FIRE IN THE GROGS -- game complete

[JasonPratt]

Bumpity bump-bump, bumpity bump-bump, hope for VC go...!  :))

[JasonPratt]

Okay, Banzai_Cat has chosen to pass this turn, so I'll make adjustments and then introduce the NVA player next. (Probably me since the NVA player has taken some hard licks out of the gate.)

If anyone wants to play NVA or ARVN, drop me a line!

[JasonPratt]

To clarify: in order to move the game along, and give a fourth person time to choose the ARVN, I'm adjusting the turn order so that ARVN will go last and I'll take the initially hurt NVA faction -- for now. If someone still wants to play them, I'll move aside and you can take over the position!

If no one takes up one or both factions by Monday, I'll take ARVN, too: both AzTank and B_C are veterans of the game, so having a newbie playing teams against himself won't be too hurtful to them even if (very theoretically speaking) I thus double my chance of winning. This is a legitimate 3 player option, unless we play one faction as a bot. However, if anyone wants to take either the NVA and/or ARVN position I'll step aside.

[JasonPratt]

TURN ONE -- NVA INTRODUCTION
----------------------------

With the Viet Cong (played by Banzai_cat) passing -- rather surprisingly to me -- that means the NVA faction has an opportunity to play a full operation this turn, plus even a special activity!

Before I introduce the NVA faction, though, let me clarify how B_C moved.




B_C, the Viet Cong, is the blue cylinder, and he passed. So I moved his cylinder to the pass box. (Ignore the "Coup card" chit for now, that comes later with scoring.) Consequently, I'll also be moving up his resource marker one notch on the track around the board.



Providentially, that corner of the board also holds my "available" box, and the "Trail" track (which is especially important for me). More on that in a minute.

It's important to distinguish between the square chits on the border track, which designate our victory points, and the cylinders which designate our available operational resources. B_C's score is currently a lot higher than his available resources, which is a reflection of his faction, the Viet Cong, having established themselves pretty well on the map before gamestart -- but they're inherently the poorest faction (not being a nation-state per se), so they don't have much operational cash. We'll discuss my characteristics in an introductory detail in a moment. Back to the turn track.




I have gone ahead and moved my red cylinder to reflect my choice not to pass this turn. I'll explain why after my faction introduction. Since only two factions may act on any turn (normally, a scoring turn being abnormal), that means the ARVN faction must pass. However, since this turn the ARVN didn't choose to pass, they won't be getting any resources for making that choice. (Just to recall, in order to move things along and keep the ARVN slot open for another player to join late, I shifted the turn order so that they would play last. Normally ARVN would have played next, due to the order printed on the active card this turn.)

With that upkeep done, let's introduce the North Vietnamese Army. What does it mean to play the NVA?

1.) The NVA forces are the most numerous in the game. The ARVN have more divisions, but not more military divisions -- half their Troops are Police divisions. The NVA make up the lack in "cubes" with lots of available bases and spec-forces (called "Guerillas", as with the Viet Cong). They also thus have the second strongest military in the game, (distantly) after the US. Their bases have stealth capability, too, like the VC!

2.) The NVA scores Victory Points by putting bases (anywhere) on the board (even Saigon if they can finagle it); and by controlling provinces, something their Viet Cong teammates can't do. (They can help me control provinces, indirectly by denying control to Team South. VC forces count against COIN control, but they don't count in favor of NVA control: I have to outnumber VC troops, too.) The NVA starts with only 8 Victory points, but they also only need 19 or more to trigger a potential win. AzTank's first move raked back my Vic-points, though, down to 5, by air striking most of my bases off the board in the first turn! Fortunately...

3.) ...the NVA is the only faction in the game to have an almost-invulnerable province on the map, helpfully called "North Vietnam" although really it's just the southernmost NV province (for now, muahahaha! >:D ) Team South forces cannot enter it, although it can be the target of events; therefore, although I could theoretically lose control of it by moving out all my troops (even if Banzai moved some in, he can't hold control of a province by himself), Team South can't ever control it. Also fortunately...

4.) ...the NVA, like their teammates the VC, can never permanently lose forces. Any lost forces (like the 3 bases Az nuked with Air Strikes on his first turn) go back to being "Available".

