Campaign Series Vietnam

Jason Petho · May 03, 2026, 09:30:25 PM

After a brief update on all the goodies that are going on we returned to the ARVN disaster north of Plei Me to see if we could recover the situation. What a scrap it has turned out to be! A plethora of North Vietnamese regulars ambushing our column. We were broken up into different ambush sites, and the struggle was real indeed. Artillery and airstrikes have helped turn the tide, but it's been a bloody affair so far. The second flights of reinforcement Hogs have appeared on the scene and will hopefully help clear the last ambush to gain some form of victory. But we all know what they say about plans...

Jason Petho · May 07, 2026, 01:43:36 AM

Now here's a violence fight indeed. Every hex has blood spilling on it. Every advance is met with a barrage of fire from the Russian defenders. We continue the advance into the outskirts of Mogilev against the determined Russian resistance. I decided to pull the Stug IIIs a bit closer to action to see if they can help turn the tide, especially as I have noticed that the victory locations are defended with bunkers on top of all the Russians swarming around the city. We're pushing in the center of the city, but it's a messy affair and the Russians counterattack in any weak spot. A high price for silk indeed....

Jason Petho · May 10, 2026, 03:22:53 PM

We returned to see if we could break through to Plei Me. It was down to the wire, but we managed to get our supply trucks to Plei Me. I don't think that would have been possible had we not had our gunships, that ambush was an amazing affair. The North Vietnamese were relentless and well positioned. After we stuck with the Plei Me theme and played the first scenario in the series called "The Lure". This is an excellent scenario for learning how to defend with less. The North Vietnamese aren't too aggressive, but aggressive enough to keep me on my toes. Positions are falling, but I'm still holding the key defences. It's night and I really need to to be daylight!

Jason Petho · May 13, 2026, 11:47:05 PM

Campaign Series East Front : The fighting is getting intense with the causalities mounting. We are advancing 250 metres at a time into the outskirts of the city while there is heavy fighting happening in the deep city center. The Russians are still attempting to counter attack in various locations as I advance, which is holding up the advance in some sectors. On the bright side, this is an excellent display out of how to whittle down defences and overwhelm a defender. Is it easy? No. Is it fun? Hell YES!

Jason Petho · May 17, 2026, 05:02:07 PM

This turned out to be a really interesting and fun scenario. We were the ARVN doing our best to defend against the North Vietnamese regulars as they probed our camp and slowly started to dismantle the surrounding defences. The scenario is a really good scenario for learning the game with such valuable lessons as; defending and knowing when to counter attack, conducting airstrikes and helicopters operations and their limitations. If you're new to the game, this would be a good one to play after you finish the Bootcamp scenarios, as while it has 30 turns, it is short to play and there is A LOT to learn here.

Jason Petho · May 20, 2026, 11:51:52 PM

Such a bloody attack. There are a lot of valuable lessons in here for how to attack and how not to attack. The Russians are stubborn and even counter attack on occasion, which is keeping me on my toes. We are past the halfway point of the scenario, but the progress is there. Even if it is a struggle, block by block. It's a challenging scenario indeed and would be a hell of a fight against a human. A few objectives have now fallen, but we're still not at the victory level.... yet.

Jason Petho · May 24, 2026, 03:48:04 PM

We continued on with the prelude to Ia Drang by playing the Hunt scenario. What a challenge indeed. We lost because we didn't find the caches and lost a lot of helicopters. Lessons learned there, that's for sure. Following that, we started the first of three scenarios that deal with the Ia Drang campaign. We started with the initial landing and are doing well so far. We did lose a couple gunships, and one of our platoons have been butchered. Fortunately, the NVA at this point are just probing and we haven't faced too rough of a counter attack. The highlight was watching napalm and seeing its effect on the poor NVA troops. Tis the season for a barbeque!

Jason Petho · May 28, 2026, 12:52:56 AM

The advance is still block by block, but we did a few turns today. The progress is excellent although the causalities are very high. This would be a hell of a fight against a human, so I'm grateful it's just HAL. There are a lot of Russians here, I suspect a division or more, and realized that all the machine guns and hidden antitank guns are definitely taking their tolls on my attacking force. HAL is still counter attacking in certain areas making the fight a little harder. It is fun though, the pain is worth the gain!

Jason Petho · May 31, 2026, 06:02:52 PM

Our Ia Drang campaign continued with the first landing into LZ X RAY and doing our best to defend it. It was a fun scenario and really got us learning how to transport troops and use gunships for support. Well, the ones that survived. We then started the Broken Arrow scenario, which is the second LZ X RAY related scenario. Things were going very well before I determined there was an error that seemed to have crept in with one of the updates. It's supposed to be a challenging scenario and realized the NVA didn't have their mortar support, which changes the whole dynamic. This will be remedied in the next UPDATE to be released soon!

Jason Petho · June 03, 2026, 11:25:46 PM

We finally broke the Russians back and captured Mogilev! These final turns are an excellent overview on how to mop up an area and things to think about as you do, including artillery targeting, positioning and using the defenders improved positions against them. It was still a bloody affair, but we overwhelmed the final Russian defenders and accumulated a lot of points in the final turns as we completed the mopping up operation. Looking for a devilish fight against a human, this is the one for you!

Jason Petho · June 07, 2026, 09:00:34 PM

Well we did some revisions to the Broken Arrow scenario. While it is a bit more challenging, it seems to have lost the feel from the original scenario I designed for 1.00. We did manage a major victory, but that was relatively slim and should have been less considering how many losses we took. That being said, I'll do some more revisions and make it even better with the scripting. Regardless, it's still a fun scenario and good for practice. But stay tuned for an update!

Jason Petho · June 10, 2026, 11:16:01 PM

And now, for something completely different. We went to the Pacific and I was asked to play A SMALL PIECE OF HELL in the Rising Sun game. We are the Marines and attempting to take an atoll in the Marshall Islands. Hell is a very good description of this, it's just brutal. I'm doing my best to grab a foothold on the atoll, but the Japanese don't want to have anything to do with that and I'm paying the price. I have a few small beachheads - if they live next session, but there's a long way to go!

Jason Petho · June 14, 2026, 04:57:38 PM

Well that was a session and a half. We played the By the Belt scenario that shows the events that happened at LZ Albany after the LZ X Ray battle and it quickly showed us what kind of disaster that was. We suffered a lot of losses and the Landing Zone was lost shortly after the NVA assault. An impressive attack by the NVA, that's for sure. Then we played the Long Tan scenario, acting as the Australians and did what we could to stem the tide of the numerous assaults into the plantation while we waited for reinforcements. The main element in that scenario that saved our bacon was the artillery. Well, saving our bacon might be considered a stretch...

Jason Petho · June 18, 2026, 02:17:18 AM

Well, it seems I'm learning some new tricks. It seems I have figured out some tactical lessons to help give my 7th Infantry Division platoons some boost in capturing the island. It's a hard and bloody go, but we are finally gaining some ground and pushing back some Japanese defenders. There's still a long way to go, but at least I can see a plan formulating for the follow on forces. The Japanese are brutal to dig out of their entrenched positions, but I'm feeling more confident this session than last. All hope is not lost!

Jason Petho · June 22, 2026, 10:47:56 AM

We had a different mission today, protecting some Engineering assets during a road construction project near War Zone C. The Viet Cong decided to attack our engineering teams during the night, which we did our best to defend. There is an Australian camp nearby that also helped out. With the vast amount of firepower, the end result is expected, although it was a close run thing, as you'll see!