This topic contains 484 replies, has 35 voices, and was last updated by 
madman1960 5 years, 7 months ago.
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Good morning, everyone.
Well, we were able to run Valor & Victory Vietnam game this Sunday – pitting @elessar2590 and his two platoons of “A” Co, 7th Royal Australian Regiment against Oriskany’s company of 274th NLF / VC Main Force Regiment in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, January 1968.
It was neat wargaming live with a player from Australia, playing Australian troops, in a historical Vietnam wargame. The dice gods also seemed to remember it was his birthday, judging by how those opening mortar barrages landed!
Okay we were supposed to live stream this game, but it didn’t really work out. But I did record someof the highlights, and post the video excerpts to Sitrep YouTube and Twitch channels.
Just a clip, of course. But might bring a chuckle. 😀
I ran a game of Ghost Ops (Savage Worlds version) at Genghis Con in Denver on February 22nd. The general plot was that the SS Kurtaran, a Nigerian flagged ship owned by a known weapons dealer was headed to Veracruz, Mexico with an unknown cargo, but one rumored to be a “game changer” for the cartels.
The heroes arrived at Veracruz, Mexico and met contacts within the Mexican government and navy. After being confronted by crooked cops, getting information from a cartel lieutenant, and enjoying a run in with some overconfident sicarios, the team boarded the SS Kurtaran while it was still in international waters. Using stealth, hacking, and suppressed weapons, the team shut down the engines and captured a Hezbollah engineer. Things got noisy then and a close quarters battle raged in the stairwell and narrow halls. They managed to capture another HVT, an Iranian Quds operative, aand escape as fire consumed the ship and the Katyusha-style rockets it carried.
Unfortunately, I got so caught up in running the game that I didn’t get any other pictures of the action inside the ship. Maybe I’ll run the adventure again and be more thoughtful next time.
Good afternoon, everyone.
First off, let me get caught on on some replies …
@limburger – “I do wonder what real soldiers think of the kind of wargames we play.
Any other issues like tactics that don’t work as well in-game as they do in real life (or vice versa) ?”Well, most of the Sitrep team are in fact veterans. So any of our podcasts are going to reflect a little of that right off the bat. Look at the games we play, and the games we don’t play, and you’ll get a pretty solid idea.
Speaking only for myself, I try not to make too big of an issue out of “veteran status” because the last thing I want to do is present a forum that seems like a “veterans only” club or “non-veteran opinions don’t matter.” Absolutely clear, I want to avoid that like the plague.
Unfortunately, a lot of what we see in wargames these days come from movies. I don’t think the wargame designers are “ignorant” of how wrong the movies are, but they design their games that way on purpose to meet the expectations of the bulk of their anticipated audience.
These are business ventures, after all. Are you going to make one veteran happy, or 1,000 movie goers happy … especially since that one veteran may well not play wargames because they design their own, or aren’t comfortable with wargames (especially modern) or what have you.
So again, just speaking for myself, when I question design decisions in a wargame, what I’m really questioning is what tactics or behaviors are rewarded / punished. What’s a “good move” or a bad move, and how does that line up with good or bad moves on the real battlefield (modern or historical)? This is where the discussions of scale, battlefield conditions, balance of arms of force, etc come in. But really those are symptoms. Not the disease.
The disease is “this works in movies, 99% of our players think that’s how it is, they’re literally looking for a cinematic moment – let’s make our game to meet that expectation.”
You may have already seen it, but just in case, the “Scorpions of the Desert” video series took a lot at what we see in movies, then games, and compared that against actual tactics and battlefield conditions of the period.
Scorpions of the Desert Part One – Infantry Tactics
Scorpions of the Desert Part One – Infantry Movement
@alexm – thanks so much for joining us!
@neal5x5 – That ship looks awesome! Man, so there was action down IN the ship, down through lower decks and cargo holds (I think you also mentioned engine room, although it was done via hacking, so remotely)? I’m interested to hear how hacking worked in the game. Did one of the team members have a laptop or have to reach a terminal somewhere on the ship (i.e., an objective somewhere)? Did he just have to have so much time in the network or was there some kind of “contested roll” going on between opposing tech operators while the gunbattle / incursion was in progress?
@grimwolfuk – thanks for the plug. We have a game lined up or SATURDAY (Darkstar). I try to save Sunday for Moderns. I was holding out for Lebanon 1982 (either The Arab Israeli Wars or Valor & Victory) – but I may open it up to TCME (1991 Gulf War) or Valor & Victory: Vietnam) as well. So long as it’s a MODERN setting.
And yes, @templar007 . Mortars are allowed. 😀 So long as only I get them. (just kidding). 😀 😀 😀
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