best - worst Vietnam gaming memories

I will start this off . Circa 1983-86 in Camberley my first ever game . Inspired by one of the small gaming groups vast collection of 1/72 helos I bought a bunch of Platoon 20 figures with my pocket money ( my first ever metal figures ) .

We were using a set of rules sold by p20 at that time ( not recon ) but can't remember which one

I took great pleasure in taking my merry band of figures ( a squad of infantry with some green beret help ) in a wonderfully painted Jolly Green Giant helo.

I made the descision to land the helo in an area of the board I was told to avoid by the umpire , a large clearing with some greenery .

I proceeded to land the helo and lowered the rear ramp : upon which a single figure with an RPG2 appeared , fired , hit , and killed everyone on board and destroyed the helicopter .

Not a great start ..

Oh man, that smarts a little! I've seen helos full of troops get smacked like that, and i feel bad for the players.

Best - Arty WP spotting round was 2 turns late and 18" off target. BUT, it landed right in the middle of 2 squads of NVA running in the open between 2 patches of jungle on their way to overrun a weak US squad on one flank. IIRC only like 2 or 3 NVA came out unscathed.

Worst - TIE!
#1 spent a whole game maneuvering a squad into a brilliant ambush position only the have a random event drawn of "troops attacked by ants". My dudes popped up screaming and were promptly gunned down.

#2 Slicks coming into an LZ. 1st and 2 ship land perfectly and troops bounce. 3rd flubs the landing and pancakes, half troops hurt. 4th ship messes up even worse and crashes into 3rd ship, killing all aboard 4th ship. 1st and 2nd ship take off and 1st ship is shot down, landing on top of a platoon HQ. That was turn 1. It went downhill from there.

Best - My napalm strike was off target and hit no one, but they had to Duck Back. My infantry ran up and grenaded them, getting all of them.

Tom

Best - Rifle team getting attacked by a tiger. Granted I did get some injuries but was fun to put the tiger on the medivac as a trophy.

Worst - Multiple helos being shotdown in a "Search & Destory" mission and having the mission become "Aircraft & Crew Recovery". It turned rough with lots of casualties.

Darby wrote:Oh man, that smarts a little!  I've seen helos full of troops get smacked like that, and i feel bad for the players.


#2  Slicks coming into an LZ.  1st and 2 ship land perfectly and troops bounce.  3rd flubs the landing and pancakes, half troops hurt.  4th ship messes up even worse and crashes into 3rd ship, killing all aboard 4th ship.  1st and 2nd ship take off and 1st ship is shot down, landing on top of a platoon HQ.  That was turn 1.  It went downhill from there.

OMG thats hard to beat for the worst , sounds like operation eagle claw :-(

Best: the recent game when I shot down 5 helicopters.

Worst: the game when my band of VC had the Australians caught in crossfire in paddy fields but got outflanked by a platoon of ARVN Rangers and had to hastily withdraw.

Best? The look on a players face when I told him that a tiger had eaten his platoon commander. Worst? Managing - with consummate skill and judgement - to throw 18 D12s when I needed 4 or better for wounds and got nothing.

worst ; waay back when I started playing Vietnam games ; the chap who would host the games (his figures and minis and space) fell in love with the newly released song 'Centrefold ' by J Geils band . ..played it non-stop , ...non stop ., would rewind the cassette and play it again.

If I were to hear the song nowadays I can almost smell his garage space .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDjMZKf-wg


best ; a sole-surviving US helo pilot bails out and with pistol drawn manages to shoot his way off the table, in the middle of a VC - ARVN battle going on all around him . Noone can hit him as he crosses multiple open spaces and into immediate VC ambushes . He gets shot at 'first' pretty well on every occasion (and missed) and if he is within pistol range he successfully guns downs all of his attackers . then keeps running back toward my table edge .

It's fun when you get "hero" figures emerging in a game.