CSV try III Ian is NLF larry is Allies csv_lgf_v1.0.sce

[devoncop]

Turn 35 (recap)

I sent my turn in at about 2am my time last night when I woke up in the night so didn't have time to update this AAR but I see Larry has unveiled the happenings in all their gory details [X(]

Just like the bloody failure (militarily at least) of the Tet Offensive in real life where the NLF tried too early to confront the US with weaker forces I have got a "damn good thrashing" as they say in the best public schools of England ! The NVA was neatly enveloped last turn and I voluntarily disbanded some units but the rest I tried to move back towards the DMZ and take out some of the lighter Recon and MAF troops blocking my way. I did manage to succeed in eliminating a couple of weak battalions but now it seems the rest of the retreating NVA may be getting pocketed.

I even tried sending up my MiGs for the first time offensively to try and mitigate the US Combat Support and they did take out about 20 US planes but were wiped out themselves.

The VP's were +14 at the start of the last turn......

They wont be that now !

Great well executed plan by Larry and it is back to the drawing board for the NVA as the whole of Quang Tri has been recaptured...we shall return

[devoncop]

Turn 36

Okay...so VP's predictably collapse from +14 to -1 as US forces sweep back into both Hue and Quang Tri city and three NVA Divisions are decimated in the pincer.
Only the Army HQ and a Divisional HQ escape the carnage and several have to be abandoned to their fate as they are out of supply so cannot be disbanded.

Interestingly however I notice my loss penalty in VP 's is 1 whilst Larry's US/ARVN is 4...a reflection of the lower tolerance for loss of the US.

The VC had a minor but satisfying success this turn as the entire Korean Marine Brigade stationed South of Tuy Hoa was wiped out after several rounds of bombardment by rocket artillery and the only regret is the turn ended before I could remove the rocket batteries from inevitable destruction.

Now I need to rebuild. Units are already arriving from the North towards the DMZ and there is a good the next monsoon season may see e resurgence by the NLF given the reserves being built up.

[devoncop]

Turn 37

VP's now at -4 and EVV at 23 despite a blatant breach of Cambodian sovereignty by US Airmobile Cavalry which lands about 60Km inside Cambodia on the Ho Chi Minh trail West of Bo Doc.
Local NVA units with a VC battalion attempt to tackle in but incur heavy loss as air support is called in by the Americans. About 20% losses to the AirCav but the NVA are badly mauled.
Interdiction remains horrendous.

Just to be annoying a VC unit infiltrates back into vacant Hue and spends the turn assassinating collaborators.

[larryfulkerson]

I Corps Dec. 1967
So I killed a couple of units and Ian disbanded the rest of them in his turn so now the area looks like it got reclaimed recently. I've got a broken bridge that I need to fix to facilitate the flow of supply going north. I need to round up the ARVN 1st Division and put them on the DMZ to babysit the north end of the country. I'll put the 2nd ARVN division near the Kae Sanh area to prevent incursions from the trail. I may need to call in the big arty tubes from the Phillippines, the 10-hex range arty tubes. And more airplanes yet. The ones based in Thailand.

[larryfulkerson]

IV Corps Dec. 1967
Last turn as part of the last things I did, I flew some 1st Cav troops, 36 squads strong with supporting equipment, out to the Ho Chi Minh trail and dropped a bridge. I was hoping I could escape without any drama but there happened to be some enemy units within range and there was a huge firefight with two separate battles and my CS missions saved the day. I'm going to board the helicopters and fly out of there this turn which will expose the bridge to their engineers and I will have spent +1 EEV points for not much in return. I'm getting Ian used to having to defend the spot. I debated landing on the supply point but I thought a broken bridge would be more of a hassle.

[larryfulkerson]

The 3rd Marine HQ group just has the HQ and a tank unit so I thought I'd ship them back home and call in another unit and I decided on the 101st AB Division. Also, quite a few of my Marine planes are shot down so I'm down to my last 8 or so aircraft units so I thought I needed some more airplanes and I called in the 2nd Air and I think that's the F-100's from the states, and I plan to base them in Thailand since it's so close to I Corps. Another reason is the fact that I can't keep rocket attacks from hitting my airfields. I'm thinking that's how I lost the Marine planes that were "shot down" recently. But I don't have enough units to patrol ALL the airfields. I need to face the fact that I'm going to lose aircraft to rocket attacks and get over it I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm pretty sure I lost all these Marine planes due to rocket attacks.

