Vietnam AAR: Black Ops 150pts vs 225pts - Mission 'Breakout' 20mm

[MaaX]

This game featured US Special Forces (running the Professionals list) at 150 points against the Viet Cong (using the Fanatics list) at 225 points. We played with 20mm miniatures.

The battlefield was a small Vietnamese jungle village. In this scenario, an American recon team had been detected by the Viet Cong and needed to break through to their main forces before being overwhelmed.



I played as the Viet Cong.

Right from the start, it was clear we had far too many points on the table. The rulebook recommends a cap of 75 points, and we more than doubled that. This resulted in a bloated and slow game.

We played through one full turn before giving up. I had around 40 VC miniatures against 17 Americans. While my troops had worse stats, the sheer volume of fire was overwhelming. The Americans lost around 6 or 7 models, with a few getting stabilized and returning to action, but some were hit and knocked down again, requiring another stabilization and a medic test?something the rules don?t fully account for. Overall, we found quite a few ambiguities in the rulebook, which is not great.

The American objective was to get at least half their figures off any table edge. However, with the amount of incoming fire, they had too many wounded and suppressed models to make any real progress. Both of their Ace activations were spent on stabilizing casualties. Only one soldier managed to leave the building where they had taken cover, only to be shot down immediately just steps outside.

After completing the first turn, which took a very long time, we agreed that there was no point in continuing as the Americans had no real chance of success.

[mikedemana]

Those numbers would work for my Wars of Insurgency rules, just saying... 

There are three troop classes in the game, Elite, Regular, and Militia. You could make the VC all Militia and the U.S. figs and Elite. The volume of fire thing would be a danger, but the Elite -- if they stick to cover -- should be able to make headway towards exiting the board. There is still the "golden BB" potential, as there should be, but it should not be overwhelming with the elites being mowed down.
http://www.firstcommandwargames.com/wars-of-insurgency.html

Sorry your experiment with Black Ops didn't work. I know Capn Jim has played it from time to time. Maybe he will have some sage advice... 

Mike Demana

[MaaX]

Thank you!

We will give it a look.

[CapnJim]

Interesting.  That does seem a bit big for Black Ops.  I'd be curious to know how you stat'ed the troops involved...

[MaaX]

Interesting.  That does seem a bit big for Black Ops.  I'd be curious to know how you stat'ed the troops involved...

I used the Fanatics profile with ACC 5, CQC 5, DED 3, and SAVE 5. I also had a few veterans with ACC 4, plus two specialists—one with a 75mm recoilless rifle and the other with a HMG, both at ACC 4.
My opponent used Professional Soldiers with 4s across all stats.
We agreed that all terrain pieces would give a +1 cover bonus, and we were using true line of sight for visibility.

If you're interested, I can share the full lists we used for that game.l Soldiers with 4 across all stats. We agreed that all terrain pieces give 1 point cover bonus and we were using true line of sight.

[CapnJim]

I get the gist.  Just a rough day to be a Ranger, I guess...

[MaaX]

Yeah, even though they all had body armor.