US Forces in Vietnam - Part 2

In part 2 of our delve into the US forces available for selection the new 'Nam release from Battlefront and Osprey, we'll take a look at the Marines in Vietnam and also Task Force 117.

We'll finish off with taking you through all the support choice you have approved to you via MACV.

Let's crack into it!





The United States Marine Corps

The USMC were some of the first US units to be deployed to Vietnam. They didn't have all the extra bells and whistles that the Army had in terms of air mobile support, so had airbases and firebases set up from which to launch operations, such as that at Khe Sanh.






In 'Nam, you can take a couple of different Marine formations. You have access to either the Marine Rifle Company or an M48 Patton Tank Company.

If you're taking a Marine Rifle Company, your HQ is 2 M16 teams.

You have to take 2 Marine Rifle Platoons with an option for a third if you want it. There are 3 options in terms of size for the Marines, giving you either 10, 7 or 4 M16 teams with integrated LAW. You can also add up to 2 M60 teams, 2 90mm AT teams or 2 LVTP-5 Transports.

Being Marines, you'll note that these guys are a bit tougher than their buddies in the Army, with better Courage, Morale and Rally ratings as a result.

Rounding out your formation choices for your Rifle Company you can choose to take some artillery support as one of either:

- an 81mm Mortar Platoon giving you 3 tubes, or
- an 81mm Mortar Firebase from Tropic Lightning, or
- a 4.2" Mortar Firebase from Tropic Lightning.

In your tank support options, you can choose to take one of either:

- an M48 Zippo Flame-tank Platoon, or
- an M48 Patton Platoon.

These are both Marine options and so benefit from being slightly better.

In your Zippo tank platoon, you can choose to have between 1 and 5 Flame-Tanks.

Your final option here is 2 Ontos Anti-tank Platoons. This was a unique piece of kit for the Corps. Originally built as a tank destroyer, due to the massive power of it's 6 106mm recoiless guns, it also found a place as a bunker buster and infantry support weapon.

You can have between 2 and 5 Ontos in each platoon.

Your other Marine formation option is the M48 Patton Tank Company.

Your HQ will consist of either 1 or 2 tanks.

You have to take at least 2 tank platoons with an option for a third. Each platoon can have between 2 and 5 M48 Patton tanks.

Rounding out your formation choices for the Tank Company, you can choose to take:

- a Marine Rifle Platoon, and
- an Ontos Anti-tank platoon, or
- an M48 Zippo Flame-tank Platoon

River Assault Flotilla One - Task Force 117

 It wasn't just the jungles of Vietnam where battle were fought. In the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, control of the waterways was needed to ensure the ongoing supply of food, mainly rice, to the South Vietnamese people.

In 1966, Task Force 117 was set up as part of the US Navy and Army river operations. This task force became known as the Mobile Riverine Force or MRF.




You only have a single formation choice here in the River Assault Squadron. Your HQ choice is a single Monitor Boat.

From there, your compulsory choices are:

- An Armoured Transport Carrier (ATC) with an attached Rifle Platoon, and
- An Assault Support Boat

Your ATC is just that, its an armoured troop carrier, based on a WWII landing craft. You do have the option of replacing your 20mm gun with a 40mm grenade launcher and you can also add a helipad.

Your Rifle Platoon is the same as we've seen previously in the Tropic Lightning article part, with full and short options.

You can also expand by taking another 2 ATC - Rifle Platoon combinations.

As well as these, you take an Assault Support Patrol BOAT (ASPB) to lead the column.  These "Alpha boats" are there to provide fire support for the troop carriers. As well as your compulsory ASPB, you have the option for 2 additional Alpha Boats.

Fleshing out your formation, your remaining choice in terms of options are:

- an ATC(H) Aid Boat
- an 81mm Mortar Platoon with between 3 and 4 tubes.
- 2 Zippo Monitor Boats
- 2 Monitor Boats
- a Scout Platoon from Tropic Lightning, and
- either an 81mm or 4.2" Mortar Firebase from Tropic Lightning.

