Afghanistan '11 is the sequel to the highly praised and innovative Vietnam '65. It enhances and builds on it: Afghanistan '11 changes the paradigm of wargaming and manages to bring Counter-Insurgency and guerrilla warfare to your screen, properly represented thanks to a revolutionary gameplay!
Crikey, doesn't time fly when you're having fun! It's been ages since a wargame got under my skin the way this cheap counter-insurgency curio has this past seven days. While the discovery of minor flaws in Johan's design means I'm not quite as fixated as I was midweek, the small 1st Air Cavalry badge on my desktop still attracts my mouse cursor like an overused LZ attracts RPG-toting Viet Cong.
Vietnam ‘65 Game
In effect, you're one of William Westmoreland's lieutenants colonel. Every time you start a new game you're presented with a rectangle of randomly generated real estate. Your job is to ensure the ten villages that dot this jungle-swathed tract don't fall under the thrall of the Communists during the next 45 turns.
Once you're comfortable with the controls and play principles - a process that shouldn't take long bearing in mind V65's underlying simplicity and crisp integrated tutorials - games last around 90 minutes. I'd estimate that at least 50 of those minutes are usually spent organising supply drops for your hungry, ammo-short grunts. Some players are already calling for greater logistical automation. If Every Single Soldier ever alter the supply mechanics - something they are considering, apparently - then any changes will need to be implemented extremely carefully. In many ways the daily grind of logistical support is Vietnam 65. The endless ritual of sending out crate-laden helicopters, like the endless ritual of arranging regular village visits, structures and propels play, and counterpoints the fairly simplistic combat. It's a comfortingly repetitive process but it's never totally identical from turn to turn.
The game's genre-defying quirkiness extends to its approach to terrain, units, and bases. Engineering units can be used to clear jungle hexes, build roads, and construct secondary bases. Perhaps the most important decision in any session is where to place your one firebase - a fortified camp/artillery position that, if positioned wisely, quickly becomes a crucial distribution hub. Less important but more frequent are unit purchasing dilemmas.
Perhaps if VC and NVA ambushes were a little deadlier, I wouldn't have won every one of my last eight games. Right now, I'd argue that V65's main problem isn't laborious supply mechanics, a missing campaign mode (in place of a campaign there's a medals and promotion system that rewards cumulative kill tallies and encourages tactical experimentation) or a glitchy UI (de-selecting a unit with a right-click doesn't always work at the moment) it's difficulty. After a week in the boonies, I'm starting to wish there was a difficulty setting above 'veteran'. Unless the random map generator churns out an especially leafy venue, it's rare I taste defeat. I'm still enjoying the process of methodically cleansing and controlling a map, but, with most available awards already adorning my uniform, victories are starting to lose their lustre.
Though there's no immediate prospect of an 'elite' difficulty setting with a selection of gongs to go with it, Every Single Soldier are aiming to patch in a clutch of features that may render difficulty concerns moot. On the way is weather modelling that will ground Phantoms on occasion (Currently, once you've climbed a couple of rungs on the promotion ladder, napalm deluges can be called in every turn at no cost). Custom games with player-determined victory and starting conditions are also planned.
Whatever happens to Vietnam 65 during the coming nine months, I'm confident it will go down as one of 2015's most original and moreish military strategy games. A few months ago in The Flare Path I mused on the subject of 'the perfect introductory wargame'. Assuming you aren't allergic to a little logistical hard work, this cheap, flavoursome slice of Sixties history might just be it.
Bruce: So this game seems fascinating. Completely ahistorical in every way, yet an interesting gaming problem to solve and arguably a practical solution to an almost intractable problem of simulating the nonmilitary tactical aspects of counterinsurgency. I both love and hate the concept. I wonder if the gameplay will make me feel the same way?
Bruce: I definitely see your point. Even then, I find the limits on things like supply kind of artificial. Resources in this context should be essentially unlimited, and only their effective delivery should be limited. But I also love the concept because it tries to take something no one has really tried in a videogame, and does it. That earns it about one bazillion victory points in my book.
Bruce: Airstrikes are a perfect example of the way in which this game depicts the conflict in American terms: if you airstrike it, it will blow up. All I need to do to an NVA unit in the jungle is fly a jet over it. Kaboom.
And your observation on the Green Berets is right on, and probably what got me to start thinking about this game differently. Because US Special Forces in Vietnam were never front-line assault troops, and making them an upgrade to the regular infantry would have made this a Rambo-alike, which is fine in itself but not at all compatible with a game system where you spend your time ferreting out craps of information about enemy locations and pacifying villages. I love the way a few clear hexes in the jungle suddenly become valuable terrain, solely for the ability to make helicopter insertions. Do you know how glad I am that this game makes jungle a royal pain to deal with?
Bruce: One thing this game represents well is the US firepower advantage. This is something you see in the COIN series game Fire in the Lake as well. Once the US decides to blow something up, it generally blows up good. Airstrikes are devastating in this game, as is US artillery and helicopter gunships. Exposed enemy are dead enemy. The problem is that too often, there are too many of them.
