FIRE IN THE GROGS -- game complete

Started by JasonPratt, December 29, 2016, 07:42:25 PM

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BanzaiCat

Quote from: mirth on January 18, 2017, 10:46:08 AM
Pffft...you would know a real life situation if it bit you in the ass.

I guess you would know better than me, Sir Bitten-In-The-Ass-A-Lot.

Besides, DC > Marvel all day long, son.

PanzersEast

Sorry I never got back with Jason because of some projects.... my miss.  Congrats on the play! 

Maybe Falling Sky or Liberty or Death I can jump in on....


PzE

bayonetbrant

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 16, 2017, 06:07:14 PM
Note: I feel like an ad/mod should move our thread now to the Digital (or perhaps to the Tabletop) AAR section.  8)

done
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

JasonPratt

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 18, 2017, 10:38:28 AM
You're being way too DC in your view of the universe, mirth.

Says the guy who put Booster Freaking Gold on the Marvel lineup...  : ::)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#94
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 18, 2017, 10:26:49 AM
No, he definitely WOULD have. Remember, Mandarin is Chinese. They've wanted to occupy Vietnam for years. He would have just waited and then swept in.

If he wasn't already secretly in charge of the NVA! -- the North Vietnam leaders regarded themselves as Mandarins. (Ditto the South Nam leaders to some lesser extent.)

Considering Fu Manchu had the Chinese under his thumb (the Chinese rank the Mandarin as a serious threat, and he hates and opposes the government there), the Mandarin might have been rather well advised to get control of a neighboring nation (or two or three, given Cambodia's and Laos' relation to the problem), as a safer base of operations to work from.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

Sorry, I need to do a better job of reading the rules before I move.  Looking at the map, there is not really any place that I have COIN control where I want to move police yet.  So no police redeployment.

So NVA redeploy

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

JasonPratt

#96
TURN THREE -- FIRST COUP (phase 4 of 6)
----------------------------------------
So, to recap and complete Phase 4

4.1.) All three US Specs across the western border (in Laos and/or Cambodia) go home (back to US Available), for now. This happens automatically, and doesn't affect anyone's score one way or another. (ARVN and US cubes or bases across the border would be also moved to available or, for the US, out of play, but none were there this time.)

4.2.) The ARVN didn't have any cubes (yellow military and orange police divisions) that necessarily had to be redeployed this time, and Aztank elected not to voluntarily redeploy any.

That brings us to...

4.3.) The NVA doesn't necessarily ever have to redeploy any Troops. (Only Troops, red cubes, i.e. military divisions, can be redeployed for the NVA.) But we have the option of shuffling as many red cubes as we want, from anywhere with red cubes, to areas with NVA bases -- even if those areas are COIN controlled. As it happens, thanks to Az's lucky first turn draw, I don't have as many bases on the map as I otherwise would have by now, nor as many divisions.

Consequently, I'm only going to move one division, from "North Vietnam" down to the "Parrot's Beak". This doesn't change anyone's score or otherwise alter map statuses.

At this point, if we were on the final coup, the game would end here with a final check and comparison of victory points! This is worth noting because the game would end before Phase 5, where the US player gets an option to radically affect his score again. ;) But if this was the final scoring, the US would win now as the only faction to have met their victory requirements.

But since this isn't the final coup, we go on to prepare for Phase 5 of the first scoring turn. This is called "Commitment" but it also functions as the US's true deployment phase.


5.1.) All US Bases in the Casualty box would now be removed completely out of play! -- but he doesn't have any. It is generally a good idea, if given a chance by an event, for the US to get any Bases out of the Casualty box before a coup!

5.2.) 1 out of each 3 US Troops in the Casualty box (rounded down) would be removed out of play, and the rest sent back to Available (which would increase his score) along with any US Specs in the Casualty box. But he doesn't have any. (Notice that Specs cannot be destroyed out of play this way.)

Those two parts happen automatically

5.3.) The US can now voluntarily move up to 2 Bases and up to 10 US Troops (the green cubes, the military divisions) between...

(1) the Available box (which will increase or decrease his score if moving them in or out respectively);

(2) any Line of Communication (i.e. roads or the Mekong river branches) without restriction (except that Bases cannot be put on LoCs);

(3) Saigon;

(4) any COIN controlled space.

