Tuesday 12 August 2014

Vietnam Play-test rules at the Rejects.

View of the battle field from Smiffys position
 
 
It was a long day. We started playing at 10am and finished at 9pm. OK so the first hour was all admin and learning the rules but then at least 10 hours at the table. So Like I said it was a long day.

WE were of course playing in Posties Shed of war with Smiffy acting as referee and Postie and Surjit taking the role of the Viet Mihn while Big (Lucky) Lee and MY self were the forces of the "Free world". But Lee was in charge of our forces and Surgit was in charge of the enemy with Postie saying things like "I love you long time GI" as the second in command for the communist backed Viet Mihn.

All the movement was hidden set up and movement until the unit either fired or were spotted so we had a little game of hide and seek with machine guns to start with but finally they started to appear. As we were defending the village/town/base/who cares we were a reactive force and not the aggressive force. We were also told that we were low on ammunition so Commander Lee wisely did not want to waste any with wild long range shooting.
First sight of the black PJ men!
Yes that's right those 4 black dots were the enemy!

Surgit Reinforces the black dots with 4 more Black dots



Eventually they got close enough for us to make our shots count.

The rules did not allow for suppressive fire from our one and only .5 Browning Heavy machine gun.
Which meant that the crew became vulnerable after shooting. Hence the smoke, but it did us no good.

I scatter my troops to avoid the Enemy mortar.
and RE-crew the machine gun.

But they just had too many and I could not contend with the number
of shots. Which meant I lost my first Squad, and the Viet Mihn took the wire.

Contractual shot of Postie.
 ( the smaller Goblin Like Creature stood next to Surgit!)

WE were drip fed reinforcements.
These Being Arvn and nicely clustered ready for the mortar strike.

Both sides had a single artillery strike.
Despite me getting on the radio and calling for "Snake and Nape!
Smiffy would not let me have any. The rotter!

The Australian reinforcements arrive. All nicely bunched up as the deployment zone was cramped.
I also had some LRRP guys but they were mercilessly targeted By Postie and Surgit and did last very long at all.

The Viet Mihn Mortar and they also got reinforcements
You can just see them if you look closely.
But don't get eyestrain looking for them.

The wire and a bunker is recaptured as Lee was giving Postie some grief by now.
(Cheers Mate)

Most of Lee's troops are now out of ammo.
But he gets an unarmed ammunition carrier.
So He car resupply his men
. I did ask if we could mount the .50 HMG on it and Smiffy said NO!
I did ask if we could use it to run over Viet Mihn, But Smiffy said NO!
WHat a buzz kill!
 

Lees thinks we can't win and wants to concede!
It's like Having Ray on your side!

The communist mortar must run out of ammo soon I hope.
WE have a mortar as well but it was destroyed in the artillery strike from Postie and Surgit!



Lee holds the line.
But the ARVN take a bit of a beating and fail a morale check and fall back.
Lee want's to jack the game in.
I still think we can win.

Look Lee they only have 2 men left!
I have cleared the northern wire and am
coming towards him
(Despite very heavy Casualties)

Only one left now.
Lee thinks we have a chance now!

The wind changes and the smoke moves stopping me from firing at him.

But eventually both Lee and myself manage to kill him.

Conclusion: With the exception of the Viet Mihn Mortar crew we killed all the enemy sent against us. And if we had had gotten them we would have scored an extra 20 Victory points for wiping everything out! But we didn't so the final victory point score was 57 to Lee and myself and 44 to Surgit and Postie. Losses were very heavy on both sides. Un realistically heavy really, but it did make for a fun and exciting game where it swung from one side to the other. Yes there are things I would change in the rules, but I can say that with most commercially written set and not just a play test of a "homebrew" set. So overall I would say it was a very enjoyable game and the rules did work mostly.

So thank you Smiffy for putting the game on.

That's it for today expect some more soon.

All the Best Clint

21 comments:

  1. That's what I call a marathon session! An amazing and brutal game, compelling stuff Clint.

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    1. It was a good and enjoyable game. Time flew past. Thank you Michael.

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  2. Cheeky Git!!!! Rearrange this sentence....... in get shin you''re kick a gonna the :0)

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    1. You are right I should apologise to Lee for that comment. Thank you Ray.

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    2. Damn right! I wasn't about to concede, I just wanted to go home because I was bloody knackered! And when my US Army unit routed I thought they were out of the game for good, but neither of us reckoned on the moral checks being so favorable. I honestly didn't expect that unit to rally and immediately return to the line unaffected. I think we both agreed that the moral rules were the only part of the rules we thought need more work.

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    3. I agree it went on far too long. I also agree that the morale rules need more work. I would also like to see suppression rules for support weapons.

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  3. I can fully empathise with time passing quickly when you're having fun. Congrats on your hard earned victory, Clint.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I looked at my watch at 11:30. Waited half an hour and looked again and it was 6pm!

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  4. Looks and sounds like a great time was had by all. Well done on your victory dude. In the jungle, you should have released the monkey. Lol.

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    1. Paint Monkey is prepping some figures to start them tomorrow. He hopes to have them ready for viewing by the end of the week.
      Thank you Bob

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  5. Glad your steadfastness paid off there Clint. Very enjoyable looking game.

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  6. Very enjoyable read and it sounded like the odds were a bit stacked against you and Lee (Nor Mr Lucky ?).

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    1. I think it was probably quite balanced it did feel that it was stacked against us, but I am sure it felt the same for Surgit and Postie.
      Thank you Joe.
      Lee seems no longer to be hated and loathed by the Dice Gods. And Indeed seams to be a little favoured by them at the moment.

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  7. This looked like a fantastic game, I saw it on Lee's blog and I really liked it. Especially the huge distances, makes battlefield look less cluttered.

    I love the idea of an ammo carrier, I got to incorporate this in my moderns as well!

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  8. Great game report Clint. A slog at 10hrs but well worth it!

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    1. Cheers Mate. Yes a slog it sure was but good fun none the less.

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  9. It was a great game but very very long. I think the Moral rules might need to be revisited by smiffy but other than that I think his system works really well. One thing to bear in mind though (now that I have played the system twice) is not to use the Mortar first. As soon as its position is revealed it becomes a potential target and in both games was taken out far too quickly.

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    1. Thank you Lee. I do agree the rules do work mostly. As you say the morale needs another look and that may change the dynamic of the game. I also think that the area effect weapons need a benefit of some king as I can't see me re-crewing them in future games as they stand.

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    2. Opps can't spell. of some KIND. not k I n g !

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