[Nam 68] Platoon - UD 27/4 final AAR of first game

[Silent Invader]

 

Here's a better shot taken in natural light without adjustment.

Shows the positions at the end of turn 8 with the initiative-seizing Elias at point and his First Squad strung out behind him to the centre of shot (note Gator and King, way, way behind), with Barnes and then Red's bunched up Second Squad just about to exit the trees on the right.

[Silent Invader]

With the afternoon free I was able to finish the game.

The patrol had 60" to cover, so at 5" for walking it was going to take at least 12 turns, maybe 10 turns with no enemy contact and some 8" running. With contact, 12-16 turns would seem a very good result though I managed to clear the table in 17, albeit not without cost.

With the line of march now sorted, all was going pretty well until turn 12, when I made a major tactical error. With Barnes activated, the patrol pushed forward in a sort-of arrow head with the carried casualty (Harold) towards the centre. Elias was watching to the rear but had his M60 team covering the right flank. Red and his Second Squad were so focussed on covering the front that I forgot to place eyes on the left flank.



As the entire move was off of Barnes' activation there was only one roll for a Random Insert Point (RIP), and it generated almost the worst result possible: a spider hole (with VC sniper) on the left flank. Next image shows the spider hole marker at the base of the tree; Red is closest mini.



Turn 13 was then bad news. The Platoon actually got the first activation but as the spider hole was out of everyone's LOS they could not react to it so followed their orders, which was the line of march to the ford. The sniper then killed Francis (a direct kill as there wasn't a suitable casualty marker spare) and turned Red into a casualty. Only a claymore with bunched minis in the target zone could have caused a worse result. As on the ball as ever, the only man able to get into position to effectively return fire was Elias, who for the second time in the game got the kill.

With two casualties to carry, firepower was massively reduced (casualty porters do not receive a walking deduction, but they are barred from running and also from shooting). The Platoon was now relying on the M60 team at each flank, Elias watching to the front and Doc, of all people, watching the rear.



With the Platoon so bunched the activations were now increasingly all off of Barnes, as multiple activations would have meant more chances for RIPs. Turn 15 saw the river crossing well underway.



In turn 16 Barnes rolled badly and a boobytrap was generated 7" in front of him, which just happened to be under the feet of Sandy, who was leading the casevac of Harold. The mine wasn't a dud and exploded: Sandy was replaced by a Casualty marker (the last available) but Harold, as he was already a casualty, was killed outright. (The image also shows another mine, which was avoided.)





The Platoon, just before exiting the table during turn 17:



The final tallies were:
 
-Big Harold, casualty from sniper then killed by mine
-Francis, killed by sniper
-Sgt Red O'Neil, casualty from sniper
-Sandy Sanderson, casualty from mine

During its 17-turn traverse of the board, the Platoon had faced a roving sniper and 2 snipers in spider holes (all 3 VC killed), 2 claymores (both avoided) and 5 boobytrap mines (of which 1 triggered).

PS: I'm not all happy with the shine on the minis and am wondering if the pot of Revell Matt I've been using is a bit 'off' - I may have to track down some Windsor & Newton to see if that will satisfactorily flatten them.

[Mr. Peabody]

Wow. That's pretty much the definition of hostile territory!

Great AAR. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Superb game!   

[Captain Blood]

They do look a bit shiny 
Apart from that, great batrep. Oh sorry... A A R   
Seriously, looks great. The North or the Mekong Delta. That's some serious multitasking.

[Dr. Zombie]

As always everything looks amazing.

But the game sounds really great as well. You really get the sense of GI's sloggin it throug the hostile jungle where every shadow could potentially hold their doom.

Great stuff!

[Silent Invader]

Thanks all, much appreciated.   The terrain will take on a very different form when palms and bamboo are added. For FIW I expect that I'll use it as is. And there's always the possibility of more genre-specific tiles....  

But the game sounds really great as well. You really get the sense of GI's sloggin it throug the hostile jungle where every shadow could potentially hold their doom.

I was very pleased with how the game played out. With the Random Insert Points (RIPs) I think I've finally founded a solo and/or non player force (NPF) system that works for me. Ironically, I think we discussed before that I was trying to find a zombie system that was more interesting than 'go to noise' etc and so I decided instead to approach the problem from another angle, which was the means of managing a 'thinking action' that could be scaled down rather than an 'unthinking reaction' to be scaled up. Applying this to non zombie opponents also provides a fuller test.

All that said, it's easier to explain the quirks of the system by reference to zombies. The more usual zombie 'go to noise' systems generate an action by the zombie in response to action by the activated mini. To some extent, the human player knows that choosing X will be followed by Y or something similar to Y. With RIPs, the activation of a specific mini by the human player might generate a zombie interaction against another mini elsewhere on the board that might need to be confronted before or during the activation that the human player actually intended. Per Donald Rumsfield, there's the knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns: RIPs generate more of the latter.

