Grasshoppers and Elephants

The enemy take the initiative and because a helicopter was on the table the threat increases by two.

The first increase is hidden in plain site, any civilians in play are replaced with a VC unit.

The second increase is spider holes.

spider holes are difficult as they can pin your units down. When time is short this can be bad.

This is a problem as the grunts and pilot are now cut off from the extraction point and the village has a unit with an mmg in it.

The VC unit that just arrived reinforces with an RPG and takes a shot its off target but still wounds a grunt guarding the extraction zone.

The grunts take shots at the VC unit behind them taking one out of action the grunts and the pilot move cautiously into the village taking cover as they go trying to stay out of the firing arc of the mmg.

A grunt with a blooper is called in to help hold the extraction zone.

The right hand side is all pretty much out of action but the left hand side is still holding on.

The vc keep the initiative this time the threat is blank giving the US a bit of breathing space.

The VC mmg team moves into the building opposite the grunts and pilot then they open up on them before fading away luckily the cover they are in holds out and they have just enough turns to move back to complete the primary objective

At the extraction zone things are getting back under control.

the medic heals the m60 loader but unfortunately the RTO is KIA

The NCO lobs a grenade at the remaining VC threatening to over run the right side and takes them out.

the blooper uses a card from the order hand and loads up with buck shot rounds and takes out  most of the unit in front of him, the grunt next to him fires into the unit with the RPG reducing it to one man.

The US kept the initiative for the next two turns and although the possible contacts started building up on the farside of the table the bottom end was clear so the pilot could move in and extract safely.

If the VC had taken the initiative it would have been a different story as the US forces were so close together at the extraction point it would only have taken one hit to cause a lot of damage. As it was the player units were able to fire on anything that came i to view and kept the enrmy at bay long enough to extract the pilot.

unfortunately it was only a partial victory as the primary mission was completed but the secondary could not be as the RTO was taken out of action.

All in all its been a fun afternoon gaming.

i cant help but think it could have been a lot different if the sappers had not stopped the m60 advancing into the village keeping the enemy away from the right flank.

also the villager caused problems as it stopped me moving directly to the objective then spawned VC making it very hard for me to get back in one bit.