CWC Vietnam AAR – “It was a very good day for Charlie”

Well after a whole year, and almost an additional month, I finally got around to running another Vietnam game (and actually the first game in a year as well!) This is a quick After Action Report (AAR) of the game. I forgot to bring my camera, so the photographs below were taken by Curtis T. (Thanks, Curtis!) I will try to get everything correct, but I did not make any notes immediately after the game and I waited over a week to type up this AAR, so I may have made some errors. The Americans were played by Pat L. (Aero Rifle platoon leader), Curtis T. (Leg Infantry platoon leader), and Blake W. (Armored Cavalry platoon leader and Overall Commander). The People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN or NVA) was commanded by Steve H.  
 

Scenario 

Each stand of infantry represented a squad of infantry or one vehicle. The Americans players were told that this is 1972 and the bulk of the Americans have been pulled out of Vietnam with the exception of a few units that will be cycled back as equipment & materials are handed over to the ARVN (South Vietnamese army). Their command is one of those units. Their troops’ morale is poor as no one wants to be the last to die for Vietnam, as such none of their infantry will engage in close assault with enemy forces and they also have an additional -1 to command rolls for moving orders if engaged in small arms combat, but not for shooting (they much rather just keep shooting until the enemy is dead instead of moving). 

The terrain was heavy with jungle and woods as to make up for the lack of hills for the area around the DMZ. There were two small farms on the board that were separate from each other. A road ran the length of the board (north to south) with a small cross road connecting the two farms.

The board with the south edge being at the bottom of the picture

The Americans forces consisted of an aero rifle platoon (1x headquarters, 3x infantry, and 1x machine gun stands, plus 4x Huey slicks); a leg infantry platoon (1x headquarters, 3x infantry, and 1x machine gun stands); and an under strength armored cavalry platoon (1x headquarters, 3x M113 ACAV, and 1x M551 Sheridan); plus there was a Commanding Officer stand, 2x 105mm off-board artillery support, and a 1x off-board air support (more will be discussed about the air support later). The CO was to be assigned to the armored cavalry and while this was a Free Fire Zone, the players were not allowed to call in artillery or air support until they had a confirmed sighting of enemy troops.

 The PAVN forces consisted of 1x CO, 2x headquarters, 12x infantry, 1x mortar, 2x unarmed porters units, and 2x PT-76 tanks that would come in as reinforcements. The PAVN was allowed one Ambush and everything else was under hidden blinds.

 The American Armored Cavalry platoon and the Leg Infantry platoon off to one side of the board while players were decided what they wanted to run.

The Americans were instructed to move up and determine where the enemy was located, engage them and inflict heavy casualties; the PAVN’s objects was to hold the US long enough to get the unarmed porters off of the board (who could not start moving until the PAVN had engage the US in one round of combat.)

The US decided to have the leg infantry platoon ride on the tracks from the armored cavalry, while the aero rifles would fly in an land right next the farm on the west side of the board…it all went downhill for American players after that. What was to follow was just sad. 

Turn One 

The aero rifles under LT Pat lands between the farm and the rice paddies. As the Huey ‘slicks’ were touching down, deadly AK-47 fire was coming from a hidden bunker under the farmhouse. First Squad was ripped to shreds as they scrambled off their ‘Slick’ and into a perfectly laid out kill zone. The rest of the aero rifles platoon and the ‘Slick’s’ door gunners returned fire but with the surprise factor and seeing 1^st Squad casualties, the fire was only able to suppress some of the PAVN forces.

The armored cavalry platoon under LT Blake slowing advance up the road as if it was a Sunday morning back in the States, without a care in the world (they only made one command roll – oddly enough, this was going to the standard for them pretty much through the rest of the game).

The leg infantry platoon under LT Curtis decided to dismount one squad to check out a possible ambush site (a hidden marker) along the road. As LT Curtis told the 3^rd Squad to dismount, a single shot rang out from their ACAV which just missed hitting him in the head…the other track was claiming it was an accidental discharge, but LT Curtis was not so sure about that. (Curtis rolled a commanded blunder and got a ‘Cease Fire’ blunder resulting in one shot at his HQ…nothing quite like setting the proper mood for the rest of the game!)

