Vietnam: Squad Leader Style?

That really is the box art - taking minimalism to the extreme methinks - and yes, that is a M18 Claymore command detonated mine. 

During this minor bout of  ‘L'angoisse de la page blanche’ - writer’s block or ‘the anxiety of the blank page’ sounds far more impressive in French - I have been poking and prodding the project pile of shame from various directions and, it has to be said, with varying levels of enthusiasm. It has given me much to think about going forwards though and has served to reinforce ideas about what I will be doing when I can get to do it!

Anyways, as part of my meanderings I made a point of tidying up my board game collection and was pleasantly reminded of a recent acquisition that has been, unsurprisingly, languishing on the shelf of shame.

Front Toward Enemy is a tactical level game of combat during the Vietnam War published by MMP Games. Units are fire teams or specialists - commanders, snipers, medics and such like - with support weapons ‘crewed’ within the counter. There are a of course, helicopters a-plenty - Medevac, Hogs, Slicks, Observation and Cobra attack types. The NV gain the arms and the inevitable black pyjama types along with civilians and plenty of dummy counters. It has two map sheets printed with a suitable Vietnamese landscape complete with rice paddies and jungle which are very nice but printed on paper so their longevity will not be great methinks - off to be laminated I suspect at some point. I have yet to play Front Toward Enemy due to it only being partially punched. This however, will not be a problem as I have discovered a new type of board game therapy - the gentle art of clipping, more of which later.

I had a hankering to tackle Vietnam using a Memoir ‘44 based system and 20mm plastic figures some years ago. Then came a brief flirtation with the game Nam ‘65 which very good but it never really did it for me. I had often thought that the period would work with a Squad Leader style approach which is why I think that this latest acquisition may tick that particular box for me. Time will tell.

The counter clippers I own. More expensive versions include the facility to be able to control the size of the cut. These do not but as they did not cost me anything I can hardly complain!

I mentioned ‘clipping’ earlier and for the uninitiated this is rounding off the corners of cardboard counters to make them more aesthetically pleasing as well as making them less likely to ‘lift’ with excessive use. Essentially you use a tool something like a large pair of nail clippers and carefully trim each corner. It is mind numbingly simple to do and soothingly therapeutic. Of course if you had to tackle such a game as ‘Drach Nach Osten or even Flat Top it may get a little tedious. I have clipped around two thirds of the counters from Front Toward Enemy and I have to say that the effort is certainly worth it. It saves all that careful cutting with a scalpel, thereby reducing the risk to one’s fingers.  

Before and after (actually that should after and before but you know what I mean!). Counters that have a lot of information on them run the risk of having some of the detail removed but luckily in this case all was well. They definitely look tidier in my opinion.

Will I clip the counters from all my boardgames? To be honest probably not, simply because a typical half inch square counter may lose too much when clipped - those above are 5/8th of an inch - but I shall worry about that when I need to. There are some games I own that I would certainly clip the corners of but again, it will be when I need to. Or if I need to do something that will take my mind off things for an hour or so!

‘65….A Bump in the Boonies*

The box featuring a ‘grunt’ suitably festooned with ammunition….

….and the rear of the box featuring an area of ‘bandit country’.

With one eye on the inevitable ‘right-sizing’ in a few years I have been realigning much of my collection so that it is portable and does not take up vast amounts of space. For me this translates into boardgames rather than models - with of course some notable exceptions - so that the eventual move should be as painless as possible. Large armies will no longer feature so the block armies or 2/3mm will be the order of the day. 28mm will be for skirmishes up to ‘Rampant’ level. Note that ships, aircraft, starships or Battlemechs are not included in this!

As part of this process you may recall a while ago I acquired a whole bunch of WW2 tactical games published by Lock and Load. The rules are outstanding but for a variety of reasons they never really caught my imagination. Everyone I know that games the system swears by them but somewhat perversely I suppose, I am not one of them! What had caught my eye though, was a boardgame published by Flying Pig Games called ‘65 - Squad Level Combat In The Jungles Of Vietnam. This was might up my street in terms of the scale of the game and so I attempted to source a copy. It proved to be an almost impossible task to get a copy in the UK and I was on the verge of giving up when a gaming chum pointed out that a set was up for grabs on Ebay.

