Dien Bien Phu at Gotcon XL

My PTCD (Post Traumatic Con Disorder) has faded and it’s time to start posting again.

Our very fashion-conscious Thomas showing off his new Casquette Bigeard . I don’t know if it’s the cap or the model, but…

We (me, Koen, Thomas and Laffe) had a participation game of Chain of Command and the as yet unpublished Indochina supplement at this year’s Gothcon. We set everything up on Thursday night and played all through Friday and Saturday with everyone who was interested to give it a go.

Here you have some pics from the different games in no particular order.

French Colonial Paras attack very unprepared Viet Minh troops (aka speed bumps)

A Chaffe, or Bison as the French called them.

Close combat is extremely costly unless the enemy is pinned and severely chocked. The poor Viet Minh are just that here.

Viet Minh reinforecements. At this stage of the battle it was just one very lonely officer who wondered where all his troops were (due to rather bad dice rolling)

All those Viet Minh look very intimidating

But so does the tank...

Notice the paras sneaking by on the flank. The victory condition was to exit a French unit off the Viet Minh side of the table and they did just that.

Another game another speed bump running for it

Undergrowth in the forest was judged to be very heavy, limiting sight to 6". Problematic when you're in close combat when you're within 4" of  each other.  This meant some very nasty firefights followed by close combat attacks. Incredibly bloody affairs for both sides, often totally eliminating one side while the other was severely decimated.

Another attack begins.

So you hit on a 4, 5 and 6 and roll like this... It was a hard day for Viet Minh...

You can read more on the build-up of the project at my friends’ blogs and Thomas already have a post on the event.

On the train-ride home we decided on the theme for next year. Think the Battle of Raate Road in 1/72 scale and you commanding a small unit of Finns in a game of epic proportions.

See you there!