Your ATC(H) is essentially a floating hospital which has the Medevac Special Rule, which we'll take a look at at the end of the article.

Monitors are slower than the ASPB but have a huge amount of firepower to support the convoy and were known as 'Mike boat'. There were also four Monitors which were converted into Zippo Monitors by the addition of two M10-8 flame guns.

US Support Units

The sheer volume of equipment sent to Vietnam was immense ranging from air support, artillery support and everything in between. We'll take a quick skim through your options here.

M42 Duster AA Platoon: Even the PAVN have air support now and then. The best defence is a good offence, or something like that....the M42 Duster should be able to sort that side of things out. You can get these in either 2 or 4 tank platoons.

Patrol Boats: Some more support in the water for the BWN. You can buy between 1 and 4 PBR's to offer some support...or maybe go hunting for Colonel Kurtz?

Pink Team: Allowing you some more support in the air, a Pink Team secures you an additional Loach and Cobra Gunship.

Skyraiders and Skyhawks: What? You want MORE air support? Well, fast movers inbound! You can choose from either the A-1 Skyraider or the A-4 Skyhawk. Both come in either pairs or quartets and can be upgraded with either Cluster bombs, Napalm bombs or Twin miniguns.

Special Forces Patrol: Be it the SEAL's, Force Recon or the LRRP's, these Special teams are represented as Special Forces patrols. You have 4 variants to choose from here:

1. Full Patrol with Helos: 6 x M16/LAW teams with 2 Huey's.
2. Full Patrol without Helos: As above without the Huey's.
3. Short Patrol with Helo: 3 x M16/LAW teams with a Huey/
4. Short Patrol without Helo: As above, no chopper.

You also have the option of replacing your M16's with Stoner 63 teams and from there you can also replace 2 M16 or Stoner 63 teams with M60 MG teams.

Artillery: Boom.....! Nothing better than pasting an area with some heavy shells before you go in, right? We have 4 options here, but you'll likely need some eyes in the sky as well, so there is a Huey available as your C&C OP.

1. M101 105mm Firebase which come in 3 or 6 gun batteries
2. M114 155mm Firebase, again in 3 or 6 gun batteries.

You can choose to also arm these with Firecracker ammo for some Salvo fun. As they're Firebases they count as Nests.

Your other options are Tank artillery in the form of either M108 (105mm) and M109 (155mm) SP artillery guns. These are again in either 3 or 6 gun batteries but you don't have the Firecracker option here.

Those are all approved for use...



DUST OFF

"Dust-off" was the callsign for the medevac choppers, able to quickly enter the combat zone and get the wounded out of danger.

Combining either your medevac chopper or hospital boat, you can remove wounded markers from your troops and Medics and get rid of them.

Medevac choppers can hold 6 wounded markers instead of the 3 the Medic team has, while hospital boats have an unlimited wounded marker capacity. The catch is the team transferring the marker cannot be more than 2"/5cm away.

A Medevac chopper also loses all wounded markers when it loiters, which is pretty cool.

That does it for the US Forces in 'Nam. Next up, we'll be looking at the ANZAC forces.

US Forces in Vietnam - Part 1

Today, I'm going to start digging a bit deeper into to force compositions and selections you can make for the forces in 'Nam. 

The US Forces in Vietnam are massive so I'm going to cover them across 2 articles so you don't get too bored in the process. This one will focus on the 1st Cavalry Division, The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 25th Infantry Division.






The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) - 'The First Team'

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) proved that the an airmobile division could actually be an effective means of stunting the guerilla tactics being used in Vietnam.

The 1st Cavalry used their major mobility advantage to locate and engage the Vietnamese B3 front in the Pleiku area of the Western Highlands. This ended with the famous Battle of Ia Drang, depicted on the silver screen in 'We Were Soldiers'.




