Random Events for Charlie Don’t Surf

Yeah, I think that counts as a "Random Event"!

As I mention in previous blog entries that I created several decks of cards for Charlie Don’t Surf through ArtsCow.  In one of my decks, (Deck 4) I added several Random Event cards.  They are unofficial, so don’t think that you have to use them.  I created them to add another level of friction based on my personal experiences on field exercises or personal accounts that I had told to me or read by veterans. 

In one of my decks is a card that is called “Random Event”.  That card is shuffled in the regular deck.  When the “Random Event” is pulled, then roll 1d6 or 2d6 depending on how random you want things to be.  Personally, I will roll a 1d6 for night actions and 2d6 for day actions as it is always more chaotic at night.  Regardless, on a roll of one or two ones, something happens and then you draw from the deck of random events that are listed below.  You can tailor your random events to include some or none of the below.  Or maybe add / delete some as the game continues; for example a platoon that having a real hard time crossing a river might mean that the “Relieved of Command” card will be added to the deck.  On the same lines, if the “Relieved of Command” card comes up, instead of it being a random Big Man, the umpire might say that the off board high command decided that the platoon leader that can’t get his men to cross the river will automatically be the one that will be relieved of command.  Since these are not official, tailor them to your scenario.

So let’s go through each of the cards here in no specific order and explain how I will use them to affect the game!

Accidental Discharge:  Someone accidentally discharged their weapon.  Maybe they saw something or someone was just being a ‘Gomer Pyle’, but they gave away your position.  A random hidden unit is now on a blind or a blind is now placed out.

Fragging Attempt:  Instead of rolling a fragmentation grenade into the officers’ latrine, someone decides that he will to try to kill the unpopular man in the field. Roll for the effect of one hit on a random Big Man. If it is 1970 or later, roll for two hits if the Big Man is with the US armed forces.

Friendly Fire:  Due to confusion, poor visibility, or someone didn’t communicate where they were, one squad/team that has not used its action dice will engage another friendly unit.

Minor Accident:  Someone got careless and did something wrong causing minor injuries to some of the other squad/team members.  Roll a D3 for shock to squad/team.

Major Accident:  Someone really screwed up!  The mortar man failed to noticed that the last mortar round did not launch before dropping another round down the tube causing it to explode.  Roll a D6 for the number of hits and then for the affects. Also, if a six is rolled, any weapon or vehicle with the unit is also knocked out.

Booby Trap:  Some old forgotten booby trap detonates on the last squad/team that moved.  It affects either side.

Weather Change:  The effects are pretty much what it says.  In the latest TFL Seasonal Special (Summer 2013) there is a better article on the weather in Vietnam.  I created this random event card before that.

Wind Change:  The smoke from the grenade quit moving and started to go straight up as the wind came to a stop.  The wind either shifts in a different direction, stops, or even increases in speed. 

Visibility Change:  The overcast started to break up and the full moon started to increase the area that the listening post could see.  This could be the light level increasing/decreasing due to weather.  It could also be, if it is raining, showing the rain is letting up or getting worst.

Improved Spotting:  The sun just glinted off the enemy’s rifle barrel just right so the point man was able to spot them.  One spotting attempt gets a +1.

Poor Vision:  Thankfully the shadows were just right that the enemy’s point man was not able to see our hidden machine gun bunker.  One spotting attempt gets a -1.

Squad Lost (No movement):  “Hang on, let’s look at that map again.”  The squad cannot move this turn, but can do other actions.

Squad Lost (Wrong Area): “Damnmit!  We are wrong side of the rice paddy.”  The next squad/team that moves in cover is moved by the opposing player until they come to open terrain.

Squad Lost (Scattered):  “Where in the hell are we?”  The next squad/team that moves in cover rolls a scatter dice and moves the full distance or until they come to the open terrain. 

Lucky Break on Intel:  “Looks like a map which their positions drawn on it!”  One random hidden unit is now placed on a blind or if everything is on blinds, one dummy blind is removed.

Blood Trail:  A blood trail is found and leads off in a trail.  If the VC uses a “Di Di Mau” card to create two blinds, the US discovers which the real blind is and which the phony blind is.  The phony blind is removed.

Sleeping on Duty:  “Zzzz…” Only effects games at night where combat has not started yet.  A random defending platoon/blind cannot do any movement or spotting for the rest of the game until combat breaks out.