The PAVN under Comrade Steve starts moving their porters towards the north and the hidden marker in the rice paddies on the opposite side of the aero rifle platoon turns out to be a single rifle squad.

 Losses – US: 1, PAVN: 0

The aero rifle platoon in one of its better moments

Turn Two

 

LT Pat tries splitting his platoon’s fire between the bunker under the farmhouse and the PAVN troops in the rice paddies. He is unsuccessful. He starts to call back in the ‘Slicks’ to help lay down some fire, but is unable to contact them (only one successful command roll).

 LT Curtis successfully yells at the other squad to get off the ACAV and check out the wood line. They advance up to the woods and stop, refusing to go any farther (again, only one successful command roll!) 

LT Blake however is watching the howling monkeys in the trees and is thinking how he can ship one back to the US (failed command rolls). 

Meanwhile, the PAVN forces at the farm are determine to show that they are heroes that Uncle Ho was referring to as they lay accurate fire into the 2^nd Squad until they don’t see them moving anymore. 

Losses – US: 2, PAVN: 0

The soon to be infamous 'missing' squad deciding if they should go into the woods

Turn Three

 

LT Pat is realizing that things are going from bad to worse for him as he is too close to call in artillery or air support, so he calls back the ‘Slicks’ to help lay down fire on the bunker and in the rice paddies. While the additional firepower from the door gunners, he now sees that he is successfully hitting the enemy, but only suppressing them at best.

LT Curtis, after throwing a can of Ham & Beans from his C-rations at his 3^rd Squad, was able to get them to adventure into the woods to find some old copies of Playboy and a long abandoned campfire. Deciding to stop and look at the centerfolds, they didn’t hear LT Curtis yelling for them to get back to the tracks. 

LT Blake is now thinking about if he left his footlocker unlocked back at the base camp (can you guess how many successful command rolls were going on here?)

Driving south, two PT-76s appear on the field in replies to request of assistance from Comrade Steve. Back over the PAVN bunker, as one PAVN squad cowards toward one side the bunker, the other squad shows that they are the foundation for victory over the capitalist invaders as they then switch their sites to the aero rifle’s 3^rd squad. In a few violent seconds, another US squad was removed from their beloved lands.

Losses – US: 3; PAVN: 0 

 

Turn Four 

LT Pat looks back at his faithful RTO and can see the fear in his eyes, “There is a whole group of Charlie’s shooting like Alvin York! We got to get out of here!” LT Pat calls in the ‘Slicks’ to make one more pass to light up the bunker. With just a machine gun squad and some LAWs, and the door gunners from the circling ‘Slicks’, LT Pat directs the fire into the bunker. Finally able to bracket the slits, he is successful in suppressing one of the two PAVN squads.

LT Curtis starts jumping up and down on top of the ACAV at his 3^rd squad to come back to the tracks, it appears that they found something more than some old copies of Playboy in the abandon camp site.

LT Blake all of a sudden remembers that he is suppose to be linking up with the aero rifle platoon, and orders his command forward…leaving behind LT Curtis’s 3^rd squad in the dust.

The PAVN PT-76’s drove as fast as they could until they were able to get themselves in a good position to engage the Americans that would come to rescue the badly bloodied aero rifle platoon. Back at the bunker, rounds were being traded, but with no losses on either side.

Losses – US: 3; PAVN: 0

Random scenes from Turn Four. Notice in the first one the abandoned US infantry squad!

Turn Five

 

“I don’t care if it is hot or not, get that chopper down here now!” LT Pat screamed into the handset of the PR/C 77 radio. As the ‘Slick’ came in to pick up the survivors of the aero rifle platoon, rounds went flying in and rattled inside it. The door gunner witness the rounds ripping into the engine and seeing the thick, oily smoke bellowing out just before the Huey went into a spin and collided with the ground. Nguyen, back in the bunker smiled as pulled out his now empty clip from his AK-47.  With fury, the remaining 'Slicks' door gunners opened up on the PAVN squad in the rice paddies and riddled them with 7.62mm rounds.

