Back to the Jungle: Vietnam '65 AAR Two

Since my last Vietnam '65 AAR back in March, there has been a large update which looks like it might address the concerns I had about difficulty - there's a new level of AI, fog of war, and bad weather, along with various other small changes that look good. So I'm going back for another engagement.

The new game options screen - my setup here is identical to their Veteran difficulty, except I turned on random starting units. Some of these options aren't entirely clear to me - I assume the Political Defeat is the 'Alternate Defeat' mentioned in the changelog, but I can't easily find a larger post explaining all these details, the manual doesn't appear to have been updated, and there are no tooltips.

Checking out the map, things are off to a good start as far as the patch update goes - it's not like any map I've seen before - but it's less appealing from my command position. My default strategy is to push forward early on and establish the main firebase somewhere around the centre of the map, allowing me to dominate the surrounding area with artillery and attack helicopters. I think the ideal position would be somewhere between My Thaob and Rath Ya Do (village and unit names are a nice addition), but getting my engineers there won't be easy. Nonetheless, that's going to be my first order of business. I start with some Combat Engineers, two Hueys, an Infantry company, and a unit of Green Berets.

With some of my starting income I purchase another unit of Green Berets and tanks to accompany my Engineers on their dangerous mission. An extra Huey and Infantry unit are sent south to recce the village down there, while the other infantry visit the village nearest us. I also bring in another Engineer unit, who will construct a road linking up the HQ with the northern strip of road. Up there may well provide a good place for a forward base and artillery outpost.

First turn complete, there are apparently now two VC cadres operating. We spot one of them thanks to intel from Do Chi village, and I send Green Berets to keep an eye on them. Another Infantry unit is purchased and dispatched towards My Thaob.

Next turn I see the VC cadre moving towards Rath Ya Do. Since I really want that village on-side if it's going to be nearby my firebase, I order an airstrike, which wipes out the VC. Weather is forecast as all clear for the next three turns. The new hex overlay is very useful for picking exactly the right spot (at least three tiles away from a village) for the firebase. The Hueys have now switched from transport to supply ops. I'm tempted to buy a Chinook, but initially decide against it, wanting to keep some strategic reserve of political points. This doesn't last, as I'm made nervous by predicted bad weather and units increasingly far from the HQ - I buy the Chinook to assist in supplying my troops.

This turns out to be a wise decision, as a number of units almost run out of supply. The Chinook just about saves the day, and by turn 9 my firebase is established deep in the jungle. It will provide an excellent position for my Hueys to carry supplies from, and as soon as I can track down some more VC cadres I will be able to purchase an attack helicopter or an artillery unit. There are apparently 6 cadres operating somewhere, but I've seen absolutely no sign of them yet, and my hearts and minds score (H&M) is steady at 51.

Alpha Company, my first Infantry unit, discover a VC unit outside the village as they visit Tong Mo, the closest village to my HQ. I've often found myself getting caught out by ambushes near my HQ as I sometimes focus too much on the areas near the centre and left hand side of the map, somewhat perversely leaving my HQ one of the most dangerous areas, so I consider myself lucky to have caught this one. The Infantry engage and destroy the cadre. Turn 12 sees the first NVA unit come into play, and I'm moving my armour forward along the road near my firebase - hopefully they'll attack in the south.

Village intel reveals a VC RPG team, which I knock out with another airstrike. Another VC cadre attempts to ambush Alpha Company, but they are wiped out. Their luck doesn't last forever though, as they fail in an attack on another VC cadre the next turn. There are Green Berets and another Infantry unit in the area, so I'm confident we should be able to evac them. They are the first casualties of the game, which I consider extremely lucky at turn 15 (of 45).

Horrifyingly, they come under attack from yet another VC cadre... but manage to hold out. Next turn they move into the clear and a Huey sweeps in to pick them up. Worse however, a VC unit appears next to my firebase, which I have managed to leave entirely empty. I have engineers and tanks nearby, but they can't get there in a single turn. I don't know if the base has a chance of surviving and attack with no defenders - I'm assuming I'll have to use those engineers to rebuild it.

