TMOCB USMC v NVA

Returning to the jungles of Vietnam saw Gary using the NVA against my US Marines. The NVA have not had an outing for a while and produce a rather different game in which the Marines are scattered around the villages looking for caches of food and arms when the NVA arrive.

It's quiet out there, too quiet!:

Lt. Donovan finds a cache of food and destroys it:

Sgt. Rambo finds more hidden food supplies that also go up in smoke:

Sgt. Elias locates some arms and ammunition, so far things are going well:

Sgt. Rambo excavates more food, the NVA will go hungry tonight:

Enemy in sight! Lt. Donovan spots NVA lurking in the jungle:

Remarkably accurate Marine shooting takes out three out of the four NVA bases leaving only the NVA Platoon Commander standing:

Not everything goes Donovan's way though as a VC ambush from the Temple results in one Marine base down:

Donovan quickly calls in the Medivac to take the casualties to safety:

Needing a single '4' on seven dice to move into the next village sector Rambo fails to move:

Lt. Donovan calls down an artillery strike on another NVA section:

More NVA appear, things are hotting up:

Sgt. Cowboy (standing in for Sgt. Barnes who is in Tokyo on R&R) appears but is ambushed by the VC:

The artillery strike downs an NVA base but also takes out an innocent peasant. As ever the press is there to record it:

Up to now pretty much everything has gone the Marines way. However, things can change quickly and one of Sgt. Elias' bases is taken out by the NVA:

Things escalate quickly for Elias, with two NVA sections pouring fire in from different directions only Elias and Pvt. Buster the dog team are still standing:

Elias and Buster are down, the situation is grim:

Lt. Donovan calls in another artillery strike which decimates one of the NVA sections:

Sgt. Cowboy was attempting to move to Sgt. Elias's assistance but was too late. Meanwhile Lt. Donovan has also lost another base. The situation is becoming desperate:

Sgt. Cowboy spots the NVA platoon commander (who had been hiding in a bamboo thicket!) attempting to join his men across the road:

The NVA commander goes down in a hail of lead:

Sgt. Cowboy leads his men into the temple, the other half of which is held by an NVA section:

One base is lost in the firefight:

Where is Sgt. Rambo while all this has been going on? Making little progress is the answer, he is still delayed in the village he started in:

The firefight in the Temple is brutal, more losses on both sides:

Another artillery strike lands perfectly but does no damage at all:

Sgt. Cowboy and his men are all down! That's two USMC sections wiped out, very bad news indeed for the Americans:

Carnage in the 'Temple of Doom':

The end, this is the end my friend. Huge losses on both sides in the Temple and the jungle opposite:

One of the most bloodthirsty games of TMOCB I've played, two sections of USMC wiped out and numerous NVA bases taken out. For a while it looked like it would be a walkover for the Marines but Gary fought back very aggressively and, crucially, prevented the Americans medivacing almost all of their casualties. 

The final VP count gave the outcome as a minor NVA victory, largely as I rolled very well on the VP for the food caches I'd destroyed earlier in the game. It certainly seemed like a serious loss to me with two sections wiped out!

TMOCB are a great set of rules, I really enjoyed the solo games I played initially and both Gary and Dave have taken to them. I should really paint up the 'Ruff Puff's' I have so we can try the Mountain Tribes scenario but next perhaps we will play out a Firebase attack for a change.