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Tonight is the reason I play with toy soldiers!

A fast, fun friendly game with club mate and of flames of war Vietnam and I loved it!
There won’t be a huge description of the battle, the reason will become apparent shortly but ill put a few pics up and a bit of a narrative .

First just a quick note about the system, I’ve had a bit of a love / hate relationship with flames of war over the years, when it first came out I played it a lot but as the late war developed every game I played / watched turned into *insert faction* does the battle of Kursk and that’s not fun for me. Now that’s not to say normal flames of war can’t be, I’ve had some amazing villers bocage games against Keith’s British with my panzer lehr (which reminds me need to do that again!) but it doesn’t feel right.

I play historical games for the way they feel, if its not quite right or turns into something the conflict isn’t I don’t want to play it. Sharp practice for my war of the sixth collation (theres one for you history buffs!) for example gets it bang on same with black powder for the same era. This is where at the moment the Vietnam incarnation ticks all the boxes for me it just feels right.

So with out further ado a quick rundown of the game followed by closing thoughts

Col. Moore stepped out the Huey onto the dry dusty LZ the woods of the highlands of Vietnam surrounded the LZ and made observation difficult first platoon fanned out to secure the LZ and await the landing of second platoon. The 1st Cav (air mobile) had been deployed on a search and destroy mission there objective to secure a small village check for insurgents and leave.

As second platoon touched down, Moore ordered first platoon to advance towards the objective cobra gunships hovered over head to provide fire support should Charlie rear his head.

As first platoon moves of to secure the objective disaster strikes at them LZ camouflaged machine gun nests appear and rake the zone with fire second platoon is pinned down. The cobras move over to support fire disrupting the NVA advance but unable to touch the dug in fortifications.

As third platoon begins to land a company of local volunteers rushes the LZ from the opposite side forcing the slicks to take the precious reinforcements away. Cobras rush over to help deal with the latest threat forcing the to pull back as the machine gun nests pour fire into second platoon.

Things looking dicy at the LZ first platoon secures the objective and digs in.

Before the cobras can move to deal with the machine gun nests some AA guns appear out the jungle sending them crashing to the floor, things are looking desperate at the LZ but the Americans are firmly in control of the objective.

As night closes a company of NVA regulars tries to make a last grasp at the village but the Americans hold the day in control of both objectives!

What a cracking game!
Anyone that plays me regularly knows my opinion on luck and let me tell you Andy got screwed in a 6 turn game nothing turning up till turn 4 and then not once in his objective zone made this a non game in reality but the cinematic moments even in one sided games like this are what make toy soldiering for me. And if everything had have happened a turn earlier for Andy I’m fairly sure the NVA would have carried the day!

So get out there and play some Vietnam 🙂