US Armor Cavalry Mad Minute:  At their night defensive position, the troop commander received orders to conduct a Mad Minute right now.  A Mad Minute was a tactic in which every gun in the night defensive position would open fire for a period of time at a random set time into the surrounding cover to discourage the VC/PAVN in attempting to assault them at night.  This event would only apply to a game where the VC/PAVN is doing a night attack, has not been spotted (blinds do not count towards being spotted) and no combat has been started. Also, all of the defending units are now placed on the board and are no longer considered to be under a blind for the rest of the game.

Harassment Fire Mission: Random artillery shells start falling in the general area to harass enemy movement towards a friendly defensive position.  This only occurs in night games where VC/NVA has not been spotted, the allies are in a defensive position, and no combat has been started.

“Hurry Up”:  “Double time!  Move! Move!” The next moving squad/time gets one free action die for movement only.

Radio Interference:  “Sir, I can’t get 1^st Platoon!”  This turn no communication between friendly players can be done unless they are in command range to the other Big Man and no air/indirect fire can be called in or corrected.

Mission Change:  “Six actual, I want you now to go ahead cease your attack on the village and now assault the bunker complex.”  Higher ups decided to change your mission in the middle of it.  The military victory objectives are now different.

Counter Orders from Higher Up: “Six actual, I am counter commanding your request for artillery.”  A higher level officer decides that you really don’t need the type of support that you requested and cancels it.  Try again later.  (This is especially true if you were with the US 1^st Infantry Division in late 1967)

“Up From the Ranks!”  PFC Johnson tightened his grip on his M16 and looking over the leaderless 1^st squad, and then yelled, “Follow me!  Let’s go!”  A squad that is not under command now has a Status I Big Man that is permanently attached to that squad for the rest of the game.

Relieved of Command:  “If you can’t get your men across that river, I will find someone that can!”  Remove one random Big Man and replace him with a new NCO Big Man, except for the CO.  If the CO is replaced, one of the Platoon Leaders is now the new CO and a new NCO Big Man becomes that platoon’s leader.  Roll for to determine the new Big Man’s status per the normal rules. 

Random Event A & B:  These are the catch all for something that is not listed above, like artillery priority dropping a level because another company is now even in a bigger firefight and the higher ups decide that they are more important.

I hope that some will find this food for thought for their future gaming experiences.

Look out for Charlie!

Sapper

Post AAR thoughts about my CDS game

Now that some time has pass since my CDS game and I am not the foul mood I was in that weekend due to all of the various things that went wrong then, I have had time to reflect on some things that occurred in the game that troubled me and how I want to improve on them…besides my lack of combat packing everything to go to a con or a shop. 

First thing was that I finalized a sheet that tracks your hits, shock, action dice, Big Men status, command radius, and general notes for each company.  I actually created it a long time ago and was planning to have them available at the game, but I left them out of town.  I am pretty happy with what I created, but I want to add some more things to it on the backs, sort of a cheat sheet of what you can do with your Big Men and squad’s action dice.  I finished one for each of the different infantry companies, except the US Army mechanized infantry and the USMC, but will eventually later.  Once I finish them, I will see if I can post them to blog or maybe create a Dropbox or something similar for anyone who wants a copy can get one, plus I will add on the outline of how to do a US Army’s operation order (OPORD) for anyone inclined to add that level of realism to their games.  What I will do with the company status sheets is to laminate them and give out wet wipe markers or grease pencils to the various company commanders in a game so they can keep track of their status. 

The second thing was that I was allowing the US players as well as the VC to bunch up and get a full fire effect for squad fire (if you look at my pictures from the blog entry, you will see one stand in front of another).  After thinking about the ground scale, I will not allow that any more.  If the squad is not in a line, then they will only get half the effect for firing (i.e., if you use three action dice to fire, you still roll for the number of chances, but you half that number).  However, I will allow for players to place one infantry stand slightly on top of another infantry stand to show that the player decided to ignore the suggested 3-5 m spacing between men and cram them in like cattle into a small spot so he can get full effect on firing.  Of course, this means that any fire they take will increase one column better for being hit.

This also got me thinking about squads in Indian Files firing forward.  I think only allowing one die max for firing.  The SOP for contact in an Indian File was for the point man to unload his full magazine at the target while the rest of the squad dropped to cover and start moving to form a line or withdraw. 

