CapnJim's Vietnam Stuff...Nam 68 Game 9 Scenario Info - Page 31 - 15 Sep 25)

[mikedemana]

Sucks for the platoon - bad luck, it seems, was with them that day. Sounds like some battlefield promotions are on the way for guys wearing fewer stripes...

I'm enjoying the battle reports a lot! And I bought some of those civilians this weekend at Historicon... 

Mike Demana

[Hoagie]

Well I think Warwick canpat himself on the back for designing such a psychological gauntlet of a assymetrical warfare game, quite an achievement! I might even run my own first game on friday, it sure does like the umpire is having a lot of the fun 😅 How are your players feeling after that, do they need hugs and a lie down? I guess the M48 is for patching things up. Riveting as always Jim!

[CapnJim]

Thanks, fellas.

The players are enjoying it (they claim to be, anyway), but it is wearing on them (but only during the Nam '68 games...).

As for the tank - pure serendipity.  It was part of the post-game procedures (campaign cards)...

[carlos marighela]

Dunno that an M48 will be good news. It will certainly be a fire magnet. 

There's a great little scenario in Jim Webb's novel Fields of Fire, where the USMC platoon it portrays has to defend a broken down tank on Go Noi Island. Well worth the read, Webb's book being one of the better works of fiction to come out of Vietnam.

[CapnJim]

Too bad the VC won't have anything that can hurt that M48...I'm goign to have to be creative in how I deploy my VC.  Might have to be a "hit-and-run" kind of an affair...

As for that book, I may have it lying around here somewhere.

[Rick]

Too bad the VC won't have anything that can hurt that M48...I'm goign to have to be creative in how I deploy my VC.  Might have to be a "hit-and-run" kind of an affair...

As for that book, I may have it lying around here somewhere.

Russian and Chinese AT Mines as well as IED's. The VC may not have had a lot but they were inventive in using it and the Americans still lost 120 M48's in 3 years fighting them.

[CapnJim]

Thinking about that.  The VC do get a few small booby traps,  5 to he exact...

[mikedemana]

There's a great little scenario in Jim Webb's novel Fields of Fire, where the USMC platoon it portrays has to defend a broken down tank on Go Noi Island.

Just finished re-reading that novel. Along with Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, they are the two best Vietnam novels I've read. "Get some, tank!" 

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Next game is Friday, 15 August.  Scenario info will go up here a few days prior...

[carlos marighela]

Looking forward to that.

Heads up. I intend getting one of these when I get back from my hols (if I am still cash liquid that is). Heavily used in Vietnam, less well known than the OH-13 and the OH-58 Kiowa but used until quite late in the piece. WO Hugh Thompson was belatedly recognised with the Soldiers Medal (the Medal of Honor equivalent for non-combat related heroism) flying one of these in 1968.

https://www.bnamodelworld.com.au/model-planes-lf-models-lf-pe4816-1-48-oh-23-raven-military-service

The Vietnam era version has finally come out in 1/48. I'm sure you have a use for Raven.

[CapnJim]

Interesting...

[CapnJim]

Well, it's that time of the month.  No, not that...I am talking about our monthly Nam '68 Tour of Duty game.  Game 8 to be exact.  It is set for this coming Friday (14 August).

After the shellacking 3rd Platoon took last month, they were sent back to Firebase Edith to rest and refit, and then sent back out in the field.  After a couple weeks' worth of uneventful patrolling, they were choppered in to Firebase Weezy, where they linked up with an M48A3 tank from one of the Army's tank battalions.  They were now to go up the Quim Bi Road and search a Fisherman's hooch area for VC supplies - G2 says the VC are using it as a waypoint on one of their riverine supply routes.

They will be going in with the Platoon HQ (SFC Daltry, his RTO, their medic, their interpreter, and the FO).  He will have with him 1st and 3rd squads (8 men each), and CPL Alias' 2-man M60 team.  And, that M48A3.  That's 23 men and the tank.

Here is the Scenario Sheet:



And here's a bit better map:



Most of the terrain will affect the game per the rules, with these exceptions:

1.  The river is narrow, but too deep to cross.  It can only be crossed at the 2 bridges, and the tank can only use the road bridge.

2.  Individual trees (those not in areas of jungle scrub) will provide Soft Cover for observation and fire, for figures directly adjacent to and behind them.

3.  The bamboo patch blocks LoS, and is impassible.

I have also taken a couple liberties with the 2 Deployment Areas, and the deployment of the US troops.

Other than those, it's by the book...

3rd Platoon hits the SP at 100 hrs. Friday.  AAR to follow (of course)...
 

[carlos marighela]

Quim Bi road. Inspired!

[CapnJim]

I thought so...

[mikedemana]

Looking forward to the report! Hope the platoon has an easier go of it this time. And Ted rolls better dice...n

Mike Demana