The Vietnam WarGame

[DoomBunny]

Really? Is it really only used in jolly old England?

One wouldnt know. Foul things lurk outside ones door, ready to do all kinds of malignant acts towards ones personage. I keep my distance, other than unleashing the occasional machine gun wielding Ferret, silky balls of death that they are!

On a serious note, I misread your post to be "I presume you need a lesson on Australian slang." meaning that my use was wrong.

[Capt. Kiwi]

Even Kiwis themeselves use it, I think atleast.

Hello.

[Comrade Chaos]

I'll throw my hat in.

Lt. Chaos sounds nice.

[Capt. Kiwi]

I was about to sign up for the last spot too

If there is any spot appropriate for a completely new player to this sort of thing, I'll take it.

[Warluster]

January 26th, 1965

On a warm December day, the inconspicuous posters appeared around the country – calling for young Australians to take up arms and volunteer. At first this received nothing but curious glances, but slowly a torrent of volunteers swarmed into this new unit – part of which formed ‘C’ Company, 1RAR.

Nervous, excited and unaware, these recruits were bussed away from thriving metropolises down through the thick forests of Victoria to reach the sprawling rural academy of Portsea. Already full of enthusiastic officer recruits, there was nearly a dozen more who stepped off the dark green Army bus into the chaos of military life.

Over the weeks they prepared with the knowledge that a training exercise would occur on January 25th, 1965, and some decided to meet this knowledge by reading the officer manual, while others insisted on waiting until the day before. Either way, on the 25th the seven soldiers (two of whom were already late!) found themselves standing to attention before the Brigadier. He spoke to them at the southern edge of a marked battlefield, with its sparse clutterings of gum trees and patches of reedy grass, it’s dry, dull landscape was the perfect expression for their anxiety. The Brigadier addressed them, also, with a critical expression.

“Welcome, recruits, to Portsea Academy. Over the coming months the Department will insure that every officer here is capable of a command. You will travel, if you pass, from Portsea, to Puckapunyal through to the infamous Canungra. And by then – you will be First Lieutenants of the Australian Army. First, though, is welcome to Operation Portsea.” He handed out a single sheet of paper, with the Op name spread across the title.

Operation Portsea 25th January, 1965 Background: A training operation to communicate experience to the new officers of 1RAR, prior to Queensland training operations. Shall take place at Portsea Officer Academy. Task: Due to the conditions of a training engagement, this training exercise shall be carried out by the six serving Lieutenants of the newly formed ‘C’ Company, 1RAR. The task of these officers are to learn and experience from the training combat of assaulting an open field position. Lose no soldiers, and there shall be no supporting operations. Allied units are absent. Units Involved: This operation will only involve the six Lieutenants, and the theoretical presence of the forming ‘C’ Company. It shall not involve actual combat or utilization of the battalion at this moment. Rules of Engagement: Training operation. Operation Zone: Dark Green – Light/Medium Tree Coverage (Tall Oaks, Pines) spaced apart by five to ten metres Medium Green – High brush Light Green – Short grass, grazing fields, plains. Battlefield Conditions: No breeze. A cloudless, bright day at 23 degrees Celsius. Mainly open field with low grass and patches of tall, oak trees (unobstructive).

“Your task is easy. Displaying your understanding of modern warfare, you will ensure that Charlie Company gets to the other end of this field – without losing a single soldier, and on time.” The Brigadier consulted his watch, “You would usually have three hours. Go.” And so they were off…

__________
Attention!

I’m not going to pile down a ton of words here, and confuse you more, so let us jump straight into the battle.

You always start off with the ‘Deployment Phase’ (what we are in now), as exemplified in the following Operation Map. You can choose where to place down your exact Platoon marker on this map, taking into consideration your wider intention and the terrain. This is the initial deployment.

Tip: Your platoon is exactly 30 metres long and 10 metres forward.

You must now order where to place your platoons by either,

(a) In this (VWG) thread, tell me the location.
(b) Or mark it down on the map and upload it here.

If you’d like, you could send it to me privately, but that would possibly harm the objectives of the Company as a whole.

Tip: You may only deploy within the red ‘deployment’ square.

It’s all easy and smooth, and should only take a few minutes. I want all of this finished and posted within the next twelve hours, or you get an automatic deployment randomly.

Also, when posting your orders, please report your attendance.

__________

Hints

• Be aware of the terrain. If you place your platoon, for example, right next to the tall grass near the south, in real warfare there could possibly be hidden enemy.
• Also be aware of your wider, and the company’s, objective. You might place your platoon at the northern most edge of the deployment zone, but the other four platoons deploy at the far south. You would now be overexposed and overextended.
• Use your tactical mind. Don’t blunder through into an ambush or firefight. And don’t let your comrades blunder there either!

