Venturing yet deeper into the jungles of Vietnam with RFCM wargames rules "Men of Company B".
Continuing on from last post, this second part tells of the fate of our intrepid American platoon commander; leading his men on a search-and-destroy mission through the hamlets that make up the village of "Nha Lam Bang Go" [translates as: little wooden houses].
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| By now the Americans, in spite of early successes - uncovering valuable supply caches - found themselves in the midst of firefights that slowed progress further up the valley. |
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| Faced with Dense jungle, laced with the uncertainty of thickets of bamboo, between them and the next hamlet, First Squad proceeded to follow the trails through the jungle to skirt this obstacle. Carrying their prized cache of enemy radio equipment, they pressed on : risking booby traps in an effort to approach the next hamlet. But their run of good fortune abruptly ended and they were stranded among the trees and undergrowth. |
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| Second Squad, still beset from all directions, focused their firepower to inflict casualties on the V.C. unit to their rear. |
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| V.C. in the central hamlet, awaiting the approach of Second Squad (seen at the top of the picture), noted their movement along the jungle trails and opened fire; inflicting casualties. An attempt to add more fire resulted in "a fail" and the remaining V.C. were left with just one dice for actions. |
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| Another unit of V.C., that had been waiting off table, came into the table and, following the footsteps of the American Platoon commander, moved to the nearest hamlet. There, they recruited local villagers and began to open fire on the Americans just outside the village. |
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| 3rd squad now joined the table from further up the valley and began by searching the nearest hamlet. As they advanced down the valley, they located "Victor Charlie" in the hamlet ahead and opened fire across the paddy fields; causing further casualties to this unit -already suffering from the earlier artillery strike and, as yet, unable to disappear "off table" to temporarily lick its wounds. |
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| Still caught in the triangle of enemy fire, Second Squad moved aggressively forwards: attempting to assault the softened V.C. in their next target hamlet. Out on the road, however, they were caught in a crossfire and pinned down (by a "failed" result). |
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| Disaster now befell the Americans: the V.C., converging in larger numbers on the village at the bottom end of the valley continued its firefight with the American platoon commander - both bases of which became casualties! |
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| More V.C. approached from up the valley and now engaged 3rd squad in a fire fight from a second direction. |
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| When the V.C. in the central hamlets broke off from their firefights and disappeared, 1st squad finally moved into their next hamlet objective; there to respond to the civilian casualties from the earlier Artillery strike. |
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| With the platoon commander down, second squad, in spite of being pinned down in their exposed roadside position, managed to step up and found a leader to take charge once more. |
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| Grouped in the middle of the valley, the Americans attempted to hold off V.C. attacks: seemingly from all around them. 3rd squad engaged the V.C. in the hamlet up the valley. In the exchange, they receive casualties of their own, but proceed to inflict a high body count on the enemy. |
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V.C. continued, however, to approach from all sides, pushing forwards through the hamlets and squads were in firefights up and down the valley.
Trying to coordinate some action from the platoon, the new leader struggled to call in fire support, in spite of the artillery liaison officer in the LOACH above the battle.
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| With the game clock running down, second squad advanced down the valley under fire to secure the dropped cache and the American casualties. |
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| The platoons new leader comes under intense fire and again, both bases are rendered casualties! |
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| Yet more V.C converge on the battlefield: entering the table from further up the valley, keeping 3rd squad occupied. 1st squad is in its own firefight across the road |
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| Second squad battles forward to secure the caches and the casualties, just outside the hamlet as the game ends. |
Victory points amass for the Americans, thanks to the high proportion of high value caches and the number of villages searched. The V.C. had many points for both the civilian and the white star casualties, but not enough to avoid a really good win for the Americans!
Well I think I got a good flavour of the game rules. The pace of the game got the better of me on several occasions; with me missing many details and been unwittingly generous to both sides with their action dice.
I was happy with the look and feel of the game... plenty of jungle (maxed out!) and plenty of uncertainty - V.C. were able to both feed units to points all around the table and to disappear, then return from a different direction!
The tactical decisions are plentiful, but it will take me more attempts at play testing to get the hang of these! All in all I was more than happy to indulge a period of preparation for basing, model and terrain making. In a the mean time, the jungle is always out there!
