"Game 15 of Vietnam Skirmish Campaign" Topic

All,

Operation Heartbeat City is under way. The Brigade (-) moved north and dug into two mutually supporting firebases, linking up with troops from the 25th Infantry Division as well. 25th ID is moving on Kham Duc, which the NVA have wrested from the ARVN, from the north, west, and south, but having a rough time as the enemy is continuing to reinforce from the west. 1st Battalion's task is to take up blocking positions to the west of Kham Duc, to seal NVA outsiders out and keep the NVA in Kham Duc trapped there. To maximize speed and shock, the battalion will be heli-lifted into position, but there are two big problems.

First, because of the speed of the operation, no physical recon has been carried out, so no one has any idea regarding what shape the LZs are in, nor do they have any clue as to enemy dispositions. To help offset this, gunship support will be stripped from the priority (support to 25th ID attacking Kham Duc) to prep the LZ, but will then revert to 25th ID.

The other problem is that, because the whole country has lit up, there isn't enough airlift to get the whole battalion in at once. The squad is once again at the tip of the spear, and they land in the initial wave with about half of Alpha Company, but they land in the center of the NVA so it's pretty much every squad for itself…

Overview, North is up. This is Highway 14 (I made that up, don't look for it on a real map) running east/west, and it heads west (left) straight into Kham Duc. There is a small hamlet at far right, and the LZ is at bottom center. You can see NVA and VC all along the top of the board.

NVA in the northwest.

VC in the north, a couple rifles with four porter teams bringing up heavy weapons (mortars/MGs).

And NVA in the northeast, all moving west to reinforce their comrades in Kham Duc.

The squad's helo, inbound.

The bird touches down and Banaszak leads them out: from far left, Sgt Malone leading Team 1 to the left (replacement for Sgt Russell, KIA; Malone is a 'real' NCO, not 'Shake and Bake,' returned for his 2nd tour in the 'Nam), Bradley (w/M-60, now a S&D4), Bradshaw (if he keeps it up I'm going to make him S&D4), Thomas, and Kruczek, then Sgt Banaszak in the middle, with replacements Abercrombie and Hinkle, Clack, Kolb, and Sgt Ham leading Team 2 to the right.

The fight starts with Bradley (using his S&D4) sprinting north, flopping prone, and getting the Pig in action, putting a VC rifleman down and laying some stress on the nearby porters.

Banaszak sprints left to the top of the knoll (bottom center, with Thomas to his left and Malone to his right); because I wanted him to fire (he missed), I had to forgo him going prone, thus making him harder to hit. Was this a mistake, a tactical error?

To find out, please check the blog at:
link

Hope you like it guys.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks for these reports, Just Jack. I'm really enjoying them.

Great stuff!!

Great shootout! Shame about Banaszak but it took a rocket to take him out…what a warrior

How's your Crossfire investigation going?

I had a chat about it here some time ago…it was my favourite rule set for years but my group back in Ireland didn't quite get it so we ended up dropping it. I brought up the problem of the teleporting effect and there were some excellent remedies…I never did try it since but as you know I don't game as much as I would like…

Crossfire teleporting link here on TMP

John Leahy had some Home Grown Rules that I wanted to try out but never did. As I remember they had a really interesting suppressing mechanic. His version is called Company Commander and John has a modified version on its yahoo group. Might try it out myself after we move.

Callsign and Zeelow – Thanks for the compliments guys, and thanks for commenting here. Granted we wargame for ourselves, but when you play a lot of games and take the time to post them, it's always good to hear from folks, so I really appreciate it and I'm glad you like them.

So, my bona fide hero, Banaszak, got a million dollar wound and a trip back to the World. Which really infuriates me and almost made me quit this damn campaign! I know it's silly as it's only a game, but I can't keep any familiar faces around and it's really ing me off!!!

It's my fault; aside from my sometimes shaky tactical decisions, I've really pushed the envelope in terms of the intensity of the fighting I've had the squad involved in. The campaign started off with some very aggressive patrolling (realistic) but with a tremendous amount of contact. Then we had the meatgrinder of Hill 475, i.e., sustained, high intensity fighting, which caused a lot of casualties. And then, instead of having the squad take it easy for a bit on a reduced number of missions of lower intensity, I kept it ramped up, i.e., the QRF mission to rescue the LRRPs. And now I've thrown them back into another sustained, high intensity series of fights (the NVA assault on Dak To followed by the US offensive, Operation Heartbeat City).

So, if I were ever to do something like this again, I'd really need to slow it down a bit, that is, space the contact out more, and have more low-intensity fights mixed in. I feel like the squad has already done at least a year's worth of fighting, but there's still eight months left! So, I think that's why my casualties have been running a bit higher than they should.

I'm still looking at Crossfire, Panda. Thanks for the link; a few years ago I joined John's Yahoo group and got his rules, but I had never seen that TMP conversation. To tell you the truth, I don't see the 'teleporting' as an issue. First, all the games I played of Crossfire were against another human (not solo), and I never saw anyone take their left flank around to the right, do their thing, then move them back to the left flank.

I did see (and do) taking the left flank around to the right, making proper use of essentially a reserve (troops not in contact), and throw them into the fight there, taking a tactical risk leaving the left flank undermanned. I saw it work, i.e., overwhelm the enemy on the right flank, and I saw it not work, i.e., lose the initiative and have the enemy roll up your now exposed left flank. Either way, the action was based on 'real' tactics, not gamesmanship.

And regarding the move to the right, attack, then move back to the left, why would you? If the attack on the right succeeded your troops should push to exploit the hole and end the fight, not rush back to the left to take up defensive positions. So, as you mentioned, I'd bet this complaint was another of the wargamer classic "I seen it with my own two eyes. Okay, I didn't see it, but I heard of it. Okay, I didn't hear of it, but it could happen, even though it wouldn't make sense and nobody would ever do it, so I don't like these rules."

Having said that, I don't know if I'll be able to make them work either, but it's funny that it may actually work better solo as I'll be more willing to take chance/casualties then when I (and my opponent) was super cautious because I wanted so badly to kick my opponent's butt!

V/R,
Jack