Courage Under Fire - An Loc 1972

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I'm putting this game out for a couple of reasons. First, I'm sort of avoiding getting sucked into Grunt, which has the map already under plexi, but due to a rules reading last night, turns out to be a bit more involved than what I was expecting. Which isn't really a problem, but I do like to have a mix of games in play, from longer to shorter. Sometimes, it's nice to just finish something. Second, HFD Games publishes a number of small, relatively fast-playing area movement Vietnam games, and this will be the first one I've played. Seems like a perfect interlude between the just finished GBoH Alexander and the upcoming Grunt.

So, the plan is to work through Courage Under Fire, while getting Grunt set up for the next play by sorting OOB and continuing to read the rules.

With that in mind, let's start by describing the turn sequence for Courage Under Fire. The basic mechanic is chit pull, with an ordinary deck of playing cards serving as chits (or a custom small size deck which can be optionally purchased). A red card allows the NVA to activate, a black card the ARVN. This is more of a loop than a strict sequence of play:

  1. Card Draw (CD): Red for NVA initiative, black for ARVN initiative. Joker ends the turn.
  2. Player with initiative may activate 1/2 the number of units given on the drawn card (or same number with custom cards). Activated units may either:
    1. Move 1 area (2 if AFV), or
    2. Fire.
  3. Repeat.

Here's what my first game set up looks like:

Courage Under Fire

The first card is an NVA card. The die indicates the roll for NVA first turn exception, which in this case indicates 2, less than the 3 which the card would have allowed to be activated.

Turn 1

  1. Draw red 3: NVA has initiative, DR exception for first turn roll 2 activations, will move units to combine an attack next initiative if possible.

  2. Draw red 4: NVA moves 4 units into Area 6.

  3. Draw red 4: NVA is getting lucky, all of the NVA in Area 6 are going to fire on 5th ARVN 2/8. Draw card value 4, -3 for ARVN DF, -1 for Area 6, + 11 for Fire Strength of attacking NVA. Since 11 > 3, ARVN 5/8 is reduced.

  4. Draw red 3: NVA keeps on firing, turns out the Sapper unit doesn't need to be activated to be used, so the FS is still 11. Draw 1, figure 1 - 1 - 2 + 11 = 9 > 3, 5/8 is eliminated. Move ARVN resistance level to 8.

  5. Draw black 3: ARVN from Areas 9, 10 & 11 attack armor in Area 6. Draw black 1 doubled to 2 for same side, hence 2 -1 - 2 + 5 = 4 > 2, NVA 1/202 is reduced. ARVN uses an airstrike on the reduced 1/202, roll 8 no effect.

  6. Draw Joker, Game Turn Ends. No surrender roll because not enough ARVN eliminated to trigger it.

Ok, this actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. The system is actually pretty smooth. Far too early to tell whether the game overall works. The game weight feels like it's coming in at one step above 'Nam Diary. So maybe not strictly a "filler" game, but something which could be played when time is too tight for anything heavier.

Turn 2

  • NVA/VC artillery roll 2.
  • ARVN air strike roll 1.

Some pretty lame rolls for both. Will make it easier to play though.

  1. Draw red 3: NVA attacking into Area 6, draw red 3, hence 6 - 1 - 3 + 8 = 10 > 3, ARVN 1/8 reduced.

  2. Draw black 4: attack armor in Area 6, draw black 3 hence 6 - 1 - 1 + 4 (ARVN FS) + 1 (ARVN artillery) = 9 > 1, NVA 1/202 eliminated.

  3. Draw red 3: NVA attack Area 9 from Area 6, draw black 4 - 1 - 2 + 8 = 9 > 2, 1/8 eliminated.

  4. Draw black 4: ARVN airborne dropping in to Areas 10 & 11.

  5. Draw black 3: ARVN airborne from 10 & 11 attacking Sappers in Area 6, draw black 2 for 4 - 1 - 3 + 9 = 9 > 3, sappers reduced.

  6. Draw black 2: air strike on sappers in Area 6 roll 1 < 6, sappers reduced again, hence eliminated.

  7. Draw red 5: NVA moves. Artillery strike on 2/7 in Area 11, roll 4, miss. Blunder NVA artillery all fires at the beginning of the game turn.

