Vietnam War AAR

[Grymme]

Currently the game is at round 28 - in the autumn of 1968. But we are discussing to abandon the game to start a new one with reversed sides. We will se what happens.

The file size of this baby is currently at 65 mb.

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 14

NOTE. Lunaticus. I will post round 14 tonight and if you wish to comment on it i will leave R15 to tomorrow. We are on R30 and i have proposed we continue to R40.

Comments on R14
- I am still having some trouble with the Royal Lao army in the north (AI controlled).
- My destroyers still acting as pirates. Unfortunatly the enemies also. I was loosing huge amounts of supply and powerpoints at this stage of the game.
- In southern Laos/Cambodia i was trying to explore south to my forces in the extreme south. But unfortunatly Cambodian units forced me to abort by threatening to cut supply line.
- Around this time i also got extra industrial strenght by the Chinese who established a second depot outside Hanoi.
- The enemy seems to have launched an operation to relieve Ban Me Thuot.

[Grymme]

North Vietnam

A quick look at the situation in the homeland. In have switched production to build some aircaft and some freight smugglers to replace losses in the south.

[Grymme]

Khe Sanh province & the highlands province

[Grymme]

Ban Me Thuot province - Round 14

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 14

[Grymme]

We decided to play on till round 40 and then reverse sides in another game. There was a lot of interesting details that were not in this game (Monsoon season weather, Pathet Lao, Intelligence operations). And it also neaded some tweaking (a hex error that cost me several thousands of ASW losses during the game, some units being understrenght etc).  

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

To the surprise of the American commander we held on to Ban Me Thuot, although barely. I guess the soldiers got the message of giving 100% and not retreating. The 58th Division is down to 1 US rifle and the 42nd is down to 5 auxiliary Vietnamese infantry. The staff and infrastrucuture of the 2nd CTZ survived nicely, though.
However my relieve force as well as American tactical bombers and artillery will now come into play.
The very strong (well compared to North Vietnamese units) 1st Airborne Cavalry Division will also airlift to Ban Me Thuot to take away any hope of the North Vietnamese of overrunning the defenders.
Picture shows American forces at the beginning of turn next post will show end of American turn:

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

End of 14th US turn. In the East the 7th US fleet is moving into Cam Ranh Bay to resupply.

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 15

At this point i was considering starting a bombing campaign in the major south vietnamese cities. I had plenty of PPs. But decided to hold of. (this might have been a mistake).

At this point in the game my destroyers were costing huge losses to the US supply into Vietnam. I knew that the 7th fleet was looking for me though.

Marked my smuggling route to the south in black.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 15

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Ban Me Thuot & Pleikku provinces - Round 15

In the west an engineering unit can be seen trying to expand the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This work was soon to be interrupted.

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 15

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US turn 15:
The US strategy was to pacify are by area and leave enough troops in each pacified area to be able to defend itself without needing major reinforcements. This strategy seems to be paying of as the pacified region in the delta stops the communist attack mainly by bombing everything from the air that moves (actually I several times tried to bomb some Cambodian units because they look quite similar to the commies):

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

US turn 15: In the center I take the opportunity to follow the retreating North Vietnamese into the jungle. The terrain is really unnice to my units and the commies can move much better around. However I do have the troops to win - using concentrated air power and concentrating ground forces - in one area at the time. The 9th Divison takes the lead North with the 1st Airborne Cavalry and the 3rd Marines securing the flanks.
The defenders of Ban Me Thuot will need several rounds of rebuilding to be useful for anything more than garrision duty.
At this point I drastically reduced shipment of infantry into Saigon but asked LBJ to send over more and more bombers ....

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 16

Forgot to mark the borders on this one.
- In the north the Lao Royal army is pressing against my lines.
- In the Pleikku province the ARVN have crossed the river on the bride recently built by my engineers. Also the Cambodian army is pressing against the Khmer Rouge.
- On the Cambodian border strong US infantry forces strike at my scouting party towards Chau Phu. 1 FNL division and 1 Khmer Rouge division are crushed.

NOTE. Sorry im not giving to much details on production, losses etc. This part of the game was played a couple of weeks ago. Details are starting to fade a little already. Hope the AAR is entertaining anyhow.

[Grymme]

North Vietnam, Laos border - Round 16

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Khe Sanh province - Round 16

- Dont remember what happened my fighters in Tchepone. Either they died by an aerial attack or i moved them south/north.

[Grymme]

Pleikku province & Northern cambodian border

Hmm... i mistakenly recorded changes as from 16b to 16a. So this means, more or less, that all arrows should be reversed. The 42 unit in the nortwest retreated to the tunnel system. The Pink units in the south moved against the enemy etc.

[Grymme]

Southern Cambodian border - Round 16