Khe San

 Decision Games have published a number of solo games, and one particular series are the 'Cold War Blitz' games which share a common rules framework but have scenario specific rules and unit ratings bolted on. Tim brought the game covering Khe San along to one of our Zoom sessions to play as a 'collective' solo game.

It is an area movement map, with various types of terrain box - clear, Firebase, mountain, jungle, entrenched and VC staging areas in the DMZ and Laos. The routes linking the boxes represent various trails and roads including Highway 9.

The VC units are all inverted, only being revealed when they are in combat (and then they are inverted again) and the flow of the acton is driven by event cards which are very similar to those found in Quartermaster General, being based in historical events, but thy are used to determine each sides allowable actions and the run the 'AI' for the VC as well.

The player gets VPs for killing VC units and occupying key terrain (firebases, VC entrenchments and hills). An interesting wrinkle is you have no idea how long the game will last, as the 'end game' marker moves back and forth depending on the card draws, although losing Khe San itself is an immediate loss.

The US player starts with six units, one SF unit is placed in the Firebase near Laos, and the rest can deploy pretty well anywhere not occupied by VC, but obviously defending Khe San is important! The initial forces are a bit of a mix, an airfield garrison unit and an ARVN Regiment, niether of which are much good, an SF battalion and Marine Tank Company, and a Marine Regiment. The garrison unit is immobile so we put that on Khe San along with the Marines. The tanks and SF went in the Rock Quarry (another Firebase) and the poor old ARVN went up into the hills near that big stack of VC. The tanks can move 2 areas, everyone else only 1, which makes them a useful reinforcement, but being only a company, they aren't that powerful. 

On our first turn we drew a reinforcement card and opted for an Aircav Regiment, another Marine Regiment and some more transport helicopters (we had one already). We used the choppers to fly the Marines into Khe San, the Aircav onto ARVN Hill, so we could use the ARVN to occupy another hilltop.

We decided to find out what was in the trenches around Khe San with airpower, we had a Wing of B52s, four Wings of Sky Raiders and a Wing of C47 Spooks available. The B52s plastered the trenches next to Khe San and revealed two VC infantry units. While the Skyraiders uncovered VC elite Sappers and 37mm AA! The AA downed some of our planes and although we didn't inflict any losses, at least we knew what was there.

The VC response was fairly passive (I can't recall what cards they drew).

This isn't Dien Bien Phu, the US can't win by hiding in their Firebases, they have to attack to take terrain and destroy VC. The Marines sallied forth to assault the VC trenches next to Khe San, supported by Skyraiders.

We overcame the VC fairly easily, which was a real morale booster. I think some of my colleagues had been a bit nervous about attacking. One Marine unit was forced back but we stormed the trenches and eliminated the VC.

The VC responded with a big attack from Laos. Three units, including sappers, against a lone SF battalion! If the C47s hadn't been used for offensive air, they can be used as defensive support, so we threw them in.

We just managed to throw the VC back thanks to the air support, although the SF lost a step (our units could take 2 hits). The surviving VC were forced to retreat and we bombed them with the B52s.

After the success of our last attack, we took on the VC in the trenches next to the Quarry, throwing in the marine tank company to support the 1st Marine Regt and supported by Skyraiders. If you use B52s on a hex, you can't assault it as well.

That was another successful attack. Ooorah! Clearing out the areas next to our main objectives seemed to be a good idea, and then we could start looking at choke points on the communications network.

The VC had other ideas however, and a great mass of enemy units piled towards our base, making contact in the two hill 'triangles'.

We managed to hang on to one hill, but the ARVN were driven back to the Rock Quarry.

Time to counterattack. We did a mass ground/air cav assault on the captured hill, and bombed the heck out of the VC on the major road junction just north of Khe San (the map is upside down). The ARVN were parked out of harms way.

Our counter attack just kept rolling, and we launched a mass assault on the trenches near the DMZ.

It was all looking pretty peachy by now, piles of dead VC and everything secure.

Well, all peachy apart from this huge stack of VC who rolled down from the DMZ, while our guys were busy running around miles away. The airforce was sent to bomb them while we hastily redeployed our ground troops to meet the threat.

We massed all our Marines and Air Cav to take them on, and succeeded in destroying half of them and driving the rest back into the jungle. The ARVN and REMFs were left holding Khe San.

Which proved to be a mistake as VC units popped up in the trenches again. The ARVN were overrun and once more we had to charge back and try and restore the situation, this time the only units which could reach were the Air Cav in helicopters and the Marine tankers. Combined with air attacks, we managed to restore the situation.

Phew, we got away with it. We needed to avoid overextended ourselves again, so pulled back to a tighter perimeter. VC units started to build up menacingly again around the DMZ.

We had to call it a night at that point, and I've got no idea how close we are to the siege actually ending as the game end track is quite variable, going both up and down with different events. The US score points for areas currently occupied (not last controlled) and the current heap of dead VC units (from which new ones are generated) so both these totals go up and down. The only constant are the deductions for destroyed US units, although some events allow step losses to be restored.

The others played on the follwing evening, and eventually the game ended with a score of 25, a 'tactical victory', which is pretty much a draw. One more (26+) and it would have been an actual victory. Tims previous solo efforts had netted 15 VP, just enough to get in the 'Tactical Victory' band.

I was really impressed, what a clever game system, particularly the amount of fog of war it produced and critical decision making every turn. The ability of the system run VC to generate 'surprise' was very impressive, and it worked well as a team game too. Highly recommended.