Grasshoppers and Elephants

The mission i generated for this game was to contact and help the downed helicopter pilot to the extraction point.

To do this you have to split your order deck in half and have to get to the crash site and locate the crew member before the time runs out or the enemy have found and captured the crew member and the primary mission is failed.

The secondary mission is to get all units back to the players start point before the order cards run out.

This will be taking place in a hot LZ and is in VC territory.

The weather is clear with good radio contact. There is only limited artillery support but Air support is on station.

I set up my first units the M60 gunner and loader covering the village containing possible contacts, two grunts are going to have to move round the village to get to the crash before the timer runs out.

The NCO is placed to the back as he can pass his action on to another unit to keep them in the fight when needed.

The Enemy get the initiative on the first turn and as its a hot LZ the threat token is used straight away.

They get 3 slows 4 quicks. A unit of sappers have moved up to the right hand flank close to the m60 gunner and his loader. They open fire pinning the loader the M60 flips a joker when saving so gets the chance to fire back but misses.

most of the other possible contacts stay in place or start to move towards the edges getting closer to the players units.

In the players turn  the two grunts move out in to the open and on towards the objective.

Using the hand of cards a Medic and and RTO are called onto the board, i think the medic will be needed soon and the RTO allows you to keep to cards in your hand for later.

The M60 gunner opens up with the support of his loader but to no avail the sappers are to good at using the cover they are in and manage to save all the hits.

The NCO gives his action to the M60 gunner who again manages to miss his targets.

In the enemy phase the sappers move away from the combat firing as they go wounding the loader of the M60 then they just fade into the undergrowth the area is probably riddled with tunnels and spider holes.

As the players forces push forwards towards the objective they reveal a contact in the village its a civilian who hunkers down behind the wall.

This changes the rout they were going to take so now have to push on through the undergrowth near the crash.

The VC forces are building up on the left flank with more and more possible contacts.

A grunt defending the flank tries to reveal one of them  but can’t see anything yet.

The enemy take the initiative and the threat level rises again flipping 3 quicks. All enemy units and contacts get a free out of sequence action.

The contacts surge forwards one unit of VC moves towards the right side that is  covered by the m60 gunner, its very  close range and the gunner does not have time to swing the pig around before he is taken out of action and hits the ground next to the loader that the medic is still working on.

The left side also comes under fire from a unit of VC but so far they have not done any damage.

The US player has to deal with static on the radio so the RTO’s action is used up trying to sort that out

The medic keeps trying to help the loader and the NCO toys to stop the M60 gunner from bleeding out.

The Two grunts moving on the objective get up to the wall overlooking the crash.

The Villager moves out into the open behind  them and between the players extraction point. This could become a problem as time is running out.

Using a pair of cards from the players order hand the RTO calls in for more orders this can be used once per game and allows the player to move ten cards from the discard pile to the order pile giving the player two extra turns (go’s)

The last thing the US has to do this turn is pop smoke to help show the air support where the targets are next turn.

As the crash site has two contacts covering it the grunts will probably only be able to deal with one and are too close for an artillery strike so hopefully i will have the cards in my hand to call in an OH-6 scout helicopter to either drop smoke to cover the extraction or use the M60 to keep the enemies heads down.

The card hand provides and the OH-6 arrives on station.

when a helicopter moves over the table each enemy on the table flips a card if its red they are revealed if not already and take a shot.

A unit of vc in the rocks to the north west take pot shots with there rifles and manage to cause a hit, an other unit on the opposite corner by the village opens fire with an mmg and misses.

The grunts search the helicopter and find the pilot he triggers two pcs one is a unit of VC but he manages to move before they spot him, the other is an ambush covering the crash  and an mmg opens up at close range and some how manages to miss the pilot so he jumps over the wall into relative safety.

Now he just needs to be extracted.

The OH-6 opens up with the M60 at the ambushing mmg unit and takes it out before leaving the area.