5.) The NVA starts off as the second poorest faction, with only 10 resources to do operations. But like the VC, our operational costs are cheap, so we start out being able to do more. Which is good, because we also start out with the second-least presence on the board -- or arguably even the least, since we're the only faction with divisions who don't start with any divisions deployed!

6.) The NVA earns resources by putting bases in Laos and Cambodia (not in "North Vietnam"!) We also earn resources by keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail up and running -- which right now is a problem, because AzTank burned the trail back to 0 as a side-effect of his Air Strike! This is a big problem because it means my bases on the west border of the map can't generate resources -- IF I HAD ANY BASES BUT I DON'T ANYMORE! You may be able to suspect a theme for why I chose to act instead of pass this turn... Anyway, the concept here is that the NVA has to keep the trail running in order to operate in South Vietnam; we're a nation state, we have the resources, we just can't get them anywhere useful without the Trail. If the US and ARVN concentrated together on shutting me down, I could run entirely out of operational resources to do anything in the game aside from occasional event cards.

7.) The NVA has only 5 permanent and "momentum" (semi-temporary) bonuses in the game; but that's the second most after the US! This also means we have only five hurtful penalties in the game.

8.) Primarily to score, the NVA uses "Rally" operations to place bases, and just about anything else to increase troops in provinces and cities in order to take control. Unfortunately, Rally takes time, because it needs NVA Guerillas to turn into Bases, and requires that there be no Support (for the Saigon regime) in the areas to start with.

9.) The NVA helps their VC teammate by... well, we don't have a direct method for doing that! Yay for asynchronicity! Using events that help the VC I guess?? On the contrary, we can use our special "Infiltrate" ability to turn VC forces (including bases, including tunneled bases) into NVA forces!

10.) The NVA gets beaten by everyone except the US in tie situations.

11.) Like all four factions, the NVA player gets a special event card, called "Pivotal Events", that only he can throw:



There are the usual restrictions (can't play if a Coup is upcoming; can't play until after two Coups have happened, so basically not in 1964), plus the NVA needs more Troops (i.e. red cubes, divisions) than US Troops (green cubes) on the map. (Bases and specs don't count for this purpose.) The NVA player will get all the free "Marches" he wants, plus some extra moves on roads without enemy opposition, and then all NVA divisions must Attack somewhere -- but they attack for free (and can bring along NVA specs of course.) This pivotal event can trump the US pivotal "Linebacker II" event, but the VC and ARVN can both trump this.

[JasonPratt]

TEST TURN ONE -- NVA ACTION!
----------------------------

So, on to my turn. I have a long row to hoe, made longer by AzTank's fortunate first turn draw and wise application: he zeroed out the Trail, and blasted all my Trail bases off the map, so both one way and another I have no economy generation now!

I do have a resource stockpile, and my operational costs are cheap, but obviously I need to be putting bases back on the map pronto. And fixing the Trail.

This simplifies my choice to pass and hope for the upcoming event next turn because I can already see on that card (1) it won't positively help me; (2) it only helps the VC in areas that Banzai_Cat declined to build up this turn (to be fair he probably expected the ARVN to claim that event, thus not me anyway); and (3) it's pretty unlikely the ARVN player won't play that Event, so even if it helped me (but it doesn't) I'd be almost certainly delaying my turn for less opportunity than I have now.

And what I have now, is the opportunity to select and fully play an operation on as many valid targets as I can pay for, plus a free special activity. Why?





Because when AzTank (as the green faction) chose to play the event, anyone taking 2nd initiative would be slotted into choosing a faction op; and Banzai (as the blue faction) passed his turn. And God knows I need to put bases back on the west border!

So, here the NVA general operation options:




I won't spend time explaining them all -- the only ones I need to concentrate on, are anything that gets me (1) bases; (2) guerillas to make bases with later; (3) repairing the Trail so that any bases on the west border can mean something; and (4) divisions.

Fortunately, all four of those come down to one operation and one special activity: "Rally" and "Infiltrate".

Rally has a couple of options in itself. If a target area already has at least one NVA base, I can add specs in it equal to the number of its bases plus the trail value. However, the only legitimate target for that option would be "North Vietnam", and I'd rather be making bases and growing guerillas elsewhere.

