CapnJim's Vietnam Stuff...Nam 68 Game 9 AAR Postlude - Page 32 - 23 Sep 25)

[mikedemana]

They look good, Jim. I think I will shoot for Vietnam civilians being a Historicon purchase, assuming a vendor there carries them. 

I picked up some buildings from Miniature Building Authority this last weekend, so adding those to my two scratch-built Jungle Huts, I'm set there.

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Mike!

By the way, Age of Glory (here in the US) carries Empress Miniatures.  Their website says they'll be at Historicon.  If you're gonna want any of Empress' Vietnam civilians (armed or unarmed), you might maybe contact them to see if they'll have some on hand...

[CapnJim]

Well, Game 5 of our Nam '68 Tour of Duty campaign is set for this coming Friday (23 May),  Should be all 4 of us, which is good, as it will be another 3 squad game.

After 3rd Platoon's rearming and reorganizing after they got back to Firebase Edith from their last fight, they headed back out into the bush for an extended stay.  They were helo'ed out to the plantations near Quan Loi, where they have been patrolling for enemy activity.

G2 has received intel regrading VC use of some of those plantations as supply stores.  As part of a company operation, 3rd platoon has been ordered to hit one of the plantations and search for VC supplies.  Here is their Scenario Sheet, along with a bit better pic of the Scenario Map:





And here is the Platoon Roster as it currently stands:





I am doing one thing differently for this game.  I'm having the Platoon's reinforcements arrive a bit quicker than the scenario in the book calls for.  With 3 squads and 3 support teams, it would take most of the game for the whole platoon to show up.  The action ought to get going a bit quicker this way.

As I mentioned, 3rd Platoon crosses the SP at 1100 hrs. Friday.  AAR to follow, as per SOP...

[mikedemana]

Sounds like a fun game. Looking forward to the AAR! It was good to see you and the guys at Drums last weekend, by the way...

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Mike.  Looking forward to playing the game.

Good seeing you at Drums, too.

By the way, the plantation buildings (the house, garage, and barn) are from Micro Art Studio.  This will be the house's first appearance in one of our games...

[CapnJim]

OK.  We did play Game 5 of our Nam '68 Tour of Duty campaign this Friday past, but I been busy since...my apologies...

As usual, Ted (1st Squad and a gun team), Dave (3rd Squad and the Plt HQ), and Gene (2nd Squad and the other gun team) took the Americans, and I played the VC and civilians.  Again, we played 9 turns each side in about 3.5 hours.  It was an interesting firefight, with a few notable events.

I am still in the process of sorting out the few dozen pics I took of the action, after which I will post the AAR proper - looks like it's gonna be a 3-parter.  Meanwhile, I'll set the scene...

Prelude:  The Approach.

It was a pretty quiet day in May 1968 at the banana plantation in the area of Quan Loi.  It was hot and humid, like it always seemed to be.  At least it wasn't raining.  Several Vietnamese plantation workers were going about their business that day.  One was hauling water to/from the well, while a couple others were toting stuff around the place. Another was working in one of the banana groves.  A 5th, an older man - perhaps the houseman, was taking a break out for a stroll.  The French plantation owner (yes - there was still at least one Frenchman still hanging around, at least for our purposes...) had stepped outside by the gate to his planation house outer wall.  He had decided it was time for a smoke.

He was greeted by 5 American infantrymen who were moving west, cautiously along the plantation road.  SGT Tyler motioned for the French guy to stay out of the way.  The Frenchmen ignored his warning, muttering something inhospitable in French.  The Frenchman could also see 6 more Americans at the edge of the jungle scrub just southeast of the house (SGT Tyler's other fire team and PFC Cummings' M60 team).  He, as discretely as possible, made sure his revolver was on his belt under his suit coat.  It was. 

Then, suddenly, SGT Tyler dropped to one knee, held up his right hand in the (halt) signal, and said, quietly, "Bunker, 50 yards, 12 O'clock."  The bunker to which he referred was indeed about 50 yards west of the plantation house, astride the plantation road.  The other 4 men with SGT Tyler did as ordered, and dropped to one knee as well.  They expected the occupants of said bunker to open fire at any minute.  They had not, not yet anyway.  The rest of the platoon was coming up from the east, not that far away.  Hopefully, it wasn't too far.











It is at this point our game started.  As I mentioned, once I get the pics sorted, I will post the AAR.  Hopefully not that far down the road...

[mikedemana]

Sounds great! I love the variety of your scenarios...! Are they all from the rule book, or are you creating some (or all) of them...?

