Portable Wargame in Vietnam

This is something I'd tried last year on a square grid, but this time I decided that I would try it on my hex board.

Set-up and rules modifications

The terrain is set up with a road heading into a small village that is to be captured by a US platoon. Jungle bases mark the line of the woods which follows the road, and the bases themselves are impenetrable.

I used the standard WW2 rules with the following alterations:
All infantry units fire with 1d6 except the M60 which rolls 2.
The Blooper and the RPGs ignore cover effects when firing.
The Vietnamese LMGs subtract 1 from the dice roll for the effects of hits on enemy units.

The US starts with 4 units, one including the commander, 1 with the M60 and 1 with the Blooper.
The NVA are placed in ambush by rolling an average dice to see how many units will appear, and then a d10 and a d12 to see which hex each appears on. The unit is placed in cover as close to the hex rolled as possible. I then roll for each NVA unit. On a 4+ they get an additional weapon - an LMG on a 1-4 and an RPG on a 5 or 6.

For this game I rolled a 5 on the Average dice, so 5 NVA units were placed - one right next to the Americans as they entered the table.

The US forces have to occupy both buildings before losing one whole unit to win.
The NVA obviously have to wipe out one complete unit.
The US are rated average, the NVA as poor.

The Game

The board seen from above. Although I ran out of plant-life, the jungle is supposed to run to the sides of the board. The village occupies 2 hexes each adjacent to the road. (I miscounted the number of NVA units, so the sixth on the top right was removed just after this...)

Surprise ambush in the flank!

two units turn to face while the unit with the HQ moves to outflank.

The outflanking operation is not without cost. Both sides take casualties in the initial stages.

The rest of the platoon takes on the next threat to appear.

The NVA garrison the village. On the right a unit is detached to remove the NVA in the woods.

The HQ unit, successful in destroying the ambushers rejoins the advance on the village. The NVA commander has fled his destroyed unit and joined his comrades in the village.

After a sustained firefight NVA commander is killed and the remaining unit is driven from the western village.

The firefight is taken into the village, with the blooper squad occupying the west. Note that both sides have weapons that ignore the cover penalty - the RPG and the Blooper.

Things don't go well for the US unit in the village, while the rest of the platoon are tied down by a flanking NVA unit at the eastern edge of the woods.

The final turn. The NVA are finally driven from the eastern village, but the blooper unit is destroyed.  

The Lt has no choice - casualties are too high, time to bug out.

Tactically speaking, I could have played this game a lot smarter from both sides, but I was just trying to get a feel for the rules and how they would work. The abundance of cover meant that most shooting was hitting on 6s, unless the unit had an RPG or blooper, and as such there were a number of rounds where firing really had little or no effect.
I'm thinking of rejigging the dice result so that a 4+ is a hit and rolling for the effect of hits will include pinning as an option. All units get 2 dice (3 for LMGs), but lose a dice if pinned.
We'll see how this goes next time.

Nate

Another run through the jungle

John was going to come around today for a game of Pikeman's Lament, but I had to cancel as I have come down with my third bot of the year and didn't want to infect anyone else. I'm thinking I need to get some more exercise in order to gain a bit more of a robust constitution, but everytime I think about it, I get sick. Maybe therein lies the problem?

'He painted us!'

Anyway, rather than do nothing, I decided to have another go with the Portable Wargame in Vietnam. I see this as very much a squad based game, with one man being one man, and the rules, I hope, reflect this. So here are some basics:

Name of unit	Strength Points	Movement	Firing dice	Firing distance	Unpinning
US infantry team	4	2	1	3 squares	4+
US M60 team	2	2	3	4 squares	4+
NVA infantry team	4	3	1	3 squares	4+
NVA RPD team	4	2	2	3 squares	4+
Officer/NCO	3	3	+1 to roll	-	+1 to roll

As you will see, I use the pinning rules, but models must pass a test to unpin. If successful they can move or shoot. Otherwise all units move and shoot.
I've also changed the role of Officers/NCOs, whose main function is to motivate their men in unpinning, close combat and aimed fire.
The US exhaustion point is 50%, the NVA, to reflect their dedication to the cause, is 75%.

To improve game play, I painted all of the figures - 14 US troops and 17 NVA. I used the demon dip, and I'm quite happy with the results. It was certainly a quick paint job to do - one evening!

On with the game:

The US consisted of 2 infantry teams, 2 M60 teams an Lt, and a Sgt. Deployment was random on the baseline, the objective was to check and potentially clear the two hamlets.

Bird's eye view. The cards are flipped over every time a US unit moves. If it is a face card, they are ambushed by NVA.

The right hand teams advanced either side of the road. Sgt. Titus Pullar was with this MG team.

