I had acquired a sixth village building so the table now had the requisite number of villages to search:
The 1st US squad enters a village:
The 2nd squad explores another village:
The US platoon commander decides to search the village he is in. He finds something - a VC ambush!
The VC get three dice for the ambush needing 6's to hit with no saving throw for the hits. They score two hits killing the US platoon leader and his accompanying men! Disaster has struck for the US, without a platoon leader they can't call down artillery strikes and will lose 2 activation dice:
The 1st US squad finds some hidden food supplies and burns them:
The 2nd US squad searches the animal pens and uncovers another VC ambush! It has no effect though and is brushed aside:
The NVA Platoon commander arrives on the scene. He is accompanied by three bases so much less vulnerable than his US counterpart (unless you decide to risk them the unit commanders are always the last to die in TMOCB!);
The NVA platoon commander is quickly into the action, calling down a mortar strike on the American 1st squad in the nearby village and getting his men to open fire as well. The end result is good for the NVA with two American bases down and two Vietnamese peasants killed in the confusion. Things are going from bad to worse for the US forces:
Further searching of the animal pens reveals a cache of arms, a good find for the Americans. They can destroy it for some VP or try to keep it for more VP at the end of the game but encumbering them while they guard or move them:
The NVA platoon commander calls down mortar fire on the American 2nd squad this time (even though it is possible it could land on him). It does not land as planned but still hits the Americans, inflicting no losses though:
An NVA squad reaches the battlefield and immediately moves to engage the 1st American squad:
The NVA launch an assault but it is driven back with heavy losses:
Support arrives for the US forces as well with two M113's deploying:
They move up to try to help out the US 1st squad:
The NVA platoon leader's men take a base loss from fire:
A second NVA section arrives and advances on the US 2nd squad which has been hit again by mortar fire directed by the NVA platoon leader:
The NVA assault taking out another US base but losing two themselves:
The US 1st squad is wiped out by another NVA assault:
The 3rd US squad arrives and searches a village, finding a VIP and taking him captive. So far things have gone disastrously for the Americans but maybe this is a turning point and they can still save something from the mission:
They will have to fight for the VIP though as the 3rd NVA squad arrives and immediately attacks:
Their initial assault is repelled:
The NVA launch another assault on the 2nd American squad:
The assault wipes out the Americans though the NVA take heavy losses themselves. That's the US platoon leader and two squads down now, only the 3rd squad and the M113's remain:
The M113's fire ineffectively at the NVA squad:
The NVA assault the 3rd US squad again and wipe them out too. The VIP is rescued! With only the M113's left for the Americans the fight is over:
Looking at the VP's the Americans searched 5 village squares finding 3 caches but only managing to destroy the lowest value one. They destroyed 15 NVA bases though the NVA managed to evacuate 13 of the 15 casualties. The NVA destroyed the entire American platoon with only one base being evacuated, saved 7 village squares from being searched and recaptured the high value arms cache and the VIP. In addition 4 peasants were killed resulting in a small amount of media outrage. The final result another crushing victory for the NVA!
Another enjoyable game and the NVA play differently to the VC which is good. I think I forgot a few of the rules, definitely need to read them carefully again as they are not well laid out.
Taking the two games as a whole there have been two crushing defeats for the Americans. Admittedly in this one they were very unlucky to lose the platoon commander in the first move and that made a huge difference, reducing the rest of the squads activation dice from 7 to 5 and removing their ability to call in artillery strikes.
So is it my bias/incompetence/over confidence that has produced these two heavy defeats or is it the rules?!
I will admit to being a little biased towards the VC, the USMC figures didn't paint up well and are still suffering from the sticky varnish problem. As regards incompetence and over-confidence again I think I will be found guilty.
Both games I took risks with the US platoon commander getting him killed. He is very vulnerable with only a single accompanying base, you can't attach him to a squad and the only way to increase the bases with him is to buy expensive supports when I prefer to have the M113's (mostly cos they look pretty). Again in both games I tried searching villages immediately, perhaps that is a mistake and the US forces need to concentrate their units, attempt to inflict kills on the Vietnamese and wait for the M113's to arrive before searching. The problem with that of course is that it allows NVA/VC forces to build up as well.
So next I will play another USMC/VC game but this time I will try to concentrate the US forces initially and be rather more cautious with them. Hopefully I'll have some different US figures painted up by then as well to replace the current sticky ones!
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