The Korean War is one of the most interesting conflicts for platoon-level wargaming, but it is still strangely underused on the tabletop. Most collections lean toward late World War II, Normandy, the Eastern Front, North Africa, or the Pacific. Korea sits just after those familiar settings, using many recognisable weapons and uniforms, but in a very different kind of war: steep hills, bitter winters, night attacks, roadblocks, infiltration, artillery, patrols, and exhausted infantry fighting over anonymous ridgelines.
A Chinese People’s Volunteer Army platoon is one of the best ways to enter this period in 28mm. It is visually distinctive, tactically different from U.S. or British Commonwealth forces, and compact enough to build without committing to a huge army. It also gives you a force that can be used in many different types of games: night assaults, hill attacks, ambushes, roadblock scenarios, winter battles, and desperate close-range firefights.
This article looks at how to build a practical 28mm Korean War Chinese platoon: what figures to choose, how to organise the force, how to paint it, and how to make it feel like the PVA on the tabletop.
Why Build the Chinese PVA?
The Chinese intervention changed the Korean War. U.S. Army historical material notes that by early November 1950, more than 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces soldiers had already entered Korea, far more than U.N. commanders believed at the time. Many of these soldiers were experienced veterans of the Chinese Civil War: often poorly supplied, but highly motivated, battle hardened, and led by officers with years of combat experience.
That contrast is what makes them fascinating for wargaming.
On one side, the U.N. armies had strong artillery, tanks, vehicles, air support, radios, and heavy automatic weapons. On the other, the Chinese often relied on movement, surprise, infiltration, numbers, night attacks, local superiority, and close assault. In game terms, that gives you a force that should not simply stand in the open and trade fire. A PVA platoon needs to move, use terrain, attack from unexpected angles, and get close enough for grenades, submachine guns, and bayonets to matter.
The Chinese are especially good for scenario-driven games. They are not just “another rifle platoon.” They invite a different style of play.
North Korean and Chinese infantry from Osprey book
The Historical Feel
The first thing to avoid is turning the PVA into a caricature of endless “human wave” attacks. That phrase appears often in older accounts, but it can hide the more interesting reality: Chinese attacks frequently involved infiltration, movement through gaps, flank attacks, roadblocks, and night movement.
The U.S. Army’s account of the Chinese intervention describes Chinese troops around Unsan in November 1950 swarming around flanks and defensive positions, using bugles, grenades, satchel charges, and close assault. Later, along the Ch’ongch’on River, Chinese forces attacked at night, found gaps between American units, struck flanks, and used infiltrators behind the main line.
For a tabletop platoon, that means your force should be designed around:
- infantry numbers,
- light automatic weapons,
- submachine-gun assault groups,
- light mortars,
- buglers or command figures,
- scouts or infiltrators,
- and plenty of terrain.
A PVA force should look like men carrying what they need on their backs, moving through hills in darkness or snow, not a heavily motorised Western platoon.
What Miniatures Are Available?
The easiest current route is the Warlord Games Korean War Chinese PVA range. Warlord lists a dedicated Chinese People’s Volunteer Army collection for Bolt Action: Korea, including infantry squads, conscript squads, HQ, support groups, medium mortars, MMGs, weapons teams, SMG squads, artillery and some vehicles.
The standard Warlord Chinese PVA Infantry Squad is listed as 28mm / 1:56 scale, supplied as 10 metal infantry figures. The product description gives a useful baseline for a squad: 10 men led by a corporal, with most riflemen carrying Hanyang 88 rifles, a ZB vz. 26 light machine gun, and occasional Soviet PPSh-41 submachine guns.
That gives us a good starting point for a platoon-sized project. You can begin with three infantry squads and a small HQ, then add weapons teams as your games demand.
A practical starter force could be:
| Element | Suggested models |
|---|---|
| Platoon HQ | 3–5 figures |
| Rifle Squad 1 | 10 figures |
| Rifle Squad 2 | 10 figures |
| Rifle Squad 3 | 10 figures |
| SMG or assault group | 6–10 figures |
| Light mortar team | 2 figures |
| MMG or medium mortar | 3–4 figures |
That gives you around 40–50 figures, enough for a strong platoon-level collection without becoming a massive painting project.
A Sensible 28mm Platoon Structure
For most games, I would not worry about reproducing every detail of historical organisation. Instead, build a force that captures the battlefield role of a Chinese platoon in Korea.
Platoon HQ
Your HQ should include a platoon commander, political or senior NCO-type figure if your rules allow it, a bugler, and perhaps one or two runners. Chinese command figures should not look too glamorous. A good PVA command group is practical: map case, pistol or SMG, field glasses, bugle, padded clothing, and men who look like they have walked a long way.
Warlord’s PVA listings note that Chinese officers had titles such as Platoon Commander or Company Commander rather than Western-style ranks like lieutenant or captain, which is a nice detail to reflect in your article or army notes.
Rifle Squads
Three rifle squads are the heart of the force. Each should be mostly rifles, with one light machine gun if your rules support it. The Warlord PVA infantry description uses the Hanyang 88 rifle as the standard rifle and the ZB vz. 26 as the squad light machine gun.
For visual variety, do not make the squads too neat. Mix headgear, packs, bedrolls, blankets, ammunition pouches, captured kit, and weapon types where possible. The PVA should look organised, but not uniform in the parade-ground sense.