I duly ‘watched’ the listing and then on the last day entered a bid, then another, then another after that until eventually the auction finished and guess what? I had won it! It was a little higher than I expected but still an absolute bargain.

The game itself contained all the currently available expansions and although the counters were punched out it was unused. I am a little fastidious about boardgames in that I much prefer mounted map boards and chunky counters and so ‘65 delivers this in spades. The counters are 1” squares or larger and the map boards are suitably ‘Nam looking - loads of trees, rice paddies, small villages and so on. One of the expansions features a cityscape - Hue in this case - so going full on “Full Metal Jacket’ could be fun to try out.

The other expansions include the USMC and ANZAC forces as well as some additional cards and, best of all, a solo system. Gameplay and combat is driven by cards and is quite fast paced and with plenty of decisions to be made every turn. In short, it is a great tactical game.

In years gone by I would have thought about how to use figures for ths and indeed, I acquired a whole pile of ESCI US and VC 20mm figures and developed a version of Memoir ‘44 to use with them but, like so many ‘good ideas at the time’ the enthusiasm faded, mainly due to the work involved to get it to the table.

I can feel a re-reading of ‘We Were Soldiers Once….’ Coming on - I might even watch the film again!

*A Bump in the Boonies was the title of a set of Vietnam wargame rules by Cliff Mitchell and published by Gosling Press. 

On WW2 in the Pacific and Vietnam ‘65

Memoir ‘44 Pacific style. The playing pieces seem to made from a harder plastic than those from the base game. I have a plan about these in any event.

I have lacked a degree of focus recently in that I have seem to have been flitting from one project to another without any apparent rhyme or reason but there is a plan of sorts in play! One of these that has been neglected slightly is of course the WW2 in the Pacific - specifically Burma or the islands around New Guinea. If you recall my original intention was to make use of the 14th Army figures from Eric’s collection and then to add some Japanese and US Marines. I fully intend to expand the action by adding the naval dimension using Avalon Hill’s Flat Top and possibly even taking to the air in some fashion.

A while back I picked up a copy of Conflict of Heroes: Guadalcanal bu Academy Games. This is a sumptuously produced tactical level board game that focuses on the fighting on the island during those critical months of 1942. It is a lovely looking game but I think I may have pulled the trigger too quickly when I acquired it. I may have been better getting Combat Commander: Pacific with the New Guinea supplement for a broader coverage as it not solely focussed on the US Marines. I was thinking about this when the answer of course came from a completely different direction!

Memoir ‘44 is a light WW2 themed board game that I have enjoyed countless times although it does lack depth. This can be rectified very easily and indeed, I know of many gamers that have done so in order to make it more ‘wargamey’. The first iteration I used of this was devised by Bob Cordery a few years ago and was called MOMBAT - Memoir Of Modern BATtle. I fought many great games using this system and tweaked it quite happily to suit my own requirements. I own a fair amount of Memoir ‘44 stuff but the me thing that eluded me was the expansion for the Pacific. I say eluded me because I did own this a few years ago but it went during one of my periodic reorganisations. In recent times it has been really hard to get a hold of and has advertised for silly money in places like eBay.

A lovely looking game and really well produced but sadly too limited in its scope for what I wanted. Its disposal has served to finance the replacement Memoir ‘44 pieces though so all’s well that ends well!

I saw a brand new copy of the Memoir ‘44 Pacific expansion that was listed on eBay at what I thought was a really good price - £25 - so I watched it and at the appropriate time slapped in a bid. I was absolutely gobsmacked when I won it and indeed, I was the only person that placed a bid despite there being some 13 watchers! I also ordered a copy of another expansion called Through Jungle and Desert which includes scenarios and special rules for combat in both environments. The Jungle part of this expansion features the British retreat through Burma which I am currently reading about so is a welcome addition to the collection - or at least it will be when it arrives!

Aside from the scenarios and preprinted maps there are also some jungle and desert specific command cards which will be very useful.

In common with my usual hobby modus operandi I first of all disposed of some items to fund these two new additions (actually three but I will get to that in a moment) and so Conflict of Heroes went to a new home. It was a break even sale so no harm was done to the budget!

Whilst the film took a number of, ahem, liberties, the combat scenes were well done and even Hal Moore himself said that it was the first Vietnam film ‘to get it right....’