In 'Nam, you have a couple of options for fielding the 1st Cavalry. You can use them in an Airmobile Rifle Company or an Air Cavalry Troop.

In the Airmobile Rifle Company, you need to select your HQ, as always. This gives you 2 x M16 Rifle Teams.

Your compulsory choices in your Rifle Company are 2 Rifle Platoons and a UH-1 Huey Aviation Platoon. You can choose to add another Rifle Platoon though.

Rifle Platoons come in either full or short options. The full option gets you 7 M16 teams which have integrated M72 LAW's and 2 M60 MG teams (PIG TIME!) while the short version only has 5 M16/M72 teams. You also have the option of adding a 90mm Anti-tank team as well.

To get these guys in, you also need some Slicks! The UH-1 Huey Aviation Platoon allows you to buy either 3 or 4 Hueys. Each Slick can transport 3 teams.

Rounding out the choices for your formation, you can also add a Machine Gun Platoon, an 81mm Mortar Platoon and a Medic Team.

The Machine Gun platoon gives you access to an additional 4 M60 MG teams to provide suppressing fire. 

Buying an 81mm Mortar Platoon gives you either 3 or 4 tubes, depending on which option you take.

We'll have a look at Medic teams at the end of this article.

If you decide to go down the route of the Air Cavalry Troop, you're getting the whole hog here, so to speak. You take an Air Cavalry Troop HQ, which comes as 4 differing options:

1. 9 x M60 MG Teams with integrated M72 LAW and 4 x Huey
2. 7 x M60 MG Teams with LAW and 3 x Huey
3. 5 x M60 MG Teams with LAW and 2 x Huey
4. 3 x M60 MG Teams with LAW and 1 x Huey

As well as this, you need to also take an OH-6 Aeroscout Platoon and a Gunship Aeroweapons Platoon with the option of taking an additional selection of each of them.

In your OH-6 platoon, you can choose between 2 and 4 OH-6 Loach choppers with miniguns to lay-down supporting fire. 

And if you want even more fire support...how about some Cobras?!

You get to take either 2 or 4 Gunships and you can also replace any or all of them with Gatling Gunships.

(Yes, I have noted the typo here and pointed it out to Battlefront, save your flaming)

For me, this is likely where I'll start my 'Nam force, as I already have all the fixin's needed! Easy right?!


The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment - 'Blackhorse'

As the US involvement in Vietnam increased, there was a need for extra combat formations and in March 1966, the Blackhorse was on it's way.

They changed the way they were outfitted, exchanging their Jeeps and M114 recon carriers for the better armoured and bigger M113 APC. With a few modifications, the M113 became the ACAV - Armoured Cavalry Assault Vehicle.




In 'Nam, you have 2 options for the Blackhorse. You can either take an M113 Armored Cavalry Troop or you can field a Tank Company equipped with the M48 Patton.


The Armored Cavalry Troop, depending on your points levels, can be MASSIVE!

You need to start with your HQ which is made up of either 1 or 2 M113 ACAV.

From there, you must have an M113 ACAV Section and can then choose either another M113 section or a Sheridan Cavalry Tank Section.

The M113 ACAV Cavalry Section is easy. 2 M113's. Done. You do get the option of replacing  one of your .50 cals with a 40mm grenade launcher though.

In your Sheridan Section, you can choose either 2 or 3 M551 tanks and can also choose to equip each tank with the Shillelagh AT guided missile. Guided AT22 please!

Now, once you've made your choices here, you can expand your Cavalry Troop. You also have access, as core force selections, to:

2 additional ACAV/Sheridan selections (choose one as a slot)
5 additional ACAV sections
3 M125 Cavalry Support sections
1 M48 Patton Platoon
1 Zippo Flame-thrower Platoon
1 M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon, and
1 M109 Artillery Battery

So, in all, if you fielded every choice, you could conceivably have 17 platoons including HQ....or in less delicate terms, a fuck-load of kit!

