Indo China Action

[Westbury]

Got the gang together for a multi player Indo China skirmish the other day using a period specific version of our home grown WWII rules.
The basic scenario saw a single squad of Foreign Legion and single squad of Moroccans deployed in country to protect the villagers of Cho Ra, whether they liked it or not 
The French had two compounds to defend but where also able to put troops out into the field, which they did with one from each squad and the Moroccan lmg deployed to cover a foot bridge.
The local Viet Minh, a platoon of 2 assault squads, 1 support squad and a small HQ squad, were charged with liberating the peasants and had 6 jump off points from which they could start the game. To simulate the VM superiority in the jungle 6 markers were deployed, one at each jump off point, 4 marked as elements of the platoon and 2 as dummy's, these would move through the terrain until spotted or they declared themselves by firing.

[Westbury]

The VM deployed the 2 assault squads in the jungle near the river either side of the stream and advanced down the table toward the compounds. The support squad started at the bottom of the table and worked its way up to the Moroccan compound on the right of the stream and the HQ element started at the temple ruins in the middle of the table and headed up to the Legion compound hoping to use its RPG to destroy the watch tower as the assault squad attacked. The two dummy tokens were in the area of the HQ and support squad and threw off the the patrols for a while.

[Westbury]

Not surprisingly the battle became a game of two halves.
At the Legion compound the assault squad was meant to wait at the edge of the jungle until the RPG took out the tower and then fire into the compound and charge before the French could recover. Oh well  The assault squad opened fire immediately, inflicting no casualties and then charged out into the open where the grizzled Legion sergeant directed the fire of the men on that side of the compound and downed several VM and killed the sergeant, this resulted in a morale check and the squad became pinned  . Not to be outdone in the 'we can't shoot' stakes the HQ RPG now opened fire from the other side of the compound and missed the rather large watch tower! They then scuttled back into the jungle to avoid getting shot at.
In the next round of fire the Legion scored a kill on the VM corporal and another morale test saw the assault squad fail again and begin withdrawing to the river, attempting to rally each turn and failing each turn  They never rallied and at game end were rounded up by the returning patrol and marched off to captivity. Utter disaster.

[Westbury]

The attack on the Moroccan compound fared better for the VM. Just like the other squad this assault squad reached the edge of the jungle, opened fire and then charged but they managed to wound a couple of defenders and kill the Moroccan corporal. Despite wounds on their own side the VM managed to close the gap and force the defenders to fall back across the compound and defend from the 'wrong side' of the sandbags which proved to be their undoing.
In theory the Moroccans were in a pretty good position, the French sergeant had 2 men with him at the sandbags and they had 2 men up in the watch tower, plus the Moroccan sergeant trying to work his way to join them, however.......
It was at this point that the support squad (which was essentially 2 lmg teams) arrived at the edge of the jungle behind the Moroccan position and let rip  The 2 Moroccans were the first to go down and the French sergeant and watch tower did get off a reply that downed some of the VM but weight of fire told and pretty soon the sergeant and the tower were silenced.   

[Westbury]

During all the fast and furious action there was one comedy moment. During its advance, the VM support squad had missed the Moroccan lmg team stationed in the jungle by the bridge and so had the Moroccan player!! So in one of those "oh s##t" moments the Moroccan player realised too late about the support he could have offered his dying soldiers but opened up anyway and took down a couple of the VM but it was all to no avail as the cool as a cucumber VM corporal lobbed a grenade bang on target and the lmg was no more.
The final action of this sector was a burst of smg fire from the Moroccan sergeant, which took down one of the lmg gunners, as he fled into the jungle, the last of his squad.

[has.been]

Nice to see some non 'Vietnam' Vietnam.
Looks like you had fun Ian.
Any close up pictures of the Temple?

[Westbury]

And what of the VM HQ?
Well they played dodge being spotted by the Legion watch tower, which they failed at and got themselves in a fire fight which saw the officer and RPG operator wounded but they did manage to shoot one of the Legionnaires out of the tower. However, the unwounded sergeant noticed that the Legion had sent out a kill team to finish them off so he hustled his officer away so that an appropriate report of victory could be posted.
All in all it was a good game, pretty decent representation of a small scale action, plenty of laughs and a few groans. A good day 

[vodkafan]

Hope the civilians on the boat with the vegetables got through to market OK...

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looks like it was a fun game.

[CapnJim]

Lovely battle report.  Great looking terrain and figures too.

During all the fast and furious action there was one comedy moment. During its advance, the VM support squad had missed the Moroccan lmg team stationed in the jungle by the bridge and so had the Moroccan player!! So in one of those "oh s##t" moments the Moroccan player realised too late about the support he could have offered his dying soldiers but opened up anyway and took down a couple of the VM but it was all to no avail as the cool as a cucumber VM corporal lobbed a grenade bang on target and the lmg was no more.
The final action of this sector was a burst of smg fire from the Moroccan sergeant, which took down one of the lmg gunners, as he fled into the jungle, the last of his squad.

We've had moments like that in our games.  We were playing a modern game where US special forces raided an African compound, trying to do a snatch-and-grab.  The US sniper couldn't hit an MG gunner in a watch tower (apparently he missed the sniping class in sniper school).  After 3 or 4 missed shots, one of the SF team leaders, out of exasperation, took a shot with his MP5.   No more MG...  

That's the way it goes sometimes... 

[Westbury]

The temple pieces Pete.

[has.been]

Thanks Ian. Where did it come from?

[Westbury]

I built it Pete - I know, shocking isn't it 
The parts were from various sources, Ainsty Castings, TTC, Iron Gate, Sarissa and stuff that had been in the "terrain box" for years. Although I built the two pieces for Indo China I guess they could be used for a variety of settings.

[has.been]

Multi-use is the best sort.
La Haye Saint is useful for...Waterloo & little else,
but several separate buildings (barn, stables, farmhouse)
can be used in a variety of ways & periods.

I look forward to more scenery from you, now you
know how to do it.