Vietnam 1965-1975; 6-8, Operation Starlite (5-7)

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More investigation into Operation Starlite, this time with my usual opponent for these sorts of wargames. He hadn't ever played it before. I never take the time to note down game play as we go, so the following three games I'm reconstructing from memory.

Game 1

Al: VC, initial operation, moved both units as a stack. This doesn't necessarily mean a loss for the VC, the US player could bungle it and I almost did.

Me: USMC: since all the VC were stacked together, I managed to eliminate the stack while preserving enough of my forces to get a win. I almost bungled this by declaring all my units for the operation. This could have been really bad if the die rolls went against me. But it went well and I got the win.

Game 2

Me: VC. I made my move the same as the Playbook example to see what would happen.

Al: USMC. I don't recall this game very well, but the USMC got the win here.

Game 3

Al: VC, declared a target hex which was not any of my units, which allowed all of my units to conduct reaction moves, very convenient. He was able to retreat from my first operation into a mountain hex and get favorable DRMs to punish the USMC on the last combat round, taking the win.

Me: USMC, and did a reaction move to occupy one of the VC hexes, which turned out to be the regiment. The regiment declared an incidental attack which went at 2:1 against the USMC, and resulted in a 2/2 loss for both units. The following operation saw the VC retreating into the mountains, and as noted above, proved too hard a target to eliminate.

AAR

The Search & Destroy flowchart is indispensible for managing the game flow. I didn't use it my initial play throughs, which was a mistake, it would have helped me learn everything faster.

For Operation Starlite, it was really good to have an opponent. He made moves I would not have made, which turned out to be pretty interesting. I will be following up with solo games investigating some of these moves in more detail.

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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.