In other words he can shuffle those bases and troops around the map as noted, or from those map areas to Available, or from Available to those map areas. He doesn't have to choose one or the other; it's a strategic redeployment. This is the main way for the US to put Bases and Troops on or off the map! -- but Az has a tough balancing choice (like most choices in this game ;) ), because putting more of the most capable forces on the map will reduce his score. And increasing his score by taking them off the map (where possible) will proportionately reduce his ability to affect the map.

This is a little less of a dilemma when we're playing as two teams: if someone had decided to play ARVN, Az's choice would be much harsher because only one faction can win and Az could be messing up his score while improving ARVNs. Or vice versa!  >:D



Anyway, here is the currently updated map, Az -- including the one Redeployment move either of us made (my NVA division down to the Parrot's Beak.)

 


 


Also, here's the upcoming event next Turn as a reminder, in case that makes any difference:

 

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

I will take from the available box, 1 US base and 2 US troops and put in Ba Xuyuen (COIN controlled).  THe US commitment increases.
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

JasonPratt

Confirmed as a valid move! -- I'll update and finish out the automatic parts of the rest of the Turn this afternoon, and move along to Turn Four. (Which being the VC I am definitely going to take the event on, for reasons I'll explain to readers later.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN THREE -- FIRST COUP (phases 5 and 6 of 6)
----------------------------------------------
So, AzTank increases the US faction's commitment by three pieces, a base and two divisions, put into Ba Xuyen, almost the southernmost province of South Nam, just south of the city of Can Tho. (You can see it on prior snapshots, or on the coming snapshots for Turn Four.)

With that, Phase 5 is done, and we move to Phase 6:

6.0.) (Technically I should have done this first thing before checking victory, but this time it didn't matter. Will remember next time.) Put the new Coup card on the RVN Leader slot. This stops the initial ARVN capability, which was a rather nice one of gaining +5 Aid for every ARVN Training operation. But as things turned out, AzTank never got around to using it.  :'(

Now, with the "Young Turks" wagging the US dog, ARVN will get to add +2 Patronage for free any time ARVN runs the Govern special activity. That's no small bonus either! -- Patronage is one of the ARVN's victory points, and Governing is a major way for them to farm Patronage; but adding Patronage usually involves some kind of tradeoff in Aid (so fewer resources from the US to work with later) or Support (which takes vicpoints back), or something like that -- because Patronage basically means cronyism and nepotism, consolidating power corruptly among friends at the expense of the people. For a while (until the next successful coup), AzTank as the ARVN player can gain some extra Patronage victory points without paying a negative cost for them.

(Note: for some reason the cards aren't large enough to completely cover over the RVN Leader slot, under normal conditions, so I've "scaled" them up a little in Tabletop Simulator.)

6.1.) Normalize the Trail a little. The Trail naturally degrades, and some work on repair is done automatically to keep it minimally open, so if the Trail has gone to 0 it now goes to 1; if it had gone to 4 it would now go to 3. The Trail was already at 1, so nothing happens.

6.2.) Remove all Terror and Sabotage markers. There aren't any to remove.

6.3.) Flip all "specs" (US Irregulars, ARVN Rangers, and Team North Guerillas) to "underground". A few were active, mostly VC, and now they're hidden again.

6.4.) Put any active Momentum cards into the discard pile, but there aren't any yet.

6.5.) Put all factions into the Eligible Box. (I've sorted them according to the order of initiative on the upcoming Event card.)

6.6.) Make the upcoming Event card active and draw the next upcoming Event. I'll talk about that when I start Turn 4, since it happens that my Viet Cong get first initiative and I'm dang well going to take it. ;)

Until then, let me finish Turn Three by recapping the current track positions going into Turn 4:

The US Faction is very solidly in the lead with a combined score of 49, needing only another 2 to trigger a win condition.

The VC holds a solid second place with a combined score of 29, needing another 7 to trigger a win condition. We also have 17 resources.

The NVA is close to last with a combined score of 5, needing another 14 for a win trigger. We have only 9 resources. In a four-player game, the VC player and I could bargain with each other about transferring resources either direction as much as we wanted. In a two-player game, I'm forbidden from transferring resources, so... yeah, I'll talk about this harshness when it's the NVA's turn again.

The ARVN is last, but almost tied with the NVA, with a combined score of 36 (15 of that being Patronage), needing another 15 points (of either Control or Patronage) for a win trigger. ARVN currently has by far the most resources, at 49. Their Aid level from the US stands at 25, and their Economic base currently stands at the maximum possible 15.

