Brothers by my Side is a wargame about a single battle in the American involvement in Vietnam. This was an odd game because I took over the hot seat of the American side after start of play, as the previous player was indisposed.
So at the start of turn two what did I find. Fortunately the VC hadn't activated so were still on the start line. Unfortunately the chit pull event was that the reinforcements would be delayed for two turns meaning that I was stuck on my lonesome until the last but 1 turn. Futher more I found one platoon down on H7, the Gunships pulling out and the remaining troops clustered around K5.
I thought to move the troops forwards into the ditch by way of protection and moved that way. Then the hordes of VC started moving. They surged forwards, some sweeping east doing an end around the rough terrain. Others went north doing the same and there were still plenty coming straight through the rough.
I pulled the lonesome company back as they would have been surrounded out on thier own.
The VC came into sight from all directions at once. The US leader called in artillery on the lead elements that had hooked North and then East but sadly it didn't do any good.
The lonesome platoon who had pulled back to the ant hills got into a fire fight, but stood thier ground. Unfortunately the American CO and the platoon he was with was then taken out by strikes from three directions.
The VC swarming continued and they even took possesion of K5. One US platoon was knocked down a step.
The VC reinforcements poured onto the board making a bad situation frankly untenable, when (phew!) the US reinforcements arrived. They dropped the choppers into the remaining few holes in the VC Swarms. Unfortunately they jumped into melee, and were repulsed forcing one unit to retreat and another unable to retreat was destroyed, which included the only Leader meaning there were no more artillery or air-support to be had.
At this stage there were only two american units left in play with no real hope.
The final VC turn had the units surrounded on all sides, one unit was blown away, the second unit survived "by accident". This happy event occurred because the VC units had become mixed, thus although surrounded it could only be hit by a number of small attacks rather than 1 big one.
A sad day for me, not really a hope. Foobar from the start. With the leaders out of position or dead, a bad initial deployment and seriously delayed reinforcements.
Still very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to playing the other scenarios.
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