Joe,
Great stuff, love the table set up (as viewed from the aerial reconnaissance photo). But I thought you were going to make some ‘real' blinds! ;) I like the blinds modifiers based on the tunnel locations, good idea. Another thing I'm thinking about is the VC's ability to reinforce/withdraw based on those tunnel locations.
I see you're going all the way down to individual squads, is it two men per squad/six per platoon? I'm thinking about playing with just one stand equals one platoon, but want to make sure I understand what I'm looking at in your photos. I think it's a cool idea, gives more fidelity and allows ‘step losses' (assuming I'm understanding correctly).
And quit picking on the football star! ;) You've got a great narrative going there with the ambush, calling in the gunships and pushing another platoon over to bail them out. Jaroze popping into an LZ directly below the Hill 424 did, indeed, look ominous, particularly with multiple blinds up there and with a smaller hill on their other (west) side! Nothing the fast movers couldn't handle ;)
Overall I thought the ARVN performed pretty well, despite their riverine force being delayed, though I can't believe 3rd Platoon allowed the VC battalion commander to escape! ;) I'm planning on following an ARVN battalion from 1963 forward, but I don't think I could stand all the poor leaders you're dealing with so I'm going to cheat and make it an ARVN Ranger battalion ;)
I'm eagerly awaiting what you come up with for battalion-level random events. I've got some ideas:
-one of your companies is lost (roll a random direction dice and move them (somewhere between 6 and 12 inches?)
-heat casualties (one of your companies is out of water, must halt D3 or D6 turns to MEDEVAC heat casualties and resupply with water)
-There's always the friendly fire issue (arty called in on the wrong location, CAS mis-drops, even a rifle company shooting up another rifle company)
-Fire catches and spreads, endangering one of your rifle companies (must pull back 6 or 12 inches)
-Comms problems/miscommunication (a company, or even the whole battalion, must sit tight for a turn to unnoodle the situation).
-Loss of support (one of your companies is pulled immediately for another mission off table, or air/arty is pulled completely or for D3/D6 turns).
I suppose those are all negative things; positives might be hard to come by, I guess: reinforcements and additional supporting fires.
In any case, great stuff man, can't wait to see more.
V/R,
Jack
