Surviving 'Nam at World at War convention

    I ran two play tests of "Surviving 'Nam" at World at War convention this past weekend

I'm lucky in that my games tend to be popular at regional conventions. Whether that is because of setting up a pretty tabletop or reputation for running a fun game, I don't know. So, I would normally feel bad about running a game that could take only four players. However, World at War at Fort Meigs, Perrysburg, OH, is a smaller convention with fewer attendees. So, it seemed a perfect fit to take Surviving 'Nam up there and run a couple more play tests. Each game would have four players --- the most I've had yet. And it was also the first time I have taught the rules in a convention setting. My good fortune continued as the weekend arrived, and I had a full table in each game.

    Villagers arrive at the weekly Stone Buddha Market in Piit Baub village unaware soldiers are coming

Throughout the course of my previous four play tests, and based on feedback from more than half a dozen playtesters in the U.S., U.K., and Italy, I have been steadily scaling back the lethality of the event cards and mechanics. Not only would I see how my rules played out with four live players (not me running solo), I would also get a good feel for how deadly the newest iteration of these cooperative miniatures rules would be. I was very pleased to see that both games played out similarly, and it was not too lethal at all. In fact, both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning's games saw the fewest casualties inflicted on U.S. forces yet in one of my games. I feel I may have adjusted the danger level correctly. Now, it will simply be tightening up things here and there and writing some actual rules for, say, when the Viet Cong have suffered enough casualties and break contact (ending the game). Players could continue taking turns until every U.S. soldier has withdrawn from the table, but I found that there comes a point in the game when the outcome is obvious. Either the U.S. is going to be able to withdraw with no problem, or the V.C. are reduced to so few figures left that realistically they would break off contact and not continue the fight.

    I had two full tables of players over the weekend -- here is the Saturday group moving troops

The mission for these two games was my version of a "Market Day" scenario my U.K. play testers, Bob F and Pete S,  ran a few weeks ago. My game -- "Stone Buddha Market" -- would have the U.S. enter from one of the short edges of a 3'x4' board. They would move to the center of the table where a small village was hosting a weekly market in its center, alongside the river (one of the long edges) and where a wooden bridge crosses the water. The four U.S. squads (Fire Teams, actually, in size) had to search two designated larger hooches, the market itself, and both sampans tied up beneath the bridge. Once they had done that, the whole platoon could exit on their choice of three board edges. 

    Sgt. Rogers motions the platoon forward as the Big Red One soldiers arrive on the table edge

My games feature a pre-battle portion of the game called "Countdown to Contact." During this phase, players do not roll for activations. Each soldier receives one and they move onto the table and can make progress towards their objectives before the V.C. launch their ambush. At the end of each turn, a die is rolled to see if Countdown to Contact ends and the V.C. arrive. At that point, I deploy a number of enemy soldiers, dictated by the size of the U.S. force for balance purposes. There was a mosquito in the ointment in this game, though. The game begins with 12 Vietnamese civilians scattered across the table, but mostly in the market near the riverside. At the end of each turn, the players roll on a chart to see what each villager does. They could be freeze in fear, move away from the U.S. troops (or V.C., if present), panic and sprint towards a board edge, or are revealed as a V.C. If they are V.C., they immediately move into cover and fire on the U.S. soldiers.

    1st Lt. Xavier 's column heads towards the first hooch in Piit Baub while a farmer is in the rice paddy

Both games saw more villagers than expected turning out to V.C. and opening fire. This automatically brings a halt to the Countdown to Contact type of movement. From this turn forward, players do the normal movement turn sequence -- rolling one or two 20-sided dice to activate each of their men. However, I decided that I would not deploy the ambushing V.C. until the end of the turn when players rolled a single d6 score high (as would normally end Countdown to Contact). That would spring the ambush. On Friday, this happened at the end of the third turn. However, on Saturday, it did not occur until the end of the sixth turn. This gave the U.S. forces time to deal with the locals turned V.C. and any enemy that arrived via the event cards (which are turned over, one-for-one, when players fail their activation rolls). I think this helped the U.S. players survive the initial V.C. attack. In effect, it simulated the V.C. committing themselves piecemeal rather than in one massive hammer blow.