Option 2 involves putting 1 "available" spec (I currently have 8 ) into any population area (not a LoC) that doesn't support Saigon. That option covers a lot of the board at the moment! But I'll only be choosing two targets for this, because I'm going to be spending most of my resource points instead doing option 3.

Option 3 lets me convert two of my specs already in any province or city which doesn't support Saigon, into a NVA base. This is the one I'm going to mainly go with.

There are currently four provinces (no cities) with at least two specs in them: The Parrot's Beak (in Cambodia), Central and South Laos ("North Laos" is off the map and out of play), and North Vietnam. The latter already has a base, but any population area can support a maximum of two bases -- by any faction! Anyway, I need the points and the income later.

So out of my 10 starting resources:

4 resources to convert 2 specs to bases in the aforementioned territories.

2 resources to add 1 spec to "Northeast Cambodia" and "The Fishhook". NVA pieces there outnumber all other pieces (including VC), namely no other pieces, so I achieve NVA Control there.

This adds 6 Victory Points (NVA Control + NVA Bases) back to my score, reaching a total of 11: 8 points shy of triggering a win condition!

On top of that, "Rally" allows me to improve the Trail once for 2 more resources, which I do.

This leaves me 2 resources left over, with which I'll try to improve the Trail again if I can on some future turn before the scoring Coup arrives.

Finally, for my free Special Action! My options here depend on what main operation I chose, so (refer to the snapshot to see how I know this) I can choose "Bombard" or "Infiltrate". Bombard only works if I have a significant number of divisions in a province, though -- and right now I have exactly no divisions!

"Infiltrate" helps fix that, though. It gives me two options, one of which is to flip VC forces (even tunneled bases!) into being NVA; but I would have to outnumber the VC in an area first, which I don't, anywhere (we don't even share the same areas yet) and besides I don't want to hamper them right now. The main option is to use the Trail and my Bases to put divisions on the board, yaaay! Specifically, I can choose up to two areas, so long as each area has at least one NVA base, and put as many divisions in each targeted area as the number of my bases in that area plus the Trail status -- and then convert as many specs in those areas as I want with equal numbers of NVA divisions. This is totally free by the way!

So I could put three divisions into "North Vietnam", because I have 2 bases there + Trail status 1; and add another division because I have one spec there I can upgrade! That spec isn't doing anything for me in "NV"; besides, the specs go back into my Available pile for later.

So yeah, I'm doing that. :D

Southern Laos borders the most "South Nam" areas, so that will be my second target for "Infiltrate": I put 2 divisions in (1 base + 1 trail) and then upgrade its spec to a 3rd division.

With that, Turn One ends! Yay!

I'll move the VC and ARVN markers out of the "pass box"; but the US and NVA markers into the "Ineligible" box; and update the two map snapshots:

[JasonPratt]

TURN TWO -- VIET CONG INITIATIVE
--------------------------------

With processes going reasonably well so far, I have decided to shuffle our first (randomly shuffle-drawn) Coup card into the Turn deck, representing the first half of 1964.

We already could see the upcoming card for this Turn, so I'll repost it here:




Banzai_Cat, playing the VC, passed last turn; and the ARVN didn't get a chance to choose an action at all. So they're the two up for Turn Two, and the card (reading left to right above the photo) tells us the VC will get first initiative.

What will be the upcoming card?




Oy. I promise, that was a random draw: we had a 1 in 5 chance of getting it. (A 2 in 7 chance of having drawn it in the first or second turn!)

A coming coup card means next Turn will be a scoring round; it also will change the special bonus the ARVN player gets for doing various things -- until the next successful coup! But that will be at least five turns later, no earlier than the second half of 1964.

(Unlike the main event cards, Coup cards aren't dated, and are meant to be randomly assigned; but someone could 'date' the events on the coups to the proper periods and shuffle them randomly in somewhere appropriate.)

What this means for Banzai, as the VC, and for whoever the ARVN player turns out to be, is that this turn will be a Monsoon: which will limit various options they could take.

Banzai, being a vet, knows the options, but I'll recount them briefly for any new players or visitors:

1.) Banzai could pass again. He doesn't know what the event coming after the coup will be, and all players will be eligible for it anyway, so all he'd get from this is an extra resource.