LT Curtis started yelling, “Dismounted, get to the wood line and take up fighting positions” as the ACAV’s came to a halt. All of his platoon dismounts and runs in the woods as he is left there wondering if they did it because he order them to or if they did it because they did not want to be around the ACAVs with PAVN tanks in the area.

LT Blake directs the M551 to drive around the wood line and report what he sees. As the M551 reaches the crossroads, two shots are heard from a far and the M551 is seen to shudder a little bit before suddenly it is replaced by an orange ball of fire. This seems to jolt LT Blake back to fact that he is in Vietnam!  “Hard right turn, head back to the base camp!” LT Blake yells in to mic as the ACAV drivers obey. 

LT Curtis stands there with his jaw on the ground as the ACAV abandon him and his platoon as they drive hell bent for leather back for the base camp (Yes, Blake decided that running away was the best option and he rolled a critical command success! Amazing, the only time a critical success is rolled and it applies to a retreat!)

The crews of the two PT-76s let off a cheer as they see their shots caused an American tank to catch on fire.  In the bunker, Comrade Steve looked over at the dead PAVN soldiers in the rice paddies, “Their love for Uncle Ho was weak, that is why they died” as he said to follow comrades, “But they were still our brothers, these Americans will pay dearly.” With that, Comrade Steve trained his iron sights on an American machine-gun team and squeezed the trigger with deadly accuracy.

Losses: US: 6, PAVN: 1 (The US has now just reached it Breakpoint to start rolling for the force's overall morale.)

The view from the PAVN side at the stalled American advance...but wait, what is that in the distance

Turn Six  

“Hey, I can see those tanks from here”, the RTO points out to LT Pat after seeing the fireball in the sky from a burning M551. “Give me that handset, ‘This is November One-Niner Lima, I have an airstrike mission’” LT Pat spoke into the radio’s handset.

A South Vietnamese F-5 Freedom Fighter was vectored in on the mission and successfully drops napalm on the two PT-76s, knocking both out. LT Pat then convinces one of the braver ‘Slick’ pilots to come down and retrieve both him and the down crew from the previous Huey. 

As Comrade Steve is pulling out a new clip of ammunition, he drops it in the mud. Reaching down and grabbing it to clean off the mud, he fails to see the Americans jumping on another Huey until it is too late, it gets away from him. 

LT Curtis is still amazed that the cavalry just abandoned his platoon…it was going to be a long march back to the base camp. 

Losses: US: 6, PAVN: 3

  

The South Vietnamese Air Force to the rescue!

 

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The game was called at this point as two of the three US commands were no longer in the game and the PAVN was in very good defensive positions. As a joke, we gave Blake a 50/50 shot that he was going to be fragged by Curtis’ men at the base camp before he got cycled back to the US, he lived. Pat did not have to worry about be fragged as all of his command was dead. The other thing that we had joked about is that the Vietnamese (both North & South) had a far better kill ratio then the Americans…this was truly a 1972 American Army that was on the board. 

Hopefully this was a still a fun enough game for the American players, even with all of the horrible dice rolls.

Work in Progress and Personal News

First off, my current employment project is ending tomorrow and I am to drive back from South Carolina to finally go back home after 14 months of working here. So, this weekend is my packing up and cleaning up the apartment to end my lease for Monday morning. As of now, I am drive back on Monday and Tuesday and charge my time to this job, but I have no word to where I am to report on Wednesday or where and when is my next project...if there is one. Since I my employment and relocation is up in the air, this maybe the last entry for a while. I will not unpack most of my stuff when I get home as I might be told to leave at the end of weekend to lord knows here, or if I am required to use up some of my vacation time while waiting for an assignment, or the other option. Ah, the life of a migrant worker!

I will probably not be doing much painting unless I know for a fact that I will have down time to unpack my miniatures will have time to repack them. So I figure I would get a "Work in Progress" collection up before packing everything up. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the camera that I was using does not have a good macro setting. I left my good camera back home the last time I was there.

L and R: British infantry from Hotspur for the Falklands / Malvinas mainly, but most can double for Northern Ireland. The ones on the right are fairly close to being finished.