The M125 Cavalry Support Section has 2 options:

1. 2 x M113 ACAV and an M125 81mm mortar track
2. One of each.

This offers you some initial artillery support for your advance to try and dig infantry out of their foxholes.

If you want to get a bit bigger on your artillery support, then the M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon has you covered. You can choose either 2 or 4 4.2" Mortar tracks.

And then heavier still...the 155mm M109 SP gun. You can select either 3 or 6 of these monsters.

And finally, the M132 'Zippo' Flame-thrower track option allows you to get between 2 and 4 fire-dealing carriers.

If you want to have less hulls on the ground, you can take the M48 Patton Tank Company.

You'll need to take an HQ of 1 or 2 Patton's initially. From there, your compulsory options are 2 M48 Patton platoons. These can range in size from 1 to 5 tanks. Once you've completed your compulsory selection, you also have the option of taking another platoon.

To finish your Tank Company, you can also add to your core an M113 ACAV Section, a Zippo Platoon and either an M106 Platoon or an M109 Battery.

The 25th Infantry Division - 'Tropic Lightning'

Tropic Lightning was one of two mech divisions that were sent into Vietnam and served there from the beginning of the war right until it's end.

As a mechanised force, each brigade in the 25th operated with a mech infantry battalion and two foot battalions while the third brigade also had Patton tanks.






If you're wanting to field a formation from the 'Electric Strawberry', you have four options to choose from. A standard Rifle Company, a Mechanised Rifle Company, an M113 Armored Cavalry Troop and a Tank Company.

Your Rifle Company is pretty much as it sounds. Grunts on the ground. You choose your Company HQ which gives you 2 M16 teams.

From there, compulsory choices are a minimum of 2 Rifle Platoons with an option for a third. There are two sizes here with the full option containing 7 M16 teams with integrated LAW and 2 M60 Pig teams. The short option scales you back to 5 M16/LAW teams.

Additionally though, you can add both a 90mm AT team and a single M48 Patton to the platoon, which I think is a great option to add some massive weight of fire to the platoon and some screening cover as well.

From there, your other optional selections include:

- A Scout Platoon
- An 81mm Mortar Section
- A Medic Team, and
- Either an 81mm or 4.2" Mortar Firebase

The Scout Platoon is exactly the same make-up as your Rifle Platoon, with both long ans short options, but these also add the Scout and Spearhead special rules to your formation. If they're not needed, then effectively you have an additional Rifle Platoon.

You have some artillery support in the 81mm Mortar section. This gives you 2 tubes.

If you want more firepower though, you can choose either the 81mm or 4.2" Mortar firebase. This gives you access to either 2 or 4 tubes, depending on your points spend.

Should you decide to head down the Mech Infantry path, you have a slightly different formation make-up.

Again, you need an HQ which comes in the form of 2 M16 teams and 2 M113 ACAV.

You need to take 2 Rifle Platoon (Mech) with the option for a third. Here, much like the Rifle Platoon, you have long and short options with the same structure as above with respect to team numbers. The long version also adds 4 x M113 while the short option only has 3.

Once again, you can add a 90mm AT team but you can also replace an MG on one of your M113's with a 106mm Recoiless Rifle or an M134 minigun.

Your other core selections can now be taken from:

Up to 2 M113 ACAV Scout Patrols
An M125 Mortar Platoon
An M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon
An M48 Patton Tank Platoon, and
A Zippo Platoon.

These are all the same as we've seen previously in the article, so I wont go over them again.

The exception here is the M113 ACAV Scout Patrol. This is made up of either 2 or 4 M113 ACAV which have the Spearhead special rule. You can also replace one of your .50 cals with a 40mm grenade launcher.

The M113 Armored Cavalry Troop for the 25th is similar to that of Blackhorse, but there are a couple if differences worth noting.

You must select your M113 Troop HQ of 1 or 2 ACAV. Easy, simple.

You must have 2 M113 ACAV Cavalry Sections with the option for 4 more for a maximum possible 6 sections.