2.) He can play the "Brinks Hotel" card. However, the unshaded option on the card will only help the ARVN (not the VC); and while the shaded event would help him he doesn't have any specs in any cities to capitalize on it! He could play the event anyway, as a non-effect, just to keep the ARVN player from getting it, but then the ARVN could play a full faction op plus a special event (Monsoon permitting).

3.) He could play a full operation for the VC faction without a free special activity. This would lock the ARVN out of playing the event, too, and limit how far they could play a matching faction operation. Some operations are going to be limited or excluded by the Monsoon anyway! -- but as it happens, Monsoons only keep the Viet Cong from Marching. Banzai can do anything else.

4.) He could play a full operation plus a free special action, none of which are hampered (for the VC) by the Monsoon. If he does this, the ARVN will have the option of playing the "Brinks Hotel" event, or doing a limited faction op.

Here's the current map again for reference, Banzai:

[JasonPratt]

Fixing an error in NVA scoring: while their victory points do count provinces and cities under NVA control, this only counts for population areas in South Vietnam, in effect provinces and cities that have population numbers greater than zero printed in squares below the "support/control" boxes. Nope, not even the "North Vietnam" province counts! -- it has zero population that might even theoretically support Saigon! Ditto for any of the west-border provinces (in Laos and Cambodia).

Consequently, while the bases there still count for score (and especially for econ purposes in Laos and Cambodia -- apparently not in North Vietnam though, which is more than a little weird but probably nixed for fine balance purposes), and while they do have control markers which may count for other technical purposes; for scoring purposes I cannot count any of the current "control" areas.

Therefore, I have adjusted NVA's score chit back to 5. AzTank had actually wiped my score back to 1! -- i.e., because I only had one base left on the board. He took off three bases, I put back four, net total five bases on the board, so a score of 5 bases plus 0 South Nam population controls equals 5 total score.

Note that the South Nam province of Phuoc Long, which currently has no forces in it at all, also doesn't have enough population to count for affecting "support" or "control". So it might as well be in Cambodia or Laos for this purpose.

Future map updates will show the fixed NVA score.

[JasonPratt]

While we're waiting for Banzai_cat, I'll take the opportunity to get the last piece of faction introduction out of the way, which could also be helpful if anyone (Panzerseast?) is thinking of playing them.

TURN TWO -- INTRODUCTION TO THE ARVN
------------------------------------

Our final faction for the game is the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam, aka "ARVN". However, this is somewhat misleading because the player actually plays the government, less than the military arm, and rather more the national government than any other player -- for the natural reason that the war is being fought for governmental control of the territory they claim. Consequently, this faction should really be called GVN, the Government of Vietnam! -- and on at least a few event cards that's the acronym used (including the "Brinks Hotel" event this turn). Everywhere else, whether on cards or the map or references or rulebooks, the faction is called the ARVN. So for consistency's sake, I'll stick with that: what does it mean to play the ARVN?

If the NVA has the most conventional rules in the game, ARVN has the most variations to the rules.

1.) ARVN forces, being one of the two most local government, are technically tied with NVA as the most numerous; but they have the fewest available bases in the game (only 3, and two of those start out of play entirely), and the fewest available special forces (6, like the US, but three of those start out-of-play entirely). ARVN has the most divisions (cubes), at 60, but half of those are only large paramilitary police groups: useful for a lot of "divisional" activities in the game, but not really for fighting. The ARVN police divisions can fight, but use the worst results in the game -- and while ARVN regular divisions are technically a match for the NVA in strength, they lack the NVA's ability to fight well in mountain provinces. Beyond those problems, a full ten divisions of their regular military divisions start the game completely out of play, not available for deployment! Due to the nature of the conflict, though, the ARVN starts with by far the most forces on the board -- mostly in the cities.

2.) The ARVN scores Victory Points in an unusual way. They need control of "populated" provinces and cities (ones with enough population that might consider supporting the regime), and control established by US forces works just as well; so if any number of US and/or ARVN forces outnumber any combination of Team North in such an area, it gets a "COIN control" marker. In this respect the ARVN is competing against the NVA, except with the advantage that Team South can cooperate in achieving this while the Viet Cong can only help deny COIN control, not help provide NVA control!

