Vietnam '65 AAR

It's always the approaches to my main base that are most dangerous. But while the helicopters usually get hit flying over the nearby stretches of jungle, it's the engineers who tend to get ambushed barely a few hexes out from safety. It must be very demoralizing, to be freshly deployed with the mission of improving the road network miles behind the frontlines and forward bases, only to be hammered with RPG fire moments after leaving the safety of the compound. Then having to limp back for reinforcement, not even having completed a full movement before taking losses.

I'm inclined to like any game where getting a Chinook for longer range transport and longer operation time between resupply is not only a legitimately exciting prospect, but often more compelling than a Cobra gunship. Where it can take the little Huey's several turns to ferry artillery shells to your most advanced positions, the Chinooks feel like they can cover the whole map in two turns (I'm sure they don't take more than three). Don't get me wrong, I love the Cobras for their ability to deliver indirect firepower quickly without having to worry about terrain, but they aren't going to help keep my artillery supplied or airlift injured infantry out of harm's way.

Vietnam '65 is all about transport and supply lines. Your task is to patrol a section of the country, identifying and destroying enemy units to win the hearts and minds of villages in the area. While you win hearts and minds mostly by destroying enemy units (and a little from visiting the villages with infantry, though these visits are often more valuable to get intel on enemies to destroy than for the small H&M boost itself), Viet Cong cadres will emerge from the jungle aiming to visit these villages to lower their H&M value, lay minefields, or set ambushes. You'll also have to deal with advances by North Vietnamese Army units, which will grow in intensity if the overall H&M score is allowed to drop.

I start by deciding on where to place my firebase. I think I've been lucky with this map - the road network is very good, and there's only a couple of villages south of the river in the jungle. I decide to place the firebase a little west of the road junction. I send out several infantry squads to start the rounds on the villages, and send out a unit of Green Berets to recon the planned location for the firebase. I buy an extra Huey and another Green Beret unit - the Green Berets will escort my engineers as they head out and hopefully spot any ambushing RPG teams in advance, while the extra Huey lets me deploy all the infantry on turn one - and more transport helicopters are always useful.

Turn 1 and 2 are fairly quiet, then it heats up on turn 3. After visiting a village, one infantry squad runs into a minefield. Then, a VC cadre strike at an infantry unit attempting to visit a remote jungle village, injuring them - I hope they can get back to the clearing for evac before getting hit again. They bravely (foolhardily?) decide to complete their objective and visit the village before turning around, carefully sweeping for mines. Luckily the infantry visiting the northern villages have better luck, and spot and engage a VC unit before it can reach a village, becoming the first US unit to destroy a hostile force. In addition, the engineers safely arrive and construct the firebase. I deploy a new tank unit at my HQ and immediately start airlifting artillery out to the firebase.

I still jump every time mines go off or an RPG team is revealed. Attempting to avoid my usual mistake of neglecting the villages near my HQ, I send an infantry squad to the nearby northern village, but their Huey is blasted on the way by an RPG team, though it manages to drop them off and return for repairs. The advanced northern squad prove themselves again by defeating another VC unit that attacks. Unfortunately one of the Huey's supplying them is hit by an NVA unit - the NVA don't disappear after attacking, they merely retreat a little westward before advancing again. I'll need to send some Green Berets to find them, then blast them with my tanks or artillery. For now, my artillery bombards and destroys a VC unit spotted by some of my Green Berets.

We manage to ID and airstrike a VC unit after a village visit, but that's about all the good news. Despite having laid an ambush, the infantry near my HQ are attacked and injured by VC, though the survivors are evacuated safely. I airlift the Green Berets near my HQ forward to the firebase - I need to start seeking out and destroying NVA units to earn prestige. My tanks and artillery are eager for targets. Hearts and minds are above 50 though, which I'm happy with at this stage.

