"Game 12 of Vietnam Skirmish Campaign" Topic

All,

For the squad, Happy Thanksgiving! It's 25 November 1967 (I didn't look at a 1967 calender to see if it's correct, but close enough for me), and the squad is enjoying a day on base with turkey and stuffing. But they're not off the hook; the Brigade has several patrols out, still trying to find those damned HMGs, which have put another helo two days ago, and the squad is on standby as a Quick Reaction Force should something go awry.

Which is exactly what happened. On of the the Corps-level 'Lurp' (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols) teams has gotten itself into a @#$% sandwich out on the border; they stumbled onto an NVA base camp, called in air, which saturated the place, but a lucky NVA walked into them during exfil and compromised them. They went on the run, trying to make it two klicks to the LZ, but the NVA did some damage. The Lurps are in a bad way, holed up on Hill 65, about 300 yards from the LZ. They have heavy NVA pressure from the northwest, at least company-size, and four of their seven-man team are out of the fight. The squad is heloing out to the LZ, its mission to secure the Lurps, move them to the LZ, and exfil everyone.

As soon as the squad's helo, a Chinook (because I don't have any Hueys…), touches down, fast movers are gonna drop Snake and Nape (500-pound 'Snakeye' retarded bombs and napalm) to the northwest of Hill 65 to help the Americans break contact with the NVA pushing there. It's up to Banaszak's boys to get the Lurps back to the choppa and thus to safety.

Overview of board, north is up, LZ at bottom right, Lurps at top left.

The "Alamo," atop Hill 65 three Lurp troopers fighting off NVA (off camera to top left), protecting their four downed buddies, praying for help.

Screaming in low over the rice paddies from the south comes a lone CH-47.

The Chinook sits down and Banaszak (far left) leads his boys out: Thomas (M-79) top right, Stallworth to his left, then Bradley, Ham next to Banaszak, Kolb to his right, and Swan just exiting the helo.

And then, from the northeast (top right of board), NVA arrive. The squad had been detached from the NVA attacking Hill 65 from the northwest, with the intent on flanking them, when the Yankee steel-bird descended onto the paddy field to their south. The NVA leader makes a snap decision: half will focus on the Yankees to the south, the other half will push west (left) to flank the Yankees on Hill 65.

And the race is on! I will throw in a spoiler; the squad once again accomplishes its mission, but loses a dear friend…

Ham and Thomas are still on guard as the last of the Lurps gets the wounded aboard the helo (far right) and Swan comes sprinting in (top left). "Where's Banaszak?"

As three NVA enter the board from the west side of Hill 65.

Banaszak (center) is sprinting towards the helo (bottom), as the three NVA (top center) open up.

Ham and Thomas both fire, but as the grenades are in flight Banaszak stumbles and goes down…

To see how it turns out, check the blog at:
link

V/R,
Jack

Hmmm so much for that damn ignore button… here we are again ;)

Nice Chinook…looks great on the carpet…ahem I mean table (I love Blue for bringing that up…)

Exciting stuff again…will they make it to Christmas with all the vets leaving ?

"…looks great on the carpet…"
You bastards!!! Now you're giving me a complex! There is nothing wrong with my hills, you guys are just jealous! Not one of you has the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to spray paint a rug and cut it up in masterful fashion as I did! No more batreps for you!

The game was pretty fun, with a little scare there at the end that really didn't have to happen, wasn't really in the script, just all of a sudden all the bad guys are down, so why not bring three more in on the left?

Surprised no accusations of Magic Dice again, as Banaszak has been hit twice recently: the first time my 'after-game roll' netted him a few days of light duty (so I called it a concussion), the second one was a '20,' so "good to go," usually akin to being knocked unconscious, but that didn't fit the narrative of him being lightly wounded (yellow bead) and being able to keep running, so when I wrote it up he was just stunned by a round hitting his gear and knocking him down.

He's a fugitive from the law of averages; hell, it feels like they all are. I'm losing more and more guys to the '3-time loser' rule, so what I'm thinking to do is stop handing out so many Purple Hearts, i.e., when I guy 'just' gets light duty or local evac to the battalion aid station the wound is not severe enough to warrant a PH, thus hopefully scaling back on the number of guys checking out of the front line.

Kyote-John,

What's going on with you man? Everything alright? I know you were moving your sister, everything okay otherwise? I'm looking forward to you getting your stuff set up and you becoming a member of the batrep-posting community.

Also, here is my formal solicitation for scenario ideas, I'm running out, I can't keep this going forever! Aside from what you've seen in the batreps, I've got some Jeeps, M-113s, and M-48s to finish up, then I can use them, but I don't have any Hueys (just a couple Chinooks) or Riverine stuff. Well, I do have a really cheesy LCVP-looking landing craft, but no PBRs or Monitors, or Vietnamese watercraft.

V/R,
Jack

"Surprised no accusations of Magic Dice again"

What need is there for accusations; they are no longer required…we've all the proof we need to put you away and throw away the keys. After Banaszak is mowed to the ground in a hail of bullets only to spring to his feet like a cat with all his 9 lives magically restored then theres no need for further evidence… ;)

I no longer tell my kids the bedtime story of Jack and his Magic Beans…I tell them of Jack and his Magic Dice….

Anyway the case of Jack and the Magic Dice is officially closed…
The case of Jack and the Magic Carpet…well that's another story…

You might want to check into THW's FNG game Jack. It has a great campaign engine. All you have to do is convert it to "Foreign Field". I think injuries are pretty similar between the systems.

twohourwargames.com/fng.html

How about going up against a tunnel complex? Maybe a convoy escort assignment? And since you have a chopper what about an air moble op where the squad has to hold the line against a NVA breakout? That way you can use you vehicles.

Jack,

I am impressed you played 12 games in a row! I could never do that. This is not official yet but for Middle of NoWhere Missions D,E,G and K drop off the Platoon Forward mission table. The new table will look somoething like this:
1 MSN A
2 MSN B
3 Msn C
4-5 Hammer Dawn [ surprise attack on a enemy complex]
6 Msn F
7-8 One of our planes is missing [ scamble to save a crew]
9-10 Msn H
11 Ambuscale [ you are ambushed]
12 Msn I
13-15 Villiage Sweep { what it says on the box]
16-18 Msn J
19-20 Ft Apache { Your base is attacked ]

This includes the 5 new missions. There are write ups of the new missions buried on my blog. Maybe it will help!

Cheers

Joe

Fellas,

Okay, I can't take it anymore, you guys have me crying myself to sleep at night about my damn hills! Not that I'm going to change them ;)

Thanks for the scenario ideas guys, I appreciate it, and it's good to hear from the distinguished, the Honorable Joe Legan! I will take a look at my copy of Plt Fwd; this has been a bit difficult to use with Plt Fwd as 1) it's squad vs squad, and 2) it doesn't handle (or at least I haven't figure out how to) blinds very well. Great set of rules, but that would be my one complaint. And I'm sure it can be done, I just haven't put the work in, so my fault.

Yeah, 12 fights, and a bunch more this weekend! On the one hand I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm tired of this, I want/need to move on to something else, but on the other hand, it's been fun, and I'm loving the storyline." If something does turn me off this campaign it's going to be all my favorite guys getting killed/MEDEVACed.

Stay tuned, more batreps on the way.

V/R,
Jack