On the left, the first hamlet was checked and found empty. Lt. Luke Warner was with the MG team over here.

Contact! NVA appear in the woods and open up on the US troops.

Who are pinned.

Another surprise for Lt Warner and his MG team.

The M60s lay down some suppressive fire, while on the far left flank NVA troops charge the pinned US infantry team.

The US team is defeated and falls back, eventually ending up next the Lt's M60 team. The NVA follow up and occupythe woods.

US suppressive fire forces another NVA unit further back into the woods.

But they rally when support arrives from the other side of the road.

The US team in the woods on the right are taking a fair amount of fire.

But on the left the US forces are starting to get the upper hand. The NVA troops fall back behind cover to regroup.

When they finally come back to the fight they are met with a hail of lead.

 'Left flank clear. Let's move up!'

The last intact NVA unit is forced back from the road and pinned.

And their comrades are mopped up.

'Look ma, no enemies!'

The NVA have lost 75% and the game is over. Incidentally, the US troops were only 1 casualty away from being exhausted, so it was a close run thing.

Learning points:
With the US troops, always activate your M60s first. Suppressing the enemy is a good thing.
When the enemy are in cover firefights can get very protracted, basically needing a 6 to hit which can be quite a mission when you only roll 1 die. So - stay in cover if you can!
The plan had been to use the US infantry team to flank the enemy, but because they activated ambushes, in the open, this wasn't such a great idea. On the left the terrain limited the impact of the M60 fire support with the Lt.

At one point I started to test the idea that a unit that was already pinned would not be able to retreat, and would simply lose a figure instead. I'm still not sure about this. I may make that the rule i the troops are in the open, but if they can retreat into or behind cover then they can do so and remain pinned.

As much as I love my daughter's building blocks, I've ordered some Fairy Garden ornaments from China for a few dollars (how do they make any profit), which I will start to use when they arrive.

A fun way to spend 3/4 of an hour. Now where is that Tour of Duty soundtrack?

Nate

Um, would you believe, Vietnam?

I was in the attic this morning, rummaging around to find that one figure you know is in the lead pile somewhere, but seems to have mastered the art of hide and seek, when I came across some 1/72 Esci Vietnam figures I forgot that I had. There were about 20 US and 20 Vietnamese figures - all NVA, so obviously at some stage I had sorted them from the VC and parted with the extras to points unknown.

Now just before this I had been drawing up a grid on a basecloth for a contemplated Portable Wargame project (more on this anon). The two things came together and I thought I'd give the WW2 PW rules a spin for a search and destroy mission in South-east Asia.

The two small collections were sorted into fire-teams of 4 figures each. The US featured two squads, each of a support team with blooper and M60 which would fire with 3 dice, and a scout team that would have only 1 die. The Vietnamese had four teams of four as well, two of these having an automatic rifle which would give them 2 dice, the others having 1 die each. All teams had 4 strength points.

The set-up

The terrain featured forest, which was able to be occupied, and thick jungle which was impassable. Two hamlets (duly sourced from my daughter's wooden block collection) sat near a road, and the US troops had to search and secure both of these. The North Vietnamese would remain hidden until they were sprung from ambush. For this, each time a US unit moved, a card from an ordinary playing deck would be turned over. If it was a face card, then a Vietnamese unit would appear in ambush within 2-3 squares of the US troops springing them. They had to emerge from next to cover, and not from behind the US troops. This was all planned, of course, on the hoof, so to speak, so I was interested to see how it would work.

So, on with the game.

The first US unit is ambushed in its first move towards the hamlet and forced to retreat.

And the same happens on the left flank.

The fire support team comes to the rescue, knocking out some of the attackers, but then springing another ambush

The two sides pin each other down in a protracted firefight

On the right the scout team makes some impact.

And the US troops start to get the upper hand on the left, but as the scout team works its way through cover to outflank the enemy, they spring an ambush from behind them.

The fire support team on the right engages the Vietnamese at close range, while the scout team turns to deal with the new threat.

Having dusted off the enemy on the left and the right with some vicious fire from the support teams, the US troops force the last Vietnamese unit back until it has to retreat off the board. Just in time too, as in this turn both sides reached exhaustion point.

This was a really enjoyable little game, and has given me plenty to think about (like how long will it take to get these figures all painted...). I think that scope exists to give the US troops indirect fire support, helicopter insertion and armoured vehicles. In response, the Vietnamese could have a few more infantry teams and maybe include an RPG and HMG in there as well. Looking at the Britannia Miniatures figures, they also have a US medic figure, which could add another dimension to scenario conditions. I'm enthused.

Oh dear, this wasn't part of the plan...

Nate