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| V.C. machine gun in a bunker opens up on the U.S. soldiers in my 'Surviving 'Nam' game at DayCon |
I had one more playtest at a convention for my
Surviving 'Nam rules before going "all in" on laying out the rule book to get it published. I ran my "Search & Destroy" scenario for four gamers that I consider friends in the Saturday morning slot at
DayCon 2016. One of them even admitted he never signs up for 9am games, but made an exception (and the trip from Cincinnati) just to play in my game. Thanks, Ed -- that is quite the compliment! In fact, I knew all four of my players and was happy to see they'd signed up.
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| My 4 players at DayCon 2026 -- I consider all four friends & I was very excited to see them signed up |
In this mission, the players start on one board edge and have to exit the opposite corner. During their progress across the board, they have to search at least five V.C. bodies and cannot leave the table until there are less than six enemy on table. Due to the last time I ran this game at
Buckeye Game Fest in March, I increased the scenario modifier so that the V.C. couldn't spring their ambush until the players had at least three turns of "Countdown to Contact" movement across the table. Wouldn't you know it? Just like my players at BGF, they rolled a "6" on the first turn that the V.C. could possibly arrive!
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| 2 of the fire teams arrive on board, moving cautiously along a path between jungle & elephant grass |
The random placement of four V.C. squads did a fairly good job of surrounding the four American fire teams on the table. It was kind of fun to see the players' faces when the last enemy squad was deployed. They knew they were in for a fight. Every dice roll became important and the tension rose almost immediately. The four players had a good battle plan in place, though, and they had troops in just the right spots to immediately put fire on the ambushing V.C. Would they get a chance to do that, though? It all depended on their activation rolls. Each failure by a player to activate one of his soldiers meant that I flipped a card, which typically activates the enemy or brings more on table.
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| U.S. soldiers progress across the board, taking advantage of their 'Countdown to Contact' moves |
The players admitted at the end that they had been very fortunate with the cards drawn from the Event Deck. Almost immediately, a Fire Mission card came up, which meant the radioman had established contact with battalion artillery. This also prompts a reshuffle, which means both Fire Mission cards are somewhere in the deck, ready to be drawn. In this case, one of the next cards was "Colonel on the Horn." This one is a complete wildcard, with the colonel possibly changing or scrubbing the mission, demanding a detailed Situation Report (causing the C.O. and Radioman to lose their turn), or -- in this case -- actually doing something good. The colonel demanded "body count," which meant that card counted as a Fire Mission card. That was the best possible outcome for the players (and the worst for the V.C.). Sure enough, BOOM! The player controlling the lieutenant called in an artillery strike on an unfortunate squad of V.C. who'd just showed up in an open corner of the board.
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| On the 1st chance of the ambush arriving, it happened! A squad of V.C. arrive in a patch of bamboo |
Having seen a number of games played (and having done my own solo play tests), I also think the players were fortunate in their timing of cards drawn. The most deadly cards in the game, the two copies of "All Hell Breaking Loose!" didn't come up until the end of the game when there were few V.C. left on board. One time, there was only one enemy was on the table! The player's inevitable die rolls failures came, of course, but were streaky. When one player was suffering a case of double failures to activate (two Event cards drawn), the next players would roll particularly well and bring fire upon the V.C. who had just popped up.
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| Another squad enters the board behind the players, stalking through the elephant grass |
There was a hairy moment when a V.C. light machine gunner showed up in the player's rear and began firing on the C.O.'s team. One soldier went "Down" and three others were pinned, including the M60 gunner. Next, a sniper popped up and fired at the lieutenant from the cover of the nearby elephant grass. Things were looking ugly for that player. However, he weathered that storm, had the lieutenant use his free action to unpin the M60 gunner, who on his turn, suppressed the enemy machine gun team. He also rolled well all three times the sniper activated to shoot at his C.O. figure. Needing a 7+ on 1d20, he was successful every time. Whew!
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| Most dangerously, a squad showed up opposite side from 2 U.S. soldiers in some temple ruins |
As the players continued to pass the majority of their activation rolls, they began to wear down the enemy squads. Their M79 gunners were particularly key to their success, as more and more black-clad infantrymen went down after bloop gun grenades landed on target. The V.C. were not so lucky with their "Incoming!" mortar fire cards. Twice, the rounds deviated to j-u-s-t the right spot, despite it looking like any shift in location would
have to hit a soldier!
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| And just like that, fortune went the soldiers' way with a lucky, early arrival of a Fire Mission! |
Another thing that helped the players was they had gotten far enough on board to seize solid cover. So, when the enemy fired on them, they were in good positions. Not so lucky were the V.C., who often showed up in much lighter cover. The players were able to use that to their advantage to line up higher percentage shots on the enemy, while suffering low percentage return fire. All in all, things seemed to be going their way. The one enemy soldier who'd been downed by the V.C. machine gun turned out to be only lightly wounded. He was soon back in the fight.
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| John L, who had volunteered to be the 'Point' fire team, prepares to move his soldiers up |
I remarked a few times during the game that it looked like they were going to be very lucky and never have the "Bunker!" event card drawn. It wasn't till late in the game that it finally showed up. Too little, too late! What's more, an excellent roll by an M79 gunner (15+ on 1d20, if I remember correctly) popped an explosive round through one of the firing ports. The bunker was quickly neutralized without causing any U.S. casualties.
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| V.C. sniper in the grass would fire 3 times at the lieutenant, & against the odds, missing him! |
All in all, as lucky as I was in having four great guys show up to play my game, the players themselves were lucky in their Event Card draws. They also seemed to roll above average most of the time -- especially with their shooting dice. Once the enemy fire slackened, they were able to leapfrog their advance forward and search the required enemy bodies. As the last V.C. were removed from the table by accurate U.S. fire, I went ahead and called the game in their favor. I decided to spare them "going through the motions" and having to exit the table at the required board corner. It had been a fun game for them, so far. I figured why end it with some anticlimactic drudgery? Ha, ha! They had proved that Lady Luck was on their side for this Search & Destroy mission. The V.C. had been given a bloody nose, and would likely withdraw to lick their wounds, in this situation.
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| The player's success wasn't all luck -- they did a great job keeping their men in good cover all game |
The next scheduled convention play tests are at
Origins Game Fair in Columbus, June 17-21. I will be running
Surviving 'Nam Wednesday evening, as well as twice Thursday and Saturday. If you would like to try out the rules, sign up to play! Event registration supposedly begins in less than a week on
Tabletop Events. Who knows? Maybe I'll have excellent news then and tell you that the rules have been submitted to the publisher and copies will be available soon! Until then, I will likely do 2-3 more final, solo play tests to double-check a couple of the dozen scenarios that will be included in the rules. So, stay tuned here for more
Surviving 'Nam soon...!
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 173
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 85
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
- Terrain painted in 2026: 22
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
- Scatter painted in 2026: 56
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