Route 66

Saturday morning to Chester and the Deeside Defenders' Gauntlet gaming convention.  I say gaming convention because it's definitely got the emphasis on playing rather than shopping.

Jamie and I played in Route 66, Will McNally and Pete Jones's excellent Vietnam War game in which our heroes were tasked with transporting a convoy of supplies through hostile territory to a US firebase.

Route 66 - the red strips are 'blinds'; which may or may
not represent enemy activity.

Will and Pete used a fairly simple set of rules and kept all of the calculation work to themselves making it easy for the the players to concentrate on fighting the battle rather than playing the rules.

The long table was divided in two by a river.  On the nearside of the river was a village with we needed to pass through as it taking the trucks off road was likely to lead to them bogging down.  We decided to send our two M113 ACAVs into a flanking position so they could provide fire support whilst a squad of our infantry dismounted to attack frontally.

Unfortunately, the first blind that wasn't a blank turned out to be a trap.  An unlucky die roll meant that one of our precious two ACAVs hit a mine and was destroyed!  A significant dent in our firepower at an early stage of the game! 

The second M113 ACAV (centre) burns before we even start
to assault the village.

To the left of the ACAV an enemy MG and a squad of VC showed up and we were forced to debus two more of our six squads to engage them.

An NVA machine gun threatens the convoy's left flank.

We dealt with the enemy whilst a medevac helicopter was inbound to pick up the wounded from the knocked-out ACAV.

Suspiciously well-armed for a medevac but never mind.

Meanwhile, the lead squad successfully cleared the village despite it being full of VC.

The Brown Water Navy were a useful addition to our firepower.

Richard Baber and Rob Connolly wonder what's for lunch.

With the village taken to convoy pushed on towards the bridge.

Roofs restored now the enemy are destroyed, Will's hooches are
surprisingly effective for such simple cardboard and crepe paper constructions.

As the convoy reached the river a Loach overhead reported enemy activity in the forest and the Medevac helicopter suffered incoming small-arms fire and went down!

That's the downed Huey in the cloud of smoke by the river!

As the first elements of the convoy cross the bridge, the lead squad again
dismounts to rescue the crew and wounded from the downed Huey.

At this point Jamie was put in charge of the troops manning the Firebase and the cry of 'Sappers!' went up as the enemy launched a major assault.

I raced the one remaining M113 ACAV towards the camp gate thinking the vehicle's firepower could probably swing the battle our way.  Sadly, I hadn't accounted for the enemy's sole RPG-7 and my own ability to throw the worst possible score on a d10 at the crucial moment.  Easy Rider, having made it literally right to the wire, was knocked out by the incoming grenade.

Pete's pipe-cleaner RPG-in-flight zooms past the camp
perimeter defences to strike Easy Rider. 

Fortunately, though, we managed to fight off the enemy assault as the convoy escorts arrived just in time to shore up the camp's defences.

Route 66 was great fun and thanks are due to Pete and Will for putting on a great looking game and to Rob and Richard for having our backs when the gooks were all over us.  

I believe Sunday was to be Hue!  Jamie and I were sad that we couldn't be there.