Rolling Hot: a CoC Vietnam, mini campaign UPDATED January 2 for Scenario 4

[levied troop]

You can of course, but when I plan to ambush US army convoys I like plenty of cover.
Ambush. The clue’s in the word

[Etranger]

You can of course, but when I plan to ambush US army convoys I like plenty of cover.
Ambush. The clue’s in the word

Charlie Rules the Night....

[grizzlymc]

That was another of Galen's comments that I've heard from Aussies. The US Army didn't patrol enough, they tended to pull off track into the bush at night, and they didn't go looking for night fights. If the enemy won't fight you in the daytime, you've got to beat them at night.

[FreddBloggs]

There is a restless aggressiveness in Australian Soldiers, from ww1 onwards, they were generally happier going forwards than holding on, and no mans land was THEIRS.

[grizzlymc]

That is the impression I have. At dusk, the yanks would pull off the trail and take up defensive positions, Charlie could spend all night going up and down the track. The Aussies would take out his scout with a claymore and the rest of the group would all walk into a wall of lead. Galen told me this was pretty much how the marines played it.

The yanks would search a village and mark it clean on the map. The Aussies would have a spotting team watching it after dusk and see who came too and fro.

[FreddBloggs]

Also beehive rounds buried in the road if vehicles were being used.

[Purple]

That’s absolutely banging.


Good to see you

[Dog who drinks paint]

You would have thought that between a spell of Covid-induced unemployment, seemingly unending lockdowns and the Canadian winter, I would have plenty of time for gaming. Turns out, real life doesn’t work that way. So after a 6 month break, we return to the hills south of Hue to catch up on the adventures of the rapidly shrinking Task Force Ranson. Worth the wait though. Things certainly didn’t go the way I expected, and there was a real cliffhanger of an ending to boot.

Scenario 3: A Bridge Too Near

Once through the hills, the somewhat reduced Task Force Ranson now has to swing east and cross the river that lies between it and Hue. The good news is that the river crossing is still held by a force of the USMC. The bad news is they are under concerted attack from the NVA and the Marine CO seems to think the armour is there to help him, not the defenders of Hue. The further bad news is that the bridge is not in the best condition. No one is sure how many armoured vehicles it will support.

I set up the table for the ‘Attack on an Objective’ scenario with the bridge as the objective. The table orientation is the wrong way round, but then the scenario does not envisage the arrival of an armoured troop on the attacker’s flank.

The under strength USMC platoon has so much by way of entrenchments and barbed wire that it ends up being at +12, so by the time I had rolled 10 for the attacker supports, the NVA platoon had plenty of support to choose from. It being daylight and the US well dug in, I figured a lot of long range firepower with the ability to reduce cover by one level was called for. That still left enough support points for three sapper teams for when the time came to breach the wire and get up close and personal.

Task Force Ranson enters the table (from the bottom right corner in the picture above) after both other forces have had at least one phase of the second turn. At the bridge, the USMC CO can use a CoC dice to halt TF Ranson, and Ranson must use a CoC dice to overcome this and move on across the bridge. Each vehicle that crosses the bridge rolls a d6 and adds the score to a cumulative total. When the total exceeds 14+1d6, the bridge collapses.

USMC Platoon - Regular - 5 Command dice

1 Senior Leader w/M16
RTO w/M16

1 Senior Leader w/M16

2 M60 teams of 2 crew

2 rifle sections of 8 M16, 2 M79, 1 shotgun, 1 Junior Leader w/M16

Task Force Ranson - Regular - 5 Command dice

M113 ACAV with Senior Leader (Captain Ranson)

2 M551 Sheridan with Junior Leaders

2 M113 ACAV with Junior Leaders

NVA Forces - Rifle Platoon - Regular- 5 Command dice

Senior Leader w/SKS
Runner w/SKS

3 Rifle Sections each:

Junior Leader w/AK47
RPD team w/2 crew
RPG7 team w/2 crew
4 riflemen w/AK47 or SKS

3 Sapper teams, elite, veteran, 2 sappers with satchel charges and wirecutters, AK47

2 82mm mortars - on table

1 DshK HMG w/5 crew

1 57mm recoilless rifle w/5 crew

Patrol phase

Short and sweet, the NVA got 4 free moves, and after that it only took one move by each side to lock down each other’s patrol markers. (NVA have the ‘Jungle Fighter’ attribute, so patrol markers move 14” and must remain within 14” of each other.) The USMC were restricted to dug in areas around the bridge, so I placed the JOPs as far back as possible as they were unlikely to want to deploy outside the wire, and the JOPs were just a risk to Force Morale. The NVA ended up favouring their right flank, not knowing that this is where Task Force Ranson would be appearing. (Being absent minded really helps with solo gaming.) That said, I doubt the TF will be bothering to stop and seize JOPs, so if anything it will favour defence against the unexpected arrival of armour in their rear.