L: My PIRA's Active Service Unit squad for Northern Ireland. most of the figures are from Liberation with the exception of the figure in the front setting explosives. I don't know where I got him from 10+ years ago. I actually like that figure. It is a nice sculpture.

R: Hotspur's rioters and armed thugs to make the "PBI" squaddies have a rough go at things in N.I.

L: US Rangers!?!?!? Yes, US Rangers from Hotspur's Grenadia line. I like these figures and just want to paint them up.

R: More Hotspur's British soldiers for N.I. When I am done, I hope to have a section for the Paras, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (which are done and can be see in an earlier thread), and section of a regular line unit from the Army. If I feel really up to it, I might order a couple of more packs from Stonewall and do a section for the Royal Marines.

Above: British weapon teams for the Falklands. The figures in the back are from Liberation with two Carl Gustav recoilless rifle teams flanking a soldier with a 52mm mortar. The machine gun team in the front is from FAA and was originally sculpted to be a match with the Hotspur's (I believe the sculpter worked for both companies.)

L and R: More armoured cars for the British to police N.I. To the left is a Ferret MK II/III armoured car from Liberation Miniatures. To the right is three Humber Pigs, one Hotspur armoured patrol truck for the RUC, and one Saxon Patrol, a modified Saxon armoured troop carrier for Northern Ireland duty. All of these vehicles are the BW Models.

L and R: PENGUINS!!!! How could you have a Falklands / Malvinas game without penguins! The penguins are from the defunct MJ Figures. They were suppose to be for 15mm figures, but they were very tall penguins for 15mm. This is all that I have of this miniature...pity, as I want more. The penguins are not finished as I still have more work to finish to make them look like Gentoo penguins (my personal favorites...and they have colonies on the Falklands / Malvinas and South Georgia Islands too!) The picture to the right gives a comparsion for height to the 20mm Hotspur figures.

"Armoured cars and tanks and guns..Came to take away our sons..."

"Armoured cars and tanks and guns
Came to take away our sons
But every man must stand behind
The men behind the wire"

- The Wolfe Tones, "The Men Behind the Wire"

Well, I am back after a long dry spell. First off, much apologies to the Wolfe Tones for stealing their lyrics for the title of this posting. As the title sort of infers to is what I have been working on for my 20mm Northern Ireland Ambush Alley game...armored vehicles for the Crown forces. They are not complete, but far enough along that I feel that I am getting somewhere.

First up is the iconic symbol of the British Army policing during 'The Troubles," the Humber FV 1611 MK II. But it is more commonly referred to as the "Pig." This is a 1/76 scale white metal casting kit by BW Models. As you can see, I still have to fix the front ram as one side broke off while trying to cut it loose from the casting. After I reviewed the photos, I see a few other things I want to correct as well.

The next vehicle is the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Shorland Armoured Patrol Car. Sixteen of these served with the RUC from June of 1966 to January of 1970. They served in the RUC's Reserve Force Platoons, an organization carried out normal police duties, and in addition to handling crowd or riot control, as well as military / para-military operations. When the RUC was instructed to stand down their armored vehicles, these vehicles went to mothballs for a short period and then turned over to the Ulster Defence Force. This specific model is painted up to be Fleet number 273, from the No. 3 Platoon (Glenravel Street), Belfast, RUC. I am not happy with the color of the tires, so I will touching those up later. I plan to get another one and paint it up for the UDR. Again, this is model from BW Models.

Now, the following is the Shorland SB301 armored personnel carrier. Three of these served with the RUC, (and where commonly referred to as "The Three Amigos'.) The SB301 entered service in August of 1975 and were withdrawn from operational service in 1979. There were still used as part of the reserve fleet until late 1990. Since all of my military vehicles will be green and most of my RUC vehicles will be grey, I thought that it would be different to paint this one up when the SB301's were painted blue. This specific vehicle is painted to be Fleet number 3131 and was attached to the explosives escort unit at Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in 1976. Again, this is a model from BW Models.

