With this new My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.

Card #4: Tribesmen from Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam from GMT Games

The COIN Series uses cards in a very different way from other CDG’s. These cards are not necessarily the driver of the action but more assistive to the actions of the players by setting eligibility and also providing powerful events. The Event Cards are more often than not, very powerful. They either give you a continuing bonus on future Operations and Special Activities (as in the case of the volumes that include the various Capabilities) or allow you to take Operations and Special Activities more times that round than you would normally have been able to had you not chosen the Event and more often than not, at no cost! Also, because of the power of the cards and their ties to one or more factions, you can take the Event which allows you a huge advantage, only to see that very powerful Event reversed with the next Event or with a regular Operation. This is very frustrating but is one of the major reasons that I love the card-assisted element of the COIN Series. Let’s take a look at an example. The Tribesmen card allows the US or ARVN player to remove any 4 Insurgent pieces total from spaces with Irregulars.

Anytime an event will allow you to basically perform 2 steps in one, this will gain considerable attention and focus from me. In the below pictures, you can see where there are 3 underground VC guerilla units in the highland province of Binh Dinh and 4 underground VC guerilla units in the lowland province of Quang Tin. Usually, the process of trying to remove the underground VC there would have taken several turns, one turn to Sweep into the area uncovering the guerilla units making them vulnerable to Assault and the next turn to carry out the Assault Operation to remove the pieces. So this Event is very powerful and allows the player to get done in 1 turn what would have normally taken several.

With this Event, the US player is able to remove 2 VC from Binh Dinh leaving just 2 guerilla units there with one being underground and the other not and remove 2 VC from Quang Tin leaving just 2 remaining underground guerilla units. Success right? Well yes, in a certain manner of speaking but there are always counters to any actions taken.

The counter move to this Event was the VC using their Rally Operation to bring in more guerilla units on their next turn, which ended up netting them 1 additional unit in each of the provinces over what they started with (started with 3 hidden guerilla units in Binh Dinh and after Event and their Rally, ended with 4! Started with 4 hidden guerilla units in Quang Tin and after Event and their Rally, ended with 5!). Now isn’t that just the most frustrating thing ever? Would it have been smarter to remove the Bases there which would have limited the ability of the VC to Rally the number of forces they did? I love the decisions and feelings that this game gives of both frustration and disgust but also love that the game design is very flexible and allows for punches and counter punches!

Cards like Tribesmen are very good and I tend to take them when they come up. Other Event Cards are sometimes harder for me to commit to in COIN Series games as you just don’t get that many actions to actually do what it is that you need to do to reach your own victory conditions.

Also, remember that there is always another event found on these COIN Series cards. While the top portion of Tribesmen benefits the COIN player, the bottom event is made for the Viet Cong. It allows them to replace all Irregular units (including NVA, ARVN Rangers and US forces) with their VC Guerillas. This is referred to as “tribal secession” on the card and represents shifting allegiances and defections amongst the various population groups. This effect is very powerful and can give the VC some protection from the NVA’s Infiltrate Special Activity as they can reduce the number of NVA pieces, specifically Irregulars, to protect their Opposition in the space and build more Opposition.

The Tribesmen card is a reference to the indigenous Montagnard people of Vietnam who resided in the Central Highlands and who were trained and equipped by the Americans to resist the advance of the communist VC and NVA in the north. The Montagnard were fierce fighters and loyal allies and due to their efforts won the admiration of the American Special Forces who served alongside them.

Photo courtesy of Smallest Soldiers Facebook Group.

In the next entry in this series, we will take a look at Unreliable Technology from The Hunt from Salt & Pepper Games.

-Grant