Vietnam Battles 2 - Lang Vie (2)

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Another round of Vietnam Battles, playing Operation Pegasus Lang Vei scenario for the second time, this time without stacking the NVA counters.

There are a whole lot of NVA/VC on the map, and not very many US/ARVN. Here's what the set up looked like.

Game 2 set up

A few observations after several rounds of play:

  1. Naively, the game is the NVA's to lose. The way the barrage seems to work, the NVA can engage a single US hex, and barrage the crap out of it turn after turn. This results in incrementally more victory points for the NVA player every turn.

  2. The US player tends to spend all tactical air on defense to prevent outright elimination of units, which reward the NVA more than US eliminating NVA units.

  3. Strategic air isn't powerful enough to do much of anything, unless all (3) SAC points are spent into a single hex, and even then, if it's a jungle hex, rolling a natural 6 is required to get a simple disruption.

This is what the end of the game looked like, after the US conceded:

Game 2 end

AAR

Not much more to say past what's already noted above. I bought the game used, and a previous owner was thoughtful enough to add a copy of a published game review. It would have been helpful to have read the review before playing, there are a couple of good tips in it.

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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.