TMOCB USMC v VC

I played my third solo game of TMOCB yesterday using the newly finished Esci Americans against the VC in a repeat of the first game and hoping to have learned some lessons for the Americans after their disastrous defeats in the first two games.

The peaceful Vietnamese countryside before the action started:

The USMC arrive! The Platoon Leader, 1st and 2nd Squads are in supporting distance of each other rather than spread out as previously:

Two VC leaders try to gain recruits for the cause:

The first only manages to recruit a single base, most of the villagers must have fled:

The second does better and recruits 4 extra bases:

Sgt Rambo of the 1st Squad interrogates a villager with no success, either he knows nothing or isn't talking:

The two initial VC leaders start to advance their forces:

A third VC leader moves into some jungle:

Rambo uses extra motivation to make the peasant talk:

The information he gains allows the discovery of a cache of food which the squad destroys:

The US forces start to advance supported by a pair of M113's:

The 2nd US squad is assaulted by a large group of VC emerging from a bamboo forest:

The assault is bloody with 3 VC and 2 US bases down and a further 2 VC bases knocked out as the VC retire:

More VC move up:

The US Platoon Commander finds another cache of food and destroys it:

The Platoon Leader then calls down an artillery strike on a village teeming with VC. IT takes out two VC bases and an unfortunate collateral damaged peasant:

Co-operating much better than in previous games Rambo then leads a follow up assault on the VC after the barrage and wipes them out!:

The M113's and the 2nd Squad attempt to finish off the VC that assaulted from the bamboo:

The 3rd USMC squad arrives and immediately engages some VC:

The VC have taken a lot of casualties, the Americans have taken few and seem to have the upper hand:

Rambo reprises his interrogation technique on a woman and child. They give nothing away:

None the less Rambo's men manage to find more food supplies and destroy them:

The M113's finish off the remains of the VC squad they were facing:

They start to target more VC in a village:

The US 2nd and 3rd Squads face a single VC group. The VC concentrate on the 3rd US Squad which is now down to just two bases:

The US Platoon Leader calls down another artillery strike on a VC held village. One VC base is taken out but disastrously FOUR peasants are killed, the media will be outraged and the VC will be able to use the massacre for propaganda purposes:

The VC losses are mounting (the red counters) but they are preventing the Americans searching any more villages and slowly causing casualties to the Americans:

A desperate assault by the VC wipes out the US 3rd Squad:

The battle is over and both sides consider their losses and gains:

This time things appeared to be going well for the USMC for quite a while. The Platoon Leader managed to survive the battle, there was some evidence of combined tactics and keeping most of the US force together certainly helped though the 3rd Squad deployed isolated and paid the price again.

Looking at the victory points though again the Communists had a clear victory. Communist VP were 25 for turning up, 14 for 7 village squares not searched, 15 for 5 US bases lost, 9 for media outrage over peasant deaths and 4 for destroying the 3rd Squad giving them 67 VP. US VP were 10 for Communist bases lost, 8 for two Communist units destroyed and 27 for three low value caches destroyed giving them 45 VP and a difference of 22 to the Communists.

So a better result for the USMC though still a heavy defeat really. As in reality the problem seems to be that if the US spread their forces out to maximise searching the villages they are very vulnerable to being overwhelmed while if they concentrate they can inflict heavier losses on the VC (but they don't really care about that) at the expense of finding it very hard to search much.

More thought is required, perhaps the support options could be better (but I like the M113's) and I think it is even possible that using a raw US force (which gets two whole platoons) might be a better option. I could also try using a veteran US force but with even fewer numbers I'm not sure how that would work. I am still enjoying the games though which is good but unless I can come up with some way for the US to do better I'm not sure it will be that popular as a two player game!