The differences come in the optional selections. Here, you have the choice of:

- Up to 3 M125 Cavalry Support Sections (the same as we saw with Blackhorse) 
- An M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon
- A Zippo Flame-thrower Platoon, and
- 3 Tank Platoons of either Sheridan's or Patton's.


And finally for the 25th, you have your Tank Company. 

Patton's are the tank of choice here and you Company HQ has either 1 or 2 of them.

You must have 2 Platoons with an option for a third. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

To round out the formation, you can also take:

- An M113 ACAV Scout Patrol
- A Mech Rifle Platoon, and
- An M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff!

In the next part of looking at the US Forces in Nam, we'll take a look at the USMC and their options, including the weird M50 ONTOS, as well as the men of the Brown Water Navy, Task Force 117.

We'll also look at all the support options available to the US forces in 'Nam.


One final thing, as promised, is the Medic Team.

The Medic Team operates as an Independent Infantry Unit and it also has the 'Triage' Special Rule. This works along with any Missions that have the Triage and Medevac special rules.

In Missions that have these rules, if a Free World player has an Infantry or Gun team destroyed through shooting, the Shooting player rolls a die. On a 5+ the team is Destroyed as normal, otherwise they receive a Wounded marker.

A Team cannot have more than one Wounded marker and those that have them are reduced in their effectiveness to fight.

At the start of the Movement step, however, a Wounded team may transfer their marker to another unwounded team with in 2"/5cm.

This is where the Medic Team comes into play as this Team may have up to three Wounded Markers instead of one, meaning they can take more hits off your teams. 

I think its a great addition to the rules and if you couple this with a Medevac chopper (which we'll look at in the next article) then you can really start making a difference with these units.


Until next time, make sure and keep your socks changed.

Another Tour of Duty - 'Nam Review

In the first of Battlefront's periods to get the V4/TY re-visit, 'Nam will take us back to the jungles of Vietnam. This is most definitely a volume I've been waiting for for some time. I've had a US force for Vietnam for some time, so I'm excited to get them on the table in with a new ruleset.

Published in conjunction with Osprey and written by Behind Enemy Lines OG, Mike Haught, 'Nam comes in at a whopping 230 pages! The book is different in size from other Battlefront volumes and is the same dimensions as the current Bolt Action rulebook. Don't let the size daunt you though as the majority of the pages are taken up by Formation lists for the US, ANZAC, PAVN and ARVN.

The start of the book provides a very good run-down of the history of the Vietnam War and also explains that, while the popular depiction of the war was of jungle fighting by small platoons of troops, there were also large scale battles that were fought during 'Nam, which is what you're able to recreate here.

Players familiar with V4 Midwar Flames of War and also Team Yankee will have an advantage over newer players here, with the rules themselves being drawn from these games.

Now, let's take a look at the formations you can field. I'm not going to go into extreme detail on each, there's just too many of them, and we'll cover them in separate articles over the coming weeks.

'Nam will let you build your US forces from either:

- 1st Cavalry Division - 'First Team'
- 11th Armoured Cavalry Regiment - 'Blackhorse Cavalry'
- 25th Infantry Division - 'Tropic Lightning'
- USMC, or
- Task Force 117

You'll also have access to MACV approved support choices.

Fielding a Formation from the 1st Cavalry Division gives you 2 choices. You can field them as a Rifle Company, buying your Huey Slick transports seperately with no fire support choppers, or you can go all out and get your formation as an Air Cavalry Troop. This gives you access to both an OH-6 Loach Aeroscout platoon and a Gunship Aeroweapons platoon with the mighty AH-1 Cobra.

If you decide to choose the Blackhorse Cavalry, you have the option of running an M113 Armoured Cavalry troop, which has a HEAP of kit to choose from including Sheridan Tank Sections, M113 ACAV Sections, M48 Tank Sections, Zippo Platoons and artillery options. You also have the option here of simply taking an M48 Tank Company as well. Love me some Pattons....

