"Giac My Now Listed at FreeWargamesRules" Topic

Giac My,? Blimey that brings back memories of buying Platoon 20mm 'Nam figures in the early eighties! Never forgot Luke the Gook!!!

Excellent set of rules, well worth picking up for small unit games. Well thought out game mechanics make it exciting and very tense.

Uhm I hav e skimmed it and I am not so favorably impressed.

The assertion that Counterinsurgency is the main thrust of the rules clearly show that the authors have no idea of what COIN is about! (It is a strategic and grand operational concept).

Plus its historical note are flwed and OoB pretty fantastic (the M551 was not replaced by M48 in cavalry units, but vice vers and the ACAV is only a vechicle not an organization and the idea that the bulk of the US army was on inwilling Draftee is a bit misleading (also beacuse until 1966-67 the bulk was long term volunteers… )

And the rules have more the trapping of an RPG than of a wargame…

if you want a nice COIN game try FNG Operations free supplement, otherwise for normal Vietnam engagements FNG, Ambush Valley or the Long Road South!.

I have not looked at Giac My for some many years that I cannot comment on most of Arrigo's comments.

What I remember most about the game is that it was very strong on realism (in a game) for a fire fight. Unfotunately that also was its biggest problem. There are so many modifiers that it took forever to resolve a figure's fire. If you had the time and the patence, it was a great game. Today, I would prefer FNG for a game on that scale.

Tom

that is one of the problems of old ruleset… too much mechanical based for combat resolution. Addinge detailed process isn't always the best way to add realism…

also one thing that very few nam rules have tackled is scenario generation. Here is where you really create counterinsurgency… if you leave it to player it will be side A shooting side B and vice versa (poor terrain and elusive enemies were not encountered only in Vietnam… WW2 in the the far east come to my mind but it was not COIN). Giac My failed in heading to the perceived nature of the war rather than a real heading ot COIN; even if to be quite honest it is difficult to portray COIN in a miniature game environment almost everyone who had attempted had failed miserably beacuse they forgot that… we usually play the hig intensity moments of a low intensity conflict… we do not play a 36 hour patrol mission without real contact… otherwise we will never turn up again for another game…

to my mind only two games have really nailed the problem,, FNG and Ambush Valley with Men of Company B a close second (great potential, but underused).

Just looking at Giac My again. I've started a Vietnam project and am looking at various rules. There's a lot to like about Giac My, but it is old-school. I grew up old-school, so it's less a problem for me than for others who have become averse over the years. I'm also looking at FNG and Flying Lead.