The final acquisition from the sale proceeds was a replacement hardback copy of We Were Soldiers Once....And Young by Lt. Gen. Harold (Hal) G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway detailing the action in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. I really enjoyed this book (if enjoyed is the right word) in that it gives a very good account of the brutal, close range nature of this battle and how it was fought. I have long wanted to game this operation in some form and indeed, I penned a blog past about some years ago. The Pacific expansion for Memoir ‘44 includes some very ‘Nam terrain types - caves, jungle, paddy fields etc - so there is room for a lot of crossover in terms of elements of the rules. Again, it is a project that I would enjoy doing that in theory would not take a lot to set up but for the present I would need to use proxies of some kind.

The film of the book starring Mel Gibson is a visceral experience once the shooting starts and really gives a harrowing impression of what a close in firefight using modern automatic weaponry must be like. There is a haunting Scottish lament that features in the film and it really plays on the senses. 

Sgt. McKenzies Lament

Lay me down in the cold cold ground 
Where before many more have gone 
Lay me down in the cold cold ground 
Where before many more have gone 

When they come I will stand my ground 
Stand my ground I’ll not be afraid 

Thoughts of home take away my fear 
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears 

Once a year say a prayer for me 
Close your eyes and remember me 

Never more shall I see the sun 
For I fell to a Germans gun 

Lay me down in the cold cold ground 
Where before many more have gone 
Lay me down in the cold cold ground 
Where before many more have gone 

Where before many more have gone 

In memory of Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie
Seaforth Highlanders - killed in action 1917

 

The French in Vietnam

A great doorstop of a tome, in hardback and at a very good price. Martin Windrow's classic account of the French in Vietnam.

You may recall me mentioning in a previous post that I am going to get a copy of Max Hastings new book: Vietnam,  as part of my Christmas present from SWMBO. Almost as an afterthought I started to read again my copy of We Were Soldiers Once....and Young by Col. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway about the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. I even watched the film again starring Mel Gibson.

One for the 'to get' list methinks. Col. Hal Moore used this to help with his research before the Ia Drang Valley campaign

In the book Col. Moore mentions that he read as part of his research the book by Bernard Falls: The Street Without Joy which covered the preceding French involvement culminating in their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

The French positions at Dien Bien Phu

The First Indochina war is something I know very little about and the more I read about the subsequent American involvement the more I felt it would be advantageous to learn about the events leading up to it.

I vaguely remember seeing a critically acclaimed book on the subject by Martin Windrow - The Last Valley so I after a gentle stroll through EBay I came across a cheap copy which I duly snapped up. As an aside I am great fan of Martin Windrow's writings and for me his book 'Our Friends Beneath the Sands' about the Foreign Legion from 1870 to 1935 is one of the finest I have ever read, so I am looking forward to reading this.

Does what it says on the cover! Quite simply, superb.

What does this all mean in the realms of table top gaming? Well, I have no plans to rush in to a Vietnam based project - for either conflict - for the foreseeable future but I would not discount it. I would certainly be able to do something using the blocks - I like to think of them as being around 1:300/1:200th in scale - so using the method I described in my earlier post for depicting modern vehicles and weaponry alongside a block would be a viable option.

Something else to think about.

Vietnam, Aden and Radfan

One of things about our hobby that never ceases to amaze me is how looking at a particular something can lead onto something else that is quite different on the face of it but with a touch of commonality.

Advance notice of what will be my Christmas reading courtesy of SWMBO and rather a lot of doubled up Nectar points! I am looking forward to reading about the French involvement leading up to Dien Bien Phu

The book is excellent and also covers the fighting at LZ Albany which followed on from the events depicted in the film at LZ X-ray

I mentioned previously that last weekend SWMBO and I spent rather a long time in our local Sainsbury taking advantage of the ‘double up’ on Nectar Points. To cut a long story short we acquired good to the value of £200 by surrendering £100 of Nectar Points. For the most part it was used to finish off the Christmas shopping (SWMBO is incredibly organised about this sort of thing – in fact she has not only purchased everything she needs to but it is also wrapped and tagged and waiting to go under the Christmas tree in two weeks’ time) for the family which for me came in the shape of the new book by Max Hastings about the wars in Vietnam.

