Hello friends,
so lately I picked up a copy of Decision Games' Khe Sahn 1968 solitaire game using the rules of the Cold War Blitz system. It's a small, simple yet entertaining game. The game's specific rules can be found here. If you want to know more about the battle itself you can for example watch this video:
So, the game is set. I need to hold Khe Sahn Fire Base until the end of the game.
Here we go...
First turn I decide to play Fire Support card which costs me one turn but strengthens the firepower of my units in or adjacent to allied fire bases. The plan is to take out the Communist entrenchments around Khe Sahn.
Entrenchments 689 and 471 our primary targets this turn.
Well, it's my second play and I already see that the air strikes can be too powerful against OPFOR units. After the first round of air strikes I have managed to wipe out 4 enemy units while losing one step on one of the air strikes. Entrenchment 471 secured. After the ground combat phase I have secured Entrenchment 471. I draw the Communist Infiltration card which reinforces the OPFOR with three eliminated units and forces all units in Laos and North Vietnam to move two spaces to the nearest Communist Entrenchment. (I figure that North Vietnam is represented by DMZ Central and West since on the map you can only find Laos and South Vietnam).
The baddies on the move.
Second turn I play Operation Niagara and try to wipe out as many OPFOR units as possible with my airstrikes that thanks to the card got stronger by one point. However, I do not manage to recycle all the air units and what is more I lose two steps of power to the Communist AAA. Still, I clear Entrenchment 881 and Lang Kat.
The End of turn 2 after the air strikes.
The Communist activity increases. They return one unit to the game and I roll for each of their unit to see what happens. Most units did stay put but some moved towards my units and so I had to pull out of Lang Kat towards French Fort. In Entrenchment 689 an Guerrilla ambush forced the B/3M company to retreat towards Rock Quarry before 26 Marine Battalion destroyed the enemy unit. Lang Vei also saw some heavy fighting but luckily enough I have managed to defend the fire base.
Communist activity!
Ok, next turn I gamble a bit and play Logistic Effort. Replace two allied air steps and increase the movement value of my ground forces by one (in clear and fortification tiles). I decide to surround and bombard the hell out of the Communist units moving towards Khe Sahn from Laos. The plan is successful but it leaves the base defended only by it's Garrison. Meanwhile the Communists decide to probe Khe Sahn. They replace one eliminated unit. It pops out in Entrenchment 689 and moves into Rock Quarry.
Boom! Surrounded.
Trying to take Rock Quarry eh?
We try Operation Igloo White. I was hoping to get one turn or at least reveal some Commies and see their next two cards but of course I rolled a 6 and it means the card is simply removed from play... darn luck. I also got only the B-52 and one air unit back but it was sufficient enough to clear LZ Cates and the Rock Quarry. With lucky dice these air units are simply too powerful. I draw Lang Vei for the the OPFOR but since the Communists don't have any forces present in Laos nothing happens.
Khe Sahn seems relatively safe...
As it turned out it was to be the last turn of the game. I played Allied Build Up and reinforced the Americans with 1st Cav. Moved into Lang Roi and air transfered the 1st and 3rd Brigade to LZ Cates. The over powered airstrikes eliminated Communist units in LZ Mike and Lang Kat. The Communist take the Dau Tranh card but since there are no NVA units near Khe Sahn the card does nothing and the turn marker goes to 1. I count the victory points and with 34 it's a Strategic Victory for the Allies.
After game thoughts. The Allied air power can be too powerful and actually it was. Air units won this game despite taking some loses at the beginning. All in all I will give the game another go sometime in the future.
Great write-up, Piotr. :D I have not tried this game myself, but I've played other Decision titles and am a long-time subscriber to the Strategy & Tactics magazine series in which these games are initially rolled out, reviewed, and "published."
We discussed Khe Sanh at length in our recent Tet Offensive article series. I realize some historians may not consider Khe Sanh strictly part of the Tet Offensive, which was mostly an NLF / Viet Cong effort rather than a PAVN / NVA offensive like Khe Sanh. But they were taking place at the same time and I feel were both part of the overall communist effort in the opening months of '68.
26th Marine Regiment (along with a contingent of South Vietnamese Rangers and later 1st Bn / 9th Marines) were incredibly outnumbered by perhaps 40,000 NVA troops in all (three divisions, 304, 324, and 325C). So yes, the air power had to be extreme. I hope it didn't make your game feel lopsided or "wonky," but Khe Sanh is literally the HEAVIEST USE OF TACTICAL AIRPOWER IN THE HISTORY OF WARFARE. If there was EVER a time for airpower to be "OP," it's here. :D
Let's look at some numbers: 54,500 tons of napalm released by TacAir over NVA positions surrounding Khe Sanh. TacAir was very accurate, sometimes hitting NVA "creeping entrenchments" coming to within 300 yards of forward Marine Corps positions.