Mike Demana

[Lord Raglan]

Beautifully written again my American friend 👍🏻

[carlos marighela]

Cool! Looking forward to this.

Fear not about justifying French planters, France still had extensive business interests in South Vietnam. The Gallia rubber plantations were French owned and French managed for example.

By the by, there was a famous SAS ambush of a tractor, so your Johne Deere could get another workout, if you were so inclined. Classic op that would be fun to game.

Come Mr Tallyman, tally me banana

Daylight come and I wanna go home......

[Hoagie]

Looking forward to the next part! Interesting to see how the rules handle "big battles"! Are you going to bring in Armour at some point btw? To be honest I'd love to have a regular Battlegroup army list for playing 1-2 US platoons vs main force VC or NVA....

I'm getting close to be able to setup a first game, but I will most likely make it very small as an introduction, probably two players handling one fireteam each, just to get the hang of it...

[has.been]

Your nice work continues.
I look forward to the AAR.

[CapnJim]

Sounds great! I love the variety of your scenarios...! Are they all from the rule book, or are you creating some (or all) of them...?

Mike Demana

Thanks.  And the scenarios are pretty much right out of the book, Mike.  We've decided to do everything in the scenario generation and post-game procedures randomly when possible.  That means that the mission, weather, OpFor, terrain type, presence/number of civilians, presence/number of search points, random events, etc. can and will vary from game to game.  The book provides general guidance for terrain layout for each type of terrain, but I decide the details.

Beautifully written again my American friend 👍🏻

Thanks, Gareth!

Cool! Looking forward to this.

Fear not about justifying French planters, France still had extensive business interests in South Vietnam. The Gallia rubber plantations were French owned and French managed for example.

By the by, there was a famous SAS ambush of a tractor, so your Johne Deere could get another workout, if you were so inclined. Classic op that would be fun to game.

Come Mr Tallyman, tally me banana

Daylight come and I wanna go home......

Thanks, carlos.  And I thought French business interests were still around.  As for Loughgall, I may use that action to inspire a scenario in either Balczakistan or El Perdomo.  We'll see...

Looking forward to the next part! Interesting to see how the rules handle "big battles"! Are you going to bring in Armour at some point btw? To be honest I'd love to have a regular Battlegroup army list for playing 1-2 US platoons vs main force VC or NVA....

I'm getting close to be able to setup a first game, but I will most likely make it very small as an introduction, probably two players handling one fireteam each, just to get the hang of it...

Thanks, Hoagie!  This game was a 3-squader, as was the last game,  Nam '68 handled them pretty well, we thought.  Remember though, no game survives first contact with gamers...

Your nice work continues.
I look forward to the AAR.

Thanks, has,been. 

And for those of you professing a desire to see the AAR (well, and also for those who didn't, I reckon ), here we go...

Part 1:  What's up with the French guy?

SGT Tyler was not interested in getting caught out in the open with the bunker up the road a piece.  He and CPL Hamilton's fire team got up against the wall around the planation house.  They ignored the French guy smoking his cigarette.  SGT Tyler wondered why the bunker's occupants hadn't opened up on them yet...and he sure hoped the rest of the platoon was coming up.



Once they got to the wall, SGT Tyler yelled for the rest of his squad and Cummings' gun team to come up from their covering position in that jungle scrub, and take up positions along the scrub at the drainage ditch by the plantation road.  Cummings and his gun team moved out smartly, while the 3 members of Sgt Tyler's Fire Team B moved a bit slower.

Behind them, SSG Rahck brought up his squad (such as it was), and the other gun team, toward the plantation's barn.  That barn was their first search objective.  The frenchman stood in his gateway, and kept a watchful eye on the Americans.  The plantation workers went about their tasks, as best they could.



SGT Tyler and the men with him ducked inside the wall around the plantation house - he had a man stand at the gate to keep an eye on that bunker.  The Frenchman moved toward the old truck parked nearby.  Cummings' gun team moved toward the drainage ditch, now more cautiously, and the other 3 members of 1st squad followed.  SSG Rahck took his men up between the plantation's house and barn, on the side road, while CPL Alias moved his gun team up by the near side of the barn.  SFC Daltry came up with the Platoon HQ and 3rd Squad, moving up on the American right.







The Americans thought that maybe the bunker was empty.  It wasn't, however.  There were 3 Regional Force VC in it, all armed with AKs.  They used the bunker as a decoy, to make the Americans react to it.  The 3 VC headed out the back door and headed north, to try an end run around the American right.  Too bad one of them tripped and fell in a hole.  He would have to catch up with the other 2...



