Battle of South Caobang

Here’s one which has been punched and clipped since some time in 2021. I’ve had it for years, just never got around to playing it, and we have been missing out. It’s a lot better than we expected. In fact it’s really good and we had a lot of fun just playing the very simple first and very easy scenario.

I don’t think we played it correctly in many respects, but I think we got enough of it right to get a good feel for how the game is supposed to play, and we both really liked it.

The situation is that the PLA is tasked with destroying a bridge at Na Luong held by the Vietnamese defenders. They have to traverse the map from the southeast part to the soutwest part, and there is not any straight shot, being a lot of difficult terrain between the starting point and the bridge. It requires road marching, and it eats up the timeline for the PLA.

The game went all the way to the wire, with the defenders eliminated, the PLA badly mauled, but one turn away from a valid bridge roll as we understand the rules. We called it a draw in any case.

Here’s after the PLA makes their first move. That Vietnamese police unit is going to gum up their plans.