Vietnam Solitaire 10 - Easter Offensive

Sep 10 2016

Turn 1

First turn, purchased 4 ARVN and placed them in Saigon. There's not much to do for anyone until NVA kicks off Major Offensive, gains control of all 3 Regions. Bummer.

Turn 2

Regular turn sequence comes into play now.

a. Trail counters: automatic placement in Region 2.

b. Attack trail areas: 1 B52 in Trail 5, roll 1, success.

c. Raise FWA forces: 4 ARVN into Saigon 3-4.

d. FWA combat in Saigon 3-4: NVA deals 2, ARVN deals 1. More unlucky rolls. This could be a harsh game for FWA. Again…ARVN carries it at great cost, losing 3 of 4 units.o

e. Place NVA/VC units: Hue is loaded up!

f. Insurgency combat: none this turn.

g. NVA offensive: minor in region 2, no FWA there so just the pieces shifted around.

h. Air Cav redeployment: none on the map.

i. Victory, scoring and events: nothing to do here for this scenario.

Turn 3

a. Roll for Trail counters: Roll 2, already have 2 Trail counters in that region.

b. Attack Trail: B52 in R2, roll 2, remove 1.

c. Raise FWA forces: 7th Fleet and Air Cav, that's all the points!

d. FWA combat, pass this turn.

e. Place NVA units: Hue is loaded.

f. Insurgency combat: none this turn.

g. NVA offensive: Saigon, bummer, that's where FWA Air Cav is at the moment. Can't use napalm in urban areas. FWA carry it. NVA Relocation puts 8 NVA in Area 1-2 in Saigon region! (This was a mistake, as there are FWA RF/PF units in Area 5, so these units should not have been moved. No big deal.)

h. Air Cav redeployment: 7th Fleet moves to Saigon.

i. No scoring until the end in this game.

Turn 4

a. Trail counter in R2.

b. Attack trail, passing this turn, need to get some units on the map.

c. Raise FWA: 1 ARVN in R1A6, 2 ARVN in R2A6, 5 ARVN in Saigon 3-4.

d. FWA combat: pass this turn.

e. Place NVA.

f. Insurgency in Highlands 6, all units eliminated. Also in Hue 5, ruff puffs against NVA regs, ruff puffs eliminated.

g. NVA offensive: none this turn. No NVA relocation.

h. Air Cav redeployment, none.

i. No scoring until end.

Turn 5

a. Trail counter in 3, already maxed.

b. Attact trail, will pass this turn in favor of getting units on the ground.

c. Raise FWA, 12 points this turn, will definitely need them all. 1 Air Cav and 1 ARVN into Siagon 3-4, 2 ARVN Rangers and 1 ARVN AC into Hue 5, 6 ARVN into Hue 3-4.

d. FWA combat: * Saigon: 9 NVA against 7 ARVN and 2 US AC supported by 7th Fleet. Start the rolls, round 1: NVA get 5 hits (dang) ARVN get 4 hits, US gets 2 hits. Round 2: ARVN 1, US 1, NVA 0 hits; round 3: NVA eliminated. * Highlands: VC and 1 ARVN Ranger elminated. * Hue: NVA gets 4 hits, ARVN gets 5 hits, NVA eliminated from R1A34

e. Place NVA.

f. Insurgency in Hue 3-4, NVA eliminated at cost of 1 ARVN mech.

g. NVA offensive: Highlands, NVA armor lost in the jungle.

h. AC redeploy, move US AC and 7th to Highlands.

i. No scoring until end for this scenario.

Turn 6

a. Place trail, R5, will be putting 2 NVA into Saigon this turn.

b. Attack Trail: B52 in R2, so much jungle there for bad odds with ARVN regulars, roll 4, 1 trail counter removed. Lucky. Will just have to deal with the rest of the NVA as they enter.

c. Raise and move FWA, 10 points remaining. 6 points into Saigon, 4 into Hue.

d. FWA combat, going for broke here as I don't see any way I'm going to get better than a marginal defeat by holding Saigon. * Saigon: NVA eliminated. * Highlands, Round 1, VC eliminated; Round 2: another VC eliminated; Round 3: NVA and 2 ARVN eliminated. * Hue, need to be super lucky here: Control to FWA, we'll see how that changes on NVA entry. Overall, pretty lucky though.

e. Place NVA: All land in occupied areas, game will be decided on Insurgency combat.

f. Insurgency: * Hue 1-2: napalm roll 3, NVA eliminated; Area 6 napalm roll 2, 1 NVA eliminated, roll for result ARVN carries the day. * Highlands 1-2, US AC prevails. * Saigon, will be tricky, but ARVN has the advantage 3:2 in urban areas, and carries the day!

g. NVA offensive: if I'm lucky, I'll roll 2 or 6 for Highlands offensive, and hopefully US AC will take out remaining NVA…roll 1, nope.

h. AC redeploy, no point, last turn.

FWA controls Hue and Saigon, 1 remaining NVA in Highlands for a marginal victory.

AAR

Overall, I think I played this one correctly, outside of missing NVA relocation on Turn 2. I don't think that mattered for this game.

I had a chance for a major victory had I split the US AC in The Highlands. The odds were for it, but much better odds for marginal victory, which I chose.

I did get lucky on the last turn for both NVA Placement and Insurgency. The entering NVA could well have been placed in area which were not subject to Insurgency, nor Offensive.

This is a good scenario, I should play it a few more times.

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.