My Favorite Wargame Cards – A Look at Individual Cards from My Favorite Games – Card #56: SA-2’s from Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam from GMT Games

With this 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 #56: SA-2’s 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. Today we are going to take at SA-2’s from Fire in the Lake.

One of the really interesting parts of Fire in the Lake is the concept and abstraction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that existed in Cambodia and Laos and acted as a highway for men and matériel to be moved down from the North to the battles being fought in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In the game, The Trail (Ho Chi Minh Trail) Level is a critical track that significantly affects both Insurgent factions operations and capabilities, primarily by controlling the flow of resources and troops from North Vietnam.  The Trail impacts insurgent operations in several key ways including how they gain resources during the Coup Interphase and how they can move around the board. Arguably, the single most significant effect is during the Coup Interphase, where the NVA faction’s resource gain is directly tied to the Trail’s current level (specifically, twice the Trail level is added to their resources). A high Trail Level ensures the NVA has the means to execute their operations.

But, The Trail Level also determines the amount of NVA troops that can be placed on the map during the Infiltrate Special Activity. A high Trail Level allows for rapid NVA force build-up and expansion, accelerating insurgent operations across South Vietnam. And The Trail facilitates efficient movement of NVA forces. If the Trail is at level 1 or higher, NVA units using the March operation in Laos or Cambodia can move through multiple spaces, potentially covering long distances in a single operation. At the maximum Trail Level of 4, these movements into Laos/Cambodia spaces are essentially free of resource cost (only the final destination in South Vietnam costs 1 Resource).

Also, as long as the Trail level is high, the NVA forces can more safely build up and operate from safe havens in Cambodia and Laos, forcing the COIN (US/ARVN) forces to dedicate significant resources and Air Strikes to degrade it, which ties up COIN options and indirectly supports VC operations in South Vietnam. And, conversely, a low Trail Level (near zero) severely hampers NVA/VC access to resources and slows down the NVA’s ability to build up forces, making the insurgent factions much less effective.

The SA-2’s card allows the US to remove NVA units when the Air Strike Operation degrades The Trail. When an Air Strike is done, the US player can remove 1 NVA piece outside the South. This can be very powerful as the “Piece” may include an untunneled Base located outside the South, which includes North Vietnam. Getting to remove these tough to challenge pieces is key for the US and this event is very powerful for them.

For the NVA, this text is a Capability that will stick around till the end of the game or until it is countered with the card Wild Weasels. The effect is that the NVA Rally Operation will improve The Trail Level by 2 boxes not just 1 as the Operation normally allows. Being able to get a 2 for 1 with this Capability creates a lot of efficiency for the NVA as it allows them to use more of the other Operations such as March, Attack and Terror.

The Soviet S-75 Dvina (NATO codename SA-2 Guideline) is a high-altitude surface-to-air missile that burst onto the world stage when it successfully shot down a U-2 reconnaissance plane piloted by Gary Powers in 1960. During the Vietnam War, the SA-2 was deployed mostly to defend the key Hanoi-Haiphong region and to protect the Americans bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In the early 1950s, the United States Air Force rapidly accelerated its development of long-range jet bombers carrying nuclear weapons. The USAF program led to the deployment of Boeing B-47 Stratojet supported by aerial refueling aircraft to extend its range deep into the Soviet Union. The USAF quickly followed the B-47 with the development of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, which had greater range and payload than the B-47. The range, speed, and payload of these US bombers posed a significant threat to the Soviet Union in the event of a war between the two countries.

Consequently, the Soviets initiated the development of improved air defense systems. Although the Soviet Air Defense Forces had large numbers of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), including radar-directed batteries, the limitations of guns versus high-altitude jet bombers were obvious. Therefore, the Soviet Air Defense Forces began the development of missile systems to replace the World War II-vintage gun defenses. And this lead to the development of the SA-2 which was used extensively during the Cold War as a deterrent to air operations.

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

-Grant