To take it back to gaming Nam with a NPF, when the player activates a mini:

- the player follows orders in the light of what is on the table (the knowns)
- the player might also then have to deal with programmed reactions by enemy already on the table acting under orders and perhaps directed by a simple AI (the known unknowns)
- the player might first have to respond to action elsewhere ranging from nothing to mines to defensive positions to unit jump-offs, such that the player cannot activate quite as he intended to (the unknown unknowns)

Hopefully that all made sense!  

[Elk101]

Random Insertion Points sound interesting. I like the solo play element too.

[Silent Invader]

Random Insertion Points sound interesting. I like the solo play element too.

I have to say, it was the most enjoyable solo game I've ever played. That's one of the reasons it was spread out over a couple days: I made it last. 

I don't think Random Insert Points (and yes, Steve, I did originally have the typo Insertion in my post above  ) would work so well for a player-controlled force as they'd take away much of the personal control and therefore perhaps the enjoyment. For games without a NPF - i.e., all forces managed by a human - I have Insert Points, which can amount to the same thing but aren't random as they're player controlled. See what I did there?!?!  The IPs are one of the things in the rules that I've yet to test.

[commissarmoody]

Random Insertion Points sound interesting. I like the solo play element too.

I also enjoyed the randomness of it. Your actually on Pins as to what might happen. And I like how you punished your self for not watching all your sectors.

I think this will work pretty well for an French Indo China, or say just about any dense terrain guerrilla style battles. Your using home cooked rules?

Also I can not remember but where you planning on doing the cast of Full Metal jacket also?

[Romark]

Outstanding Steve 
Great Aar(sorry Richard ) sounded like a very tense game,board and minis look great 
Cheers
Keith

[von Lucky]

Lovely AAR. It really sounds like it was intense in a way all good wargames are.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks Chaps  

And Richard, Keith et al: With at the most one enemy figure on the table at anytime, calling it a BATTLE report would perhaps have been a bit of a stretch?!?  

I also enjoyed the randomness of it. Your actually on Pins as to what might happen. And I like how you punished your self for not watching all your sectors.

I think this will work pretty well for an French Indo China, or say just about any dense terrain guerrilla style battles. Your using home cooked rules?

Also I can not remember but where you planning on doing the cast of Full Metal jacket also?

Obviously in solo gaming it's especially easy to rewrite history (to cheat  ) but, you know, self-discipline, etc.  

Yeah, I think the RIP mechanic would work in many periods and  genres. I like asymmetric games and so have lots of other projects (like French & Indian War, Second Afghan War, early WW1, Post Apoc) that the basic rule set will be rebadged for. So yes, the rules are home brew, having gone through many forms over many years. I did try to turn them into one set of any period any genre rules but there was too much superfluous info for any one game, with period/genre flavour being lost. Refocusing the rules on Vietnam has really helped, especially in developing the solo mechanic. After I've updated the Nam document with some revisions I'll probably try doing a rebadged version either for a FIW or SAW game. There are still elements of the rules to test, such as Helicopter Support, though I don't enjoy testing with chits etc so they'll have to wait until I get the models. I also need to replay the Fighting and Morale rules to ensure that after some tweaks they still work as well as they did before.

As there seems to be interest, some more info about the RIP mechanic.

RIP hangs off the activation system, with a test for RIP immediately an Individual or Unit is activated. So the more activations in a turn, the more tests for RIP. The number of activations is reduced by cohesive command and control, which is a function of seniority and distance. The activation of a Platoon Commander can include all of his direct subordinates in range, which can then include Squad Leaders and then, as parts of the same activation, any of the Fire Teams (units) which are within range of their Leader(s). So with loss of command and control there'd be more RIPs and increasingly more chaos. It came close to this with the loss (casualty) of Sgt O'Neil. Without him, I chose to keep his Fire teams (units) close to Barnes, who was now their line senior but with everyone more bunched-up the RIP generation of a claymore could have been singularly catastrophic.

As regards FMJ, yes I also plan the Lusthog Squad at some point but that could be sometime away. Definitely, more VC to build plus some village buildings etc, and the rest of the Platoon cast. That said, I think I mentioned before that I should have the parts in hand for FMJ's pair of combat correspondents so they'll be higher up the build order. All that said, I flit between projects so no promises on timescales.  

Thanks for the interest.

[Mason]

Brilliant!
Both the clever sounding mechanics and those lovely eye candy shots, especially the 'river crossing' piccies.
 

[Elk101]

I did something very similar for my Alien rules at BLAM last year so that even I didn't know what might occur. I incorporated it into my Vietnam rules to provide that same sense of the unknown.  The Vietnam rules also have a card support system which I'm slightly struggling to tie into the solo activation system  as neatly as you have tied your system together.