  8. Game Turn Ends. ARVN surrender roll passes with 7.

These have been short turns, thankfully. It would be tough to get through if the turn went all the way through the deck each time.

Turn 3

NVA can now start bringing in reinforcements by entering units on the east side of the map during their activation.

  • NVA artillery roll 5, 2 ARVN units reduced.
  • ARVN airstrikes roll 8.

  1. Draw red 1: NVA bring in reinforcement.

  2. Draw black 4: 1 unit moves up, 3 fire on 1/202, trying a legit elimination this time. Draw black 3 for 6 - 1 - 1 = 4 > 1 eliminated.

  3. Draw red 5: move up and bring in 2 reinforcements. Probably should have done some shooting at lower odds, just to see how little strength it takes to reduce an opposing unit.

  4. Draw black 1: ARVN 2/7 fires on Sappers 429, draw black 3 for 6 - 1 - 2 + 2 = 5 > 2, elimated.

  5. Draw red 1: 1/272 leg attacking from Area 7 into Area 11, draw red 1 for 2 - 1 - 3 + 3 is 1 < 3, attack fails.

  6. Draw black 1: move north to reoccupy Area 9. Resistance chart moves up 1 to 8. Airstrike would have been a good thing to do here.

  7. Draw red 3: bring in 3 reinforcements.

  8. Draw red 3: move 3 units forward.

  9. Draw red 3: Two attacks from Area 8 to Area 12: * 2/95 attacking 1/48, draw red 3 for 6 - 1 - 3 + 3 > 3, reduced. * 1/271 attacking 1/52 draw black 4 - 1 -2 + 3 > 2 eliminated.

    That's 4 ARVN out of the game.

  10. Draw red 3: attack with 2/95C draw red 3 for 6 - 1 - 2 + 3 = 6 > 2, eliminated. In the north, 1/95C and 2/275 draw black 4 - 1 - 3 + 6 = 6 > 3, reduced.

  11. Draw black 4: attack 1/174 NVA, draw red 1 - 1 - 4 + 1 (arty) + 7 = 4 no effect. I need to use up a bunch of my airstrikes.

  12. Draw black 2: airstrikes reduced 2 NVA.

  13. Draw red 4: attack draw black 2 - 1 - 3 + 6 = 4 > 3, 5/1 Airborne reduced. Draw red 3 for 6 - 1 - 2 + 6 = 9 > 2, 8/1 Airborne eliminated.

  14. Draw red 5: bring in 2 reinforcements, attack draw black 3 - 1 - 2 + 6 = 6 > 2, eliminated.

  15. Draw black 5: all 5 airstrikesi, affected 3 NVA. Helpful. Blunder only had 4 airstrikes left.

  16. Draw red 2: move 2.

  17. Draw black 5: attack NVA AFV, draw black 3 (Airborne card!) for 6 which will definitely eliminate DF 1 AFV. Attack other AFV in Area 7 from Area 11, draw black 1 for 2 - 1 - 1 + 2.

  18. Draw black 3: attack more armor, draw red 1 - 1 - 2 + 1 (arty) + 3 = 2, failed.

  19. Game turn ends, surrender roll 2, ARVN loses.

Here's what the end of the game looked like:

End of game, ARVN surrender

As can be seen, the ARVN are getting well whittled down.

AAR

Ok, that was interesting, sort of. Overall, the game play is fast and smooth, but I didn't really see any that there was much to do other than stand toe-to-toe and slug it out. Maybe that's what happened in real life, I'm not familiar with the battle so I can't say. It does seem that there should be a bit more the ARVN can do to other than get attritted away.

Not sure I'll play this one again soon. It does give me a baseline on the An Loc battle during the 1972 Easter Offensive, with some notion of the units involved and the timescale over which the battle was fought.

There are seven other games in this series, of which I have What Went Wrong already. I'll probably purchase the remaining over time just because I am that sort of completionist.

Blunders

  • ARVN airborne can come in on the airstrike instead of as a regular reinforcement. I played bringing all 4 in together on a black 4 activation on Turn 2. I backtracked a bit and removed a couple from the map to just continue, and put the NVA 1/202 back in play, reduced, as it was eliminated via airstrike.

  • NVA get all their artillery strikes at the beginning of the turn.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.