Vietnam and I have enjoyed a rather long distance relationship from the gaming perspective in that it is a period I am interested in but aside from a few aerial games using SPIs Air War and the odd skirmish I never really invested in it very much. I have seen a number of the main cinematic stalwarts – Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, The Green Berets, Hamburger Hill and my personal favourite, The Odd Angry Shot – although for some inexplicable reason Full Metal Jacket is missing but soon to be rectified. Another film that I have seen is of course We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. The film is about the vicious fighting that took place in the IaDrang Valley in November 1965 and is based on the book of (more of less) the same name written by (then) Colonel Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.

I use the word ‘vicious’ to describe the fighting in Ia Drang because it was just that. It was up close and very personal and with huge quantities of automatic weapons fire. The film captures the claustrophobic nature of the fighting very well and although it takes a few historical liberties it was generally well received and even Colonel Moore approved (he was quite scathing about other films covering the war and as he was actually in the firing line during the events depicted his opinion is important). As well as the film I also own a copy of the book which is very good indeed and for me really captures the intensity of the battle.

A number of years ago I acquired a number of boxes of 20mm plastics from Revell of US special forces and the VC but sadly these went awhile back. I even drafted a Memoir 44 based adaptation for the conflict based on using elements from the Pacific and Eastern front expansions. It is a conflict I would like to game but I am not sure how or even when.

Leading up to Vietnam (bear with me as this will illustrate how my brain works. Or not, as the case may be!) in my recent research was Aden, initially for the World War 1 angle. As you are aware Aden is going to feature in support of my Arab Revolt project – there was fighting against the Turks and with Arab allies present on both sides – when lo and behold  I came across mention of Radfan. I have familial interest in the Radfan campaign as my brother in law served with the Parachute Regiment there.

One on the 'to get' list for sure as it covers the WW1 period as well as the campaigns during the 1960s. My brother in law took part in this as a member of the Parachute regiment.

I had promised myself that I would familiarise myself with the British operations in Aden and Radfan for two reasons. Firstly because of the ‘colonial’ nature of the British involvement and secondly due to the family connection. If I am honest it is one of those periods I would like to game but am probably unlikely to do so although I will have the appropriate terrain to hand for the earlier WW2 operations. Mind you, having said that the idea of any games that involve ground attack Hawker Hunters would definitely weaken my resolve!

The Revell kit of the ground attack variant of the Hawker Hunter - the FGA 9

So, two modern conflicts fought in very different terrains by two major powers and each with their own particular merits as well a degree of commonality in certain areas. Something else to ponder methinks….

Huey Loose and the News.................

I have just finished reading the book ‘Chickenhawk’ by Robert Mason; an account of a Huey helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War – and what a great read it is. The Huey was the helicopter that is most closely associated with Vietnam and it saw extensive use both in its troop carrying ‘Slick’ configuration and as a gunship. Want to know what it was like to drop or pick up troops from a hot landing zone? This would be the book for you. It is graphic and pulls few punches when describing the action – both in the front line and in the rear areas. The technical detail and descriptions of actually flying a Huey; what it can and cannot do, is really interesting and provides much food for thought in respect of how best to replicate their use within the context of Memoir 44.

I am not sure at the moment how the use of helicopters will fit into the game but I will certainly be employing them. I was concerned initially at best to represent them but have come up with a simple solution – I will make use of either 1/200th or 1/300th scale models, rather like the aircraft that come with the Memoir 44 Air expansion pack. It should be easy enough to get these – Navwar have a good range in 1/300th – and for helicopters on the ground I will try and source some overhead views of a helicopter to mount on a terrain tile or a counter. I do not envisage needing many models for this so it should be fairly cheap to set up.

Memoir 44 for Vietnam

Memoir 44 is a game of operational/tactical combat set in WW2 using Richard Borg's award winning Command and Colours order system. In a nutshell, each player has a hand of cards that determine what units can move and fight each turn. The cards are mostly sector based (the board is divided into centre, right and left sectors) and if you don't have an order card for the correct sector then it can do nothing. This is a great game mechanic and can be hugely frustrating as a carefully planned attack stalls as the correct command cards fail to materialise! Troop types are generic - infantry, armour and artillery - although the rules, scenarios and expansions allow for some more exotic types like special forces, sappers, cavalry, French Resistance etc.