Moving to the strategic bombers, the B-52s conducting "ArcLite" missions as part of operation Niagara were originally restricted to targets 3400 yards away from the nearest Marine Corps positions (2 miles, already far more accurate). These “ArcLight” strikes were released from much higher altitudes than WW2 bombers (over 30,000 feet in some cases), and were partially guided by electronic ground sensors that had been dropped into the jungle around suspected NVA avenues of approach. As the Battle of Khe Sanh grew more desperate in the last days of February 1968, these B-52 strikes were pulled in to with 1200 yards of Marine positions (3/4 of a mile).
These particular missions landed RIGHT on top of NVA positions that had been “trenching” their way toward the Marine perimeter, and included 53,000 tons of bombs. Close-in bombing by B-52s, already a staple of TacAir with “Snake & Nape”, was henceforth a norm for B-52 strikes as well. At the height of the ArcLite bombing, three B-52s were unloading over Khe Sanh every 90 minutes for weeks on end.
In the few miles around Khe Sanh, the 77 days of the siege wound up being hit with about 111,000 tons of bombs. Even if only HALF of this bombing weight is actual high explosive (accounting for bomb casings, fuses, fins, etc), we’re still talking 55 kilotons of PURE EXPLOSIVE, or over 5 times the explosive power released on Hiroshima. North Vietnamese positions around Khe Sanh are on record as being hit with more aerial bomb tonnage than any other spot in the history of warfare, and a lot of it was within a quarter mile of friendlies.
So when people debate over whether we should have used tactical nuclear weapons at Khe Sanh, and yes, President L B Johnson was considering it, realize that effectively ... American airpower DID "nuke" the NVA at Khe Sanh, at least according to a certain interpretation of the numbers.
I especially like how your game wound up concluding when AirCav reinforced Khe Sanh. Historically, this was Operation Pegasus, when units of 1st AirCav Division re-opened Route 9 leading west past Khe Sanh toward the Laotian border. It's a source of argument to this day between the US Army and US Marine Corps, who insist they "didn't have to be rescued" - they'd already defeated the NVA divisions trying to take Khe Sanh (well, with PLENTY of help from USMC, US Navy, and especially US Air Force air power, we we've discussed).
I was also interested to see where the NVA tried to take the Rock Pile. In the months leading up to Tet Offensive and Khe Sanh, there is a campaign of battles here in the I Corps sector near the DMZ called "the Hill Fights" - where both sides really tried to take the high ground and set up fire bases like Camp Carrol, the Rock Pile. Artillery is the other crusher in Vietnam games like this, because as mighty as air power can be, artillery is more reliable. It bombards all day, all weather, all night, and is usually more accurate that airpower too.
Also, while the NVA has no real air support of their own (there was ONE fighter-bomber strike that came close to hitting Khe Sanh, I think), the NVA has PLENTY of artillery. at think at the height of the siege, Khe Sanh was hit by something like 1300 shells a day, some 122mm and 130mm shells fired all the way from Laos.
Great game, great blog post! This is EXACTLY the kind of wargame that needs more attention. Great job, I hope to see more!
Thanks Jim! Now, that's what I call and insightful comment on the topic of Khe Sahn. If I remember, I read somewhere that the Khe Sahn siege was to draw the American attention from the upcoming Tet Offensive. However, I do not know if this hypothesis isn't too far going. As for the game, the amount of air power available to the American forces can be overwhelming. Especially if you roll too many 6. On the turn in which I surrounded the forces coming from Laos the air strikes did the job without me having to fight on the land. The game itself tries to simulate the bad weather etc. with the recycle of the air units rule but I still think it is too much. Also, I think the NVA forces are too static.
Hello friends, so I have been painting a small present for a friend that's interested in the Waterloo battle. I got a free sprue of the Household Brigade in one of the Wargames Illustrated magazines and so the decision had been made. After some research around the web for good examples of the uniforms I managed to paint this little diorama.
Great write-up, Piotr. :D I have not tried this game myself, but I've played other Decision titles and am a long-time subscriber to the Strategy & Tactics magazine series in which these games are initially rolled out, reviewed, and "published."
OdpowiedzUsuńWe discussed Khe Sanh at length in our recent Tet Offensive article series. I realize some historians may not consider Khe Sanh strictly part of the Tet Offensive, which was mostly an NLF / Viet Cong effort rather than a PAVN / NVA offensive like Khe Sanh. But they were taking place at the same time and I feel were both part of the overall communist effort in the opening months of '68.
