20mm Vietnam Game

June's Conwy Wargames Club game at the Creuddyn Community Centre was a very Asiatic affair with Dave putting on a 20mm Vietnam war game using the Force on Force rules.

The Scenario
A US airman has been shot down and is hiding near a NVA held village which has been supporting local Viet Cong. The nearby fire base has sent out a force to rescue him. Naturally the NVA and VC would like to capture him too.

The Board
6x4ft table covered in light jungle e.g. trees block line of sight, with a road leading to the NVA village short edge to short edge.

The NVA could place their defences anywhere within the village and secretly place a tunnel complex exit anywhere on the board for the VC to pop up from.

Dave as umpire marked on a map which tree the pilot was hiding in.

The Game

The starting postions

US heavy weapons, the firebase wouldn't provide artillery support in fear of hitting the pilot.

The APC's holding squads of 8 infantry

The convoy was limited to the road, if they left it they would get bogged down

The tank leads the way

The NVA had a HMG/AA gun

NVA getting ready to go search for the capitalist lackie pilot of the decadent west.

More NVA getting ready to head out.

The left dug out has an RPG, the right the HMG/AA gun. On the other side of the roas out of picture is another dug out with a mortar.

The US commanded by me roared up the road at top speed and began trading shots with the HMG. On it's final shot the HMG hits something important stopping the tank from moving. The tank could still shoot which was fine an dandy for me. As the NVA moved through their units reacting the mortar disabled the lead APC, but like the tank it could still fire. Time for everyone to get off the vehicles

The NVA didn't get off scot free and lost men manning the HMG and mortar

The US troops ready for acrion

Chris and Ian survey their options to ensure the historic didactic goes the right way 

The over enthusiastic and omnipresent media gets to close to take a clear picture

A nice blurred picture of a truck with a quad HMG

The squads deployed around their APCs

Eyes peeled for Charlie

Contact on the right 

VC RPG doesn't hurt the tank

The tank will soon makes these brave defenders of the working class disappear

Tank shrugs off the VC RPG shots

More VC appear and take on  the dismounted US infantry who return fire thinning the VC ranks

The NVA now move up and back searching as they go the areas around the village

The US troops do the same

The lead APC's infantry squad is whittled down to 1 man. As is the 2nd APC. We forgot to do casualty rules

The NVA regulars open up on their US counterparts decimating the squad. About now both sides realise that they don't need to check the trees nearest the enemy if the enemy hasn't found the pilot. This narrows the search area. The Communists had to through better dice to find the pilot because he'll make himself known to the US troops (we hoped).

The 2nd APC moves up to distract the NVA from the tank. 

The NVA keep up their advance. The VC keep popping up and getting knocked down again, quicker than I could photo them all on the board

NVA supporting the VC

NVA HMG down to 2 men

Only the bottom left hasn't been searched by either side yet

Still not found him

The truck moves to bring its HMGs in to devastating play

More VC 

Time was running out and neither side had found the pilot although the US forces were the nearest to him. The Communists force were shot as were the US. We called it a draw. Both sides still had the capacity to hurt the other, the US would win the main objective of rescuing the pilot but then would face mission creep to tow the tank and APC out.

This was my second Force on Force game and I enjoyed it. It's very table heavy but scoring a hit and saving them were straight forward. Unit cards would be handy to help us follow Dave's hard work in keeping the game flowing. As minimum I need to read the summary sheets available to download from Ambush Alley games.

I'd definitely play this again. I may even use one of my unpainted/ unmade Centurions purchased for my Korean War games and buy some Aussies. I also thought I could use some of my Korean War Chinese for a Vietnam v China clash. Now that is a sign of good game is makes we want to spend money!