The game has been expanded by the release of an additional terrain pack, Eastern Front, Pacific and Mediterranean theatre packs, an expanded air pack, a 'big battle' variant pack, a campaign book and the start of a range of scenario packs. The theatre packs include representative armies (Russian, Japanese and British) and terrain tiles; together with additional scenarios and any special rules for the theatre in question. There is also a double sided gameboard available with a desert terrain on one side and snow covered landscape on the other. The game is very well supported on the Days of Winder website with much available in terms of additional scenarios and FAQs etc.

To be honest, it is more a game than a military exercise but is great fun for all that. the scenarios are based on actual historical actions and the scale is non specific so a standard unit of four infantry figures could feasibly represent anything from a platoon up to a battalion in size. I have played this many times and really enjoy the experience - in fact after having played this many times it becomes apparent just how much thought has gone into the game.

You may recall my previous posts related to matters Vietnam related and how I was mulling over the possibility of using a variant of Memoir 44 for games set during this conflict. The figures are not going to be painted anytime soon; neither will the kits be assembled but a variant of this game for the period can be easily organised. I have spent no more than a couple of lunchtimes over this and I think that what I am going to suggest will be a step in the right direction in capturing the elusive 'feel'. The one thing I wanted to do though was to really set the game up at a tactical level. By this I mean having recognisable low level hardware e.g. MGs, Mortars and Infantry anti tank weapons. I have done this and in doing so it occurred to me that the same principle could be applied to WW2. In effect, a four figure infantry unit in this variant represents a fire team. My preliminary suggestions are as follows and I should apologise in advance to non Memoir 44 players as the comments assume knowledge of the game!

Terrain - Use the terrain tiles from the Pacific theatre expansion as this is absolutely right for the theatre - rice paddies, cave/tunnel complexes, jungle and small villages etc.

US Infantry -Use as per the standard game with special forces, sappers etc as and when appropriate.

NVA Infantry - Use as Russian Infantry to allow for limited tactical flexibility (alternatively use as Japanese infantry - the choice may be scenario specific).

VC Infantry - Use as French Resistance due to local terrain advantages.

HMGs - Range and effect as per standard game artillery EXCEPT may only fire direct.

Mortars - Range and effect as per Mobile Artillery.

Infantry Anti Tank Weapons - RPG2 and 7, LAW and M79 - use as per the Infantry Anti Tank Weapon rules contained in the Mediterranean expansion.

Tanks - as per the standard rules.

I need to think about US fire support and rules for the use of helicopters but the above should be sufficient to be going on with for a test or two. Should anyone try these ideas out please let me know as I would be interested to hear how they work.

Vietnam Additions

You may recall a short while ago I managed to acquire six boxes of Revell US and NVA 20mm plastic figures during the recent Modelzone sale. the boxes have sat on my desk in the same place as when I brought home and I was all set to consign them to the cupboard for a rainy day. I also mentioned about tackling a Memoir 44 variant for Vietnam as it would be farely easy to put together. Well the variant exists as a scribbled side of A4 but has gotten no further in the face of Balkan 15mm figures, Morschauser games and cobbling together a naval version thereof. However, I popped over to Othellos - a secondhand bookshop in Leigh and well worth a visit if you are passing - with a selection of titles to exchange and came across the three titles in the picture. It is fairly safe to say that these three have pretty much given me sufficient background detail to be going on with.

The first book is Vietnam by Stanley Karnow and is described as the 'First Complete Account of Vietnam at War'. It is a great doorstop of a tome and accompanied the TV series (I missed that one for sure!) and so is as good a place as any to get the background to the war. Aside from the American involvement the book also covers the French side as well so appears to be fairly complete in its coverage.

The second is Armoured Combat in Vietnam by General Don Starry. This traces the evolution of US armoured tactics in Vietnam and is full of all the detail that you would want in respect of organisations, equipment, tactics and analysis of selected actions with maps. It also covers the unhappy French experience of armoured warfare and how this coloured the US view in the early stages of the war.

The third book is The Vietnam War Handbook by Andrew Rawson. this book is nothing less than an encyclopedia of the just about everything US associated with the war. It covers organisations, what units were where and when; the role of the air force and navy as well as brief looks at the free world allies and both the armies of South and North Vietnam. Certainly worth having on the book shelf.

