I may have been quiet on here but rest assured I have been toiling away behind the scenes. We have some fun stuff developing in the Iron Dice Incubator (TM) not to mention the half dozen articles I have started in the past 3 week… stay tuned I suppose?
Excitingly, in the past few weeks we hit 50,000 lifetime site views and we are closing in on doubling our view total from last year. So, thank you for hanging out with us dear reader. We never set out to do anything other than give something back to the community but it’s cool to reach a milestone like that. Oh and thank you too Russian bot trolling our work for memes to use. Thank you.
But alas amongst the rampant 50k celebrations Hobby Butterfly Ben (HBB) has struck again! I broke out my 15mm Vietnam US Armored Cavalry troop. After pawing the sprues up I broke down and ordered some Charlie for them to play with. It started with a well timed eBay auction that netted me most of a company and then another eBay sale I stumbled on… one thing led to another and now I have a company of NVA regulars with support plus some new kit for my Americans.
I have to say that everything is on the table for Vietnam. US armored cavalry, highly mobile US aircav, trolling Brown Water Navy, ARVN beating the bushes… each has an allure all their own. The problem is narrowing the projects down and finding a suitable ruleset.
In a motivated mood, I reached out to Long Shot Wargaming to see if they would share their Battlegroup adaptions for Vietnam. Then I looked into Iron Fist Publishing (Battlegroup Authors) NAM ‘68 Tour of Duty. The skirmish rules are intriguing and have a few unique mechanics but I really feel like the main Battlegroup rules can support Nam in a more pleasing way. It may not have happened all the time but company on company size combat with vehicles and air power sounds awesome. Vietnam can be a happy medium of WWII and Cold War with a hefty jungle seasoning.
Evan also started reading Charlie Don’t Surf by the Too Fat Lardies. So far he’s given it a thumbs up with the only hitch being the force sizes. It seems to be a company sized game and that would take us both some time to assemble and paint. Who knows we may be writing our own adaption if we can’t find something suitable.
Quick plan of attack is… everything is on hold until after Adepticon in March. I managed to pick up another project that has, predictably, spiraled out of control. So until I have a handle on all of my commitments I need to focus myself down. Maybe an M113 here or there. I can indulge in some model building while listening to The Black Angels for the new age Vietnam vibe right?
I did hem and haw at which mortar to give my Armored Cavalry platoon. It seems 4.2” M106 mortar tracks were the first to be deployed but soon is inability to traverse 360 was identified as a substantial drawback in the jungle. Usually the platoon’s 4.2” mortar track was lumped together with other platoons’ mortar tracks at a firebase. This allowed easier resupply and coordination of larger fire missions but didn’t allow coverage for units operating out of range of the base.
The smaller 81mm armament on the M125 mortar track was able to rotate 360 degrees and had a shorter minimum range (46-72 meters vs 840 meters) allowing it to be used as an integral part of a platoon’s firepower. This switch happened around 1967 but some units didn’t get the 81s due to supply issues so the four deuce can still be appropriately used throughout the war.
So all that said I started with the M125 and will make a M106 when I get the need. I even managed to magnetize the mortar to allow it to spin 360 degrees like the real deal.
Oh what’s that you say? You started with? Yes dear readers I wrote that part of the article then but one night this past week my mother in law came over. Thankfully we have a good relationship but she and my wife wanted to chat at the kitchen table. I figured why not build an M113 while we talked? After a 2 glasses of wine I had three M113s built. Oops?
My apologies for the relative radio silence! I’ll try to be back in a flash, until then here are some more cool ‘Nam pictures from across the web.
Iron Dice Gaming 
I’ve never played any Viet Nam period stuff, so I’ll be interested in battle reports when you get there! 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
The pressure is on! The perpetual “we will do some video reports or higher grade written battle reports” is still in effect. I’d like to do some like WGC Ben did for his IJA vs USMC battle report a while ago.
I think Nam has some interesting stories to tell.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll look forward to those.
It’s not a period I know much about, but I listened to a fascinating audio book recently about the Long Range Patrols (???).
Lots of skirmish possibilities.
Have a great time over the festive season! 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
What was the name of the book? I’m always up for good book recommendations.
And thank you! You too. I hope it’s enjoyable and calm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was “Tango 1-1” by Jim Thayer.
Cheers 🙂 fingers crossed 🤞
LikeLiked by 1 person
All sounds good, Ben! 🙂 Maybe your mother-in-law needs to visit more often to give the chance to work on more stuff! 😉
I like the picture of the M125 firing – I had to look twice at the pic because it’s fitted with the ACAV 50-cal mounting for the commander. My plan is to do some 1972-75 period armour games in Vietnam when tanks-vs-tank actions were more common after the US withdrawal on the ground.
A slightly earlier period, but I thought Martin Windrow’s book “The Last Valley” about the French in Indochina and the Dien Bien Phu campaign was excellent (I’ve read it twice now)!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I always look forward to your comments John. I’ll let her know there is a standing invite and that I definitely don’t have an ulterior motive. 😆
I’ve been doing a lot of digging around on M113s and their equipment throughout the conflict. Interestingly, it seems anyone who could get up-armor kits did. ACAVs seem to be the belle of the ball for photos and I was doubting there were non upgraded M113s left after around 67… but there had to be. Most tracks had the up-armor though even non-cavalry units. I did see an interesting photo of an ACAV with the armored bowl and no front gun-shield as it interfered with firing the recoilless on the rear deck.
Seems like pretty much anything is possible? Have you found the same?
1972-75 is super interesting with the conventional ground forces aspect. I have fixings on some late ARVN M48s and ACAVs for that era. I am excited to see what you come up with too!
I’ve heard of The Last Valley but haven’t picked it up. Must be good to get two read throughs! It seems a lot of lessons were learned by both sides that stayed relevant later on. I’ll put that on my short list for book buys. Thanks for the recommendation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t delved too deeply into Vietnam armour yet, but I’ve got some books for reference. Since I already had scenery I bought some World of Tanks diecast sets at a good price, each box consisting of an M41 and a Type 59 and I manages to pick up a couple of diecast M48s as well. My plan is to repaint them and probably add some infantry but I think that’ll still be a little way off yet!
I’ve always been interested in the French Foreign Legion so I also bought another of Martin Windrow’s books because I’d enjoyed The Last Valley so much. That book was Our Friends Beneath The Sands and it recounts Foreign Legion operations worldwide from 1870 to the 1930s. I couldn’t put it down! Much of it is about North Africa (and very interesting) but it also had quite a bit on the Legion in Indochina in the 1880s/90s which was useful for me as I have troops for the 1880s operations!
And Christmas is nearly here, Ben, so have a good one! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the second time I’ve heard that book reccomended in a month. Guess I’ll have to procure a copy now
LikeLiked by 2 people