[devoncop]

Turn 39

With the VP's now increasing again to +10 to the US....( Am I too focused on this figure I wonder as this is only 1968 and the game runs until 1975 and by then the US will have had to have pulled out long ago?)....I decide at least a limited VC offensive is worthwhile in the hope some units can survive to gain pacification points...

The NVA continue to lick their sounds and regain strength on the Trail and there is some effective shelling of a regular ARVN regiment in the Delta and active bridge blowing before the turn ends.

A decision to send out the MiGs last turn paid off with several US aircraft downed...

[devoncop]

Turn 40

Well the VC managed to survive pretty well last turn and only a couple got wiped so now the offensive is gathering momentum.Attacks by US aircraft of two NVA Divisional HQ's cost the US multiple aircraft which was encouraging.

Around 20 bridges are dropped countrywide and significant numbers of VC are finally present in several provinces so I need them to succeed with pacification before Larry's Air Cav, Rangers and Marines wipe them out.

To stop him being able to completely focus on the VC the NVA have crossed the DMZ and also across the border from Laos and heavy shelling takes place around Khe Sanh with the concentrated artillery of Marine Amphibious Division and 1st Marine Div HQ taking significant losses.

A mutually destructive bombardment and counter bombardment between Marine Artillery south of Tuy Hoa and VC rocket batteries sees both reduced to about 25% strength.

The bleeding of VP's has been stemmed this month and they only tick up by 1 to +11 but the increase in EVV as Larry calls in 101st US Airmobile Div and 2nd Air Division prompts anti-war protests in Washington.

[larryfulkerson]

The monsoon season starts this turn so Ian has everybody attacking what they can reach. Lots of NVA bombardment last turn has cost me some of my arty tubes. I've got to pull everybody back to more defensible ground. Behind the river a little bit south.

[devoncop]

Turn 41

The VC and NVA offensives continue apace. Five Provinces record VC activity reducing the US VP advantage to +9 and in the north the US 108th Artillery Group holding Khe Sahn is shelled and then assaulted and destroyed with the town back in NVA hands.

At the opposite end of the country in Chuong Thien Province in the Delta MACV Engineers trying to repair yet another blown bridge are subjected to VC rocket fire and suffer 30% casualties.

Aware of the attraction airmobile operations hold for Larry (and their success!) the advance by the NVA into Quang Tri is this time more measured with supply lines hopefully better protected.

[devoncop]

Turn 42

VP's are static at +9 for the US but EVV inches up again to 33 as Larry calls up yet another reinforcement unit arrives to check the VC offensive in the shape of the 199th Lt Brigade.

Whilst it is encouraging to see the US commitment (and EVV) being pushed to increase there are now several provinces, particularly around Saigon and in parts of the Delta where the ARVN and US presence is very heavy so VC action would be suicidal. Those provinces with less obvious US presence still see activity this turn keeping VP's stable but as the monsoon is due to end it is likely that VC activity will need to be wound down again.

This turn Larry bombarded to good effect from the sea in Quang tri so the NVA activity has been focused in the more western areas around Khe Sahn. Artillery duels continue there but when a dug in US recon unit south of Ke Sahn is attacked by 2 NVA infantry regiments the NVA are harshly handled by the M48's and the attack is called off with over 50% casualties.

Appeals go in to Hanoi for some armour.........

[larryfulkerson]

This is what I Corps looks like now. The NVA are standing off with a secure LOC and as soon as the monsoon is over I'm going to do something about it. Which should be soon now.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Delta right now and all the broken bridges testify to the fact that the VC are running rampant and I'm unable to contain it all. I'm going to move the new Division into the Delta to help bring it all under control.