    Two squads of the platoon march along the river, while the rest move in from the jungle fringes

Both games progressed similarly, with the soldiers of the Big Red One (U.S. First Infantry Division) taking surprisingly few casualties. One scary moment occurred in Saturday's morning's game. Just as 1st Lt. Xavier's column of five men took shelter behind a small hut on stilts, someone's failed die roll resulted in the placement of an enemy bunker with a machine gun team inside. Random roll had it show up directly behind Xavier and his men! They were bunched up close enough that all five were pinned by the fire, with Xavier going "Down." My Saturday players got VERY lucky, as the machine gun's fire seemed to have rejuvenated their dice rolling abillty. There were no failures of consequence by players on their activation rolls until after they had managed to take out all three members of the machine gun team. The medic was right there, too, and checked on Xavier. He discovered that the C.O. was only lightly wounded. Apparently, he was also pissed off at the Vietnamese! He and his men sprinted towards the market.

    Bad place for a bunker to show up! As the lieutenant's group passes by, it opens up on the soldiers

Once there, Lt. Xavier managed to get on the radio and call in a series of Fire Missions on the growing number of V.C. all around the board. Squad after squad was decimated by mortar and helicopter gunship fire. From looking very bad, suddenly the board began to open up. The only V.C. remaining were in remote corners of the board where their fire was relatively ineffectual because of long range and cover. The battalion's lieutenant-colonel chimed in on the radio calls and ordered the platoon to abandon the search mission and simply rack up the body count, then exit the battlefield. There is an Event Card in the deck called "Colonel on the Horn" which can cause various things to happen. It is shuffled into the deck on the first reshuffle, and actually came up and both days, helping players each time. Potentially, it can make a mission harder or easier, or simply waste the platoon commander's actions as he gives "sitreps" to the micro-managing senior officer.

    "The L-T is down!" Members of his platoon cluster around to check on their C.O.

Both Friday and Saturday's players ended up having to carry only one comrade off the table -- not counting any Lightly Wounded who could walk off on their own. Sitting back after the game was concluded, we judged both times taht the platoon had completed their mission. One of the players commented that, having read all my previous posts with after-action reports, these two missions at World at War were probably the two most successful, so far. I definitely agree! Even more heartening was the fact that the game flowed very smoothly and did not bog down at all with four players. In the beginning, I admit that I would play "border collie." I would urge the next player in turn order to select his figure to activate and roll immediately after we had resolved any event cards for the previous player (while that player was resolving movement or firing). The players got in the habit of anticipating their turn and being ready to go. With only a three hour time slot for the games, I was happy to see both games easily finished in time.

    Incoming V.C. mortar fire lands amongst members of the platoon as they dash towards the ville

Speaking of happy, all of the players said they had a lot of fun. A number of them are also regular players of a different Vietnam rules set, so I wondered if they might be predisposed to question the rules mechanics when they differed from what they were used to playing. However, they all internalized the rules quickly and figured out tactics to take advantage of the mechanisms. Everyone said they enjoyed themselves. At the end, when I asked for feedback or suggestions for the rules at the end, there were no real rules quibbles. The one or two comments were more cosmetic, like perhaps have linear templates for a gunship's fire mission, or maybe wrapping their heads around the scale of visibility and shooting. They felt that the ranges I was using were a good compromise and "looked right" for 28mm figures shooting.

    Viet Cong guerrillas lurk at the edges of the rice paddy ready to open up on the platoon

The next two play tests are less than a week away. I'll be headed up to the third annual Hold the Line convention in norther Ohio, run by the Firelands Game Group. I'll do the same thing (once each on Friday and Saturday) and same scenario. I'll be curious with a larger sampling pool (four games as opposed to two), will I see worse activations rolls and thus more struggles for the Americans? Or will the scenario play out like the previous games and see the U.S. handle the V.C. at Stone Buddha Market? Stay tuned to see!

    U.S. soldiers begin to enter the market place, ready to begin searching for V.C. & contraband

So, what else am I working on, in the meantime? I probably will continue to create more bamboo stands. I have another 15 bamboo trees finished and ready to glue onto their base. My two larger rice paddies are ready for the edging strips to represent the rice plants. Figure-wise, I also have eight 28mm goblin archers that are in the flocking stage. Just this morning, I pulled out three of the Gripping Beast trolls I bought earlier this year, and epoxied their weapons and shields onto them. They also received their White Gesso primer, and will be started on tomorrow. Oh, and James from Fireland Games was at World at War on Saturday and hand-delivered my copy of Dragon Rampant, 2nd Edition rules. Woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to reading over it this week.

V.C. reinforcements appear near the bridge, ready to ambush the American soldiers

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 258

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

    U.S. troops enter the market place, driving off the V.C. so they can begin to search 

 

    A lightly wounded Lt. Xavier calls in fire missions to clear the way for the platoon to extricate