Charlie Company After Action Report

So after some months of painting and planning we had our test run of RAFM's Charlie Company rules. We had a good time and I was happy with the rules.

Initially I had liked these rules for a number of reasons. For one, they are designed to take into account the fact that free world forces rarely saw their opponents. Opposition forces in Charlie Company are identified by muzzle flashes and the miniatures may never appear on the table. Further, I like the fact that opposition forces are run by the game master. The Viet Nam conflict is marked by free world forces searching for targets or being attacked in static bases. If a human player is in charge of NVA or VC units there is really no reason for that player to ever end up in a less than ideal encounter.

I did have some concerns with the rule system. They are based on one player running a squad or platoon. There is some question about the depth of decision making a squad leader would be expected to make. A platoon leader might have more autonomy but it seems like the company is a good level to control in this theater. I also wondered how well the rules would portray the war itself- would they just simulate a postwar/modern battle or would they carry period flavour?

For the purposes of the game I ran two historical encounters. The first was from Small Unit Action in Viet Nam: Summer, 1966, the chapter called Mines and Men.  The second scenario was based on Three Companies at Dak To, from Seven Firefights in Vietnam. This is also available online. The former involves three squads and some armor fending off a weak ambush by Viet Cong. I was hoping to use it to teach basic rules and give the players a sense of the game. The Three Companies game involves a platoon stumbling into an aggressive company of NVA regulars. This was designed to illustrate the value of a quick withdrawal followed by lots of air and artillery support.

Preparing for the games was very satisfying. It's very striking that we engaged in a huge undertaking not too long ago, one with a terrible human and financial cost, and one that changed our country dramatically, and that it's largely forgotten today. People remember The Doors, a band with maybe two good albums to their name, but they're forgotten a ten year war that had mammoth ramifications, both on a macro and a micro scale. The emotional impetus to forget the conflict makes sense, but the success in execution is amazing. And the price paid by vets and by future generations who repeat the war's mistakes is far too high. For the Dak To scenario I was able to find military maps of the area and view it on Google Satellite. There are veterans around us today who fought and sacrificed in those forests (veterans of two sides I might add) and I can say "yeah, I know you did that, I know when, and I know where. That experience isn't forgotten. It's not been erased."

Next- the game and after action.

Bang! The Dice Game

I think one of my first posts ever was in regards to the game Bang! It's strange to be writing about an expansion to a post made literally years ago. So much has changed personally and professionally it feels like another life.

However, as this is not Dr. Fischer's Introspection Night, let's talk about Bang! The Dice Game. In this game each player takes a role- sheriff, deputy, outlaw or renegade. Your victory conditions will depend on your role. The outlaws win if the sheriff dies. The sheriff and deputy win if the sheriff lives. The renegade has to be the last player standing. And with the exception of the sheriff, everyone's role is secret.

Two Wounds Healed

The game itself involves rolling five dice and potentially then re-rolling them once or twice. The results may allow you to "shoot" other players, heal yourself, or take damage from dynamite or arrows. The more you re-roll the better you can fine tune your results, but also the risk of arrows and dynamite increases as well. This simple system makes Bang! The Dice Game a "push your luck" game combined with a "hidden victory objective" game. Finally, the whole thing takes about twenty minutes to play.

Those qualities hit all my favorite spots. I like push your luck, I like hidden roles, I like rolling dice and I like a quick game. Bang! is just tactical enough to reward some thought but it's hardly a brain burner. If you win you feel clever but if you lose it's hardly crushing.

Other highlights- it's affordable, it's appropriate for younger players and non-hardcore gamers. There's lots of good natured yelling at the table. It's portable as well. Basically a nice, light family game.

Year in Review

It's embarrassing that it's been so long since I posted. As they say, "It's my fault but I blame others." Christmas, work, painting. Probably the main culprit is the brain numbing cold and darkness that together make me as productive as a groundhog.

Groundhogs hibernate through the winter in tunnel complexes up to thirty feet in length. You learn many interesting things when you have kids and live in the country.

As I gear up and prepare to knock out a few posts it seems appropriate to look back on 2013 and try and come up with some sort of Best Of list. I like reading other people's lists. Let's give it a go.

Best Miniatures Game
X-Wing Miniatures Game. I do dislike the Star Wars merchandise empire and I resisted buying this game until it was deeply on sale. That being said it's fun, simple, and has a lot of tactical depth. We've played it as straight ahead skirmish combat and with scenarios. It works with three ships on a table and I've played in a game that featured literally dozens of ships. In all cases it's fast and engaging. It feels like a Star Wars space battle. The miniatures are decent quality and (relatively) good value for the fun you'll have with them.

I have really enjoyed the Bolt Action rules for the Second World War. I like how they move the emphasis of the game away from masses of armor and towards infantry maneuver and fire. Further, the rules hit many of the buttons that I look for- they include opportunity fire, they don't encourage rules debates, and they demand a fast moving game. The possible downsides are the expense in starting up (rules, army book, and special dice) and of course the need to have many painted miniatures. Unless of course you have spent the last forty years accumulating painted miniatures. Score.

Best Board Game
Phantom Leader. I have played the heck out of this game over the last year. Phantom Leader is a solitaire game in which you manage a squadron of pilots in the Vietnam conflict over a short or long campaign. In the course of the game you pick targets, assign pilots, arm planes, and then try to navigate through defenses to finish your mission. The game has huge replay value and is quite engaging. I want a solitaire game that I can win occasionally- not never (ahem, Dawn of the Zeds) but enough to bring me back for more. Between replay value and elegance of rules Phantom Leader has been an awesome addition to my collection.