If you don't want your FNG's ferried in by Huey, then choosing a Rifle Company from 'Tropic Lightning' is the way to go here. You've got access to your Rifle platoons and Scout platoons as well as Mortar firebases for some heavy support. An interesting note here, you are also able to purchase a single M48 Patton as an addition to you Rifle platoon, very cool! You can also run an M113 Troop here as well, much the same as the Blackhorse.

The USMC options here are your Marine Rifle Company or a Marine M48 Patton Company. Being Marines, these guys are just that little bit better in terms of Motivation than their Army compatriots. A cool addition here is the option to take the ONTOS Anti-tank platoon! 

And we can't forget the Brown Water Navy, now can we?! You have your River Assault Squad here, giving you access to Rifle platoons in ATC's, ASPB's, Monitors and Zippo Monitors.

In terms of support options, there is quite a lot to choose from here:

Medevac Choppers and Medics. This retains the Wounded rules from the previous Tour of Duty rules, which I think is a good addition into the new rules.

M42 Dusters for AA support.
PBR's get you some more fire support for the BWN.
A Pink Team consisting of a Loach and a Cobra.
Skyraiders and Skyhawks in Air Support.
Special Force Patrol - LRRPS time!
M101's, M114's, M108's M109's and OP Choppers giving you your heavy artillery.

The ARVN forces are very similar in organisation to the US forces. You have the option of choosing your formation from either:

- 1st Infantry Division
- Airborne Division
- 1st Cavalry Brigade, and 
- Marine Division

There is also the 20th Tank Regiment.

Infantry platoons are the name of the game here, but you also have access to Infantry Anti-tank platoons with 57mm recoilless guns. Similar to Tropic Lightning, you can also add an M48 to your infantry platoons. There is also an 81mm Mortar firebase.

Much the same as your infantry platoons, but with better motivation, the Airborne division are the elite ARVN choice. You also have an Airborne AT platoon and Mortars here as well. No option for the M48 though...

As with the Airborne, the 1st Cavalry Brigade is very similar to the Blackhorse. You have your M113 ACAV platoons, M125 and M106 Mortars and Zippos. You can also take a Walker Bulldog platoon in support.

As well, the 20th Tank Regiment allows you access to either a Walker Bulldog Tank Squadron or an M48 Tank Squadron.

 The River Tanks Force is much the same as the BWN here. ATC's with Marine Infantry Platoons to ferry them, ASPB's and Monitors are the choices for you.


ARVN support is, again, very much the same as the US support, although with less limited options. You only have Skyraiders, for example, instead of both Skyraiders and Skyhawks.

"I left my heart to the sappers 'round Khe Sanh." - Cold Chisel

Adding the Australian and New Zealand forces to the new 'Nam would have been an easy choice and can you imagine the uproar if they had have been left out!

If you're wanting to select an ANZAC force, your formation options are going to be:

- The Royal Australian Regiment
- The Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment
- The 1st Armoured Regiment, and 
- The 3rd Cavalry Regiment

You're taking an Australian Rifle company here and like their US counterparts, you get the option of taking a tank as an extra to the platoon. Rather than the M48 though, you get the mighty Centurion! You also have options to take Pioneer platoons.

There are a couple of subtle differences between the Aussies and the Kiwis in that the Kiwi Rifle platoons are better in Counterattacks (2+ instead of 3+) but they don't have the addition of a tank available to them.

The 1st Armoured Regiment is made up of Centurion Tank troops. These are monsters and have some pretty extreme firepower at their disposal. They also have an integral M113 patrol for anti-infantry support.

The 3rd Cavalry is your ACAV set-up for the ANZAC forces. M113 Cavalry troops as well as the option for M125 Mortar track and the M113 FSV platoon as well.

Support options for ANZAC forces will allow you to get a hold of both ANZAC and US support choices. 