26th Marine Regiment (along with a contingent of South Vietnamese Rangers and later 1st Bn / 9th Marines) were incredibly outnumbered by perhaps 40,000 NVA troops in all (three divisions, 304, 324, and 325C). So yes, the air power had to be extreme. I hope it didn't make your game feel lopsided or "wonky," but Khe Sanh is literally the HEAVIEST USE OF TACTICAL AIRPOWER IN THE HISTORY OF WARFARE. If there was EVER a time for airpower to be "OP," it's here. :D
Let's look at some numbers: 54,500 tons of napalm released by TacAir over NVA positions surrounding Khe Sanh. TacAir was very accurate, sometimes hitting NVA "creeping entrenchments" coming to within 300 yards of forward Marine Corps positions.
Moving to the strategic bombers, the B-52s conducting "ArcLite" missions as part of operation Niagara were originally restricted to targets 3400 yards away from the nearest Marine Corps positions (2 miles, already far more accurate). These “ArcLight” strikes were released from much higher altitudes than WW2 bombers (over 30,000 feet in some cases), and were partially guided by electronic ground sensors that had been dropped into the jungle around suspected NVA avenues of approach. As the Battle of Khe Sanh grew more desperate in the last days of February 1968, these B-52 strikes were pulled in to with 1200 yards of Marine positions (3/4 of a mile).
These particular missions landed RIGHT on top of NVA positions that had been “trenching” their way toward the Marine perimeter, and included 53,000 tons of bombs. Close-in bombing by B-52s, already a staple of TacAir with “Snake & Nape”, was henceforth a norm for B-52 strikes as well. At the height of the ArcLite bombing, three B-52s were unloading over Khe Sanh every 90 minutes for weeks on end.
More to come ...
... continued ...
OdpowiedzUsuńIn the few miles around Khe Sanh, the 77 days of the siege wound up being hit with about 111,000 tons of bombs. Even if only HALF of this bombing weight is actual high explosive (accounting for bomb casings, fuses, fins, etc), we’re still talking 55 kilotons of PURE EXPLOSIVE, or over 5 times the explosive power released on Hiroshima. North Vietnamese positions around Khe Sanh are on record as being hit with more aerial bomb tonnage than any other spot in the history of warfare, and a lot of it was within a quarter mile of friendlies.
So when people debate over whether we should have used tactical nuclear weapons at Khe Sanh, and yes, President L B Johnson was considering it, realize that effectively ... American airpower DID "nuke" the NVA at Khe Sanh, at least according to a certain interpretation of the numbers.
I especially like how your game wound up concluding when AirCav reinforced Khe Sanh. Historically, this was Operation Pegasus, when units of 1st AirCav Division re-opened Route 9 leading west past Khe Sanh toward the Laotian border. It's a source of argument to this day between the US Army and US Marine Corps, who insist they "didn't have to be rescued" - they'd already defeated the NVA divisions trying to take Khe Sanh (well, with PLENTY of help from USMC, US Navy, and especially US Air Force air power, we we've discussed).
I was also interested to see where the NVA tried to take the Rock Pile. In the months leading up to Tet Offensive and Khe Sanh, there is a campaign of battles here in the I Corps sector near the DMZ called "the Hill Fights" - where both sides really tried to take the high ground and set up fire bases like Camp Carrol, the Rock Pile. Artillery is the other crusher in Vietnam games like this, because as mighty as air power can be, artillery is more reliable. It bombards all day, all weather, all night, and is usually more accurate that airpower too.
Also, while the NVA has no real air support of their own (there was ONE fighter-bomber strike that came close to hitting Khe Sanh, I think), the NVA has PLENTY of artillery. at think at the height of the siege, Khe Sanh was hit by something like 1300 shells a day, some 122mm and 130mm shells fired all the way from Laos.
Great game, great blog post! This is EXACTLY the kind of wargame that needs more attention. Great job, I hope to see more!
Thanks Jim! Now, that's what I call and insightful comment on the topic of Khe Sahn.
UsuńIf I remember, I read somewhere that the Khe Sahn siege was to draw the American attention from the upcoming Tet Offensive. However, I do not know if this hypothesis isn't too far going.
As for the game, the amount of air power available to the American forces can be overwhelming. Especially if you roll too many 6. On the turn in which I surrounded the forces coming from Laos the air strikes did the job without me having to fight on the land. The game itself tries to simulate the bad weather etc. with the recycle of the air units rule but I still think it is too much. Also, I think the NVA forces are too static.