[Warluster]

The deadline for deployment is:
4PM AEST, 27th January.
5AM GMT, 27th January
27th January EST

Just before the Op begun, VWG got a wave of new volunteers. Since the game had the space the first two have been assigned 6 and 7 Platoon.

The others who just missed it, there are a few options. We can form a second (smaller) Company. You can enlist in the armoured corps (or whatever armed service pops up next ) or serve as a Reserve, which means waiting until a serving Lieutenant is WIA/RTA or inactive. I'm currently leaning to the formation of a 'B' Company!

For this Op, only 1 - 7 Platoons are participating. Lt Stuckenschmidt also makes a good point - if C Company wants to, you can all sort out a name for the Company. Nothing rude, either (I already know you lot ) and we can make it official.

Oh, and welcome everyone to the VWG. Good to get it started.

[Nasrallah]

2nd Platoon's deployment:

[Morrell8]

1st Platoon's deployment.

[Capt. Kiwi]

Feel free to put me down for any role that comes up, either subbing in for an absentee or a new unit of any kind.

[Morrell8]

Fellow Lieutenants. What I want to do is move cautiously through the tall grass then once my men have reached the edge of the grass, set up a base of fire watching over the field to cover my fellow platoons.

[randakar]

My platoon shall be henceforth known as "The Ghostbusters".
I will actually start reading all the warluster posts once I get this baby to the babysitters and have some time to read.

[Morrell8]

My platoon shall be henceforth known as "The Ghostbusters".
I will actually start reading all the warluster posts once I get this baby to the babysitters and have some time to read.

Who would be fool enough to trust you with a baby?

[randakar]

Who would be fool enough to trust you with a baby?

Well, his mother and me. Since, you know, I'm his father.
And now I'm off ..

[Stuckenschmidt]

*Radio Transmission*

6 Platoon to C Commander. 6 Platoon ready at location Red. Request Artillery Fire Support at Location Blue when advancing and support by two more Platoons. Second request concerning Intel about estimated amount and equipment of enemy. Over and out

[randakar]

@Stuckenschmidt:

there shall be no supporting operations.

So that artillery fire? We don't have any.

Also, I don't really like that deployment. We're supposed to be a company consisting of platoons acting in concert with each other, and that makes us spread out pretty widely. Our orders are not to engage the enemy, but to cross the field unscathed. If everyone spreads out individual companies may have a better chance to slip by unnoticed but as a group we're pretty much guaranteeing we'll encounter some enemies there.

@Warluster - that little square at the top is a house, yes?

The tall grass sounds like a great place to start, due to cover and easy access to the forest in the east. I sort of expect there to be enemies there though .. so let's not get in -too- close.
The ghostbusters will deploy 9 squares to the east of 2nd platoon.

(I'll make a drawing of it once I figure out how to upload that )

edit:
5th Platoon to C commander. Ghostbusters will deploy at location Yellow barring contrary orders.

[Stuckenschmidt]

No Artillery? Rats.

Alright. Here is the plan. Obvious solution would be to approach the objective from south or west. An attack from the east over hundreds of meters of clear landscape is maybe not wise. Thus we should secure the central woods and as soon as that happened let other units swing around the left flank to get into the wood in the northwest and finally assault the objective.

3 Platoons for the central woods, 3 for the northwestern and 1 as reserve, if something unexpected happens.

Oh, and my suggestion for a Company Name would be "Brizzie Spunks".

[randakar]

“Your task is easy. Displaying your understanding of modern warfare, you will ensure that Charlie Company gets to the other end of this field – without losing a single soldier, and on time.” The Brigadier consulted his watch, “You would usually have three hours. Go.” And so they were off…

That is our objective. There is no single objective to assault. In fact, assaulting is exactly what we *shouldn't* do if we are to reach the other end of the field without losing anyone ..

[Capt. Kiwi]

German officers are over rated.



I wasn't quite sure what that symbol was, either.

[Kingepyon]

So red are the decoys?

[randakar]

German officers are over rated.



I wasn't quite sure what that symbol was, either.

Kiwi, are you playing? I think right now we do have an opening, if the first page is to be believed:

Currently Commanding:
C Company - Major pevergreen
1 Platoon - Lieutenant Morrell8
2 Platoon - Lieutenant Nasrallah
3 Platoon - Lieutenant DoomBunny
4 Platoon - Lieutenant Frymonmon
5 Platoon - Lieutenant randakar
6 Platoon - Lieutenant Stuckenschmidt
7 Platoon - Lieutenant Suirantes

1st APC Squadron, PWLH
1st APC Squadron - Position Vacant

edit: I'm fairly certain warluster can make space for you in the next mission, at any rate