A Small Vietnam Game (20mm)

I recently did some tweaking to my Vietnam rules, playing a bit with the details of covering fire and leadership.  It has been quite some time, since I played anything set in Vietnam, and as I can't get my African game on the table yet (still need to build some buildings), I decided to test out the tweaks that I recently made for Vietnam.

My 20mm Vietnam games are skirmish oriented, though games with up to a company can be fielded on my table,  They feature individually mounted figures, use a ground scale of either 2, 5, or 10 meters per inch depending on scope of the game and table size, and can include details such as tracking ammo and wounds.

Since the game was just to test the tweaks, I ran a completely fictional one-off scenario, with one US squad bumping into one PAVN squad near some abandoned hootches.  A few pics and description follow below.  

Note that usually I take pics with both my camera and my phone, as either can act up or have trouble with the lighting in various situations.  In this case, I only used my iphone, which, given the opportunity, let me down by taking mostly soft, fuzzy pictures.  Nothing on the lense, no change to settings, it is just evil (what else can I atribute it to) and does this from time to time.   Sorry that the photos aren't better. As always, click on the pics for pigger versions.

The table from the US side...

...and from the North Vietnamese side.

And just a couple more pics that happened to come out clearly...

After this, it was all a blur.

There was a trail to the clearing from each end, offering the point of entry for each side.  Both forces moved slowly and quietly, with the Vietnamese coming to the clearing slightly ahead of the Americans.

By this point, there is a PAVN soldier in the house, several sighting 

roles have been made (and missed), with nothing noted, and the squad advances into

 the clearing.

Originally, I was going to use two PAVN squads, but in the end opted for one; but added a fig from the PHQ to be in charge.  Once they got to the clearing, he stayed to the rear, holding the RPG gunner to cover the advancing troops.

The North Vietnamese section leader, continuing to look for any 

trouble, advanced past the house; the soldier inside reporting 

that it held nothing of interest.

By this point three vietnamese soldiers had come into view of the 

Americans, and the US squad leader wasn't sure how much longer they 

would remain unseen, so he initiated fire.

Several US soldiers fired M16s and an M79, with most shots missing.  

The unfortunate Vietnmemse section leader was hit twice and died

 instantly.

The Vietnamese continued to advance, trying to gain view of the 

Americans, but only the soldiers in and behind the house 

(to the left above), could see them.

Many shots were exchanged, with the soldier in the house manageing 

to hit the lead American at the head of the trail first, and then the 

American squad leader was hit by the PAVN soldier behind the house

with the RPD.

The American squad leader, attended to by the soldier to 

his left was now stable, and was going to need to be carried out.

The Vietnamese soldier behind the house was hit twice, fatally, and 

the soldier in the house was hit with an incapacitating wound. 

The Vietnamese tried to get to their wounded, unsuccessfully 

trying to suppress the Americans.  Now with three casualties, 

two most likely dead, they decided to withdraw.

The fire died down, and the Americans prepared to move 

their casualties, with one man dead, and two seriously 

wounded.

________________________________________

I probably should have run a couple of platoons against each other, to better test the rules, which seemed to work fine in a very limited battle.

Despite the limited nature of the game, I still found myself completely immersed in it.  

I pulled the center section of my table and ran this on a 6'x4' table at 5 meters/inch for range and movement.  While the jungle looked sparse from overhead, visability on the table top was very limited, with only three of the Vietnamese soldiers ever in view of the Amercans, and US fire drawing the aim of the Vietnamese.  

My wound system allows five points of damage for the typical soldier, 1 point of damage takes a fig out of combat for one turn while he (or someone else) tends to his wound, two takes him out of combat until treated, after which he can defend himself, and he may require help to move.  Three or four points is incapacitating, and requires treatment from a medic or another soldier, or he will eventually blead out.  Five points is dead, though there is a small chance of being resuscitated by a medic with immediate attention.

The assault rifes do a base two points of damage, which can be modified up or down with a die role (1-4 potential).  The RPD (3 pts of damage, with 1-5 potential)  hit the US squad leader, causing a 3 point wound, and taking the squad leader out of action.  The Vietnamese soldier in the house, took a three point wound from an M16 and died, because he was not treated.

The figures are from Britannia, except for a couple of the Vietnamese casualty figs, which were either old FAA or RAFM figs.