CPL Alias and his gum team, SFC Daltry and the Platoon HQ, and 3rd squad moved forward, carefully.  SSG Rahck held his position between the barn and house.  Cummings and his gun team made it to the scrub along the drainage ditch, and set up to cover the bunker.  SGT Tyler kept his men inside that wall.  The last 3 men from 1st Squad made it up to the plantation's well.  The plantation workers kept, well, working, and the Frenchman moved around the truck to the side door, opening it.  It was quiet so far.  Maybe too quiet, some of the Americans thought to themselves.







Suddenly, SSG Delp, with 3rd squad, yelled "Contact Front!", and men from 3rd squad dropped to their knees and opened fire toward the bamboo patch across the plantation.  Two of the VC with AKs had made it there, not aware that Americans were moving in that direction.  They found out the hard way, with M16 rounds incoming around them.  Those 2 VC hit the dirt.  At about the same time, the Frenchman grabbed an axe from the cab of the truck, turned around while drawing his revolver, and fired at PFC Cummings.  "What the f**k?" Cummnigs exclaimed out loud, as a couple pistol rounds kicked up the dirt around him.

Private Bonham, at the well, and Private Bachmann, next to Cummings, turned around to see who fired the shots at Cummings.  They fired quick bursts at the Frenchmen, who himself hit the dirt.  The side of the truck was now ventilated with 5.56mm holes.

The other 2 members of 1st squad moved from the well to the scrub along the drainage ditch, next to Cummings' gun team.





With contact being made with the VC on the American right, SSG Delp kept his 3rd Squad moving forward.



SSG Rahck told SGT Page to go cover the Frenchman, and he moved to the front corner of the truck.  He saw the Frenchmen huddled under the right running board of the truck.  SGT Page took careful aim...



Then, finally, machine gun fire erupted from that bunker, and it was aimed at PFC Cummings' gun team at the drainage ditch.  At least one of the .303 British rounds hit PFC Cummings, wounding him.  PVS Bachmann yelled "Medic!".

And the 2 VC at the bamboo patch regained their wits, and their comrade who had tripped and fell joined them.  They fired at the Americans in 3rd squad.  They didn't it anyone, though.  And it was now time for a more forceful American response.  At nearly the same time, PFC Kramer in 2nd Squad (now positioned at the front corner of the wall around the house) and PV2 Barkus in 3rd squad fired M79 40mm HE rounds at the VC.  PFC Kramer fired his round at the bunker, but missed by a a few yards, dropping it in the adjacent drainage ditch. Barkus missed too, but only barely, dropping his round just behind the VC at the bamboo patch.

 



Things were heating up.  Stay tuned for Part 2:  Cummings' Gun Team Has a Bad Day.  It should be up soon enough...followed by Part 3: Do the Americans Find Anything?, the thrilling conclusion to our latest Nam '68 firefight.

[carlos marighela]

Another nicely told story of derring do! Looking forward to the finale.

By the by I wasn't referring to Loughall when talking of tractors. I meant the Australian SAS in Vietnam in 1968. In brief, the tractor job saw an SAS patrol ambush a Fordson tractor and trailer, stolen from a nearby French, rubber plantation. The VC were using it to haul supplies. The SAS recceed the presumed route of the tractor and set up an ambush in a bend using four inverted beehive charges and a baking dish as a pressure plate. The details of the ambush itself are worthy of Hollywood, suffice it to say there was an apocalyptic bang, a smoking hole, bits of an RCL spread about and a lot of dead VC (20 + KIA).

It would be worth committing to the table as:

a) You have a tractor and you have local VC.
b) The open terrain and high grass the SAS were effectively forced to use as the ambush site makes for a potentially interesting set up if things go wrong as they needed to be close enough to observe the killing ground.
c) The SAS didn't have much intel on the size of the escorting VC force. Fun variable.
d) It's a totally iconic SAS patrol and its leader, Sgt Frank Cashmore was a decorated legend. This was only the first of two patrols wehere he would be singled out for a gong (he did another tour in 1971)

If you can hold of  David Horner's SAS, Phantoms of the Jungle, the opening chapter details the whole thing in considerable detail. I linked to a Tunnel Rats website about the ambush on another thread but sadly that's lighting up all kinds of dire privavcy warnings when you click on it now.

[CapnJim]

Not heard of that one.  Hmm.  I think I have an idea or 2...

[Hoagie]

I linked to a Tunnel Rats website about the ambush on another thread but sadly that's lighting up all kinds of dire privavcy warnings when you click on it now.

Have you tried accessing it through archive.org's wayback machine? It's a great tool to access the old internet (if it was properly cached). If it was, you can give a link to a time when the page was active.