles from horseback. With this simple rule, you can have a mobile harassing force that you can zip to where it is needed (remember Sparrow Tactics), and wither apart either a squad trying to hold an objective or a squishy artillery piece/small team.

Scouts are versatile in their construction; having both the ability to set up as snipers/spotters, as well as the Infiltrator Special Rule, they have the option to give everyone SMGs, and horses. With the Mongolian Cavalry having to at least start in their deployment zone, you can bait them out with the Mongolian Cavalry, only to deploy the Scouts with horses where they thought they were safe. Taken on foot, they can also provide support for your Guerilla Cells; a one-two surprise punch.

Night Infiltrators are a cheaper option for the latter, though, as though they have the same forward deploying options and come in either Regular or Veteran, they only have rifles, and the option for Tough Fighters. Crunch-wise, it’s actually cheaper for an assault squad, as the +1 point for Tough Fighters beats the +3 points for SMGs.

To round off the infantry squad choices is the LMG squad. This squad is more useful in tying down an objective, or providing a base of fire for the rest of your infantry, with the option of two LMGs. Other than that, you have your MMG and HMG teams, Light, Medium and Heavy mortars, and a Bazooka, Sniper, or Flamethrower team, which follow along like any others.

In the Artillery section, you have a Light Howitzer in the form of either the 75mm M1A1 Pack Howitzer or the 57mm M18 Recoilless, and a Heavy Howitzer in the form of the 15cm SFH18 Heavy Howitzer, though also the interesting option of the Type 41 75mm Mountain Gun Light Howitzer. The difference with this artillery piece is that you have the option of increasing the crew for a nominal cost; if you find your crew is dying too fast to enemy fire, you can buff them up to 5 men from the starting 3, with no cost difference concerning veterans. 

All of the Chinese Anti-Tank Guns are Russian in origin and have been seen before. The 45mm 1937 Light Anti Tank Gun is slightly overshadowed by the M-42. With Improved Ballistics, it gets +1 at short range, making it more dangerous the closer the enemy gets to it. The ZIS-3 is the same choice between Medium Anti Tank Gun and Light Howitzer, and the heaviest gun the Chinese can get is the BS-3 Heavy Anti Tank Gun.

The tank and armored car options seem rather light for a full nation, though there is a little tidbit in the Theatre Selector that possibly makes the Chinese the most versatile when it comes to armor (more on that later). For now, the dedicated options come straight from the Japanese with a Captured Type-95 Ha-Go, a lend-lease M3A3 Stuart V from the Americans, or the Russians.

The Russians gave them the bulk of their armor, starting with the ever-versatile T-34/85 Medium Tank. With Armor 9+ and a Heavy Anti Tank gun (plus the co-ax and hull MMGs), it is a workhorse that you can’t really go wrong with. A step up is the IS-2, with heavier, 10+ armor and the option to fire a 3” HE shell out of it’s Heavy AT gun, it is hampered by the Slow Load rule. A cheaper alternative is the ISU-122, which gets rid of the Slow Load rule in exchange for one less MMG and the gun being casemate rather than in a turret.

The only armored car they have innate access to is the BTR-40, though it is actually rather versatile. Not only can you mount up to 3 MMGs to it covering various arcs, but it also has Recce and the ability to transport up to 8 men. It is open topped and Armor 7+, however, so a bit light in protection. Transports are also limited, in the form of the 3 seater Gaz Jeep (with the same option of losing transport capacity to mount an MMG or HMG), the 8 Seater Morris 15CWT Truck, and the 14 seater German-built Buessing-NAG Truck. All are wheeled, and all have the painful 6+ Soft Skin armor rating.

The Period Selectors are very interesting, and the first one is what you have been waiting for if you were wondering about the armor comment from earlier. The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army Reinforced Platoon is pretty standard, with the typical 0-1 options you see in regular Reinforced Platoons.

That’s where the similarity ends, however, as you can have a total of up to ELEVEN of different flavors of infantry squads. The only limitations are a mandatory 2 Infantry Squads Guerilla Cells or Cavalry Troops, up to 1 Engineer Squad, and up to 2 Scout Squads. When it comes to infantry and their placement, you can absolutely dominate the field. It gets even better, as in your Armored Car and Tank options, you can also have captured UN vehicles. It does not specify whether they follow the regular Captured Vehicle rules or not (only Inexperienced crews and Unreliable), but even then it would be a huge surprise to drop a Centurion on the field when the enemy was expecting a T-34/85.

The PVA Intervention Reinforced Platoon goes even more infantry heavy, with the total allowed number of infantry squads bumped up to 12, though with a slightly different spread. On the other hand, you might as well forget about armor, though there is the option of the dependable T-34/85 or the lighter SU-76 “borrowed” from the Russians.

The Chinese PVA Offensives Through Spring 1951 is the beefier version of the Intervention Reinforced Platoon, with the option of up to 15 infantry squads (with various limitations on numbers), and a wider selection of armor. It also has the option of 0-2 artillery pieces, if you are a fan of HE dropping howitzers.

The July 1951 – July 1953 Reinforced Platoon is more focused as an anti-armor Reinforced Platoon. With the availability of 14 infantry squads (again, maxing out the various types), you also get the widest range of heavy armor, both captured and owned. You also up the limit on the number of Bazooka teams available to 0-2.

 

The Chinese get two special characters as well, and they are perfectly supplementary in their roles. Company Commander Zhao Cheng is a lead-from-the-front Veteran Captain. Not only does he have the extra dice Snap To ability, but he also gives any unit within 12” Fanatics when fighting in close combat, which can be brutal with a well-timed (and Snapped-To) charge. The other is Commander Chu Pak of Tank 215, and he is a beast. Functioning as beefed up T-34/85, he has a myriad of special rules that make him an absolutely disgusting powerhouse.

From Tank War, he has Eye for Terrain, Bulldozer, Hair Trigger, and Lucky, though his unique rule sets him at the top. When given a Fire order, Rapid Fire allows him to shoot his main gun twice… and it can be at different targets. If you want to either ensure a heavily armored target feels the pain, or chance it on taking out two enemy vehicles with a single dice, look nowhere else.

In conclusion, the Chinese army is brutally efficient when it comes to dominating the battlefield with infantry. From the number of squads you have available to you, to the complementary Special Rules on both the National and Squad levels, you can leave the enemy tripping over their bootlaces as you sling lead and take objectives. However, armor will probably be your weakness, both in what is usually available to you, as well as taking on enemy armor. Until next time, I hope you have a sharp Hanyang M1935 bayonet and the sharpest mind!