Long Range Recon Patrol 1

Tags

• long-range-recon-patrol

A second Mile Lambo game on Vietnam, and this one looks considerably more intricate than Ghosts of the Jungle. There is a bit of print and play with respect to getting some counters made, but I got copies and mounted them a couple of weeks ago. Homemade counters always kind of suck, but whatever, they'll do.

In Ghosts, individuals are moved from square to square. This is not terribly realistic, a team of 4 is going to try very hard to stay very close together, almost surely at least within sight of each other.

Here, the team of 6 moves as a single counter on a hex map. This is a bit more plausible. The team stays together and moves as a unit.

I'm going to go through this first play methodically, taking notes as I go. It won't be a full log, but it will be enough to help internalize the system.

Turns occur in order of morning, day, and evening, which then repeat. There is no definite end to the game with respect to the number of turns. The game ends when either 1. the objective is achieve and the team is extracted, or one of the team members dies.

Here's the starting situation:

Turn 1 Morning

Phase 1: LRRP phase.

Roll 1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5. This is pretty good as it allows me 2 Cautious Moves through Jungle hexes which avoids rolling on Jungle event table.

The 4 allows a Recon action, which in this case finds and NVA-6 unit.

The opposition takes different actions depending on its Alert and Pinned status.

The upshot of the enemy activity was getting a wound on Watson.

Having conducted all the opposing actions and resolved the end of turn event, the turn is over and we can advance to the next turn, advancing the Day counter as well.

Turn 2 Day

LRRP rolls 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Interesting. Actions:

1. use the 1 roll to heal Watson.
2. Use the 5 to attack, roll 7 dice and get no 6. Bummer.
3. Use the 4 for Overwatch.
4. Use the 6 for Cover.
5. Uee the 3 to put out a Claymore.

Now for enemy actions, starting with Unpinned Alert.

Upshot: Another NVA-6 unit is revealed as a result of spotting, but its attack fails, as does the Recon Overwatch attach.

Turn 3 Night

Roll 1, 1, 1, 4, 5, 5.

1. Use 1, 1 to move in the 1 direction.
2. Use 5 to get Cover.
3. Use 4 for Overwatch.
4. Use 5 for Attack on the Alert NVA-6, rolling 5 dice, success to Pin them.

Enemy phase, starting with Pinned Alert NVA-6.

Roll 1, 5 which is an Attack and an Unpin, but the Attack comes first. Roll 6 - 1 (range) - 2 (pinned) - 1 (cover) - 1 (jungle) = 1d6 for 6! Dang! They got lucky and Pham gets wounded.

Actually, I think that was wrong because this is a Night turn and they would not have any dice to roll.

Turn 4 Morning

We're back to Morning and have spend a water to prevent -1 Strength due to dehydration.

LRRP roll: 1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 6.

1. Use 6x2 for Airstrike.
2. Use 4 for +1 Water.
3. Reroll 1, 1 for 2, 5. No benefit to doing anything at all right now. I'll get more water maybe, then see what I can do.

Enemy actions, with 2 of them already out.

Roll 1, 4: First one attacks and get a hit, taken on Young. Then unpin.

The other two ? units move aimlessly too far away to spot.

It's good to log this game so I can keep track of where the game is with respect to the day/night cycle.

Turn 5 Day

Roll 1, 1, 1, 4, 6.

• Move 3 hexes to hilltop with roll 1.

• Recon roll fails.

• Unpinned alert: 1, 3, 4, 6.
  • Attack 1: roll 2, 3, 3, 5, 6. 6; injury on Kinsey and Young, and since Kinsey is already injured, that's the game!

Here's the situation at the end of the game:

AAR

I think I like it. It's still a bit abstract and puzzly, but there is little more here than Ghosts in the Jungle. A big factor in losing this game was making a rush for the exit and trying to recon the remaining two unknown counters. It's getting later in the evening for me, and I have my usual opponent coming over for game day tomorrow, so this isn't all that disappointing. Given I've won 3 of 3 in Ghosts, it's sort of nice that this one bit back.

Tags

• long-range-recon-patrol