Reply To: Historical and Modern Wargaming – Where the "Fluff" is Real Life

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French Indochina War, 1951 – Assault on Vinh Yen (15mm Wargame)

It’s back to the miniature table, with a recreation of the Viet Minh assault on Vinh Yen during the French Indochina War of 1946-1954.  We’re using Mark Ritchie’s “Tactical Combat” system in 15mm.

Although this war had been ongoing for some time, Vinh Yen was one of the first open battlefield engagements between the communist Viet Minh and the French.  General Vo Nguyen Giap wanted to take this town, thus cutting the Route 2 highway leading into Hanoi from the northwest.  The French, needless to say, were determined to stop them.

In this game we will see many of the same elements in the later Vietnam War, with massed communist infantry and artillery assaults smashing into entrenched defenses backed up by heavy use of Western airpower.  Indeed, the French Indochina War was in many ways the Vietnam War’s “bad prequel.”