Assault on Quảng Trị, 11 July 1972

The South counter-attacks! AAR soon...

Looking forward to it OTB. Didn't take long for those new ARVN to take the field.

I'm looking forward to it too. The photos look great. I love the rubble and those sandbags!! Maybe I have seen the sandbags before and forgot them. They look like you  made them from scratch. I say that based primarily on the gap between the bags that are a bit behind the POW.

Beautiful.

Tom

Thanks guys! Yes Tom, I made the bunkers from scratch. I found a couple of plastic bases from broken toys in a charity store and immediately knew what I was going to do with them.

Here's the AAR: it was a long, hard-fought game:

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

I will read the AAR in just a minute, but back to the sandbags.

So you got must the bases in the charity store and made the sandbags from scratch?

How, or what with, did you make them? 

I have always stayed away from making sandbags from scratch as I thought it would take forever.

Tom

Fabulous AAR yet again, OTB. Your AARs are as exciting as watching first class war movie. Your camera angles are great. Maybe you should start writing film scripts and directing movies. 

Actually, you need to find a producer who wants to make a war movie. Then you run a wargame of it. Your AAR becomes the screen play.

Visually, your games are so creative. That Chieu Hoi camp was a great idea and the execution was superb. The city gate was great too. I love your explosions with a bit of black and sometimes red as well.

You're the man!!

Tom

Garryowen wrote:I will read the AAR in just a minute, but back to the sandbags.

So you got must the bases in the charity store and made the sandbags from scratch?

How, or what with, did you make them? 

I have always stayed away from making sandbags from scratch as I thought it would take forever.

Tom

I used modelling clay - one of those little sealed bags you can buy at the craft shop. Roll it out, flatten it, then cut it up using a scalpel. It's quite messy as you need to add water to keep it moist and the gunk gets all over your hands. Gloves are useless too. And yes, it does take forever.

Garryowen wrote:Fabulous AAR yet again, OTB. Your AARs are as exciting as watching first class war movie. Your camera angles are great. Maybe you should start writing film scripts and directing movies. 

Actually, you need to find a producer who wants to make a war movie. Then you run a wargame of it. Your AAR becomes the screen play.

Visually, your games are so creative. That Chieu Hoi camp was a great idea and the execution was superb. The city gate was great too. I love your explosions with a bit of black and sometimes red as well.

You're the man!!

Tom

Thanks Tom! That would be a big-budget film - 180 extras, four tanks, 2 helicopters. And I'm not sure the Vietnamese Government would let us build a Chieu Hoi Camp (unless it was to show the NVA turning up and handing out guns to the prisoners)... let alone have a historical battle outcome. It would probably have to be filmed in Thailand

I harbour dreams of the novel I am doing being filmed. I think it would make a good film.

Thanks for the reply re the sandbags. I don't think I am quite ready to jump in to that. 

Tom

Coincidentally, I am making some gun pits for my 105 mm howitzers for the next scenario, and it's got to that point of me going "No, not more sandbags!" I'm trying to think of a way of doing gun pits without them...

I have seen photos of WWI trenches with a row of sandbags on top that were made from fresh beans. They actually looked pretty good. There are lots of species(?) of beans. Not all beans are created equal when it comes to replicating sandbags. 

I scouted around at a couple of stores and settled on navy beans. They are not a perfect shape and the real problem is that they don't sag or droop. But they did look pretty good in a single row on top of the trenches.

I have not tried them yet myself.

Here is a photo of what I have:




Tom

I would be worried about rodents getting into my wargaming stuff...

If you don't need too many (a crazy thing to say to you),   Grubby Tanks makes a pretty nice one in the old Britannia range. 

https://www.grubbytanks.com/product/britannia-miniatures/20mm-vietnam-conflict/us-fire-support-base/105mm-artillery-position/

That link has no photo. But here is one of mine
The roof comes off. Shipping may be cost prohibitive from the UK.

Tom

They're very nice.