The other way the ARVN score victory points, is by scoring Patronage. They start with 15 Patron points. But Patron points are (pretty much?) only worth scoring. In a way they're actually poison, because Patronage basically counts as political corruption!! :O So when the ARVN does things to increase Patronage, they tend to also reduce support and/or Aid. Reducing support for the regime, indirectly hurts the regime in various ways -- and helps the Viet Cong player! -- but technically, reflecting the ruthless regimes struggling for control in South Vietnam, the ARVN don't really care whether population centers support them so long as the ARVN has control of them! The US allies, ladies and gentlemen. {clap clap} {clap}

Speaking of Aid...

3.) ...the ARVN is the richest team in the game that tracks its budget. (The US is so rich that they don't have to track expenses, and so in effect their forces operate for free!) But there's a catch: only 15 points of resource, at most, come from South Vietnam's own capabilities. ARVN starts the game with this maximum Econ, which is why there's an "Econ" chip on the 15 point mark of the track going around the board. These points come directly from controlling the fifteen most important "Lines of Communication" on the board, almost all of which are worth 1 point. These are the major highways radiating out of cities, marked like "double lane highways" on the map and often acting as boundaries between provinces, as well as creating a coastal road from Hue in the north (traditionally the capital of unified Vietnam) and Saigon in the south. In the far south, the Mekong river branches also count as 1-point LoCs; except for the branch between Can Tho and Saigon which also has a double-lane highway and so grants 2 points. (There is no practical distinction between LoC types otherwise; and some LoCs are worth 0 points, like the southernmost road in the game, between Can Tho and the coastal city of Bac Lieu.)

LoCs (as explained long ago) are special map areas without population to affect "support" and "control", which also cannot support base placement by any faction, but which otherwise can have divisions and spec-ops in them, and which also grant some special move bonuses between areas. No one starts in any LoCs, and none of the players have moved into them yet. As along as no one is in a point-value LoC, and as long as the route hasn't been sabotaged, ARVN gets its economic benefit. ARVN also gets the benefit if the number of Team South (US and/or ARVN, "COIN") forces outnumbers Team North (NVA and/or VC, "insurgent") forces in a LoC, and if the LoC hasn't been sabotaged. Otherwise, ARVN's potential economic income per scoring-turn goes down point by point.

Economic power also limits how much of ARVN's resources the US can spend ordering ARVN forces around! -- the US player cannot spend ARVN's money any lower than wherever the "Econ" chip currently sits. That isn't actually theft, though, because this represents the US spending money they gave to the GVN in the first place through Aid.

Wait, I still haven't talked about Aid yet, have I...?

4.) The ARVN faction gets its other income in the game from United States support, which is tracked as "AID". This starts out at 15, along with Econ and Patronage, and there's also a chit to track it. "Aid" (a little roughly speaking) reflects money that either the ARVN or the US can spend on operations that use ARVN forces.

But there's a catch. However corrupt the US government is (and was) by US moral standards, we're significantly less corrupt and less tolerant of it than in many other countries, and South Vietnam is essentially a military junta against which the communist North Vietnam is struggling to rebel! In fact historically, North Vietnam wanted to model itself on the United States constitutional republic, and wanted (and really expected) the US to be its ally! -- but for realpolitik treaty reasons, originally having to do with respecting our World War 2 ally France, we turned them down and found ourselves supporting a succession of oppressive regimes. To get past this, the NVA made deals with communist superpowers (mainly Russia, but also their hated enemy China) for support, which meant also trying to live by communist standards to keep that support. By association, capitalistic standards became associated with the two traitorous opponents, the ARVN... and the US.

That said, the US does want South Vietnam to clean up its act and be good to its people. So game mechanics will often involve reducing increasing Aid if Patronage is reduced. But the ARVN needs Patronage points to win! -- consequently, to win, the ARVN actually has to reduce Aid from the US to fight against NVA and VC insurgency.

5.) The ARVN, like their teammates the US, can permanently lose forces: losses during fighting put them "out of play", not (usually) sent back to "available". (Events can bring them back into play of course.) Unlike the US, the ARVN don't have the advanced field medic technology to treat some of their destroyed forces as recoverable "casualties".

6.) The ARVN don't start out with "active support" anywhere, but they do start with a lot of COIN control (and the victory points those provide), and with no trivial amount of "passive support" for the regime. While support for the regime doesn't help them directly in score, and technically the ARVN doesn't need it at all in order to win, it does help in other ways.

