As Tears Go By

Tags

• as-tears-go-by
• operation-starlite

This will be my third High Flying Dice Games treatment of tactical battles in Vietnam. As usual, the game uses a card draw mechanic, which I find inconvenient, and not particularly compelling. However, I'm not sure there are any other games treating Operation Starlite as its own battle, so it's worthwhile for that reason alone.

Setup

VC Artillery strikes: 2.

USMC:

• Artillery: 2 - 2 = 0.
• Air: 4 (roll 6 + 1 day turn)
• Naval: 4 (roll 6 + 1 day turn)

Here's the start of the game:

I'm starting to fade, time to gear down: Who goes first? It's by card draw activation. So let's draw: Black 3, USMC gets 1 activation plus 1 activation for Morale 7, total 2.

Turn 1

1. Draw black 3. J/3/3, I/3/3 to I7.
2. black 4, J/3/3, I/3/3 to J7.
3. black 7, J/3/3, I/3/3 attack VC 3/60 - draw 6 - concealed -1 = 5 - AF +6 = 11 Score: USMC 1, VC 0.
4. red 9, let's do some VC artillery, which is actually 0, modifying the setup. With no artillery this turn, VC are going to pass. Side note, I think I need to read the play throughs for the other two games I've played in this series.
5. red 8, 1/60 moves to Sampan.
6. red 8, move units towards the coast to make sampan escapes.
7. black 3, move.
8. block 5, move 3 of the airborne units to G3.
9. block K, combat in G3, VC 3/40 and 4/40, with attackers E, G, H of 2/4. - draw 6 - concealed: -1 for 5 - AF: 9 for 14 - DF: -8 for 6 - This is a whiff.
10. black 8, I/3/3, J/3/3 move to J8.
11. black Q, I,J/3/3 combat in J8, 3/60 defends. - draw 6 - DF: -6 for 0 - AF: +6 for 6 - VC with 6 DF successfully defend.
12. black Ace, D/1/7 to D2.
13. red Q, 1/60, 3/60 to sampan. I think I played this one wrong, the 1/60 was already on sampan. No big deal. 2/45 to sampan.
14. black Q, L,M/3/3 and A/3 to H5.
15. red 7, 1/45, 3/45 to C6; 4/60 to G6. This is going to subject 4/60 to opportunity fire, which we're going to call in as Naval: - roll 6 - stronghold -1 for 5 - DF: -4 for 1. - Result, movement successful.
16. black K, combat in G3, E,G,H/2/4 against VC 3/40, 4/40: - draw 4 - DF: -8 for -4 - AF: +9 for 5 - Concealed: -1 for 4 - USMC arty: +1 for 5 - Result: miss.

I'm calling the game here as work concerns are making it difficult to pay attention to it. I'm also going to play again with my usual opponent, in the near future. I'll need to get a spare copy of the rules printed up before then.

AAR

As usual for these HFD games, the rules have contrradictions, are not clear, and also contradict the player aid card. There is needless complexity in the combat subsystem, a lot of modifier have to be accounted for, too many to memorize, and the writing is unclear.

I would normally browse forums and ask questions, but I just don't want to get into it. If the designer posted the rules publically, I'd consider investing some effort into cleaning them up.

Tags

• as-tears-go-by
• operation-starlite