PC - Vietnam - Dedicated - Strategy - 60's thru 70's era

[PeaceFlower]

Does such a game exist? Cursory searching says no.
Well, there is an ancient game by Domark, circa 1991
But, seemingly nothing since then?

I'm not talking about OPAW scenarios or such things.
Instead, a game which from inception is dedicated to the
War in Vietnam on it's strategic level.

I'm in the middle of reading Max Hasting's book on Vietnam
and it's given me the fever for a subject that usually
leaves me cold. (Good authors can make ugly girls attractive)

Anyway, felt I would ask here as a last resort before
concluding such a game does not exist.

[hellfish6]

Vietnam 65 Maybe not the ideal, but pretty damn entertaining. And addictive.

[Father Ted]

Was going to suggest The Operational Art of War (TOAW), but realised that you had used  an off-brand acronym for that game and had put it out of scope.  I think there may be a John Tiller Squad Battles title, but (if it actually exists) that would tactical rather than strategic.

[Jarhead0331]

Was going to suggest The Operational Art of War (TOAW), but realised that you had used  an off-brand acronym for that game and had put it out of scope.  I think there may be a John Tiller Squad Battles title, but (if it actually exists) that would tactical rather than strategic.

Yes. Definitely more tactical.

HPS released Squad Battles Vietnam and Tour of Duty.

I haven't seen updates in awhile, but hopefully Campaign Series: Vietnam isn't too far from release.

https://www.matrixgames.com/game/campaign-series-vietnam

[JasonPratt]

Vietnam 65 (from Matrix/Slitherine) isn't strategic level, but still gives a lot of flavor for a very specific style of counterinsurgent operation.

I suspect the only such thing as you're looking for, PF, is a Vassal module (or possibly Tabletop Simulator) for a boardgame strategic level game with bot rules for single player. You might have to buy a physical copy to get the bot rules however.

The two big names I can recall are Vietnam 1965-1975, and Fire in the Lake. Both have Vassal modules:

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Vietnam_1965-1975
http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Fire_In_The_Lake

I know from experience that FitL's vassal module is very good, and indeed authorized for promotional purposes by GMT Games.

There are at least a couple of (progressively fixed and updated) FitL mods for Tabletop Simulator. I can't find any mods there for V6575. You will probably have to hunt around to find the rules either way, and the bot rules for FitL may be very hard to get (since GMT makes the game available publicly on the condition that the bot rules not be published.) I have a general impression that V65-75 comes with solo rules, but I can't directly confirm that. (There was an old AAR for it at the old now defunct Wargamers site from which Grogheads sprang, but I don't think I kept a copy of it, and I can't recall clearly if it was playing solo.)


V65-75 is a chit-heavy chit-kicking super-groggy strategic wargame of the conflict, with each player in control of the two main forces of their side. A very classic wargame, but with tons of political flavor shaping events.

FitL is a highly abstracted area control game with simplified combat rules but also with tons of political flavor shaping events. It's meant for four players, each of them competing even against their own teammates to some extent (and I'm sure that's how the bot rules go), although human players can tweak things as they like for more co-op.

[JasonPratt]

Update: I found my copy of the rules for V65-75, and there doesn't seem to be a solo variant, so you'd have to play it both sides.

The good news is that this sort of game is something that the crazy and prolific modders for The Operational Art of War might have produced at some point -- they have a version of the infamous North African Campaign for example which automates the calcs and a lot of the gruntwork! But I doubt there's a solo variant there either, even if someone has reproduced it.

The lone remaining option will be Fire in the Lake, for which you'll have to buy the boardgame to get the bot rules, and implement all of that yourself -- but at least there are good PC modules for the game on Vassal and TTS, which will allow you to avoid the hassle of setting up, taking down, going back to prior conditions after mistakes, cats, etc. ;)

[PeaceFlower]

Update: I found my copy of the rules for V65-75, and there doesn't seem to be a solo variant, so you'd have to play it both sides.

I saw  that game on board game geek (someone did a top 10 Vietnam board game list) and it seemed to fit my desires most
out of all the potential choices.  So yeah, I was looking for something like that game only on the PC.

I'm  strictly a solo pc gamer so that kinda crippled my options.

Maybe sometime in the future something like it will be made for the PC .

Thanks for the replies.

[Destraex]

radio commander?
I know it's tactical.... :(

[demjansk1942]

I am waiting for the Matrix Vietnam game to come out that uses the engine of the Middle East game

[Jarhead0331]

I am waiting for the Matrix Vietnam game to come out that uses the engine of the Middle East game

I posted a link to that above. It's from the Campaign Series.

[Phantom]

I'd second Jason's suggestions of trying out a boardgame with a solo variant. You'll need to invest more time to learn the system but the GMT COIN series (I think Fire in the Lake is one) give great gameplay and (IMO) unsurpassed historical flavour, and can be "played" on the PC if you don't have space or need to drop in & out of the game, as I tend to do.

Looking forward some board games are being brought out as proper PC versions (Twilight Struggle/Labyrinth for example) and these really give the best of both worlds. Hopefully GMT will see the value of doing this with the COIN games.

[JasonPratt]

Three of us Grogheads played a run of Fire in the Lake on Vassal, which I recreated for TTS (from my game text log), in one of my first video series, which can be linked to from this thread: http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=20369.0

Again, you'd have to buy the board game to get the solo rules (or find a bootleg pdf of the bot rules somewhere, which I don't recommend). But this video series will at least give you an idea of how the game plays.

NOTE: we do get some of the rules wrong, as I recall, specifically that roads are zero-width spaces and so can be shot over by artillery like shooting 'around' roads through small towns (which are zero-point spaces).

[demjansk1942]

Jason, I have the board game but never played it,

[W8taminute]

If you own Civilization 3: Conquests I highly recommend downloading this scenario: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/scenario-the-vietnam-war-deluxe-1965-1975.222604/

You need to head to the last page to get the link to the scenario as the OP has long since deleted his link.