The Battle of Ấp Bắc, 2 January 1963

Doing some basic measurements for the table for the forthcoming battle:



The table with be 2 metres x 3 metres. I needed to make sure I have enough paddy berms (8 metres made in total).

That will be a good sized fight!

Guys who just show up at the host's house and play often have no idea of all of the work involved in setting up a game. That is particularly true of an historical scenario.

Looking forward to the action. 

Tom

Thanks guys - it took a while, but we played the game today...









AAR soon...

You're such a tease.

Here's the AAR:

http://www.venetic.co/VietnamApBac.html

Oof. Maybe not an exact replay of real events, but it sure ended with the same result. Have to admit, not firing on the helos was pretty smart.
How did you work the chain of command? Random rolls?

Crossfire is initiative phase-based, so the rule was that only one ARVN company could move per initiative phase. Combined operations weren't allowed (different chains of command). And you had to throw dice to give units the initiative to move past certain points on the table. If you failed the throw though, then the VC player gained initiative and threw to see if the clock moved forward another 20 minutes closer to VC victory. I wasted 3 hours trying to get that Regional Forces company off its backsides, but they would not move forward. If they had, it might have changed the course of the battle, as the VC were outnumbered over 3 to 1. It gave a historically accurate result though: in the real battle, only one ARVN unit attacked at a time. The US advisors called the ARVN infantry cowards for not advancing across those open paddies, but having watched a whole company of my troops get mown down in 20 minutes, I can't blame them for their prudent conduct.

Ironic too that the only game we have ever played where no US helicopters were shot down is the battle of Ấp Bắc...   It wouldn't have happened on my watch.    Those Flying Bananas had more luck than my two Cobra gunships, which have been shot down in flames in every game we've played.

Oh man... I can imagine the frustration those advisors, and you as a player, must have felt. Not to mention the accuracy of those mortars vs the M113s! In a perfect world those breadboxes would have laid suppressing fire with the .50s, the planes would have obliterated the peninsula and old Marvin would have just walked in...
A real irony there with the helos, and even no m113 TCs getting sniped! (just blown up!)

Yes, the outcome of the game was same-same but different from the historical events.

Just to add insult to injury, the VC only had one mortar, but over the space of several hours it caused a lot of trouble.

The game had a different feeling from later-war games too. Different hardware - laying down fire with BARs, and the Flying Bananas only had one M60 on one side of the helicopter. In retrospect, I should have landed them all facing a different way.

Just one mortar?!?!? Man, despite the length of time they used it their aim was still pretty savage. You'd think getting rained on like that would be a little motivation for the troops to get away from the impact zones... Maybe that needs to be a motivational modifier!

Great AAR, as always. Your response to Darby' question about command control shows a very creative way of handling the situation.

A few details on the table I liked were the crowded hooches, beaucoup flying bananas, and the tailgate on the APCs actually lowering. That isn't possible with my resin models.

Thanks.

Tom

Roco Minitanks M113s

I used to have Roco Minitanks. Should have kept them, But all I had was WWII. Too late now. I have too many resin M-113s painted.

Tom