Vietnam War AAR

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US turn 18:
During the whole war the US navy has been a great asset to support the bombing campaign, however the Vietnamese navy has inflicted heavy supply losses and has been very elusive.
So frustrated US Admirals are quite astonished to find a freightsmuggler anchored directly next to the cruisers who had been looking for them in vain for several turns. They discuss the threat of a booby-trap but sink the boats nevertheless...

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US turn 18:
In the center offensive the troops continue their march through the jungle towards Pleiku. Although the ground troop strength would not warrant an offensive here our air and artillery power does.
With airstrikes from 12 fighters, 4 helicopters, 24 tactical bombers we soften up the occupiers of Pleiku so that the ground divisions will just need to take over the management of the city soon...

[wmcalpine]

Just caught up on this AAR. Great scenario and a great AAR. I am definately interested in the outcome of this game.

Best Regards

Bill

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 19

- My forces are being harassed by both Lao and Cambodian forces, but are well up to the task. Also the Cambodians seem to be scouting my base area in the south.
- The US seem to have started some sort of offensive in the nortj towards Khe Sanh.
- Lost 2 freight smugglers whom got careless and travelled to close to the coast. A valuable cargo of 2 artillery batteries go to the bottom with the crew.

Thanks Wmcalpine. Some of the mechanics of the scenario are changed since the game. And the event engine is more developed. The airgame is somewhat changed.

[Grymme]

Pleikku province - Round 19

[Grymme]

Pleikku province - Round 19

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 19

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US round 19:
On the Northern Front in Khe Sanh we drop our normal strategic restraint and mount a parallel attack also in the Northern sector to try to retake Khe Sanh. The hope here is, that Charly is weak and occupied on the other fronts. The 11th Mechanized Cavalry charges and takes Khe Sanh in a bid to end the American involvement in this war quickly and to hand the defense of South Vietnam back to Saigon.

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US turn 19:
In the center the focussed US air campaign against Northern units continues to reduce enemy resistance. The 9th Division takes Pleiku with nearly no losses. The supporting 1st Airborne and 3rd Marines throw back some small units which the commies had thrown in the path of the advance. The HQ slowly crawls through the jungle to cheer on the advancing frontline troops. In the East we exchange the badly hit Special Forces with the Philippino auxiliaries which finally seem to have managed to find some maps on how to get to Kontum

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US turn 19:
In the Southern Valley we are badly surprised and ambushed. Our strategy was to be able to hold the area here with limited forces. Now we are disengaging from the enemy and regrouping near Chau Phu. However as a surprise for Charly US Air Force flies in lots of tactical bombers. The nice thing here is that air range of the tactical bombers is a very satisfying 20 hex. If N Vietnames units come close to Chau Phu this will allow our bombers a lot of very nice bombing runs each turn.

[Grymme]

Aaah,, i forget that i actually struck at the US in the south. I was actually playing better than i remember

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 20

- My naval forces are starting to withdraw from the south to load up on supplies.
- My bombing offensive against the major south vietnam cities continue. Through infiltration of saboteurs i keep Hue constantly structurally damaged.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 20

[Grymme]

Pleikku province - round 20

Irregular movement
The FNL can produce guerilla units in the villages of Vietnam. These variants of SMGs, Staff, Mortars and MGs and political officers move at an irregular movement speed. This means that they move in all terrain at 10APs/hex. Using such units the FNL forces can move at a much faster pace than the ARVN/US forces and frequently cut of them from supply. The only US/ARVN forces that can match the guerilla in speed is the special forces and the Montagnard guerilla units that the US can employ to conduct guerilla warfare in North Vietnam.

[Grymme]

Cambodian border & Rash Gia province - Round 20

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US turn 20:
In the North we pay for the blunder of deviating from the planned strategy as the North Vietnamese throw us out of Khe Sanh again with heavy losses. However I think we taught our enemy not to park units on the coast in range of US warships.
US forces move back to defensive positions. These however are still quite secure and supported by air and artillery.
Offensive operations will only resume once all other fronts are secured.

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US turn 20:
In the center we continue to advance. While 9th Division together with the Thais hold Pleiku, we move also against Kontum supported by strong air forces. We will see how long the enemy will occupy the Jungle around the center. We are thinking if there is a way to transform the Jungle into a Plains hex...

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US Turn 20:
In the South US forces need to try to come to terms with the invading Charly. Rash Gia is surrounded and the supply lines are cut, however the GIs there are strong and deeply entrenched. From the North we do the usual: Drop a lot of bombs and advance slowly again. This will become a close race against time...

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 21

During the US/RVN turn the forces outside Khe Sanh retreat, brushing aside the FNL forces blocking them.

At this point the my outlook of the war was pretty bleak. I was however thinking that if i might hold a stronghold or 2 in south vietnam i could wait things out untill the political situation would change. With the policy of Vietnamization coming into place somewhere on round 24-25 US support to south vietnam would drop drasticly (the US depots will be recalled). At the same time i would recieve a third Chinese depot and this support would not dissapear. This would mean 2k*3 for me and -2k*3 for the ARVN. This strategy would however only work if i actually had some fighting forces left in south vietnam.

So if i could just hold out in Khe Sanh and maybe in Kontum then maybe i could make a comeback.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 21

At this time i was producing some tanks and armoured cars since i felt that my forces needed some punch in them.