"Game 17 of Vietnam Skirmish Campaign" Topic

All,

After fighting their way into Kham Duc yesterday then falling back to the battalion position, the boys were not happy. They were even less happy when they were told they would be again leading the advance, this time from the south. Seems the NVA had (somehow?) reinforced the eastern end of Kham Duc, so the headshed decided to change things up. "Why are we leading from the South, I thought that was 25th ID's?" "It was, but they're pretty beat up, so we're taking over the South as well."

The "squad" is gearing up, and I'm using the term loosely as it's down to an attached tank, Sgt Malone, Hinkle, Bradley, Bradshaw, Thomas, and Kruczek. Bradley: "Hey Sarge, I'm not one to complain, but it seems that, if the six of us are the spearhead, maybe high command ain't all that serious about this attack. You ever hear those stories about troop is short, s'posed to go out on patrol, just head out the wire about 100 yards and laager up?" Malone looked at him, "No, never heard of it."

This was kind of a silly little scenario I quickly drew up. Not silly as in implausible, I'm sure most every US grunt that served in Vietnam experienced something similar. It's just that, like real life, it's very demoralizing, nothing good can come from it, you can't win. And I wish I hadn't done it.

So, here's the situation. The squad's task is to probe from the south, north into Kham Duc, contact and identify the enemy main line of resistance. The squad will report back and, depending on the situation, Brigade will direct them to push ahead (and reinforce the effort) and assault Kham Duc, or, direct them to stand fast and direct the employment of supporting fires (air and arty).

The squad moved west to the staging area before dawn, and crossed the line of departure at 0635, with the rest of 1st Platoon in trail. The south is different than the east in that there is no cover, only several kilometers of rice paddies flanked by the occasional sparse treeline. "Holy @#$%," exclaims Bradshaw, "we need to go back. I don't care how many Commies they have over there on the east side of town, at least they have trees and @#$%!" Malone's reply: "Saddle up!"

Overwview, north is right (west is up). The squad enters from the left (south), with the goal being to exit off the right baseline. The only enemy on the board is a sniper in the top right corner, and he will be almost impossible to spot, and the enemy also has an off-board 82mm mortar.

The dastardly, bush-whackin' enemy sniper, hidden and prone.

The squad, looking south, left to right: Hinkle, Bradley, Sgt Malone (on road behind tank), Bradshaw, Thomas, and Kruczek.

Fight starts on the left: sniper fires, and Thomas (center) stumbles, lightly wounded.

And it's on! For the rest of the fight, please check:
link

V/R,
Jack

nice looking scenery

I'm really loving following the squad as they go on their campaign. I've recently started reading about the big attack on Hue so I'm very curious what scenarios you're going to come up with!

I'm also jealous about how much gaming time you get ;-)))

Very nice AAR. You better get some more replacements soon or you'll be down to just the Sarge.

Jack,

I actually enjoyed this one a lot – a few soldiers Vs 1 man (and offboard mortar). A game like this swings enormously and is very much up to the dice. I am with Lascaris, there is not much of a squad, and I think a lot of them met only after Christmas!

"Those poor bastards…" Yeah, really don't need to say anything else…

Thanks for the comments Redroom and Wargame. Regarding Hue, these guys won't be seeing any action there. My squad is in the the Central Highlands region, out near the Cambodian border. Hue is further north and east, in the USMC sector. Not to say no Army guys were involved up there, but primarily a Marine zone, and Hue was definitely a Marine show (forgive my bias, I'm a former Marine).

Now, if I can get Pendraken to put out some Vietnam range US with M-14s I will definitely be doing a USMC in Vietnam campaign, though my thoughts are to do that at company level using TFL's "Charlie Don't Surf."

And don't be jealous of my gaming time, it's about to come to a screeching halt as my wife is due next week. On a side note, I've been getting a lot of games in because the rules are pretty simple, there's not a lot of forces or terrain on the table, and the table is only 3' x 2', so really easy set up and takedown. I typically have it broken down, check my blog to see who's still alive, run upstairs, set it up, have a fight, reset it, have another fight, reset it, and have one more, all before lunch! Then I write them up whenever I get a chance.

Lascaris – The replacements are for the replacements! SPOILER ALERT: I got two games in this weekend, and pretty much everybody's gone… I think I'm done with this campaign for awhile, there's really nobody left that I care about…

Shaun – "I actually enjoyed this one a lot…" Well, I'm glad you did, because I hated it! Lately the campaign has been too depressing, I've gone too far with the scenarios, that is, made them too challenging.

I'll post the two from today as soon as I can.

V/R,
Jack

Well, I'm glad you did, because I hated it!

Happy Happy Joy Joy :) OK I needed my fix of TMP and I thought I'd swing by Jack's place and find the whole gang's just died…

So it's time to move on…well I'll miss this campaign but I pretty excited about what you might have planned? Any idea what might be next?

BTW I'm working on the rest of the AAR while the wife is resting might be finished tonight…

My Dear Panda,

I will ignore your impish remarks regarding my (wargaming) pain and get to the substance of my remarks.

"So it's time to move on." Well, let me re-phrase: I'm not going to 100% drop this campaign, but it's going to the backburner for a bit. Unless I feel like playing another this weekend ;)

Regarding what's next, I'm not sure yet. I'm still playing around with the Crossfire rules, and trying to figure out what I whould play it with. As you know, I have boatloads of 10mm stuff I could use, but being an ADD/Meglomaniac wargamer, I want to do it in 6mm, but I don't have enough WWII stuff yet, though I have been working up some modern stuff.

Then I still have my 6mm USSR/Afghan campaign I want to work on, a boatload of 3mm stuff that needs to be finished, I'm rebasing my 10mm ACW and 10mm Napoleonics, I need to do some work on my 6mm Napoleonics, I still have Cuba Libre' on the backburner, as well as my "All Americans" and "Hell on Wheels" campaigns… Short answer is, I don't know.

You kill me. You play a game for 15 minutes a session, spread out over ten Saturdays, then you write your batreps in the same manner. You need to learn to ignore your family more and be a more productive member of wargaming society ;)

V/R,
Jack