SMG Assault Group
The PVA is a good excuse to paint a dedicated submachine-gun group. Warlord’s PVA background notes that submachine-gun squads could serve as scouts, point security, lead attack troops, or be divided out as needed, with weapons including PPSh and Thompson SMGs.
On the table, this should be your knife. Keep it hidden, move it through cover, and use it to finish a position rather than start a long-range firefight.
Light Mortar
A light mortar is almost mandatory for Korean War games. It gives your platoon indirect fire without turning the game into an artillery simulation. Warlord’s PVA article notes that the PVA used a variety of light mortars, including Soviet 50mm mortars and captured Japanese Type 10 and Type 89 “knee mortars,” and later Chinese copies of the U.S. 60mm mortar. It also notes that each rifle company had three 60mm mortars forming a platoon battery.
In gaming terms, one light mortar team is enough for a platoon-sized force. For larger games, add a second or third mortar and make them a company-level support asset.
Medium Mortar or MMG
For support, choose either a medium mortar or a medium machine gun first. Do not buy everything at once unless you enjoy painting support weapons.
A medium mortar is more useful if you want to represent attacks on hill positions. An MMG is more useful for defensive scenarios, roadblocks, or covering an assault. Warlord’s PVA range includes both medium mortar teams and MMG teams, with the store description noting 82mm and 81mm mortars in battalion weapons companies.
What Not to Add Too Early
Avoid adding tanks, trucks, and heavy guns at the start.
Yes, later-war Chinese and North Korean forces can be represented with vehicles and artillery, and Warlord’s range includes items such as the BTR-40, anti-tank guns, pack howitzers and heavier support weapons. But a first PVA platoon should feel like infantry moving through hills, not a mechanised army.
The best first expansion is not a vehicle. It is terrain.
Build hills, scrub, rocky ridges, trenches, foxholes, frozen streams, roadblocks, and Korean village buildings. A Chinese platoon looks much more convincing when it has terrain to infiltrate through.
Painting the Platoon
A PVA force can be very quick to paint if you embrace muted colours. This is not a parade-uniform army. It should be dusty, cold, worn, and practical.
A good basic palette:
- padded cotton jacket and trousers: khaki, tan, faded green, grey-green, or brownish olive;
- winter clothing: off-white, dirty cream, light grey, pale khaki;
- webbing and bags: canvas tan, faded green, brown;
- shoes: black, dark brown, or rubbery dark grey;
- rifles: dark wood and gunmetal;
- bedrolls and blankets: brown, grey, tan, faded green;
- skin: weathered, with cold-reddened cheeks if painting winter figures.
Do not paint every uniform the same shade. The PVA will look better if one man is in greenish khaki, another in pale tan, another in faded brown, and another in a quilted winter jacket. Keep the whole force visually coherent by using similar basing and weathering.
For winter Korea, add snow sparingly. Full white bases can look too clean. A better effect is frozen earth, dead grass, rocks, and patches of dirty snow. The Korean War was cold, but soldiers still fought on mud, stone, ice, scrub, and bare hillsides.
Scenario Ideas
1. Night Attack on the Ridge
A U.N. platoon holds a hill line. The PVA player enters from multiple table edges under limited visibility. Victory comes from clearing trenches, cutting the road behind the position, or forcing the defenders to withdraw.
2. The Roadblock
A Chinese force has infiltrated behind the front and established a roadblock on a valley road. The U.N. player must reopen the route before a convoy arrives. Add mines, hidden troops, and a mortar team on a ridge.
3. Bugles in the Dark
The PVA player begins with several hidden markers. Some are real squads, some are dummies. At a chosen turn, bugles sound and the attack begins. The defender must identify the real assault before it reaches grenade range.
4. Frozen Patrol
Both sides are searching the same snow-covered valley for prisoners, maps, or a crashed aircraft crew. Visibility is poor. Movement is slow. The real enemy is exposure and confusion.
5. Hold Until Dawn
A small U.N. outpost has survived the first assault. The PVA player must overrun it before daylight, when artillery and air support become available. This gives the game a natural clock.
A Note on Tone
A Chinese PVA army should be handled with the same seriousness as any other historical force. These were not fantasy hordes. They were soldiers fighting in terrible conditions, often with limited supplies, inadequate winter equipment, and enormous casualties. They were also capable, disciplined, and tactically dangerous opponents.
That is what makes them interesting. A good wargaming force should reflect their strengths and limitations without reducing them to clichés.
Final Thoughts
A 28mm Korean War Chinese platoon is one of the most rewarding small historical projects you can build. It does not require many vehicles, it does not need bright uniforms, and it does not demand hundreds of figures. With three squads, an HQ, an SMG group and a mortar, you already have the core of a force that can produce tense, atmospheric games.
It also pushes you to play differently. You are not building a firepower-heavy army. You are building a force for infiltration, night movement, close assault and rough terrain. The table should be full of hills, ridges, gullies, scrub and darkness. The game should feel uncomfortable for the defender.
That is the appeal of the PVA in Korea. They bring a different rhythm to the tabletop: quiet movement, sudden bugles, grenades in the dark, and riflemen appearing where the enemy thought the line was secure.
For a historical wargamer looking for something concrete, compact and full of scenario potential, a Korean War Chinese platoon is an excellent project.