7.) The ARVN has the fewest permanent and "momentum" (semi-temporary) bonuses in the game: only two. But, this also means they have only two hurtful penalties in the game.

8.) Primarily to score, the ARVN uses "Govern" operations (and some related special events) to increase patronage, and otherwise a bunch of troop movements to take and secure COIN Control.

9.) They can help their US ally, and indirectly help themselves, by Pacification operations to increase support. (This also can help COIN control.) However, "governing" reduces support in areas! -- so the primary means of increasing Patronage victory points for ARVN also reduces Vicpoints for the US! (It also reduces Aid from the US, giving the ARVN more difficulty in affording operations.)

10.) The ARVN player will win any tie or pivotal trump event, as long as the other player isn't the Viet Cong.

11.) There's a special box on the game board called "RVN Leader". This starts out as Duong Van Minh, and provides the ARVN player with a special ongoing bonus ability -- initially, each ARVN "Train" operation increases "Aid" by 5 points. Out of the six coups in the game, 4 feature new governments taking over the regime, and when that happens the new Coup cards go here after their scoring Turns instead of being discarded. When that happens, the ARVN player gets new ongoing bonuses, typically ones that reflect tension with the US. (Two of the coups will "fail", and this doesn't change the current regime; the "fail" card gets slid under the active regime card. Scoring still happens though.)

12.) Like all four factions, the ARVN player gets a special event card, called "Pivotal Events", that only he can throw:




This features the usual restrictions: can't play it if a coup is upcoming (like now), and can't play until there have been at least two scoring turns (whether the coups were successful or not). It also needs at least 20 US Troops (i.e. divisions, green cubes) on the map.

The event, unlike the other Pivotal events, doesn't involve attacking but rather building up potential to do things: all out-of-play ARVN forces go to their Available; 4 ARVN cubes can be placed out of Available anywhere on the map (or teleported around the map anywhere if no more troops are available anymore); ARVN gets 12 more resources to do operations in the near future; and ARVN Aid increases by 12 thus improving longer-term income for doing operations. (And for diverting Aid to corrupt Patronage for the win! :D )

With this, we've introduced all the factions, so once Banzai_cat (as the Viet Cong) chooses his action for this turn, it'll be the ARVN's turn. If no one else has arrived yet to play them, I'll take their slot as well, playing the NVA and the ARVN against each other, muahahahahaaaa. 3:>

[Arctic Blast]

Nice! I'll definitely be following this. I've got the first 3 games in the COIN series, and I'm trying to score this one and/or Falling Sky.  :D

[JasonPratt]

You're certainly welcome to join in with a faction!

Yeah, I'll be getting both "Falling Sky" (and its expansion whenever that comes out) and "Pendragon". I'd get this, but only if GMT ever reprints. (I suppose I could speed that up by registering for a P500 copy...)

[BanzaiCat]

Maybe AB should take over the VC; I'm having trouble keeping up.  :-[

[JasonPratt]

I would be pretty amused by a two player game where the two players were each running opposite teammates!  :D ;D

Oh, wait, you meant Arctic Blast. I read that as an abbreviation for AzTank somehow. 

What say thou, Az? Care to play both the US and the VC? While I take the NVA and the ARVN? We'd have some amusing political goofiness going on, working at cross-purposes not only to each other but to ourselves!

(Note: you could still hand off the VC to someone who wanted to play them, of course.)

[ArizonaTank]

I would be pretty amused by a two player game where the two players were each running opposite teammates!  :D ;D

Oh, wait, you meant Arctic Blast. I read that as an abbreviation for AzTank somehow. 

What say thou, Az? Care to play both the US and the VC? While I take the NVA and the ARVN? We'd have some amusing political goofiness going on, working at cross-purposes not only to each other but to ourselves!

(Note: you could still hand off the VC to someone who wanted to play them, of course.)

Hi Jason, sure I can take the VC and US.  But I think the preferred split is ARVN / US  then VC / NVA.  I am good with either.

[BanzaiCat]

Thanks, AT.

Sorry, Jason. :(

[JasonPratt]

I'm fine with either, of course; it's just that having the teams split would add more of the weird political flavor.

How about, whoever puts in a VC move first gets to play their faction?  :D