CapnJim's Vietnam Stuff...Tour of Duty Game 1 AAR Teaser - Page 14 - 18 Jan 25)

[CapnJim]

Well, Advance the Colors was a good convention, in terms of my modern stuff.  I picked up 3 pre-painted 28mm buildings from Miniature Building Authority (from their Shanty Town range), as well as a painted 28mm Russian Ural truck.  I also picked up a die cast UH90 Blackhawk helicopter and a diecast CH-46 helicopter (which will double as a CH47...) from them, both usable in 28mm games.  I also got 2 Humvees (1/43 diecast - but they will do fine for 28mm games), with armored weapon stations and gunners.  I will re-paint the Humvees in proper NATO tri-color schemes, and will paint up the weapons stations and gunners tp go with them.  I think they will be up next, so will appear here not that far down the road...

I also played in a modern game set in A French intervention in Africa.  I and another player played the French, and we won!

MODERATORS:  please repost this in my Modern thread, if that's possible.  It should be there.  My bad...

[CapnJim]

I got my copy of Nam '68 Tour of Duty, and I must say, I'm quite intrigued.  Now that I've had a chance to digest it some, the game rules themselves are fairly conventional.  However, the campaign rules are what makes it really interesting.  It tracks a US platoon's progress through a 1-year tour of duty.  12 missions, each representing that month's signification contact.  Missions can be for 1, 2, or 3 squads, and could be in low, medium, or high threat levels.  They could be anything from a local security patrol to an all-out attack.  And, the missions could take place anywhere from dense jungle to wetlands to a hamlet, as well as other settings. 

My regular gaming group has consented to doing a campaign, so we are going to play one game a month each month in 2025.  The platoon will be from the 1st Cav Division.  This campaign will be in 28mm.

To get some experience with the rules, we're going to do a 1-squad mission.  A local security patrol, as it turns out - along a "road" that follows a stream.  I have a few VC and a few civilians to paint up, and we will fight our first fight in January.  I'll do the GM-ing duties, and as such will play the VC and any civilians that might be present.

Looking forward to see how this plays out.  Once we decide when in January we're gonna play fight #1, and as we get close to that date, I will (of course) post scenario details.

[carlos marighela]

Most interested to see how the rules turn out. Be looking forward to this.

RAFM's Charlie Company had a rudimentary campign system based on a 12 month tour be interesting to compare and contrast.

Just remember to swap your US platoon commanders out 6 months in, if he survives that long. In the US Army they rarely did more than 6 months in the field before being rotated to a rear echelon role, staff, training etc. That must have been fucking disruptive, at least as much as the individual replacement regime. Imagine being the platoon sergeant and having to train up a new skipper every 6 months.

Smarter folk rotated by battalion, so they all went through thes same training regime, pre-deployment exercises etc and did their hardest to ensure that sub-unit entities stayed together as much as possible. I think the penny finally dropped for the US Army but not until after the war.

[CapnJim]

That could happen.  The campaign system allows for men rotating in and out of the platoon. 

And I'll have to dig out my copy of Charlie Company.  We played them a fair bit with 20mm troops back on the proverbial day - they were the rules with which I first played Vietnam.

[HerbertTarkel]

My copy of Nam 68 is somewhere in the Canada Post system. Grrrr.

Must be patient…

A buddy 3D printed some Hueys for me in 12mm scale, though!

[Gunbird]

Looking forward to follow your Tour

[mikedemana]

Sounds fun, Jim! Will each of you command a squad as a coop game? I am getting more and more into the idea of coop games with each player having their own command. Vietnam is a perfect period for that type of game.

Look forward to reading about it!

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Yeah - we're looking forward to seeing how it plays out, as well.

Sounds fun, Jim! Will each of you command a squad as a coop game? I am getting more and more into the idea of coop games with each player having their own command. Vietnam is a perfect period for that type of game.

Look forward to reading about it!

Mike Demana

I'll be the GM.  As such, i will do all the campaign tracking (mission development, casualty tracking, replacements, etc.), and I will play the VC and any civilians in each game.  Ted and Gene (and even Dave Elmore, who has been joining us for some of our games lately) will play the US platoon.  How they split up the troops in each game hasn't been determined yet, but will depend (at least in part) on whether each game is a 1-, 2-, or 3-squad game.

[CapnJim]

We're getting ready to start our Nam '68 Tour of Duty campaign later this month.  I've just about got the platoon roster done, and I've figured out the 1st scenario. I'll get to that here in a week or so.  But first, I had to paint up a few VC and some civilians, all 28mm.

First, the VC.  3 of them are Black Sun (by Crucible Crush) VC, while the 4th (the chap kneeling, firing his bolt action rifle) is mostly a Rubicon VC (his arms and rifle are from a Warlord plastic german sprue).




Now, the civilians.  They are Empress Miniatures.




We haven't picked a date for this game yet, but it looks like one of the last couple Fridays here in January.  I'll post scenario info here once we figure it out.

[HerbertTarkel]

They look great!

My copy of Nam 68 is somewhere in the post, delayed by the strike … sigh…

[CapnJim]

They look great!

My copy of Nam 68 is somewhere in the post, delayed by the strike … sigh…

That's a bummer.  Hopefully they get that whole thing figured out soon...

And thanks!

[HerbertTarkel]

That's a bummer.  Hopefully they get that whole thing figured out soon...

And thanks!

Yeah, it’s on pause - so mail is moving - but it’s a big mess!

All this Nam 68 stuff makes me want to dive in.

[carlos marighela]

Figures look great. Love a good kit bash. It's the one area where the plastic figures hold their own.

[CapnJim]

Figures look great. Love a good kit bash. It's the one area where the plastic figures hold their own.

Thanks, carlos. And yes - plastics are well-suited for kit-bashing...

[Lord Raglan]

Some day this war is going to end