The NVA and Marines both start with Force Morale of 9. TF Ranson, still licking their wounds after the ambush in the hills start with morale of 8.

When you’re a colonel and you get orders to hold a bridge, you expect a battalion task force at the very least. The fact that all I had were the remnants of a rifle platoon had army fingerprints all over it. Only those idiots could screw up this badly. If the bridge was so goddam important, why not give me a proper force to defend it with?

Eventually, once everything had gone to ratshit, I figured out the method in their madness. In the chaos, it was going to take a senior officer to bring some order to the scene and make sure all the stragglers and REMFs who tried to cross were organized into a proper defence. That was my job, and no one, not Charlie and not some horse jockey, were going to stop me doing it.

The NVA opened by deploying two squads on overwatch in the tree line overlooking the bridge. The marines responded by deploying into their entrenchments, and got the better of the resultant firefight. So the NVA commander pulled his infantry back behind the hills and let his mortars go to work. This left the US defenders with little to do but remove the odd point of shock, count the gradually accumulating casualties and pray for more 5s or 6s to bring an end to the turn.

In the end a triple 6 for the US was followed immediately by another triple 6, so that it was Turn 3 by the time Ranson got to deploy. By then the NVA had deployed a third squad on their right (it was where the US defences looked weakest), rather too close to the Task Force’s entry point.

Ranson hadn’t let the troops rest after the ambush. They had picked up the few survivors, but had no time to bury the dead. Not that it looked like there was much left to bury. The burning wrecks were a salutary lesson in the devastating effects of an RPG on the vehicles of his command.

Pushing on towards Hue, Ranson had just reminded the TC of the lead Sheridan to look out for the junction where they would head east to the river, when he heard small arms fire and mortars in the distance. Before he had a chance to alert the Task Force he saw an RPG streak from a wooded hillside and glance off the turret of the lead Sheridan. The ACAV ahead slammed to a halt in alarm, so Ranson yelled at his driver to go round it. As they did the right side gunner yelled “Incoming!” A hammer blow struck Ranson’s turret. His right arm went numb. He knew the dark patch spreading down his sleeve must be his blood and that pain was coming, but he rode the shock to slew his turret and spray the hillside with 50 cal bullets. So he was looking straight at the recoilless rifle when it fired a second projectile at his track.

Ranson’s bad day was about to take a turn for the worse.

TF Ranson rolled three 6s on its first phase, so his remaining dice just allowed him to deploy the lead Sheridan. The NVA then used a CoC dice to interrupt and fire an RPG at the tank, but only achieved one net hit, inflicting 1 shock and damaging the gun sights. With his next phase (it’s now Turn 4) Ranson could only activate himself (6, 5, 5, 4, 1) so I allowed him to deploy off the road, even though he was not next in the order of march, and fire at the NVA, getting 1 kill. He also activated the lead tank to advance further.

That’s when things got messy. Both NVA squads on this side of the table fired RPGs and both missed. The NVA recoilless rifle deployed, fired at and hit Ranson’s ACAV, inflicting 2 shock and wounding Ranson, costing him 1 command level. In his next phase Ranson removed 1 shock and fired at the recoilless crew but missed, the tank fired HE at an NVA rifle squad but only got 1 kill from 13 HE dice and the next ACAV deployed and managed to kill one member of the recoilless crew with its 50 cal.

Unfazed, the recoilless rifle fired again at Ranson’s track, knocking it out without it actually exploding, while another RPG sailed harmlessly over the lead tank. The Sheridan responded in style, wiping out one of the infantry squads with an HE round, while the commander got 4 kills on the recoilless crew with his 50 cal, wiping them out. The celebrations didn’t last long as the remaining infantry squad fired their last RPG round at the tank and 5 net hits turned it into a ball of flame. 

