Monday 31 October 2011

Vietnam First Blood

At last! After several months of delay, we gathered in our local club to play a first test game of the TooFatLardies Vietnam rules Charly Don't Surf. And what a fantastic game it was! As a test field, we chose the first scbeario of the companion book Surf's Up, in which a US infantry company must take and control a farm village, to deprive the Charlies from its daily rice supply.... but of course, the village is infested of Cong enemies.



As this was our first game, we decided to play only with the infantry section of the rules, leaving the heavy stuff (artillery support, chopers and AFVs for future engagements). It took a little while to master the rules; old habits from playing Troops, Weapons and Tactics played tricky: for example, you don't need to attach Big Men to squads to reduce shock levels, it is enough to be inb the line of sight and close to enough to the command radiues of the officer (much larger that in TWT, as the guys are fully equiped with radios) .

Also we discovered (late!) that the firing tables are signficiantly bllodier than the ones used for  II WW (obviously, the difference is firepower is abysmal!!). Some of thse mistakes were solved while playing, some after the game when I fully re-read the rules.

The use of Vietcong fighters is also another element to review in detail. Tactics are totally different to that of the US troops and also to the ones I'm more familiar with (I & II WW) mainly. While the ambush rules proved to be very effective, it is a very bad idea to remain in the same spot for long... better to hit and run (...like hell) and use all the potential of the DiDi Mau card, that allow ay unit on the table to return to blind or a blind to conceal.

The scenario included the use of civilians; we though that to be not very important ... a mistake again. The US foreces are restrcited in using area fire and artillery (when we introduce this part of the rules in the game)   at leisure when civilians are around (and they also move randomly).

All in all, we had a really great time and all players. 4 hours playing and everybody fekt that time past really fast... so eagerly we were left to repeat a game. that tomorrow Tuesday (a national holiday in Spain) a second game has been hastily organised.

In the meantime, I include here some photos on Saturday's game

13 comments:

  1. What a fantastic set up! Looks really excellent. Looking forward to see how you get on in the LZ!

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  2. Thanks guys. We played another game this morning and it is very challenging for the Cong side, having to decide the best moment to pull back and decide an effective use of the terrain to hide the units

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  3. Anibal, what minis did you use, they look great?

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  4. @ Monty: a mixed bag of Force of Arms and The Assault Group Nam ranges

    @ Emilio: No, 28mm

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  5. No, ese es de 1/72 como las casas
    Sólo vamos a utilizar uno de los helicópteros a escala de las figuras, el de transporte/Medivac
    El resto quedan mejor en 1/72

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  6. Looking very good indeed. Been getting my hands dirty with CDS as well, but still have a long way to go with the terrain.... Definately impressed with your effort!

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  7. Que fotos mas chulas y que pedazo de tablero magníficamente expuesto.

    Recordad el 11/NOV/1918 terminó la IWW.

    Un fuerte y grato recordatorio para todos aquellos que causaron baja y sus familiares desde España.

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  8. Great looking game! Nice to see CDS played using 28mm figures.Looking forward to see more of this.

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  9. Man that looks like fun great table and figures

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