Something for both AzTank and I to remember next time a Coup is here: I only need one of my Factions to win for my Team on a normal Victory check, but AzTank needs BOTH his factions to win on a Victory check. However, if we go into the final Victory check, only my lower of the two victory margins counts (even if my higher score is past the victory trigger) vs. the lower of Az's team. This is meant to balance cooperative efficiencies on each Team (since we aren't competing against our teammates for the win), as well as balance for the US/ARVN team having more of an advantage in their cooperation.

I'll also talk a moment about drawing a Coup card this early. I certainly didn't do it on purpose, because this early in the game an early coup gives Team North more disadvantages than Team South. It's true that neither of us may have enough forces on the board to exploit the strategic redeploy options (which the Viet Cong lacks anyway). But Team South will typically be in a position to pick up a more massive resource boost than on later coups (which notice is exactly what happened), whereas I'll have proportionately fewer bases out (which generates my income during Coups, and which is the only sure way the NVA can generate war income at all).

Lastly, since we're moving on from the test phase without problems into the full game, I have randomly drawn out and thrown away 6 cards from the 1964 deck, shuffling in a randomly drawn coup card; and then I've randomly shuffled and drawn out to throw away unseen 24 cards from the 1965 and 1968 decks, cutting those into four stacks of 12 and shuffling a coup card into each of them. Those have now been stacked (in their proper timing order, remaining 1964 cards first, then '65-'67, then '68- ), into the full Event deck for this game. So if the deck seems taller in snapshots from here out, that's why.

On then to Turn Four, very soon!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN FOUR -- VC FIRST INITIATIVE
--------------------------------

As I've been showing for a while, the upcoming card for Turn Four is:




The card shows that the VC gets first initiative, and that's me. This is a fine card, but to weigh whether I want to play it or pass, I'll need to check the upcoming card next turn which turns out to be:




...h'oh crap, it's the Hopocalypse!

:wow: :timeout:

Strictly speaking, this is an event that really ought to predate 1964, but I'm not going to complain. "Uncle Ho" is really an awesome card for Team North, although Team South gets some pretty great options if one of them gets to play it -- so AzTank can expect that I'll probably be passing the NVA initiative if it comes to that on this turn. >:D

Consequently, I feel safe enough playing the Cadres event, and obviously I'm going to take the "shaded" version which will benefit the VC greatly from now until the end of the game, woo! <:-)

"Cadres" is meant to affect the VC, positively or negatively, and historically it represents something the VC accomplished which is why it gives us first initiative. To quote from the game's playbook on the historical context:

QuoteAs famously described in Frances FitzGerald's book, VC tactics emphasized the insertion of politicized cadres into the countryside villages, where they worked to first ingratiate themselves to the local population and later mobilize them for the conflict. The core of the US hearts and minds campaign revolved around neutralizing this potent guerrilla infrastructure.

In game terms this means by taking the Event, I'm going to set up a VC "Capability": that's an ongoing event that (so far as I know) will stay permanently in play for the rest of the game. Notice that had one of my enemies (including, theoretically, an NVA player!!) played the unshaded option of this event, the VC faction would have been hit with a poisoned version of the same effect for the rest of the game!

So what's the effect? Well, remember back during the Coup Turn, there was a phase called "Agitation" where the VC player got to spend resources reducing Support even to Active Opposition? Now, if I do a Rally operation, and one of my target areas has a VC Base, I can do an Agitate there, too. I still have to spend resources, it isn't free; and if there's a Terror marker then I'll have to spend to get rid of that first; but I can take it down two notches if I want (and can pay to do it), and I can do it even if there's COIN Control which normally I can't for Agitation.

This is a nice permanent ability; although the unshaded option would have hurt me more than this helps me, so I'm glad to avoid that, too!

AzTank's ARVN gets the second initiative this Turn, and broadly he has two options:

1.) Pass, and pick up 3 Resources.

2.) Play a full ARVN operation, plus a free special activity if he wants.

Here's a reminder of the ARVN general operation options and special actions.




I've added a little "coup" card to "Govern" to remind you of a bonus you'll get doing that (for now).






If anyone still remembers his deployment move, the two new divisions and base for the US can be seen down in Ba Xuyen now.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

ARVN will take an OP and Special Op

For the OP, they will train. I can't see the number of available troops, but I believe there should be enough.  If not enough troops, then use police.   Place 2 ARVN Rangers in Can Tho, Place 5 ARVN troops and 1 Police in Saigon, Place 5 ARVN troops and 1 police in Ba Xuyen.  All this for 9 resources.  Then spend 3 points to move Ba Xuyen to Active Support.

