NVA crushed

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NVA strategy is to be very cautious in the early game, conserving resources and getting bases into Laos and Cambodia. In this particular game, I got hammered really badly right after the second coup card with Rolling Thunder, setting the trail to 0 despite having AAA capability. Which leads to the following question:

Does Rolling Thunder trump AAA?

Further, does Aces allow air strikes without a US or ARVN piece in the location? I seem to continually get hammered by air strikes on locations (e. g., Cambodia) without any US or ARVN pieces in that location. Also, does Aces trump AAA as well?

Does MACV trump Mandate of Heaven?

Does Mandate of Heaven apply during Coup rounds?

Capabilities seem kind of useless if they're subject to continually being trumped.

Ultimately, I lost this game very badly by being too cautious. I never really got more than a dozen troops on the board at any one time, and missing the momentum event during last round which prevented infiltration sealed my fate.

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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.