The third thing is that I allowed the squads to spot and engage in a 360 with full effect.  Well, I am not going to allow that again.  Basically, in the real world you can only view things in front of you and off the sides.  Yes, you can turn around, but only so many men in a squad/section can change their facing to face a new threat without a major repositioning of the squad.  So in the future, a squad can only fire to their front 120 degrees (30 degrees off of their left and right). But I also want to encourage standard tactics for forming a 360 with a squad / platoon for a defensive position.  Because of the way the figures are mounted, you can’t make a circle.  So, if it is a squad, the two bases are placed back to back facing outward and they get 1/3^rd (360/120 = 3) of their fire in any direction.  Plus they can spot all around and not be outflanked in melee while in a defensive circle.  Only support weapons would need to be specifically placed for its arcs of coverage.

Anyways, that is sort of what I think that I will add/change for infantry combat in the next game.  We did not do artillery in the last game.  The US players had it available, but never got to use it.  So, I need to play around with that in a game some time.  Eventually I will be doing the second game and I am looking at adding in the vehicle rules next with maybe a M48 or some M113’s.   I might look at also adding some of the random events that I created in my ArtsCow playing cards for CDS.  I will be posting sometime later what the cards mean and where you can order a set yourself (I make no profit on them, I made them available for anyone to print them off.)

http://www.artscow.com/user/joe-collins-1121474

Until later, remember to watch your step and never use the same path twice, because Charlie owns the night!

Sapper

AAR - Charlie Don't Surf game (Long post and picture heavy)

Well, this is an After Action Review (AAR) for my first Charlie Don’t Surf (CDS) game.  After trials and tribulations starting 24 hours prior to the game, up to the beginning of the game, it almost never came to be (including almost having a head on collision with a truck driving down the wrong way!)  I was much frazzled, before, during, and after the game.  I really was not joking too much about if the game went really south that I was going to sell off everything to someone else in a foreign country because I don’t ever want to see it again.  Alas, l will not sell everything off, but I was still not happy with the game – mostly due to my poor set-up. 

I did not take any notes through the game, but I think I have the basic outline of the events in the game.  I base the game off of the second scenario in the TFL’s Surf’s Up CDS’s scenario book.  But due to the rush in getting things together after flying almost half way across the country and having only thirty minutes to grab my stuff at the house to take game, I left a lot of stuff back at the house.  So, that why there are no buildings on the board and why it is not laid out as in the description in the American’ s Operational Order (OPORD) that was to be given to them at the being of the game.  Since things were so different from the OPORD, I didn’t use the OPORD.  But I will post it below for your review of the way it should have been.

Anyway, everyone ran a US platoon of Air Cav.  I ran the game and the local force VC as the game was weighted heavily against the VC.    Steve H. ran the company headquarters & 1^st Platoon.  Curtis T. ran the 2^nd Platoon.  Dave S., who was new to Too Fat Lardies, ran 3^rd Platoon.  I expected it to go badly for the VC, but it really went bad for them because the US was always able to get two platoons to overwhelm one VC platoon with small arms fire.  I also choose the wrong table edge to defend.  The game over all ended with a US military victory and political coup.  The game over all ended with a US military victory and political coup.  The US only lost 3 men killed, one being a medic.

Below is the pictures of the ebb and flow of the battle with comments and markings on the pictures.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures, my camera was slightly out of focus or something.

This shows the general overall setup and plan.  The two red circles are the two hidden local VC platoons.  The arrows show the expected axis of attack.  The pink square is the hidden cache of food and weapons.  The two yellow squares are the local civilians, each of three groups of civilians.  The three different blue color circles are the starting points for the US platoons.  1^st Platoon is medium blue; 2^nd Platoon is light blue; and 3^rd Platoon is dark blue.  Their arrows represent the main axis of their advances.

Movement in the first round of game.  The 1^st Platoon makes it across the stream without any problems.  It should be noted part of this was this was due the amazing First Sergeant for this company.  I kid you not that about half, if not three quarters of the drawings from deck, the first or second card to come up was the US’s First Sergeant through the entire game.  He really was the driving force for the US side.  Curtis is moving his 2^nd Platoon into the stream.  For the next several turns he will make very little head way getting his platoon across the stream due to horrible dice rolls with the negative movement penalty for crossing the stream.  Clearly, his men did not bring their water wings!  Dave’s 3^rd Platoon has not starting moving yet, but they also fell victim to the raging current of the stream and got struck taking several turns trying to cross it.

This is the beginning of turn 3 or 4.  As mentioned above, you can see both 2^nd & 3^rd Platoons are struggling in the stream, while 1^st Platoon and the Company headquarters was slowing moving forwards with one die to move, one die to spot, and one die to hunker down.