The graphics are nice, if basic. There are seven kinds of terrain: open, rough, rice paddy, road, village, river, and of course, jungle, all of which are distinctly different and easily recognized. Terrain affects game play in various ways. For example, infantry cannot air-assault into jungle, village or rice paddy. Mechanized and armored units move quickly in the open and along roads but move much slower in the jungle. Engineer units can clear jungle but cannot build roads through rough areas, and so on.
Karp was a 21-year-old senior at Princeton University when he designed the game.[1] He called it a "serious attempt" to simulate the conflict.[1] Karp spent 18 months researching and designing the game.[2] It combines military and political concerns. "The emphasis of the game is on politics," said Karp. "Every action in the game has a corresponding morale effect in the U.S. and in South Vietnam: bombing the North, sending new troops, high casualty levels. The U.S. has to balance military needs with the ability of the U.S. to cater to them."[2] The game includes a 48-page manual on topics such as "Search and Destroy Operations," "Airmobility," "Pacification" and "Strategic Bombing." Smaller scenarios can be played in an evening, but to play the entire war (campaign) can take 100 to 400 hours.[1]
The game was criticized for being made too soon after the war when American families still grieved from the losses, but has since found acceptance.[3] It highly regarded among wargamers for capturing the feel of Vietnam.[4] It has been called "brilliant", "seminal", and "ingenious".[5] A new edition will be published by GMT Games with updated components and artwork.[5]
The game map covers the entire geographic area of South Vietnam, a small strip of North Vietnam just north of the South Vietnamese border, and portions of Laos and Cambodia that share a border with Vietnam.
Although easy to pick up and play, the game has the right thematic feel for Vietnam. Like a game of whack-a-mole, except your hammer is a tank and the moles can kill you if you don't hit them fast enough.
Il Vietnam rappresenta una pagina oscura della storia ma le sue controversie hanno generato un immaginario sconfinato, una vera e propria miniera di emozioni che tra un film e un libro ha dato vita anche a molti videogiochi. Uno di questi è Vietnam '65, uno strategico a turni che ci porta nel bel mezzo della massiccia offensiva ideata dagli Stati Uniti per dare una svolta decisiva al conflitto. All'epoca gli americani sottovalutarono le insidie del territorio e non compresero l'importanza dei rapporti con la popolazione finendo per subire una sconfitta drammatica. Il titolo targato Every Single Soldier non ci permette di compiere lo stesso errore trasformandolo in una meccanica chiave del proprio gameplay.
Vietnam '65 è uno strategico a turni contraddistinto dal temibile tabellone suddiviso in esagoni. Animazioni semplici e grafica modesta completano un quadro che potrebbe spaventare più di un giocatore ma non è il caso di allarmarsi. All'atto pratico il titolo di Every Single Soldier, pensato per essere fruibile anche su tablet, si accontenta di poche unità e di una manciata di comandi che sono accessibili attraverso comodi menù radiali. In pochi click, in sostanza, è possibile chiamare rifornimenti o bombardamenti, dispiegare rinforzi, realizzare sequenze di ordini e far si che tutte le unità dispiegate li portino a compimento. Ma la semplicità dell'interfaccia non si traduce in un gameplay banale. Il sipario si apre sulla cartina strategica di una mappa generata proceduralmente.
Siamo nel Vietnam del Sud e vestiamo i panni di un generale americano deciso a debellare i ribelli comunisti. Entrati in gioco ci troviamo a capo di una base operativa, di tre elicotteri, di un cannone, di un bulldozer e di alcune unità di fanteria. In alto a sinistra c'è un numero che indica l'opinione dei civili nei confronti del nostro esercito mentre in alto a destra un altro valore indica la nostra influenza politica che può essere spesa per chiamare rinforzi. Per vincere, compito tutt'altro che facile, è necessario tenere d'occhio entrambe le cifre con la prima che deve essere al di sopra dei 50 punti, ovvero il valore di partenza, allo scoccare del quarantacinquesimo turno di gioco. L'empatia del popolo nei nostri confronti cresce eliminando mine e tenendo i nemici lontani dai villaggi mentre scende se i Viet Cong raggiungono i centri abitati o uccidono i nostri soldati. Uccidere i nemici, invece, garantisce supporto politico che può essere speso per rinforzi e rifornimenti. Il problema è che questa risorsa cala in caso di perdite e viene consumata anche dai rifornimenti e dal carburante che rivestono un ruolo centrale nel gameplay. Ogni unità, infatti, ha un numero limitato di risorse che calano a ogni turno. Per rifornire le truppe servono elicotteri da trasporto che a loro volta devono spendere un turno per fare il pieno quando passano da una base. La prima cosa da fare, in sostanza, è quella di pianificare ogni movimento in modo da poter assicurare i rifornimenti e per farlo può essere utile mandare in prima linea i nostri ingegneri che possono costruire avamposti, creare strade e aprire strade nella giungla. Il terreno, d'altronde, è un elemento decisivo che altera la velocità di avanzamento delle truppe e le possibilità di ingaggio. La giungla inoltre nasconde completamente i Viet Cong che dipendono da meccaniche ben diverse da quelle a cui deve sottostare il giocatore. 2ff7e9595c
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