State of Play: Saigon 75

 

I’ve been falling behind on my posts, and there are reasons for that, but rather than go into the tawdry details, I’ll just teel you quickly about a game we played late last week. The game is Saigon 75 (Nuts! Publishing, 2023), a recent acquisition (bought on sale with Espana 1936 (Devir, 2007) to save on shipping – you can find an unboxing of that one here). I had every intention of doing an unboxing of Saigon 75 before putting up any other content, but such was not to be (that would have made for a short post anyway – there isn’t all that much to the game, components-wise).

Initial set-up, post Hallowe'en visitations.

Saigon 75 is a game covering the last roughly two years of the “American War” in South Vietnam. One player plays the ARVN, and the other the NVA. I refer to the sides as the two competing armies because very little in the way of politics is reflected in the game. It really is a clash of iron and blood, and each side tries to use what they have to hand to pummel the opposing side into submission. Except that the South Vietnamese player is pummelling with one hand tied behind their back.

The first thing you need to know about Saigon 75 is that if you’re playing the ARVN, you will almost certainly loose. Odds are stacked in the enemy’s favour, and he doesn’t have t be a master tactician to bring about your demise. This is built into the game; the NVA dice offer more hits (two strikes, two retreats and two blank faces, compared to the ARVN one hit, two retreats and three blank sides), their potential activations increase with the passing of time, and your South Vietnamese troops will begin to desert their posts if the North make too many territorial gains. The designers, Jean-Philippe Barcus and Pascal Toupy, warn prospective players of this in the introductory comments of the game. It’s the first in a series called the UP! (or Under Pressure!) series. It’s designed to be a quick-playing game that will allow a second game in an evening (so the players can change sides and each experience a win). The next game in the series will be Vendée 93 and will be published by Fellowship of Simulations. A Kickstarter campaign is planned for this one, so watch this space for news of the launch.

The Thin Yellow Line.

But let’s get back to The NVA player has two kinds of units, tall, division-level red cylinders (NVA) and shorter black cylinders (Viet Cong). If an NVA division takes a hit, it is replaced by a half-height brigade cylinder. The ARVN player starts with some resources on the board, mostly regular South Vietnamese infantry divisions (tall, yellow cylinders, some motorised brigades, and a few US forces (marines, rangers). But it’s not enough to cover everywhere, and the North Vietnamese can attack from anywhere along the country’s land border, with anything from superior to overwhelming force.

Some early South Vietnamese casualties. They weren't the last.

This isn’t a review, so I don’t want to get lost in the tall grass here, but here’s a quick precis of the game’s workings. The game is played over eight seasons/turns (if the South can hold out that long). In a turn the NVA plays a card from their hand of three, then rolls a die to see how many activations they get for that turn (result plus a set number, depending on the season) deploy or move its units, engages in combat, and when everything else is completed, check the status of the provinces. Any provinces held solely by North Vietnamese forces get a red star marker. This is a Quyết Thẩng (local militia) marker, representing the control the North Vietnamese have in that province. This becomes more important at the close of the South Vietnamese phase.

The ARVN player’s turn follows the same mode as the NVA, except after checking for province control, the ARVN player may have to roll on the desertion table. This is a killer, and it’s what ultimately cost me the game. If the NVA control five or more South Vietnamese provinces – represented by the Quyết Thẩng stars, the ARVN player has to roll a die, and remove the result’s value worth of troops form the board, in a preferential order to mitigate the immediate pain. This happens every turn thereafter.

"I hear Switzerland is nice this time of year."

So, just to recap, the North Vietnamese have more troops available, and they’re more effective in combat. They can go places you can’t – back across the border into Laos or Cambodia – and can engage you from anywhere along said border. And the better they do, the worse it gets for you. Nobody said the job was going to be easy.

T took Saigon province (the primary victory condition) at the end of turn six, after a bad roll on the desertion table saw the last of my remaining ARVN troops pull up stumps.  Could feel the downdraft from the helicopter on the roof of the US embassy on the back of my neck, the defeat was that visceral (it turned out to be the air-conditioner). Victory as the South Vietnamese is possible, but the pressure builds unrelentingly, and each misstep or unlucky roll makes the job ever so much harder. Good thing I like a challenge.