[devoncop]

Turn 43

Current situation.....VP's +8 to US and EVV now 34

At the beginning of the turn the monsoon ended so my initial thought was to husband the VC as I have done previously and disband widely and go to ground until the next push. The immediate resumption of major US air interdiction reinforced this initial plan and an attack on the dug in NVA infantry south of Khe Sahn by the Marine Tank bttn inflicting 50% losses and losing only a handful of tanks did nothing to remove the sense of impending danger to the NVA for the second time in the game.

On reflection however I decided against this. The US will certainly be able to cause great destruction to the weaker NVA in Quang tri Province but it will tie up several good quality US units which would otherwise be available for use against the VC who have been doing well in the south in reclaiming some of the pacified territory, particularly in the Delta and the Provinces to the east of the Cambodian border.
I decide to double down and keep as many VC units as possible in the field as the reinforcement schedule looks promising.

The arrival of two of my all time favourite VC units in the shape of the fearsome rocket batteries in range of the US 52nd Artillery Group garrisoning Hue and the ARVN 40th Regiment in Quang Tin Province encourages this approach.

By end of turn the rocket batteries have wiped out the Hue garrison and all of its 155mm howitzers and the 40th ARVN is down to less than 50% strength.

South of Khe Sanh the NVA artillery concentrates fire of the 1st marine Regiment and its artillery and manage to wipe out the HQ of 1st Regiment and inflict 40% damage on the rest.

What is obvious is the US/ARVN has a large number of helicopter borne assets now in the field...both attack and transport helicopters ...so the VC may yet get wiped out....its a gamble but I can at least hope for a timely failed proficiency test

[larryfulkerson]

I just now happened to notice that the bridge on the HCM trail is STILL broken. Ian has two HQ units on it,

obviously trying to repair it or supplying some ferry engineers for passing units or something. Maybe they are the

garrison units for that hex. I've heard of stranger things. Does the NLF not have any bridging engineers? It's

rail all the way down here from Hanoi and there's still no engineers here to fix the bridge yet? That suggests

that it might be profitable to bust bridges further north. I'll have to look into dropping them from the air.

I may have to call in the B-52's just for the bridge dropping capability they would have.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the mission and condition of the aircraft. I wish there were some indicator that would tell us what the dot setting of the unit is. One-dot, or two-dots, or three-dots. Maybe signify it by the color of the title of the unit for the health and put the dots where the health dot is now. Maybe make the air unit report wider to include the dot settings somewhere else. Maybe the color of the unit title could be red if there's less than 10 aircraft in the unit.

[larryfulkerson]

The EEV is 34 and the net victory points is +9 so I'm doing fairly well. I'm obsessed with dropping

another of his bridges. He's probably got them guarded by now. That's what I would have thought about the bridging

engineers too though. I busted that bridge on the HCM trail about 6 turns ago now and it's STILL busted. I'll

have to file that away for putting on the back burner for an investigation as to why it's still broke.


I've got the 199th Lt Inf Bde in the Delta now, just arrived, and they are going to fan out and see if we can't

put a damper on all this VC activity. I'm thinking of shipping some arty from the smaller airfields, like

Phanh Rang and Tuy Hoa. They aren't doing much for the airfield. I was thinking of putting some arty on

the hexes where the planes are parked just so I could have some counterbattery fire when the aircraft receives a

rocket attack. I've discovered that I lose arty tubes doing that. A lot of them. There's just no good cure for rocket

attacks other than to tile the acreage around the airfields with units so the bad guys can't spawn within range of the

airfields. I'm going to start parking everybody in Thailand.

[larryfulkerson]

I was just now checking out the condition of one of my 1st Cav Bn's and I'm seeing it about half strength now. I'm assuming the rest of them are similar and I looked up the things missing from the unit and I'm seeing that I need an infusion of assault squads again. So I did the TO that gives American replacements again. I used to drop the Bn's right on top of the VC units but I'm thinking I'd better start landing adjacent to them and fight it out from now on. The losses are higher when you land on top of them.

[larryfulkerson]

I have the Battleship Iowa just offshore and I found a target hex that has two NVA HQ units in it and I'm assuming they are supporting the troops so I thought maybe I should bombard them just to see what would happen and I killed a command group. I killed a division commander. Or maybe his secretary. Or maybe one of the runners got confused with the company commander again. Anyway, somebody died.