MEDEVAC and Medics are here for you to add. You have 81mm Mortar and M101 firebases for artillery support. In the air, you get access to an OH-6 to act as OP for you.

The force selections you have for the PAVN forces are relatively straight forward. For your formations, you can choose:

- An Infantry regiment
- A Special Tasks Battalion
- Local Forces or
- An Armoured Regiment

In your Infantry regiment, you choose your infantry companies. You also have an MG platoon which you can opt to take as MG Bunkers! There are also options for 82mm Mortars, 75mm Recoilless Guns, 12.7mm AA platoons and Special Tasks.

Your Special Tasks Battalion will consist of Special Tasks companies and you can choose to add one of an MG platoon, 82mm Mortar platoon or 12.7mm AA platoon. You also get to add an infantry company and 82mm Recoilless gun.

Local Forces consists of Infantry companies and MG platoons, which you can swap out for bunkers. Your additional choices are Mortars, Recoilless Guns, AA or Special Tasks Companies.

To represent the Third Phase, you have access to three different types of Ironclad Regiments:

K-1 Ironclad Battalion consisting of K-1 Ironclad Companies. These are the Soviet T-34/85 tank of WWII. As part of the Battalion, you can also choose one of a K-2 or K-3 Ironclad company or a Mechanised Infantry Company. You also have an option for a ZSU-57-2 AA Company.

K-2 Ironclad Battalion has the same selections, swapping the selection of the K-2 option for a K-1 option. The K-2 is the Soviet T-54 tank (or it's Chinese copy, the T-59).

The K-3 Ironclad Battalion is again the same in structure. The K-3 is the Soviet PT-76 amphibious tank.

Mechanised infantry companies come equipped with the Soviet BTR-50PK APC.

PAVN support options are also pretty varied. You can choose:

- A Front Artillery Company with 130mm guns.
- A Front Jet-Artillery Company with 122mm rockets.
- An 82mm Recoilless Gun Company
- A 120mm Mortar Company
- A 14.5mm AA Company
- A 37mm AA Company, or
- Local Resistance teams.


Looking at the Missions, there are some differences to what you're used to seeing in FoW or TY. While taking and holding objectives still have their place in determining the winner of a mission, it doesn't actually hold that much value. Think about an LZ; once it's no longer useful, it's abandoned.

In 'Nam, victory is determined by Battle Points and you usually achieve these through body count. You score a Battle Point for:

- Each Unit Destroyed (excluding Independent Teams)
- 1 x M48 or Centurion Destroyed
- 2 x K-2 or ZSU-57-2 tanks Destroyed
- 3 x Other Tank Teams (Walker Bulldogs, K-1 etc) Destroyed.
- Each Chopper Destroyed
- Each Bunker or Nest Destroyed
- Each Objective Searched or Evacuated (in the appropriate mission)

There is a handy reference sheet in the book which you can photocopy and use.

This new means of determining the winner is pretty cool and definitely places some value back on you keeping your units alive and your expensive tanks and choppers out of danger.

There are also a number of new Special Rules, which we'll cover in the next article.

All in all, the new 'Nam volume really has reinvigorated me to get some more of my US Force painted ready to go so I can get some 'Nam games in!

Coinciding with this release, we'll be seeing a few new products come out.

For players with existing 'Nam forces, you'll be able to buy card packs to cover anything you've got. There are 4 of them in total covering the US, ANZAC, PAVN and ARVN forces.

There are also 3 new Army Deals ready to hit shelves soon too!

Ironclad Battalion: This contains 9 x K-2 (T-54) tanks in plastic and 2 x ZSU-57-2 tanks.

Airmobile Air Cavalry Troop: This has 2 x AH-1 Cobra, 2 x OH-6A Loach and 2 Huey Slicks, all in plastic, as well as 3 x MG teams.

Blackhorse Armoured Cavalry Troop: With 7 x M113 ACAV in plastic, 3 x M551 Sheridan's and 1 x M48A3 Patton.

GET SOME!!!