Rules for NAM - Any recommendations?

[robh]

My suggestion would be to go back a few years and look for rules such as;

Body Count. Very old and possibly to be found on Ebay. A bit complicated but full of fantastic ideas.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/26766/bodycount-wargames-rules-vietnam-war

Second this suggestion, really good rules.  Also from the same era and with the same innovative approach is "Giac Mai". Long OOP but does crop up on eBay and if you have good Google fu there was a pdf floating around teh web for a while.

I remember a participation game at a wargame show many years ago of Giac Mai where the players were all US and the umpire controlled the VC. But there were no actual VC troops, just booby traps and "shadows".  US players ended up inflicting more casualties on each other than the VC traps caused.

Another good option is the Vietnam Variant of Crossfire (Contre les Viets), brilliant if you like the mechanics of Crossfire, avoid it if you don't.

[NurgleHH]

I forgot Disposable Heroes, second Edition is nice... The Vietnam-Supplement is Long road south

[Lord Raglan]

Bolt Action Vietnam

[Sparrow]

Another thumbs up for Force on Force and the unofficial Chain of Command Vietnam variant. Must admit, though, thinking of writing my own...(always enjoyed writing my own rules... )

[Lord Raglan]

I have spare brand new copy of Charlie don't Surf by Two Fat Lardies, 15 quid if you want them?

[has.been]

How about Peter Pig's 'Boys from company B'
Designed for 15mm, but you could replace each base of 15mm figures with one 28mm Figure.

[Cat]

Charlie Company from RAFM was, at the time, a fairly innovative game designed for squad and platoon scale sections. It has the great advantage that it can be readily played as a solo game. They still sell it.

http://www.rafm.com/charlie/charlie.html

I played this a bit way back when.  The game was great, and the campaign system is brilliant.

[Shipka]

I can also recommend Force On Force especially for Hue

[leadfool]

I have used Crossfire, by Arty Conliffe,  with good results.  Give the VC/NVA lots of snipers and hidden set-up with spider holes. 
I ran it several times with Three American players who each had mortars or Artillery, A M-113, HMGs etc.  They outnumbered the VC.  The Americans were told to sweep the area of VC and not lose more units then the other American players. The VC objective was to cause American casualties.  Lots of terrain of course.  Most games the American players became cautious as soon as they took losses.  I think it captured the "feel" of the war. 

[Juan]

I am reading "Ultracombat: Normandy" now, and I think this can be a good ruleset for the Vietnam War. I expect to play a test game when my Empress Miniatures Marines arrive.

[steders]

As a slightly off the wall suggestion (and has been discussed elsewhere), The Walking Dead: All Out War might work for a solo or cooperative game (playing as US and allies).

Wow, I was thinking exactly the same just a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be great because you could have your Green troops freaking out as the threat level got higher and the NCOs trying to calm everything down. The cards from ambush alley would great to replace the WD ones.
I also thought that as the threat level rose you could introduce more reinforcements in a similar way to FNG. (I'm not keen on 2 hour wargames mechanics but I like some of the concepts).
I also thought it might be interesting to have 2 threat trackers, one for the US/allies and one for the NVA/VC. Almost like moral trackers that governed what troops would do, assets available, booby traps etc.
Needs more thought

[jasper]

This month there will be a new version of FNG and a new version of FNG:UW
http://2hourblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/coming-next-month-fng-tour-of-duty-and.html

[funky]

I will try it soon with fireteam: modern

[Westbury]

Spectre V2 or Black Ops would be our call if you are going commercial rather than writing your own.

[Sparrow]

Still at early stages of reading into this so my thoughts are probably still a little “naive” but my thinking so far is that the war is so unique it may require specific rather than generic rules?

I suppose it depends in what sort of scenario you are playing eg modern special forces style skirmish rules might cater well for an LRRP style scenario (or maybe even street fighting in Hue?) but won’t catch properly  the challenges of a drafted platoon conducting a sweep in the boonies, tunnel rats, larger engagements like Ia Drang or the Easter Offensive of 1972 etc.

Still v unclear which way I’ll go but finding the whole thing absolutely fascinating! So much to try and understand and think about! (Plus, not many other periods have such brilliant background music you can play.... !)