The Vietnam War -Time Periods Played

Well I thought I'd kick start our main discussion forum by bringing back a classic. One of the earlier posts by Darby (a SUPER LONG TIME MEMBER) back when the forum first started. He asked....

Darby wrote:Just wondering what your favorite "time period" for your games are.

I like to play in the early 67- late '68 time period. Seems kind of classic to me.

I have a friend that only plays up to the 1965 USMC arrival, because he feels that it has a less "tech inhabited" feel. He has a bunch of oooold H-21s in 15mm scale that he got somewhere way back when.

So anyways, just curious...

Talk amongst yourselves.

-Todd

1966 onward...basically what I remember from  TV news. We lived in Singapore and then Hong Kong, so there was a lot on the news compared to if we had lived in the UK, plus our house was often awash with US navy people.   Vietnam and Confrontation are the wars I grew up with. My wife Pat has just about completed her Confrontation project; my PAVN will have to proxy for Indonesians  for a while.

I'll probably be playing up to say '67. One of the problems playing this period is some of my gamer buds are older and really don't want to do 'Nam (which led to my sell off of 20mm years ago), but I'm determined to get the minis so my imagi-African nation is going to have some terrain that's surprisingly similar to Vietnam. I think if we just don't call it 'Nam we'll be fine. I'd like to get the French range that's out but I'm awash in minis as it is.

1965 to 1975, although I still want to do battles from the early 60s and am eagerly awaiting the new early war ARVN figures by Orion.

OTB wrote:....eagerly awaiting the new early war ARVN figures by Orion

Are those boxed plastics in 20mm?

Yes they are... I will post some pics of the latest Orion stuff in the relevant section.

I find my games generally focus on the 68-69 years, starting with the Tet Offensive and exploring clashes in the years that followed.

As the Australian deployment is what interests me most in the conflict, this period allows me to replay key battles such as Coral-Balmoral, Binh-Ba and Hat-Dich. As well as the historical clashes, this period also allows me to field troops from 1 RAR (based in my hometown) as well as Centurions from 1 Armoured Regiment.

I do the American period from about '65 on. However, I have not too long ago added NVA armor and am looking forward to some 1972 action with U.S. advisors and air support. I already have a good bit of ARVN including lots of figures with LAWs I added.

Tom

1965 to 1970-ish

I prefer the 1967+ period as the ideal 'default" period to game ;

a lot of the FWF iconic modern weapons such as 'Cobras, 'Loaches, PBR's, Monitors and ATCs' are deployed or are about to be, and the VC haven't yet been wiped out in the 1968 Tet offensive, but do have shiny new AK47's .

you can conjure up some pretty interesting special forces missions in any time period