Finally, I am putting this up as sort of a warning to anyone who is considering of buying a 1/72 plastic kit from the Ukranian modelling company, ACE. The are a pain to assemble; there are no pins to hold the parts together and you can see the Grand Canyon size holes that need to be putty filled. This will be (if I can ever finish it) a Panhard M3 APC with a TL-2i turret for the Irish Defence Force. It (might) will show up with a section of Irish infantry that will be patrolling the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and trying to stop the flow of weapons for the IRA from the Republic of Ireland and supporting British operations...or are they preparing for 'Doomsday' scenario of crossing over the border and taking military action to support the IRA and drive the British out!

20mm Hotspur - Urban Operations

Finally, here are the selection of figures from Hotspur's Urban Operations line

Anti-Terrorist Team

British Army in Internal Security uniform

Armed Criminals or Terrorist

Innocent Bystanders: Note that there are 6 figures instead of 5 like the other packs

Plain Clothes Detectives

Riot Police

Rioters

SAS for Operation Nimrod (Storming the Iranian Embassy, 1980)

20mm Hotspur Miniatures - Operation Corporate - Argentine

Here are picks of what you get in the Hotspur 20mm Argentine sets for the 1982 Falklands / Malvinas Conflict.

Argentine Command

Argentine Infantry Firing: The one prone figure with the bipod has the Argentine Fusil Automatico Pesado, or their heavy barrelled FN FAL assault rifle.

Argentine Infantry Moving

Argentine Marines: They can also work for the Army Commandos

Argentine Special Forces

Hotspur 20mm figures - Operation Corporate - British

Hello! Well, I thought I would put up some images of what I am working on. This post is what the old Hotspur 20mm miniatures look like for their Operation Corporate (Falklands / Malvinas Conflict) in 1982. This unfinished figures grouped in what comes in each different pack. I thought it might be nice to see the different miniatures. I also found out this week that they are now available again through Stonewall Miniatures in the UK. This is a great news!

British Command: (note the figure in the back has a separate arm that has not been cut off the base and glued on to the body yet.)

British Infantry Firing: A nice selection of support weapons

British Infantry Advancing

Special Air Service: Just want you need to storm Pebble Island

Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfarce Cadre: mostly armed with M16 rifles

Some say the Devil is Dead...but more say he rose again and joined the British Army!

"Some say the Devil is dead...but more say he rose again and joined the British Army" - The Wolfe Tones

Well...this is another new project that I am working on...again, one of too many started, but hopefully, I will finish this one.

Combat Colours and Tim! are really getting into Ambush Alley/Force on Force (www.ambushalleygames.com) in 20mm for various time periods. I had some old Hotspur 20mm figures from both their Urban Troubles and Falklands lines and some vehicles for the 1970's and 1980's Northern Ireland. Plus, I have enough Argentine figures that I should be able to do some Falklands games as well. So, there you have it. This is what I have done for now.

The 'Paras' on strench of road outside of the "No-Go Zone" in Londonderry or Free Derry.

A section of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (RRF) and an unarmed Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) searcher setting up an inspection post with the green fields of South Armagh behind them. 

I am adding the label for "Falklands" for this posting as the Paras will also do double duty for future Falklands games.

It has been a while...

Well, work has been a drag and I have not had much free time. But this is some stuff that I have got done a couple of months ago and just have not been posted.

This is another figure for my 1920's Ireland. This is a 20mm Liberation miniature from the British Army set. So far this is the only one that I have finish.

This is a wonderful little charity figure for the gaming blog, "Matakishi's Tea House". I love the figure and bought one. It is site worth visiting: www.matakishi.com . I did notice after taking the photograph of the little bit of build up of the putty at the bottom of the belly, that will be some that I will clean off later and re touch-up with paint.

144th WWII fighters

Hello again! Well this is some work in progress pictures I have taken of some 144th scale WWII fighters that I have been working on. They will be for some dogfight games about the air battle over the Philippines in 1941-42. I am trying to decide if I want to paint the panel lines in a darker color (like dark Olive Drab) or mark them with black ink. There is an advantage and a disadvantage to both methods. I still have to make a final decision on what I want to do.

Two of the models will be P-35A's for the USAAF and the other is for a P-26A for the Philippine Army Air Force. I will work on P-40's for the USAAF and Japanese airplanes later.