Turn 11 starts very well. Green Berets spot probably the same NVA unit that hit the Huey, and our artillery immediately engage and destroy them. Then a nearby infantry unit visits a village (next to where the NVA had been, so the Green Berets might have prevented an ambush too), and we learn about a VC cadre, which is promptly eliminated via airstrike. Finally, another village gives up the location of an NVA unit - in range of our tanks! Unfortunately they survive the attack and retreat. All the same, my victories this turn give me enough prestige to buy another Green Beret unit. Soon I want to start establishing forward bases and using those Green Berets to train ARVN units. Our northern squad near the HQ destroy an ambushing VC RPG team. However, we also learn that the NVA have set up a base somewhere in the region, which could bombard my units and will lose me 250 prestige each turn (for reference, defeating an enemy unit gains me 1000). I need to save for a Cobra or use airstrikes - I don't like sending in ground units against the NVA bases, being vulnerable to the artillery.

In the south there is a mess of VC RPGs hiding out around the village. For some reason, I decide to send out the tanks, forgetting that the RPG ambushes have the same range as my tanks - result, damaged tanks. Another nasty scare when my engineers, laying a road to get across the river and clear some LZs, get ambushed by VC. Heroically, they fight them off! Another VC unit is spotted in the south near my HQ and destroyed by patrolling infantry.

Infantry attempting to reach a village deep in the southern jungle suddenly come under artillery fire - the NVA base. An airstrike fails to destroy it, but my tanks (after being repaired by the engineers, and being ambushed a second time by RPGs but not being damaged) manage to take it out. I purchase a Cobra gunship and move it up to the firebase, where it will sally out to hit enemies before returning to safety. The pilots don't have to wait long for action, as two VC cadres emerge near the forward base where some of my Green Berets are training ARVN units. The tanks and gunship take care of both cadres.

My engineers are slowly making progress through the jungle, when they are ambushed once more, by an NVA unit - remarkably they not only avoid damage, but actually destroy the attackers! Our first ARVN units are trained, and airlifted to a nearby village. They get better results from villages, and their first report is a good one - we learn the location of a new NVA base to the west, near a village I have never yet visited (once my position improves, I should be able to win their favour back fairly quickly - since they're very near the border, I should be able to spot and kill lots of NVA in that region, quickly changing their point of view). An airstrike again fails to destroy the base, so I dispatch the tanks to start making their way through the jungle, in case the Cobra gets ambushed by an RPG on the way.

Yet again the engineers get ambushed, this time by an RPG team - and once more are unharmed! I buy a Chinook - it can make an supply run from my HQ to the firebase in one turn! Though my artillery haven't seen as much action in this game as my previous ones - I want to make a new forward base in the north-west, I'll probably shift the artillery there. I've just trained the second ARVN unit at the current forward base, which is the max per base. I also buy another Cobra, for when we start sweeping the large expanse of western jungle for NVA units. The Cobra knocks out the base with its second attempt.

From here on in, things are fairly relaxed. At turn 30 (of 45) I have an average H&M score of 69 (the chart only bothers tracking 40-60, infantry outside nearly every village, Green Berets combing the west for NVA units, which are then destroyed by artillery or gunships. Obviously I still run into the occasional mine, but even those and the ambushes drop as the villages stop supporting VC activity.

My final score of 81 is my best yet. This is the third game I've played, and I'm pretty sure I've been getting better each time, particularly in keeping my units well supplied - this game I didn't once have to use the emergency supply drop, which was a life-saver a couple of times in my earlier games. The only unit I lost this game was an ARVN unit which was first ambushed and then stepped into a minefield on the road they hoped to be evacuated from. This was in the top left village, and that area was where I had most trouble with mines and ambushes - we can see on the final map that there was a trail point up and to the right (the red and blue pins, where VC cadres appear from), but I never really established any bases or sent any Green Berets into that area.

The devs have said they're going to add a custom game option, which should help with the difficulty - I think I may also have been fairly lucky with my maps so far - it was never too difficult to establish the firebase in a good central location. This game took around 90 minutes, which includes a nice sense of progression as you expand your forces and carve out new paths through the jungle.

At only $10/£7 (cheap by wargame standards), it offers a novel challenge that will hold your interest, and only requires you to follow a brief tutorial before you're ready to get stuck in.