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After a brief update on all the goodies that are going on we returned to the ARVN disaster north of Plei Me to see if we could recover the situation. What a scrap it has turned out to be! A plethora of North Vietnamese regulars ambushing our column. We were broken up into different ambush sites, and the struggle was real indeed. Artillery and airstrikes have helped turn the tide, but it's been a bloody affair so far. The second flights of reinforcement Hogs have appeared on the scene and will hopefully help clear the last ambush to gain some form of victory. But we all know what they say about plans...

https://youtu.be/ZK5vdvBdhmY

We returned to see if we could break through to Plei Me. It was down to the wire, but we managed to get our supply trucks to Plei Me. I don't think that would have been possible had we not had our gunships, that ambush was an amazing affair. The North Vietnamese were relentless and well positioned. After we stuck with the Plei Me theme and played the first scenario in the series called "The Lure". This is an excellent scenario for learning how to defend with less. The North Vietnamese aren't too aggressive, but aggressive enough to keep me on my toes. Positions are falling, but I'm still holding the key defences. It's night and I really need to to be daylight!

https://youtu.be/Eot7ioWIRcE

This turned out to be a really interesting and fun scenario. We were the ARVN doing our best to defend against the North Vietnamese regulars as they probed our camp and slowly started to dismantle the surrounding defences. The scenario is a really good scenario for learning the game with such valuable lessons as; defending and knowing when to counter attack, conducting airstrikes and helicopters operations and their limitations. If you're new to the game, this would be a good one to play after you finish the Bootcamp scenarios, as while it has 30 turns, it is short to play and there is A LOT to learn here.

https://youtu.be/PBxkPoV7ovg

We continued on with the prelude to Ia Drang by playing the Hunt scenario. What a challenge indeed. We lost because we didn't find the caches and lost a lot of helicopters. Lessons learned there, that's for sure. Following that, we started the first of three scenarios that deal with the Ia Drang campaign. We started with the initial landing and are doing well so far. We did lose a couple gunships, and one of our platoons have been butchered. Fortunately, the NVA at this point are just probing and we haven't faced too rough of a counter attack. The highlight was watching napalm and seeing its effect on the poor NVA troops. Tis the season for a barbeque!

https://youtu.be/KuvD5HuwsRw

Our Ia Drang campaign continued with the first landing into LZ X RAY and doing our best to defend it. It was a fun scenario and really got us learning how to transport troops and use gunships for support. Well, the ones that survived. We then started the Broken Arrow scenario, which is the second LZ X RAY related scenario. Things were going very well before I determined there was an error that seemed to have crept in with one of the updates. It's supposed to be a challenging scenario and realized the NVA didn't have their mortar support, which changes the whole dynamic. This will be remedied in the next UPDATE to be released soon!

https://youtu.be/P5JsUtxpBzw

Well we did some revisions to the Broken Arrow scenario. While it is a bit more challenging, it seems to have lost the feel from the original scenario I designed for 1.00. We did manage a major victory, but that was relatively slim and should have been less considering how many losses we took. That being said, I'll do some more revisions and make it even better with the scripting. Regardless, it's still a fun scenario and good for practice. But stay tuned for an update!

https://youtu.be/ER4dmLCROAY

Well that was a session and a half. We played the By the Belt scenario that shows the events that happened at LZ Albany after the LZ X Ray battle and it quickly showed us what kind of disaster that was. We suffered a lot of losses and the Landing Zone was lost shortly after the NVA assault. An impressive attack by the NVA, that's for sure. Then we played the Long Tan scenario, acting as the Australians and did what we could to stem the tide of the numerous assaults into the plantation while we waited for reinforcements. The main element in that scenario that saved our bacon was the artillery. Well, saving our bacon might be considered a stretch...

https://youtu.be/g6zVNpAaNWQ

We had a different mission today, protecting some Engineering assets during a road construction project near War Zone C. The Viet Cong decided to attack our engineering teams during the night, which we did our best to defend. There is an Australian camp nearby that also helped out. With the vast amount of firepower, the end result is expected, although it was a close run thing, as you'll see!

https://youtu.be/ujvSL8xKSYM

We started a new scenario today and tried a combined operation with the South Koreans as the attackers. It's been an interesting experience so far as I learn how to best use the South Koreans. This isn't a particularly hard scenario, but offers some insights in how to use helicopters, a beach landing and humping through the maze of Viet Cong infested villages. I'm also learning that sometimes, I need to consolidate my forces better to attack key positions. And be more cautious as it relates to ambushes. Ugh, I paid the price in an ambush!

https://youtu.be/xKTot38Q488

We continued our operation Dragon Fire today to completion. It is a good scenario, a good introductory scenario for learning how to use the various forces. It is also a nice bonus to use South Korean and learn their strength and weaknesses. One thing I learned was that a single company might not be enough to wear down a heavily defended Viet Cong position and to expect losses. A lot of losses. I'm grateful the gunships came on the map as they gave the illusion of having some success!

https://youtu.be/MOvU69EueXA