Other than Phantom Leader I can't say any board game has seemed particularly noteworthy this year. Seasons remains entertaining. It's colorful, tactically interesting, and certainly lovely. With the right crowd The Game of Thrones Board Game is terrific fun, but "with the right crowd" is a big caveat. You need to invest some time and some attention to make the game work- not for casual players.

Best Children's Game

King of Tokyo, no question. This game is simple, fast moving, and Exactly deep enough to entertain adults while giving younger players something to think about. It's inexpensive, durable, and colorful. There is some reading involved but in such small amounts that a younger player can simply remember what the cards say. What else? Good for two players, good for more players, has some expansions... Just get it.

I did pick up Mice and Mystics for Christmas. This looks like a lovely game but we haven't played yet. It could be terrible in execution but my guess is that it will be awesome.

War and Empire- More Kickstarter Fun

Up to now I've only supported one Kickstarter project. In theory Kickstarter seems like a fun idea but in reality do I want to buy a game no one has played yet? Certainly there are many people who Do but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it and I haven't had a whole lot of regrets so far.

This week West Wind Productions started their War and Empire kickstarter. War and Empire is slated to be a rule system for wargaming but this particular project is actually designed to support the miniatures line. This particular line features Romans, Macedonians, and Carthaginians.

Now, if you were to identify the most versatile miniatures in the world to own you might guess the armies of the Macedonians or the Carthaginians. Carthage employed Celts, Spaniards, Numidians, and Libyan spear. With enough Carthaginians you can represent a multitude of peoples over a fair span of time. The Macedonians and Successors include Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and Macedonians. They fight in a variety of settings and against a variety of enemies.

That being the case it would therefore be wasteful Not to invest heavily in these figures given the opportunity. I would hate to be accused of being wasteful and so I jumped at the chance to buy into War and Empire's Macedonians and Carthaginians. Now I am looking forward to telling the wife what a non wasteful husband she has. After that happy encounter I can sit back and wait for some really lovely looking figures to arrive!

Space Cadets Dice Duel, a Party Game I Actually Like

It's the destiny of a picky gamer to struggle to get their friends to play games. I have no idea why people don't jump at the chance to play games with titles like Twilight Imperium or Blood Bowl Team Manager. Chaos in the Old World. Advanced Squad Leader. They all sound irresistible! But mysteriously the majority of the world's population does not agree. Instead, they want to play party games. Cranium, Pictionary, Sequence. The horror, the horror...

Happily there is now a party game that gamers can endorse. Space Cadets: Dice Duel is a terrific party game that can easily support ten players. In Dice Duel you are piloting a spaceship and attempting to shoot down your opponent's ship. This is a bit geeky to be sure but if people can swallow that small pill the rest goes down easily. Each ship has weapons, sensors, an engine, and defensive shields. Each of these is controlled by one of the players. To make a part of the ship work you have to roll special dice until you get a certain combination. As an example, imagine that to make the ship move you need to roll dice until you have a "one," a "two," and a "three" in front of you. You may get a one, two, and four and then keep on rerolling that last die until a three appears. Then you get to move the ship.

Powering the Tractors

Now take that image and multiply it for four or five. Each player is busily rolling their dice trying to get a certain combination and when they finally get it they shout out "ready to fire" or "shields up!" The final component is that one last player is rolling their own dice and they give permission for the others to roll. So until the "engineer" rolls a "four" the person in charge of shields can't roll. When the engineer rolls a five the player in charge of the engines can roll.

The whole process features lots of yelling, dice flying everywhere, shouts of "fire" and "no, no, I need more shields!" and so on. It's loud and fun and about as strategic as Crazy Eights. So no, not a space combat simulator at all. Just an excuse to shout, roll dice, and then shout some more. The rules are really dead simple and the whole game takes maybe thirty minutes. I highly recommend Space Cadets: Dice Duel if you have a lot of people who are up for flying a spaceship and shouting a lot. As an aside, the game does not do well with less than eight players, you really need a crowd.

Another Notable First

Tonight my son played his first hex and chit wargame. I found my copy of Ogre, purchased in 1977, and signed on the back of the map by 12 year old Michael Fischer.

It took a few minutes to explain the game and then we started off. My son ran the Ogre. He saved his missiles for when they were needed, used antipersonnel weapons appropriately, plowed through my defenses and won the game. I'm so proud I can't even say.

Hueys on a Budget

There are plenty of suppliers of 15mm UH-1's but the models are pretty expensive and some battles require quite a few helicopters. In the past I've used Matchbox and Hot Wheels vehicles in 15mm games. In this case I resorted to Corgi.

Corgi manufactures a police UH-1 that is the right scale and (roughly) the right variant. Roughly in this case meaning not the right model at all, but still recognizably a UH-1 at least. I picked up five on eBay for about six dollars a piece. Then I coated them with black gesso and set to work.

At this point I was hugely aided by the Vietnam Hueys page. This site, last updated in 2008, has some beautiful renders of machines that served during the war, in some cases accompanied by historical tidbits. It's a very nice resource.

The Corgis painted up very nicely. I used some colour photographs from Yahoo to pin down the dark green shade they were painted in.  One thing I noticed in the historical photos is how the details seem to submerge in a  mass of shadow. For that reason I tried to keep the drybrushed highlights to a minimum. Finally I applied some individual markings and matte painted the finished vehicles.

I'm happy with the results. They're not completely authentic for the period. On the other hand they were affordable and
as diecast models they are crisp and hefty. Next step are the M113s.