BODY COUNT
The Tet Offensive: January 30 1968. Part 1: The opening moves...
Each Command Decision aims to offer a series of playable options in timeless military scenarios. Command Decision is designed so you can read the situation and figure out your own command decisions if you were leading the troops on the ground. You can either work through the various options or use the mechanics to create the precise circumstances of the table top engagement. The scenarios may have particular historical themes and settings, but you can easily adapt the mechanics to suit your own preferences and collections.
SITUATION REPORT
Communist forces in Vietnam firmly believe that the South Vietnamese army is largely incapable and that a series of determined blows will break the resolve of the Americans. Up until this point US commander Westmoreland’s operations in South Vietnam and against North Vietnam have been paying off. The North
Vietnamese have suffered huge casualties and they have got nowhere on the battlefield in the south. Their economy was also being shattered by US bombing. The fear for the North Vietnamese was that eventually they would be stripped of resources to continue the war.
After considerable deliberation it was decided to launch a general offensive in the south to coincide with the lunar
New Year celebrations. For some months thousands of tons of supplies and tens of thousands of troops have made the journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. According to US intelligence the Communists have mustered 160,000 Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communists), 130,000 North Vietnamese regulars and over 30,000 support troops.
To face them the combined strength of the South Vietnamese military amount to 350,000. They could also call on over 150,000 South Vietnamese regional forces (militia) and a similar number of militia from the South Vietnamese Popular Force. Also in South Vietnam were 330,000 US Army, 78,000 US Marines, and several other smaller units, along with Australians, Thais and
South Koreans.
ROLE & COMMAND
You are Nguyen Thanh Tam local VC commander for the Central Highlands region and based in Pleiku, the capital of the Gia Lai Province. You have been ordered to plan a series of attacks as part of the overall Tet Offensive operations. Pleiku has enormous strategic importance as it sits on Highway 19 leading to the vital port of Qui Nhon. It also commands the road from Kon Tum in the north to Buôn Ma Thuô. t in the south. The enemy knows how important the region is to the defence of the highlands and has studded the region with firebases, roadblocks and troop concentrations. With limited resources, you must plan a series of escalating attacks on the enemy using intelligence gathered from your agents across the region.
In order to move on to the second phase of the operation, you will need to have carried out three attacks and amassed at least 10 VPs. If you achieve this you can tackle the attack on Pleiku featured in next month’s Miniature Wargames where we will introduce a new series of challenging scenarios.
SCENARIO MECHANICS
To run one of the scenarios, simply choose a target on the map. Ideally, the communist player should be told what to expect at that location, but only in the broadest terms (exact troop figures should be kept secret). The communist player then selects the units that he intends to commit to that attack. The problem is that the communist player must commit to two attacks at a time so they will have to split the forces and not commit all of them against one target each time.
In each case, the communist player must then decide which units he will deploy at the start of the game and which units he will hold back as reinforcements. The ‘Nam rulebook (see rules options later on) contains
detailed information about the table layout and other factors. If the communist player wants reinforcements then he must first throw the appropriate number on a d6, and then throw a second set of dice to determine the delay in their arrival on the table top.
The Victory Points column in the table outlines the objectives of the scenario in order to win the appropriate number of VPs. The Bonus column details (where appropriate), how to win additional VPs for extra objectives being met.
Note that the communist player needs 10 VPs and must have committed – and fought – three engagements in order to proceed to the attacks on Pleiku. Since the communist player has to commit to two attacks at a time, this means that, theoretically, 10VPs could be attained without having to fight the fourth engagement. The communist player has two options after the first two engagements have been fought (and they are presumably in possession of some VPs):
Choose one of either the third or fourth engagements in the hope that they win that engagement and reach the 10VP target. If they should fail to do this then they must choose two more engagements and fight both of them even if they reach 10VPs after the first engagement
Opt to fight both the third and fourth engagement as an insurance policy in order to reach 10VPs. If they should fail to achieve this then they can choose one more location to attack to reach their target.
If the communist player fails to reach 10VPs and/ or lacks the strength in his units to make more attacks then he has lost the campaign. If he reaches 10VPs, he has won the first phase of the operation and can move on to the more daring attacks.
ADDITIONAL RULES
Uncommitted NVA or VC units suffer from attrition from disease and enemy bombing. Roll one d10 each turn they are uncommitted and the score represents the percentage of men lost (i.e. a 9 means 9% lost and a 0 means there are no losses).
Troops that are uncommitted but have suffered casualties in a previous engagement can be regained by throwing a d8. A throw of 7-8 means 75% return to the ranks, 5-6 means half return and 3-4 mean a quarter are healed. A score of 1-2 means you must throw a second attrition d10 as a penalty.
RULES
These scenarios were written to match the requirements of The ‘Nam: The Way It Was by Wayne Bollands and published by Partizan Press.
Those of you that have been gaming Vietnam scenarios for some years may remember Bodycount, published back in the 1980s (occasionally available second hand, but some chancers will ask over £50 for a copy)
at the other end of the spectrum you can download a free set of skirmish rules like those at wargames. watkins-family.co.uk/vietnam/vietnamrules.htm).
Larger actions designed for 15mm gaming is the focus of the popular ‘Nam set by Battlefront. There is also Force on Force Companion Book 3 The Vietnam Conflict which I believe is only now available as a PDF download from Ambush Alley. As another alternative you could dip into the Wargames Vault and download Fire Team: Vietnam V2.0 - Part 1 - Platoon Command as a pdf for two dollars US.
TET: FACT CHECK
Although the attacks around Pleiku are fictitious, the first real attacks took place shortly after midnight on January 30. The assaults tended to follow a similar pattern; rockets and mortars were fired into enemy positions and then battalion strength Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units would launch mass assaults.
For the most part the assaults caught the South Vietnamese and their allies by surprise, but certainly in the majority of cases the Communists had been driven out of their objectives by first light. Many of the engagements did not involve American troops and sometimes the fighting lasted for two or three days.
Saigon was a major target. There were six objectives in the centre of the city alone, many of them military headquarters or other targets such as the palace and the radio station. Around Saigon ten Viet Cong battalions attacked other objectives. Small groups of Viet Cong spread out across the city, armed with lists of individuals to be executed. There were major set piece battles, such as in Hue. The bulk of the city was overrun by around 7,500 Communist troops and it fell on the US 1st Marine Division and South Vietnamese troops to clear the city house by house.
At Khe Sanh the attacks had actually begun on January 21. It was defended by some 6,000 US and South Vietnamese troops and was being besieged by around 20,000 North Vietnamese regulars. This siege would last until April 8. A major relief operation reached Khe Sanh, by which time the North Vietnamese had already begun their withdrawal. At least 8,000 North Vietnamese were killed.
The Tet Offensive continued and North Vietnam was sending reinforcements to replace losses. Isolated camps and military bases across the whole of South Vietnam were subjected to vicious and determined assaults. Saigon was struck again in August and it is estimated that the Communists lost around 20,000 men in this operation.
It has been estimated that at least 180,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops were killed in 1968. This radically changed the balance of Communist troops in South Vietnam. At least 14,000 civilians had also been killed. The South Vietnamese army had lost nearly 28,000; US losses in the first week alone were over 500 killed and 2,500 wounded. Total casualties for 1968 reached a massive 16,500.
The Tet Offensive had a massive impact on the American administration and general public. Up until this point they had been led to believe that the Communists were losing the war.
But it was now clear that they were capable of delivering devastating offensives. ■
Next Month: City warfare in Pleiku!