A walk in the sun

 

This was a Vietnam skirmish-level game I ran over Zoom a few weeks ago. Half a dozen or so players joined me, each commanding small units, and I moved the toys around and resolved combat using A Fistful of Lead rules. The figures are all 54mm - a mix of MARS and TSSD. For most, this was their first deployment. 

The field of battle - a mere 30x40 inches!  The trees were purely representative - the whole area was horrible jungle - but added considerably to the look and feel of the thing. 

The US squad leader’s team - complete with radio man and medic.  The latter was kept very busy. 

Small detachments of NVA soon emerged from their hidey holes - the rotters!  Hello markers are shaken, red are wounds. See what I meant about that medic?

The US M60 team went off the the left of the track - would they avoid the baddies?

View from the NVA end. This fellow has just emptied a mag into the US point man. 

The view that none of the players had! The ground rises nearer the camera - this was the US objective. 

Remember the M60 team?  Here they are under fire from a sniper. 

Soon RPGs and grenades were adding to the fun. But the front of the US squad was almost atop the ridge.  What could go wrong?

This could!  An NVA controlled Claymore mine takes down the lead pair of Americans. It was agreed that my party popper was an excellent way of simulating this.  

A very entertaining game to run and  - so I am told - play. We’ll return to Vietnam in the coming months.  

Raven Two is down!

 Having seen and taken part in Ian Drury’s Raven 2 game at COW in July I was keen to run it myself.  It provided a ‘filler’ after the 18th Century game I ran a few weeks ago.  The game concerns the rescue of a US pilot (the eponymous ‘Raven Two’) shot down over North Vietnam.  A controller in a Skyraider (know at the time as a ‘Spad’) directs the search, strikes against enemy forces and the rescue helicopter. 

We ran the game through twice.  In game one it took an age to locate the pilot but then the recue was effected quickly and safely. In game two the pilot was located early on - but not only by the US players!  The NVA were in the neighbouring square when the chopper crew plucked him to safety.  Happily there was no repeat of the debacle which occurred in one of the COW games, where at one point there were ten(!) US aircraft in the area and rather more worryingly three downed pilots stumbling around the jungle.  Anyway, enough of this, lets see the toys.  The photos are in no particular order and show 1/72 scale aircraft and 1/32 scale figures.

F-4 on a strike run

Intruder on a bombing run while the controller's Spad directs the chopper

Found him!

HH-53 'Jolly Green Giant'

another Spad about to light up some NVA

USAF F-4 Phantom

The latest escapee from the now notorious Partizan Plane Purchase Pile is this rather nice F-4.  It was in good shape and aside from some minor repairs all I've done is slap on a top coat of varnish.  I particularly like the USAF Vietnam-era 3-colour camouflage - I'm just glad I didn't have to paint it myself!

I'm not sure what make the kit is - moulded in white plastic so Airfix or Revell perhaps?

Jungle rescue?

I couldn’t resist taking these photos!
The two ‘Spads’ circle the last know position of a downed pilot.

There he is!  Sadly there’s no imminent chance of rescue as I haven’t yet built the helicopters!

(And before you ask, the pilot is an old Starlux 54mm figure). 

Contre Les Viets

I recently rediscovered these photos from COW 2001. This was a Megablitz game run by Ian Drury. It dealt with the Vietnamese assaults on the French position at Dien Bien Phu and used 20mm toys (and 1/144 aircraft) from Ian's collection. At my behest he is currently scouring his archives for the game briefings and orbats as we'd both like to run it again.

In the game I commanded the French - given the passage of time my recollections of the finer details of the game - including the names of the other players - are understandably hazy.

The terrain consisted mostly of jungle and the French defended positions - with charming names including Beatrice, Anne-Marie and Gabrielle.

To help combat the vast hordes of Viet Minh (and their Chinese 'advisors'...) French aviation assets made a number of sorties.  The Armee de l'Air provided B-26s while the Navy sent Consolidated Privateers (think Liberator with a single tail fin).

As the Commie noose tightened around the defenders it was largely the bombers which saved us.  The general personally participated in fighting off several assaults on his command post - being ultimately reduced to hurling empty cognac bottles and blowing Gitanes smoke in the attackers' faces.

Cessna Bird Dog

A recent exchange of comments with Paul prompted him to request photos of my 1/285th scale Cessnas in order to compare and contrast with his rather splendid 1/72 Airfix version.  I was pleased when GHQ announced this model and no less so when mine arrived.  Although painted with Vietnam games in mind, these have so far been reduced to impersonating Austers in WW2 games.


The 'desert' cloth was on the table for some other photos.

Just in case you can't picture the size of a 1/285 Bird Dog - the scale is Centimetres so they're really quite small!

Operation Memphis Mangler IV

This event took place at The Defence Academy at Shrivenham on Saturday 25 February.  A multi-level Vietnam game, it was a reworked version of Paddy Griffiths's original - played 31 years earlier!  The 20+ attendees included no fewer than four grizzled veterans of the original game.

As well as the umpire team (of which your correspondent was part), there was a team controlling various NVA and VC units and a (rather larger) team representing various command levels of a US battalion.  What follows makes no pretence to be a full report of the game an much of my time was taken up umpiring in a fairly small part of the operational area.

Jim Wallman (left) and Tom Mouat deliver the introductory briefing.  The picture of the scantily clad lady was there for 'atmosphere'.  Honest.

Jim outlines the planned structure of the day.

The 'map room' contained a dozen tables, each with two copies of a map of part of the area of operations.  The two maps were separated by a screen so that, when troops were deployed each player only got his own 'view' of the battlefield.  Each map was made up of eight sheets of A3 paper which we assembled on the Friday night.

The 'Free World' team plotting and planning.  They're not getting my heart or mind.

The lavish issues of equipment included radios so that company commanders on the ground (ie- in the next room) could stay in touch with HQ.  Theoretically...

The Communist team taking a break from skulking in tunnels.  A shifty looking crowd.

NVA Battalion commander John Curry pictured as the sky turned black with US helicopters.  A better caption for this photo is invited...

This may be what John was surprised by - a load of heliborne Yanks and stacks (literally) of supplies.

Bob (left) my fellow umpire explains things to US company commander Alex.

The US forces move out from their LZ.

The initial US landing came under fire from enemy small arms and mortars.  As the US brought in air and artillery fire the NVA melted away to the north.  An attempt to follow them led to a messy scrap which sucked in and decimated two US companies.
Part of the pleasure of staging the game at Shrivenham was the presence just outside the game rooms of 'big toys', leading to directions such as "past the M110 and turn right just after the S-tank..."  I have posted photos before of the AFVs and small arms collections, but there are a few more on the way.