Tony Jimenez - 07:28pm Sep 29, 1997 PST (#257 of 262)

Those of you wanting to try a simpler strategic level Vietnam game outght to try
"No Trumpets, No Drums". It's an old Wargamer (#22) release. I played it a lot
when it came out. The map covers all of South Vietnam and adjacent parts of
N. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Off map boxes covered the more distant parts of
N Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The game not only covers the war in SVN but covers
the fighting in Cambodia and Laos as well. Turns are bi-monthly, covering the
years 1965 to 1975. Units are Division/Regiment for the ARVN and NVA and
brigade/regiment for everyone else. Units are rated for strength only. For combat
each player rolls one die and adds to it the average strength of his involved
units. There are bonuses for having more involved units, air power, terrain, 
artillary and fire bases. 

Communist units can operate either face down of face up. When face down communist
units are allowed to move one hex after the American/S. Vietnamese player has
declared his combats. Face down Communist units can also try to ambush enemy
units that move adjacent. 

Victory is based on a political track. The American/SVN player is trying to
increase the points on the track, the communist player to decrease the points on
the track. Points are added to/subtracted from the track based on how much presence
the communists have in each of four corps areas in SVN and the "Hearts and Minds"
status of each area. Laos and Cambodia each count as an area in addition to the
corps areas in SVN. Face up communist units count more than face down ones for
driving down the total on the political track. One twist to the politics is that
pro West adjustments take place once per game turn, while pro Communist adjustments
are done every player turn. 

The Western reinforcement schedule is fixed. The Western player gets units from
S. Korea, Australia and Thailand as well as U.S. and ARVN units. The Western
player can replace a certain number of U.S. units each turn at a cost in political
points. The ARVN gets a variable number of replacement points depending on the
status of the corps areas. 

The communist player gets three cadres per turn. Given supplies from the North
these can be upgraded to regiments. The NVA also gets a fixed number build points
each turn that can be used to build different types of units. Russian and Chinese
aid is represented by additional build points. 

In the campaign game the communist player wins by driving the political point
track down to zero. The Western player wins by raising the political point track
to 250 or by not having lost by the end of the game (1975). U.S. participation
may end due to an adverse election result. The Western player rolls three dice in
1968 and four dice in 1972. The roll is multiplied by 10. If the result is greater
than the number of political points on the track, the U.S. must start withdrawing
units. 

The game comes with a variety of scenarios and variants including an accelerated
U.S. deployment schedule, Chinese intervention and a U.S. option to declare total
Vietnamization early in the game. In this latter option the U.S. is limited to
having only six ground units on the board at a time, but in addition to other
benefits, the guerrilla creation rate goes down to two per turn. 

Hope this wasn't too long. 

Tony Jimenez