This is about three turns later.  A bit more excitement this time!  Steve’s 1^st Platoon breaks up into second sections, one rounding up civilians in the paddy fields and the second, under the hell kicking First Sergeant is moving around the paddy fields to towards the woods on the other side.  One platoon of hidden VC moved up and later was forced to fire (orange arrow) due to their poor fire discipline at part of the 1^st Platoon, but luckily the cards came up right that they were able to withdraw before they were removed from their blind.  Unfortunately for them, their fire was pretty ineffective, only a pin and one point of shock.  The little yellow circles are some the civilians running away from the Americans.  I gave the civilians three dice to move, thinking with my normal rolls that they would be moving about average or less.  Oh, no…they were the RVN’s Olympian track and field team tryout members!   Also during this turn the Americans, being the monsters that they are, decided to open fire (orange arrows) on the fleeing civilians!  They killed one, but the other got away.  Again, one can notice that the stream is very sticky point for both the 2^nd & 3^rd Platoons.   

A few more turns later, the First Sergeant and the two squads strong 1^st Platoon (the other two squads are on detail securing the civilians), move up to the woods were the one local VC platoon retreated and starts getting in a serious firefight.  Both 2^nd & 3^rd Platoons are mostly across the stream by now.  In this picture, you can also see one of 3^rd Platoon’s squads now in position to support the 1^st Platoon.  In the yellow box is the dead body marker for the fleeing civilian that was murdered by the American soldiers.

A wide shot of the action described above.  The small group near the rice paddy with the medium blue box is the 1^st Platoon Leader, Company Commander, and the attached FO.

A couple of turns later, the 1^st Platoon is giving a lot of damage to the VC platoon in front of them, with one squad suffering two dead and five points of shock.  Squads from the 3^rd Platoon help giving supporting fire to 1^st Platoon.  That is until the second hidden local VC platoon came rolling up the hill to try to put down fire on the 3^rd Platoon.  The 3^rd Platoon shifted their fire to the new threat.  The 2^nd Platoon moves up and now also starts laying down fire on the second VC platoon.

On the following turn saw massive destruction with the firefight.  The local VC platoon facing the 1^st Platoon delivered a very effective volley causing one US squad six points of shock and killing the attached medic (I treated him as a Big Man to see if the kill hit was on him or on a soldier in the squad.)  The US dead body marker for the medic is boxed in pink for the picture.  In CDS, the location of dead bodies is important for calculating Political victory points at the end of the game.

 After another turn, the other local VC platoon also got one deadly volley off on a squad from 3^rd Platoon, killing two men and causing five points of shock.  Luckily, this time the nearby medic was attached to a different squad and was spared from rolling to see if he was one of the two kills.

This is basically the end turn.  As you can see, the amount of firepower that the US could bring on the VC platoons was massive, but the VC’s could not really get any advantage themselves.  Eventually, the VC retreated off of the board.

These next set of pictures were taken by Dave S. who sent me them to add to the blog.  Thanks, Dave!

Hey ladies, that handsome guy on the left is still available!  Steve & Curtis plot their actions.

Blake points at the game that he would not get in!  

The US company plus a special appearance of a Rome Plow that was scratch built by Steve.

1st Platoon leading the way while 3rd Platoon debates getting their feet wet.

One squad from 1st Platoon escorting the civilians to an evacuation point to be sent off to a government hamlet.

Destruction and death in one of Dave's 3rd Platoon's squads.

Finally, below is the copy of the OPORD that the US was to have at the beginning of the game.  I used the OPORD format that I was taught, and later taught to future leaders.  I used actual radio call signs from Vietnam for the 2^nd / 5^th Cav and their support.  It took some time to create and looking back on it, it was a waste of my time to do.  I doubt that I will ever do one again for a game.

OPORD Partial 

Task Organization: B Troop, 2/5 Cavalry BN  

I.  Situation:   

     A.  Enemy Force  

          1.  Weather: Clear and hot, with slight breeze moving west to east 

          2.  Terrain:

               Observations & Fields of Fire: Clear observation down roads and over rice paddies. No known Fields of Fire.

               Cover & Concealment: Heavy woods to the northeast and northwest of village. Woods surround village pretty much in all other directions.

               Obstacles: Rice paddies bordering the south and northwest of the village. Irrigation ditches connecting the paddies to stream to the south. 

               Key terrain: Several houses, all thatch, in the village; hill to the north east of village.

               Avenues of Approach: Dirt roads coming from the west to village and another heading north from village. 

