Vietnam '65 announced @ Matrixgames/Slitherine

[Vietnam65]

Can't say  8)

But I think you will like it, we have debated it and the result is good  O0

[fabius]

'Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973'.

Going to order that tomorrow then, thanks for the heads up !  :)

You tried 'Vietnam Solitaire' by White Dog Games , pretty good for single play.

Yeah, I really hope this is the first edition of V65, can really go into more depth Vietnam'66 Mekong Delta , Vietnam'67 Vietnamisation , you get the pic  ::)

Not tried Vietnam Solitaire, but "A Distant Plain" is probably next on my board game list (Afghan COIN so kind of in your area of interest)

Yeah, all the best success with release so we get some expanded sequels.  :)

[jomni]

This game reminds me of a wonderful Advanced Tactics Scenario.   Basically the same feel but it covers the whole of vietnam. http://jomnisgames.blogspot.com/2012/06/battle-for-south-vietnam-aar-august.html

[Vietnam65]

Fire in the Lake is very good, been playing Distant Plain and BCT Kandahar for the last few months, I will leave it there.... ;)

Thanks for the support

[Boggit]

Anybody have any good 'Nam read recommendations.

The War of the Flea: Guerrilla Warfare Theory and Practice Robert Taber
Old but good. At 160 pages it is short but deals very well with the politics, and tactical principles behind guerrilla warfare. Part of the book deals with Cuba and South America, but the rest is mainly Vietnam, both the French, and 'Murican experiences.

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War - Michael Maclear
Focuses on the politics, policies and strategic issues from the end of WW2 to the fall of Saigon. Very well written, by a Canadian journalist who covered events in Vietnam for over 10 years.

We were Soldiers Once and Young - Lt. Gen Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway.

This covers in detail the Ia Drang valley battles in 1965, namely the battles for Landing Zone X-ray, and Landing Zone - Albany. There is no doubting the courage of the troops involved, nor (save for a few exceptions) the battlefield leadership by and large on both sides. However, the US lack of adequate planning, adequate recon led to a near disaster at X-ray for the US. Moreover, if you add to that the lack of proper march discipline, and inadequate flank guards it's not surprising it led to disaster at Albany where they were badly ambushed. Both sides claimed victory, but in all honesty - although they were mauled - the NVA seemed to come out of it better, especially at Albany. It's a very good read, and it's hard not to feel sympathy for the guys who carried out a nightmare mission that hadn't been given sufficient thought by the High Command. Both General Moore, and Joe Galloway were present at both battles, and their first hand experiences make their writing all the more focused.

[fabius]

Thanks Boggit. I have We were Soldiers Once and Young . Agreed, a good read, and it reminded me of how Black Hawk Down conveyed the chaos in battle.

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War I'm really looking for tactical and operational reads to get pumped for the game  :D

The War of the Flea: Guerrilla Warfare Theory and Practice Robert Taber Have ordered this, Thanks!


Also been watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzvb1iLtfrc

[JasonPratt]

The two strategic Vietnam books I own are both good though arriving at somewhat different though overlapping conclusions.

The Irony of Vietnam: the System Worked is a classic written not long after the 10KDayWar, very closely following the ebb and flow of the strategic decisions (at White House / Joint Chiefs level) in relation to public opinion. The meticulously traced conclusion is that, despite public perception after the war, in fact the administrations routinely chose to do what they believed (on grounds of the data available to them) the American people most wanted: to try to win 'freedom' for the South against the officially 'Communist' North (despite the South's government largely being criminal, against which the North was fighting a civil war and just taking any allies it could get) with reasonable efforts and minimal escalations perceived necessary to finally get the job done.

The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam is more broadly researched and more in-depth at the operational and tactical levels; but suffers a little from its righteous criticism of the situation: the author radically misreads the equally critical ironic defense of American Vietnam policy by the previous authors for example, as though they were trying to justify and positively defend the "technowar" system in sustaining myths about the war. (It doesn't help that the author clearly hadn't done the kind of research the previous authors had on their topic.) Other than that, it's a bracing examination of the military-industrial attitudes and philosophies established in and carried onward from WW2, and how they played out in Vietnam at all levels from chief administration down to the boots on the ground.

There's a summary interview with the author (on an old cable-access channel) somewhere on Youtube; it covers the salient points of the book admirably well. Here we go, 2 hours:

The book is much more in-depth, of course (and about 3 times longer than Irony, or so my Kindle says). Both books are fairly free of special bias in favor of liberal or conservative politics.

[fabius]

Chickenhawk by  Robert Mason.  I read that years ago, and was an awesome read for a young person joining an Air-mobile unit. Completely a pilots perspective, but very detailed and gritty.


And Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There Mark Baker  was anecdotes, but and entreating read.

[bob48]

'Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973'.

Going to order that tomorrow then, thanks for the heads up !  :)

You tried 'Vietnam Solitaire' by White Dog Games , pretty good for single play.

Yeah, I really hope this is the first edition of V65, can really go into more depth Vietnam'66 Mekong Delta , Vietnam'67 Vietnamisation , you get the pic  ::)

Its an interesting book, and quite convincing in its way, although I'm not sure that I agree with all the conclusions it draws.

[KyzBP]

Try any of the titles by Gary Linderer.  I really enjoyed Black Berets and Painted Faces.  I've always been partial to the small unit stuff though.

[fabius]

Try any of the titles by Gary Linderer.  I really enjoyed Black Berets and Painted Faces.  I've always been partial to the small unit stuff though.

One of there reviews accusing him or seriously inflating his combat achievements.

Hey, Nam 65 is up on Steam proper now:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/336080/

[KyzBP]

Try any of the titles by Gary Linderer.  I really enjoyed Black Berets and Painted Faces.  I've always been partial to the small unit stuff though.

One of there reviews accusing him or seriously inflating his combat achievements.

Hey, Nam 65 is up on Steam proper now:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/336080/

That review was pretty interesting.  It's always a bummer when the "facts" emerge.  It's still a fun read though.

It will be a day 1 purchase for me.

[LongBlade]

Ran across this on RPS' Flare Path early last year:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/28/the-flare-path-on-the-ho-chi-minh-trail/#more-192195

There's a downloadable PC prototype at:

http://www.vietnam65.com/

About that RPS quote...for some Reason Slitherine has it posted twice under two different dates (and different years). Weird.

[LongBlade]

Also...who's the developer? Did I miss it? For some reason I didn't see it on the product page.

[jomni]

The RPS article was published on Feb 28, 2014.  Maybe it was already march in UK (Slitherine's location).
And that Slitherine announcement was really made on Feb 2015.