Vietnam '65

[FullAuto]

No, not the 65th Vietnam War (that will be fought with sponges, only the sponges catch fire spontaneously), but Vietnam 1965.

 

Now that your minds r bloon wied open, I'll talk a little bit about why I've been a bit obsessed with this since I bought it. It's essentially a one-trick pony. The game generates a map, which includes a river, a stretch of road, some villages, and a lot of jungle. The map is different every time you play, but will always have the same features.

 

 

Your task, as the commander of a small US force, is to go out there and win the hearts and minds of the average Vietnamese village (preferably more than one, if you want to succeed) and locate the Ho Chi Min trail, a route the enemy units use that is generated with the map, but which remains invisible to you. The unit selection is small, and they are purchased using political will; in a simplistic representation of counter-insurgency operations, if you lose units, you lose the currency to buy more, but if you kill enemy units, you gain political will. Your goal, therefore, is to deploy your conventional forces against a guerrilla foe, win fights and sway villages to your side, and not get anyone massacred. It's pretty simple, and the normal difficulty level is not challenging, and veteran is quickly mastered too. However, when you start playing around with the custom difficulty, you soon find a level that consistently challenges you.

 

Because it isn't a straight fight, fog of war is a constant, and enemy units favour hit and run tactics. On your side, you have regular Phantom bombing runs and overwhelming military force...when you can bring it to bear. Enemy units nearly always get a free move after attacking, and so like to shoot and scoot out of sight range. This makes it a frustrating hunt, and against you, you have the paltry LoS of most of your units (Green Berets being the only exception), the jungle which is extensive, and the weather, which hampers your mobility.

 

You see, logistics is also modelled, quite simply, but accurately enough to be a constant pressure that you must puzzle away at every turn. Each unit has a certain amount of supplies, and any turn not ended in a base, the unit uses supplies. If a unit runs out of supplies, it is destroyed. Thus, your loyal fleet of Hueys is brought to the fore, and ye shall know the pain of a man who gets to use a helicopter fleet not for macho airmobile infantry operations to kick arse and take names, but drop people food, mail, and clean underwear. Feel the glory.

 

 

The logistic element means you will come to worship the Chinook as your God, and revile the rain which shortens its radius of movement. The combat chafes you against the cheesegrater of an enemy who has absolutely no reason to fight toe-to-toe. Did I mention helicopters can drop supplies into any hex, but can't pick up or drop off troops from jungle hexes? Did I mention you only get two bases, one of which is automatically placed near a map edge as your starting point, ensuring coverage is a nightmare? Did I mention the VC lay booby traps? Did I mention they like to RPG your helis as they go innocently about their logistical business? Did I mention NVA bases drain your political will every turn, threatening to sink your forces' attempts to fight, making replacing casualties impossible?

 

Graphically, audially, and even mechanically there's nothing remarkable here, but it is an interesting little toybox that attempts something a little bit different, and given my abiding interest in COIN, I find myself persevering, only to come back, up the difficulty level, and start the thankless fight again.

 

Cheap on Steam.