Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames
Vietnam
Rumble in the jungle
This all came about through the influence of my regular wargaming opponent, Dougie Trail. He'd read Bernard Fall's Street without Joy and was keen to try his hand at wargaming the French war in Indochina. I rashly read the same book, then others on Dien Bien Phu, and before you know it I was hooked on yet another period. What French Indochina has that Vietnam doesn't is elan - just look at the French units - Foreign Legion, Paratroops, Spahis, Moroccan Ghoums, Tirailleurs .. hell, even foreign Legion Paratroopers! How hard can they be?! Also, unlike the Americans, the French didn't have overwhelming force at its disposal, only a handful of aircraft (including ex-German Junkers transports), precious little armour and even fewer troops on the ground. In other words the engagements were often fairly well matched, or else complete turkey shoots where all the French could do was to hold on as long as possible!
We first tried this in 15mm, then plumped for 20mm figures, which just looked nicer. We tried various rules, but in the end we settled for our standard WW2 set, Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier. Those rules have great reconnaissance and spotting rules, which are vital to any game of this kind, and without any real modifications they worked perfectly. However, my French opponent Dougie Trial abandoned the period, and we both landed up selling our armies.
20mm
Indochina
Then someone had the idea to try it in 28mm. People in the club already gamed it in this larger scale, but what really tipped me over the edge was a present of a Huey gunship - a great little 1/48th scale helicopter model by Corgi. that was soon followed by lead, and before I knew it I had a US Marine platoon at 1:1 scale, circa 1968. Between several members of the Edinburgh club we now have a respectable collection of Vietnam figures and toys, including about a dozen helicopters of various types, a dozen tanks and AFV's, a riverine force and a lot of scenery to fight over.
Most of my Marines came from an outfit called Baker Company, although a few were bought from Assault Group and West Wind. I also picked up a Corgi model of an M-48 Patton tank, a small Ontos, and a CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter to go with my Huey gunship. It now all takes up as much storage space as a large Horse & Musket army, even thought it sees a lot less daylight than a lot of my other periods.
I also recently saw a documentary which featured the battle for Hue (February 1968), and the idea of a Vietnam street fight using 28mm figures has a certain appeal... Now that we've started doing Vietnam as a 28mm skirmish period I can see a slide towards a street fighting game - the idea of somehow recreating the fight for the Citadel in Hue is almost too much of a challenge to resist. However, if I do, I'd have to buy a bigger place to live, or hire a big storage space somewhere!
Rules have presented something of a problem. For our skirmish-level Second World War games we use Disposable Heroes, which works reasonably well. However, for Vietnam we'd need a modern supplement, plus a second supplement to cover Vietnam itself. We'd spend half the evening checking and cross checking between three rules books, which is bound to slow things down somewhat. Our one Disposable Hero game was a small one, and for me it seemed to lack flavour. Possibly I'm just being picky.
There are dozens of rules sets out there, many of which are pretty complicated. the trpuble is, the likliehood is that most of our games will be occasional, big, multi-player affairs, so simplicity is important. We recently tried an on-line set by Andy Watkins - Vietnam Skirmish rules, which ticked some but not all of our boxes. We may well try modifying them a bit, which will invariably make them a little more complex. then again we may settle on another set entirely! Time will tell..
for 20mm French Indochina games, see Journal 2
and for 28mm Vietnam games see Journal 8 , Journal 13 & Journal 23
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Colonial The Great War Second World War Vietnam