"Game 4 of 10mm Vietnam Skirmish Campaign" Topic

All,

Here's the next fight, our first action against NVA regulars in the hill country near the Cambodian border. Here's the situation: following the fight at Nam Pla 6, the battalion continued to focus most of its attention north of Dak To, seeking out the Viet Cong. It's October 9, 1967, and the squad (minus SSgt Bleier, who's recovering in Okinawa, and Pvt Greenwood, still at BAS) is scheduled to conduct another patrol to the north, trying to figure out where the VC went after being run out of Ap Bac and Nam Pla. However, Brigade called out with a FragO and the squad was diverted west. It seems one of the Division's Hueys went down about 6 klicks away, near Hill 98. A Bird Dog in the area gave it a look, doesn't look like there are any survivors, so the squad is just going out to destroy equipment and recover our folks.

The platoon had followed the trail network west and then north, and was now in the process of cutting back east to search the area around Hill 98.

Overview, north is up. Left is US baseline, atop Lamyai Ridge. Top center is Hill 98, far right is Hill 50. You can see the helo wreck at top right. Bottom center is Hill 72. The enemy has a bunker at far right on Hill 50.

The downed Huey. The enemy has pulled the three crew out to search for intelligence information. This is actually a Minifigs UH-1 that I never got around to finishing.

Looking west at US baseline, here's the US squad. What's happened so far is that the squad had just crested Lamyai Ridge when the pointman, Pvt Holmes, called a security halt. The acting squad leader, Sgt Banaszak, moved up to Holmes while the squad fanned out.

So Holmes (bottom left) calls a security halt, and Banaszak comes up. "What's up, Holmes?" "Sarge, look up there, about 10 o'clock, you can see smoke coming up through the trees. I think we found our downed chopper." Movement to the right catches Holmes' eye. "Hey, what's a water buffalo doing way the hell out here? Holy crap!" Holmes shoulders his M-16 and fires twice at the enemy trooper (top right, behind the water bull), seriously wounding him. At the sound of the gunfire the water bull starts running east.

Stallworth dashes up the right side (far right, near wounded enemy trooper, with Russell at far left). Stallworth calls out to Russell, "Hey Sarge, this cat's NVA!!!" "Whaaaaat? No way." Well, that explains the helo getting downed…

Rusell pops to a knee (top center, left of trail with red dice and green bead), which draws a near miss from the NVA in the bunker (foreground). Russell flops back down prone, but didn't see where the fire came from.

Harris' assistant, Swan, takes all three actions but spots the two NVA atop Hill 98 (the RPG and leader, with a rifleman off camera to bottom right). Ham fires his M-79 at the NVA on the hilltop, but it lands short (bottom left cotton puff). Ham quickly reloads, then bloops another frag up the hill. He was aiming to hit between the two NVA and missed, but the grenade lands right at the NVA leader's feet (center cotton puff), putting him out of the fight and giving the RPG a light wound.

Doc White and Ham dodging a raging (water)bull.

Security is set while the helo is rigged for demolition and Doc gets the bodies ready for extraction. Banaszak calls it in, and within minutes a Chinook is on the way.

The fight went very well, the squad is performing like a well-oiled machine and conducting itself (mostly, not counting Harris) as seasoned vets that have 'grown up' very quickly under fire. They accomplished their mission and gave the NVA, heretofore not known to be operating on this side of the border, a quick bloody nose. But Banaszak can't help but ponder on how lucky they were: once again, Holmes proves his worth as a pointman, but if that knucklhead with the buffalo hadn't stumbled into us, how might things have gone? Or if the NVA in the bunker had been a bit more vigilant (AKA, rolled better spotting dice), or if that RPG had put the M-60 team down, instead of missing by a couple yards?

For the whole fight and lots more pics, please visit the blog at:
link

Hope you had a good time, I sure did.

V/R,
Jack

I believe the prose of your narratives is becoming increasing more eloquent and even poetic with each new AAR:

The bull is ed and scared, and with my luck he turns left and charges northwest, getting very close to Doc White and Ham

LoL…

Seriously though these AAR's are really enjoyable, very engrossing reading; and I'm getting more and more interested in the rules your using. I presume they're aimed towards small actions?

BTW Great shot of the exploding copter

I didn't think I'd ever need to say this to you but I think your AAR's need more bull!

Thanks guys, I'm just as eloquent as I can be!

"I didn't think I'd ever need to say this to you but I think your AAR's need more bull!"
You've not been paying attention, my Dear Panda, the water bulls have been a part of several of these games. They just didn't play as big a roll as in this last one ;)

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the batreps, I am too (I think it shows). I'm really having fun, I'm (once again) attached to a set of little lead soldiers, it's really been a blast following them through each battle. Each one of the troop's bases are marked, i.e., Blue 1, Red 3, etc…, but I don't even need it at this point, I know each guy by name. It's really a trip. My only problem is I have so many different ideas/projects…

Regarding the rules, check out this post:
TMP link

If you ask real nice and mention Jack sent you (no, that's not right, you have to refer to me as Big Daddy), he may send you a copy to playtest for him. But that means you have to actually play games, Panda! No more sticking purely in the realm of the cutesy artist ;)

I've got two more to get written up, so stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack