Charlie Don't Surf NVA v Anzacs

My second game at the Lard day was 'Charlie Don't Surf', the TFL Vietnam rules. I'd contemplated them when starting playing Vietnam but was put off by the need to produce decks of cards and the requirement for more figures as it is a company based game unlike TMOCB which is platoon based.

As a result I was keen to try the rules at the Lard day and ended up playing as the NVA against two others with ANZAC's. The table was certainly spectacular:

Another view:

The village and paddy fields:

In CDS it appears that neither side knows what the other's objective is (which is sensible assuming you have an umpire). As the NVA I had 7 units and two blanks which I deployed on map in 'blinds'. The ANZAC's had some pre-planned actions. A Gunship deploys a smoke screen:

Next a load of napalm is dumped on an area of jungle!

It looks like the ANZAC's are arriving by chopper and head for a 'hot' LZ, the thin lines of smoke mark disruptive fire from the door gunners:

Another gunship has also arrived:

ANZAC's deploy and are hit by mortar fire from the NVA on the hill taking some losses:

Stung by this the ANZAC's charge up the jungle covered hill and engage the mortar crews. The odds are very much in the mortar crew's favour (which is slightly surprising):

The ANZAC's overcome the odds and slaughter the mortar crews:

An NVA platoon attempts to engage the ANZAC's on the hill while the second group of ANZAC's finally lands (they had been driven off the first time by NVA AA fire):

Gunships and NVA AA guns duke it out:

The ANZAC's at the LZ are still taking losses from NVA fire:

Civilians run for cover. I suspect the ANZAC mission is to round up and evacuate the civilians:

The heroic AA gunners take out one gunship! Another NVA platoon takes advantage of the situation and rushes forward to shoot at the vulnerable ANZAC's still on the LZ:

A third NVA platoon emerges from the jungle behind the ANZAC's (luckily the napalm just missed them) and adds to the fire pouring into the ANZAC's from all sides:

The ANZAC's have been trying to drop another platoon on the LZ but have been repeatedly driven off by NVA AA fire. The platoon already landed has been shattered and victory goes to the NVA:

The visuals for the game were certainly splendid, I was especially impressed by the napalm and smoke screen but the whole thing looked great with the helicopters as well. As for the rules they seemed much more complicated than TMOCB but with some interesting ideas such as the hidden troops and not knowing what your opponent was trying to do! Almost inevitably in these asymmetric games numbers seemed to count for a lot though I suspect the heroic AA gunners would not do so well that often! 

This game was in 15mm on a 6x4 table and was quite crowded so I'm not sure how well it would work in 20mm, I probably have enough figures if I combined my NVA/VC for one side and USMC/ARVN for the other but I'd certainly need a lot more helicopters for this scenario at least. 

I've bought a set of the rules and might look at incorporating some of the ideas into TMOCB. I might try a solo game but I'm not sure I'll actually change to CDS.