I heave a sigh of relief when they don't attack the firebase, followed by curses as a misclick sends a Huey straight into an RPG ambush as well as delaying the deployment of a new Infantry unit, and my engineers find out what the cadre near the firebase was doing instead - laying mines and waiting in ambush. With the firebase intact, I only have to send the engineers in there (they spot and defuse mines around them automatically, taking care of that) and order them to repair themselves. Not so bad really.

Things start heating up as more NVA units appear, and we find an NVA artillery post west of Phu Nhon as it bombards an Infantry unit, causing casualties. Alpha Company suffer a double misfortune as their helicopter gets hit on the way to the eastern village of Do Chi, and then they themselves get ambushed in the jungle before reaching their objective. They are evacuated safely though. An airstrike fails to destroy the NVA base, though our tanks manage to engage and destroy an NVA unit.

The next series of turns see a number of ambushes and engagements. I need more Infantry and ideally more Green Berets, but I just don't have the political points. I still haven't even bought an artillery unit for the firebase, and there are lots of great targets waiting. Gradually I draw my units back towards the firebase - I can't cover the whole map at this point, so I'm going to concentrate on the villages near the firebase. I buy an M113 APC since it's cheap, and it more than exceeds my expectations. Previously they weren't generally very tempting for me, since helicopters did transport better and there weren't enough enemies that needed the combat bonus, at least once my artillery and Cobras were done with them. In this game though, bad weather makes helicopters less all powerful, and since I'm currently lacking fire support, my Infantry need all the help they can get.

Forward bases are quite expensive at 1000 PP, but I make the investment so I can have an outpost in the north, and so I can start training ARVN units to boost my ground forces for free. When I ship in the Green Berets doing the training, they also spot a bunch of VC units hanging around nearby - I manage to bring in another Infantry unit and ambush one of them.

It's hard to say what happened, but around this point (turn 25-30) something swung my way in the balance. Getting a few VC and NVA kills in a turn, along with finally taking out the NVA base with the third airstrike, gave me enough political points to buy an artillery unit for my firebase, and those guns saw action pretty much every turn for the rest of the game. With odds of 70-80% chance to kill most targeted enemies, and no risk of retaliation, they control enemy numbers at the same time as bringing in a steady income. Yes they need their own supply runs from the HQ, but I have enough helicopters that it wasn't a problem. 

With a central supply base, units operating nearby can often be resupplied by a Huey which can then return to the firebase in the same turn, so just a few can resupply 3-4 ground units comfortably. After finally getting a reliable income, it wasn't long before I could afford another Green Beret unit, and I also managed to train two ARVN units, further boosting my forces. The combination of Green Berets to spot enemies with my armour and artillery meant a lot of dead enemies and a lot of income - killing VC and NVA units also boosts the hearts and minds of nearby villages as well of course, so that number just kept going up as well.

By the end I have an average H&M score of 62, which is just off the chart, which goes from 40-60. So the game actually ended up pretty much the same as my previous games, though things were a bit more intense in the middle, until I got settled with my artillery. You can see I have a core of loyal villages around the firebase and to the south-west (I didn't visit Plei Kla much at all, but killed lots of NVA in that area), giving me the good H&M result for a decisive victory, despite the south-east villages and Phu Nhon hating me.

Overall the patch has made a lot of good improvements, particularly little interface things which make it that much smoother and more enjoyable to play. I suppose I shouldn't have expected the addition of weather alone to really increase the difficulty all that much (though it's an excellent feature), and should increase the various options further next time. I might also have been lucky early on - if there had been VC ambushes while I was moving my engineers up to the firebase location, that could have been a game changer. It's been a pleasure to return to Vietnam '65, but I'm a little concerned that my strategy might be a little too effective to encourage strategic variation. A central firebase plus artillery seems like a no-brainer to me, especially if you can pull it off even with a fairly hostile map like this one.