For the Spec Activity, Transport.  5 of the new ARVN troops from Saigon to Kien Phong

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

JasonPratt

You had 8 Troops Available. Due to difficulty in clearly showing cube availabilities, I'm stacking them in pyramids with a base four across, then three, two, one, for a maximum stack of ten; the photo thus shows the top cube and one of the two-row cubes missing. (I don't know if I had explained that earlier but if so it was muccccch earlier, so it would be very easy to forget.)

Four military and two police divisions in the areas noted, then? You'll still be able to Transport your five Troops (yellow cubes) from Saigon to Kien Phong; you'll just have one less Troop in Saigon afterward than you were expecting. But you can adjust that order, too, if you like.

For upcoming Turns, I'll make a note to report Troop and (for ARVN) Police divisions available. (The specs and bases are obvious enough, I think?)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 21, 2017, 12:44:54 PM
You had 8 Troops Available. Due to difficulty in clearly showing cube availabilities, I'm stacking them in pyramids with a base four across, then three, two, one, for a maximum stack of ten; the photo thus shows the top cube and one of the two-row cubes missing. (I don't know if I had explained that earlier but if so it was muccccch earlier, so it would be very easy to forget.)

Four military and two police divisions in the areas noted, then? You'll still be able to Transport your five Troops (yellow cubes) from Saigon to Kien Phong; you'll just have one less Troop in Saigon afterward than you were expecting. But you can adjust that order, too, if you like.

For upcoming Turns, I'll make a note to report Troop and (for ARVN) Police divisions available. (The specs and bases are obvious enough, I think?)

Hi yes, Specs and bases are easy to figure. 

Yes on the four troop two police in each of the areas.   Will still transport the five troops from Saigon

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

JasonPratt

TURN FOUR -- ARVN INITIATIVE
----------------------------

AzTank as the ARVN elects not to pass, and since I as the VC played an Event he gets to play a full operation plus, at his discretion which he takes, a special activity.

In passing, the ARVN shares the basic suite of faction operations with the US, with some variance in how they work out, but their special activities are different. So the ARVN can do a Training operation rather (but not entirely) like the US; but they can't do an Air Lift special activity -- they can do a more limited-effect Transport instead. I'll zoom in somewhat on his option sheet to show the details (also for Patrolling and Governing as it happens).




Az spends 12 resources on training (bringing ARVN's total resources down to 37 now) with the following effects:

1.) Place two Rangers (specs) in the city of Can Tho, west of Saigon. These are his last two Available specs (for now, the others being out-of-play which in this case means they need to be trained into existence); and as usual they'll deploy concealed.

2.) Four Troops and two Police added to the province of Ba Xuyen, directly south of Can Tho (where Az also recently deployed a US base and two US divisions as part of his escalation).

3.) Four Troops and two Police added to the city of Saigon.

None of these moves changes anything on the track yet.

4.) Az chooses to do a Pacification in one of the areas he Trained, so upticks the province of Ba Xuyen to Active Support. This adds one victory point to the US total, raising it from 49 to 50 (out of 51 needed for a win trigger).

The special activity is always free (though if I recall correctly it can occasionally lead to resource expensing anyway). In this case, for Transport to work, a path must be traced from the starting area (which can be a province) through LoCs and/or Cities to the destination (which can be any area), unhindered by Team North forces (and I don't have any on the LoCs yet anyway) -- otherwise distance is not a factor. In this case LoCs don't matter because he chooses to move 5 ARVN Troops (the yellow military division cubes) from Saigon, west into the directly adjacent Kien Phong.

Since I only have one VC spec there at the moment, this massssively asserts Team South control of Kien Phong, and its 2 population points, so adds 2 Victory Points to ARVNs total, bringing them up to 38 (out of 51 needed).

This brings Turn Four to a close, with "Uncle Ho" now becoming the active card:




The eligible factions this turn are the NVA and the US, in that order of initiative according to the card. The upcoming card for Turn Six will be:




...uh, yeah, I am definitely going to play the Hopocalypse rather than ho'pelessly attempt to get this (for me) rather weak event.

But I'm going to need some time to plot, and it's late here, so I'll save my move for tomorrow.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!