The Men of Company B VC v ARVN

 After what seems like a long time I managed to get in another TMOCB game, this time against an actual opponent (Gary) instead of playing solo.

As it was Gary's first game and he hadn't been able to read the rules I thought the best way to go would be for me to be the VC and Gary to take the ARVN (but the 'regular' Mike Force' not the 'raw' version so basically Americans but I'd get to use some of my ARVN figures for a change. Again as it was Gary's first experience with the rules I went for the 'Search and Destroy' operation.

The peace of another day in Nam is shattered by the arrival of the ARVN:

I didn't choose the Chopper as a support for the ARVN but thought it may as well make a brief appearance for the customary photo:

A VC leader arrives and begins to recruit the enthusiastic peasantry to the cause:

The Imperialist lackies prepare to begin their mission:

More VC are recruited in another village, again the villagers seem keen to repel the invaders:

An immediate success for the ARVN who find a food cache and destroy it:

The first casualty of the day, an innocent peasant killed while being interrogated for refusing to give up any information. A reporter covers the scene:

Despite the villager refusing to talk the ARVN find another food cache and destroy it:

Another village, another food cache destroyed. The villages and VC will be hungry tonight:

More VC gather together:

The ARVN have now searched most of the easily reached villages and will have to move on to those now held by the VC:

They advance on one of the weaker held villages and the first VC casualty occurs:

Following up the ARVN assault the surviving VC who fall back with heavy losses:

The entire VC squad is wiped out by the ARVN:

They search the village, find another cache of food and destroy it. Not much is going for the VC so far!:

However they manage to strike back with three ARVN bases going down in a firefight:

VC begin to mass around the animal enclosures:

This proves to be a mistake as the ARVN commander calls down an artillery strike with devastating accuracy:

Several VC are hit including one unfortunate villager:

On the other side of the road fighting continues:

Neither side seems willing to attack across the paddy fields:

Eventually the ARVN move forward but take heavy losses from shooting. The VC assault with a large numerical advantage but fail to drive off the ARVN and are forced to retreat:

The game ends with a few further exchanges of fire:

On counting the victory points the final score was VC 54pts to the ARVN 54pts so the game was a draw! Gary kept his men together well, not allowing the VC to pick off isolated units. He also decided to concentrate on destroying the food caches rather than capture the VC VIP or their arms supplies which again worked well. If he had evacuated some of his casualties I think he'd have won easily but, not realising really how significant that could be, he didn't evacuate any.

We both enjoyed the game and Gary would be happy to play again, it is quite a thoughtful rule set with a variety of ways to play. It was also good to get the ARVN on the table even though we didn't go for the 'raw' version of the list with two platoons, I'm curious to see how that would work! Maybe next time.