Tag: Vietnam War

10/21/17

The Airborne & Special Operations Museum

Downtown Fayetteville showcases the history of these twin elements of the US Army ~

Mike Orwick, 21 October 2017

click images to enlarge, and read the plaques

Last week I was in Fayetteville, NC.  Fayetteville is the home of Ft Bragg, where the Army’s 82nd Airborne division and the Army’s Special Operations command are home based.  Located in downtown Fayetteville is the Army’s Airborne and Special Operations Museum.  This museum tells the story of the evolution and history of these two arms of the Army.  On the last day there, a co-worker and myself had an opportunity to visit the museum.

Before going to the museum, we walked to the opposite side of the parking lot, and visited the North Carolina Veterans Memorial.  There are pillars there with each of the county names on them, with molds of hands.  The hands represent the raised hand while taking the oath when joining the military.  The two most interesting items at the memorial was a chandelier make of over 33,000 dog tags and a table setup for a member of each branch of the military for those that are POW or MIA.

Continue reading →

06/10/17

Vietnam ‘65 vs Afghanistan ‘11 – Two sides of the same COIN?

How do the two counterinsurgency games stack up? ~

Boggit, 10 June 2017

Developed by Every Single Soldier and published by Matrix/Slitherine

The opening screen summarising the game parameters. A player can tweak these in the options screen.

A couple of years ago I did an article on Every Single Soldier’s debut release – Vietnam ‘65. At the time I thought with a bit of tweaking and updating of the game engine they could make a decent Afghanistan game, which is exactly what they have done. So what is different and how does it play out?

 

Continue reading →

01/1/16

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #84

Give us a break… we’ve been watching football all day ~

 

Forgotten War, The Korean War ASL (MMP)
Preorder price $96

ASL goes to Korea… officially! Seriously, what else do you need to know. OK, how about what’s in the box? 7 countersheets and 4 maps, plus a bunch of rules additions. Now, the caveat – you need the ASL base rules to play, so in addition to your $96 here, you still need a bunch of other stuff to play. But hey, you can finally get off the Eastern front, or the beaches of Normandy, or wherever you’ve been treading water in your ASL games. Storm over to MMP’s site and place your pre-order and re-fight the first conventional battles of the Cold War.

G84-ASL-Korea

Continue reading →

03/4/15

GrogHeads Previews Vietnam ‘65

Boggit, 4 March 2015

Developed by Every Single Soldier and published by Matrix/Slitherine

 

Vietnam ’65 is a single player, tactical-level game, focused on the American involvement in Vietnam in 1965. You play as the commander of the American forces allocated to a province somewhere on the Cambodian border.  Playing as the Viet Cong (VC)/North Vietnamese Army (NVA) is not presently an option, but may be a possibility for a future expansion.

The title screen captures the image of Air Cavalry in Vietnam. I can also hear the sound of helo’s and radio chatter in the background.
The title screen captures the image of Air Cavalry in Vietnam. I can also hear the sound of helo’s and radio chatter in the background.

Setting up a new game is easy. Click on New Game, and a random map of 10 villages is created. The game then plays out in a ‘Skirmish’ mode, as there are no ‘historical’ maps as such, so there is no replication of specific actions like Operation Silver Bayonet (Battles of LZ-Xray and LZ-Albany), or Operation Long Reach. To be fair, that is not really what the game is about as it provides a more general Vietnam ‘search and destroy’ gaming experience, and the randomly created maps ensure variety in the battlefield. Given the way the game is designed it would probably be difficult to properly replicate the historical actions meaningfully, as the games victory conditions are not focused specifically on winning a battle in conventional wargame terms.

Continue reading →

10/25/14

GrogHeads Reviews Fire in the Lake

Michael Eckenfels, 25 October 2014

Michael gives GMT Games’ latest COIN offering a work-thru

 

It’s 2014, and when you take stock of history, it’s almost unbelievable how time has marched on. The strangest thing is that our Vietnam War vets are in their 60s and 70s these days, whereas back in the 80s when I was in high school, this was the age range of our World War II vets. As these soldiers fade into history through inexorable tick-tocking of time, it’s good to know that the subject of the Vietnam War remains in the modern psyche, whether through books or companies like GMT producing games such as this.

Games simulating the Vietnam War (and yes, I’ll call it a war – let’s not get into a debate over ‘war’ or ‘police action’ or ‘conflict’ – unless you want to take it to the GH forums, of course) are fairly rare, though if you enter “Vietnam” in the BGG website you’ll get 45 titles, about 12 of which have been done since 2010. This of course doesn’t include games that have to do with Vietnam, but don’t have ‘Vietnam’ in the title – like this very game.

Several are all about tactical combat, though, and few actually try to detail the entire war including combat, politics, and internal struggles between alliances. When you buy Fire in the Lake, you’re going to get a complete package that includes all of this. If you’re only interested in the military aspects of the Vietnam War, you’re going to miss out on some interesting game play. First, let’s take a look at what comes in the box.

fitl-SPLASH

Continue reading →