The final acquisition came from a local toy shop and is the Airfix 1:76 scale kit of the M113 ACAV. This is a nice little kit and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that you could build it as a standard M113; not just as the ACAV variant. I was also pleased to note that this model fits nicely on a 3" RAFM hex transfer so perhaps the Memoir 44 variant may have a little more chance of being realised sooner rather than later...................;-)

Memoir 44 in Vietnam

Memoir 44 is a very elastically scaled game in that the various units can represent anything from platoon level upwards. The combat system copes with this very well and so the operational scale distinctions are largely irrelevant. This is also fine and is an easy trade off for the fluidity of the game system as a whole. However, for the Vietnam project I want to take this down a notch so that a smaller scale of action was more readily identifiable. Instead of only using infantry, armour and artillery I want to bring in HMGs, Mortars and Infantry anti tank weaponry. The rationale for this is that it will give a more tactical feel for a lower level game. I am circulating ideas at the moment and am thinking along the lines of having HMG, Mortar and Infantry Anti Tank ‘units’ represented by two models (similar to artillery in the standard game). HMGs will fire the same as infantry (3, 2 or 1 combat dice dependent on range) but will additionally count tanks rolled as a hit when engaging infantry only. I am also considering allowing them to ‘split’ fire – breaking down the number of dice rolled twixt hexes so, for example, at a range of two they could use one dice in one hex and the other in an adjacent hex – as long as the fire is at the same range. Mortars will be the same as artillery for all intents and purposes. Infantry anti tank weapons will probably move like infantry and fire like armour. A further twist on this will be that support weapons can be attached to infantry units and will follow the parent formations orders. I am unsure yet how to work this and will need to give it some thought as it was routine certainly to parcel out HMGs to individual platoons and sections – similarly with the anti tank troops. I am unsure if this was widely practised with mortars though. Minefields will cover the inevitable booby traps as well as their more conventional usage. Artillery will be off board and I will need to consider the use of choppers and how air strikes will work. A further consideration is the question of command. I want to have command groups on the board with an actual function. There will be tactical bonuses for using the command group and also penalties should it be destroyed. Again, I need to think about how best this could be worked. As a bonus, and ignoring the post 1945 hardware, means the resultant variant could be easily used for WW2 enable games pitched at a similar level.

I am a great fan of the whole Command and Colours concept as used in Memoir 44 and I always believe that it is the mark of a skilled rules designer that if the core system is robust enough then it can handle any amount of judicious ‘tinkering’ without too many dramas.

In the meantime though, I will need to get some reading in to (re)acquaint myself with the war that seemed to be always on the TV when I was a boy back in the 60’s and early 70’s.

Balkan Wars and Vietnam

Just as a matter of record (and to reassure everybody that I have not gone completely barking mad!) – The Balkans Wars project has not been displaced by my minor flirtation with the Vietnam conflict! The current state of play with the Balkan 15mm figures is that the Bulgarians are just about ready for undercoating – I am prepping the artillery this evening – with the Turks to follow hard on their heels over the next few days. I am planning to undercoat the whole collection at once (to economise on spray paint!) and will then tackle each side separately. I have acquired the basing material (I use the pre cut plastic bases available from Essex Miniatures) and will be going with standard 40mm frontages for the figures.

The main uniform source I have at the present time is the Vachov title mentioned in my blog some time ago – supplemented by various painted figures I have seen across the net. Oh for an Osprey uniform title covering the war! Seriously though, I think I have enough to be going on with; certainly for 15mm anyway. Flags are a problem but it appears that in the Military Museum in Sofia there is a Balkan War room that has a good selection of Bulgarian flags – I need to pursue that lead methinks.

I am waiting on some of the wooden buildings mentioned previously from Amazon which will more than suffice for what I need and Cavalier at Tonbridge next month will see the acquisition (hopefully) of some terrain in the shape of trees etc. I hope to have the whole set up ready for Easter and I think that this is achievable, even for me!

As far as the Vietnam stuff is concerned have no fear – at this stage I am only going to push as far as using the variant of Memoir 44 I am working on. This adaptation of the game will be a minor diversion and nothing more – a cerebral exercise if you like. My thoughts and progress with this variant will feature on the blog though as I know that many readers are also Memoir 44 players and are therefore most welcome to contribute with any ideas and observations – in fact I am counting on this to a certain extent. No doubt in the interim I will also squirrel away some kits and books etc for the period over the course of the next few months but I will not even take the Vietnam figures out of the boxes, much less paint them, at least until the Balkans have been conquered!