As the dust settled on this action, both the NVA and Task Force Ranson saw their Force Morale fall to 5. I had allowed Ranson himself to use his remaining activations to crawl out of his ACAV and into the back of the following vehicle, while the NVA survivors used the ‘Tunnels of Chu Chi’ rule to exit via deployment points, ready to redeploy in later phases.

There then followed a bit of a lull as the remaining vehicles of TF Ranson made their way to the bridge, the NVA redeployed on their left wing while continuing to lob mortar shells at the marines, who had nothing to do but remove shock and collect CoC points. (In all, Turn 4 had 52 phases!) By the time Ranson made it to the bridge the Marine CO had a full CoC dice to stop him heading across.

A few phases later, Ranson acquired a CoC dice of his own, brushed aside the Colonel’s objections and headed over the bridge and off the table. But the next Marine phase generated another complete CoC dice and the Colonel stopped the remaining vehicles of TF Ranson from following their commander. Under his orders they reversed out of the fortifications and headed for the NVA positions.

The NVA, knowing this was their last chance, responded aggressively. The sapper teams advanced tactically towards the wire, making slow progress but keeping some level of cover. The DshK deployed in the tree line and fired on the Marine section nearest, getting a kill and 2 shock, enough to break the section, already depleted by mortar fire. Marine Force Morale dropped to 8, and when the NVA played a CoC dice to end the turn it dropped to 6 as the remains of the squad routed across the bridge and off the table.

The Marines started the next turn with no 3s for activating the vehicles, so had to be content with the M60 team inflicting 1 kill and 1 shock on the DshK while the CO redeployed the remaining rifle squad to cover the threatened sector. The DshK responded with a shock and a kill on the M60 team while the sappers continued to creep forward and the rifle squad with the sole remaining RPG reload headed for the crest of the hill between them and the US armour.

Next phase the US could activate the ACAV, and while its commander could only get 1kill on the DshK with his 50 cal, the M60 gunner behind him got 2 kills and a shock, pinning the heavy machine gun. But the NVA were not finished, rolling two double phases and getting the RPG armed squad to the crest of the hill, from where they could see the US armour.

That’s when things got frantic. The US interrupted with a CoC dice and the tank fired HE at the squad in the trees on the crest of the hill. Four kills meant only one survivor, but was that the Junior Leader or the RPG gunner? A roll of 2 meant the RPG gunner was unhurt, but could the JL activate him? A roll of 5 meant his wound cost him one command level, but his remaining one was enough to order the RPG gunner to fire his final round at the Sheridan....

Thanh peered between the trees, and was horrified to see how close the American vehicles were. The Trung sĩ was yelling at him to fire at the tank, so he brought the RPG launcher to his shoulder and squinted down the sights. Which meant he would have had an excellent view as the gaping muzzle of the tank’s gun swung towards him and belched fire and smoke, but Thanh had already thrown himself to the ground, pressing himself into the tree roots in a desperate attempt at survival. When he looked up, most of the trees had disappeared, along with all the members of his squad who had survived the American bullets earlier that day. Almost all.

The Trung sĩ, blood streaming from a gash in his head, was yelling at him again to fire his last remaining rocket at the tank. Reluctantly Thanh kneeled up and aimed the launcher at the tank, which seemed far too close. The machine gun mounted on top of its turret was swinging in his direction, so without bothering to aim, he squeezed the trigger and didn’t even wait to watch the missile arc harmlessly over the tank, before running back down the hill as fast as he could.

With the last anti tank weapon in their arsenal having missed, I decided the NVA would not try making any further attempts on the bridge and called it a day. Another really unpredictable battle, with the US getting the better of the initial firefight, the arrival of the armour distracting the NVA from mortaring the Marines, Ranson suffering another two losses and barely escaping with his life and then the Marine CO managing to hijack two of the Task Force’s vehicles to save the bridge, which otherwise looked in real trouble. The fact the whole outcome rested on that final RPG shot was a hugely satisfying Hollywood ending. 

So Ranson can now recover from his wound as the remaining 3 vehicles under his command head to the siege lines around Hue. He has no idea what awaits him there, but here’s a clue.

[goat major]

Very cool

[World2dave]

Great stuff.