          3.  Identification of enemy forces: Unknown. If any are present will most likely to be local cadre VC

          4.  Location(s): Unknown. If any VC are present, they will most likely be outside of the village where they have good cover and concealment

          5.  Activity: If present, they will defend until starting to be overwhelmed and will then withdraw from the area

          6.  Strength: Unknown, but expect a platoon size element of light infantry, armed with obsolete weapons. Possible 1-2 LMGs and may deploy some snipers. Local villagers are considered non-combatants, but may show some hostility when forced to relocate.

          7.  Probable course(s) of action when contacted: Mostly likely will use snipers to pin a friendly platoon and use their main platoon elements to attack the pinned element or set ambush for reactionary elements.

     B.  Friendly Forces

          1.  Mission and concept of next higher unit: 2/5 Cav is to conduct search operations in local villages looking for weapons / food caches for VC forces. The villagers are citizens of RVN and to be treated as non-combatants. If evidence of weapons or food caches, the villagers are to be rounded up for relocation and village destroyed. They are to be given at least one hour to gather their belongings before destroying the village.

          2.  Location and planned actions of units to the left, right, front, and rear: Bravo Trp will be conducting this mission alone.Alpha Trp will be conducting a similar mission at a village about 5.75 km to the North by North East. Delta Trp will be on standby as a reaction force at the Battalion fire base. Charlie & Echo Trps will be responsible for Battalion fire base security to the south.

          3.  Units providing fire support:

               E Trp's Mortar Platoon (81mm)

               A Batt, 1/77 Arty (105mm)
 

C.  Attachments/Detachments

            

         Attachment: FO from A/1/77 FA

 

         Detachment: B Trp's Mortar Platoon will remain at base

 

II.  Mission

 

          Primary mission is to search the village for enemy's supplies or intelligence and deny the enemy of their use.  Secondary objective is if there is evidence of local support to the enemy, relocate non-combats and destroy village.  If enemy forces present, priority is on denial of area/supplies for future enemy use, secondary is destruction of contacted enemy. 

III.  Execution / Intent of operation (Pre-game Troop Commander’s duty to explain to others how he wants the game to go)

     A.  Concept of the Operation: How the unit will accomplish its task(s) from start to finish? Identify all mission essential tasks and the decisive points of action 

          1.  Move: Discuss the mechanics of the operation, including designating the main effort

          2.  Fire: Describe how the leader intends to support his maneuver, including what is to be achieved from the fires, the priority of fires, and any restrictive control measures for the fires 

     B.  Tasks to Maneuver Units: Go over the task and purpose for each unit as primary/alternative duties: security, surveillance, support, assault, searching, guarding collection points, and other details

     C.  Tasks to Combat Support Units: Describe how combat support units will be employed

 

     D.  Coordinating Instructions: Lists the details of coordination and control to sub-units: Order of movement, formations, and movement techniques; Routes (primary/alternate); Actions on enemy contact; Time schedules (Give who must be where and when, then what happens); Rules of Engagement (When/who can start shooting)

 

IV.  Service Support (critical logistical information required to sustain the unit)

      A.  General: N/A for scenario

     B.  Material and Services: N/A for scenario

     C.  Medical Evacuation: N/A for scenario

     D.  Personnel: N/A for scenario      

     E.  Miscellaneous: N/A for scenario 

V.  Command & Signal

     A.   Command

 

          BN Commander will be in Command & Control helicopter "Chuck Chuck" between A & B Trps' AO's

     B.  Signal

    
          Radio Call Signs

          Battalion HQ "Arizona"

          A Troop "Lean Apache"

          B Troop "Ridge Runner"

          C Troop "Tall Commache"

          D Troop "Ready Navajo"

          E Troop "Prescott Arizona"

          A Battery, 1/77 FA "Birth Control"

          Attached FO from A/1/77 FA "Birth Control One Eight"

 

          1st Platoon "One"

          2nd Platoon "Two"

          3rd Platoon "Three" 

          Platoon “Four”

          Mortar Platoon “Five”

          BN/Troop/Platoon Leader "Six" 

          BN/Battery Operations "Three"

          Senior NCO "Six Mike"

          Radio Operator "India"

Examples:

B Trp's 1st Platoon's Sr NCO's RTO: "Ridge Runner One Six Mike India"

E Trp's Mortar Platoon's Operations: "Prescott Arizona Five Three"

B Trp's 2nd Platoon's Platoon Leader: "Ridge Runner Two Six"