Battle of Ia Drang Valley - Day 1, post publicity post

Battle of Ia Drang Valley - Day 1.
Date: 6 Dec
Venue: Austin hills, JB, West Malaysia.
event url: http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=170431562461&index=1




Description
The movie 'We Were Soldiers' starring Mel Gibson based on the book 'We were soldiers once, and young' recounted the events of this battle as the US Army's fought its first pitched battle in Vietnam against the NVA and VC.


The Battle of Ia Drang Valley - Day 1, will attempt to recreate the desperate fighting on the first day of this engagement. Subsequent months will see the events of Day 2, etc. recreated.
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Setup:
The more experienced players formed a team; let's call them OPFOR. While Wargh!Nuts chose to join the newbies to balance things out. Azman and his daughters also joined up to form Blue force.  8 v 19. 

OPFOR




















mission brief










Azman and daughters

prep


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game 1
Elimination round.
At first, OPFOR made several kills easily from BF's scattered patrols.  Then BF put up a stubborn resistance in a ditch.  OPFOR managed to take out Azlan, with a loss of one of the OPFOR.  13 v 7.
Two of the OPFOR happened to run out of rounds at the same time and while their reloading actions were caught by Kongba.  Together with Zeonic, they managed to take them out.  11 v 5.
From then on, things look better and Blue force "won" with a count of 4 v 2.


game 2
Attack round.
Since Blue force was perceived to be the weaker team, they were given the choice of respawning once they captured the foxhole.  Their objective, however is to capture a tree house.




Blue force decided to ignore the re-spawn point and head straight for the objective.  5 men each was placed on each flank.  The center column consists of 8 men.  In practice, Blue force practically moved as a line.  One lady from BF sat out of this game while Xterix decided to join the fray, taking the side of OPFOR.  18 v 9.
The first resistance encountered was 2 defenders behind a log.  They exposed their position when the attackers got closed enough but they did not expect to be pinned down by pellets that came from 3 sides.  One by one, the defending positions were overrun.  OPFOR managed to outflank BF's right and took out 3 attackers.  15 v 7.
Joran for some strange reasons, exposed himself in the open when advancing - to be pinned down by defending fire, only to repeat his actions after he was saved by his comrades.  17 v 2.
When BF reached the treehouse, the last ambush was sprang and OPFOR took out 2 attackers (Joran included.  He later explained his baiting actions due to a gas feed problem).  The combined firepower of 16 markers cleared the treehouse and scored a cleared victory for BF.  16 v 0.

Since this was a game of respawns for BF, we should look at the kills instead.
BF's kills: 9
OPFOR's kills: 6



video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7Yg__tH3c


game 3
defence round
Blue force was tasked with guarding a foxhole this time.  Zeonic wanted to repeat the previous tactics but Chak voted for defense.  2 rings of defenders were placed around the objective.  Xterix decided to play on, taking the side of OPFOR.  9 v 19.
Sporadic exchanges came from BF's 11 o'clock position and moved slowly towards their 1 o'clock position.  Defenders got taken out slowly via sniper fire.  8 v 16. 
Joran learnt the unfortunate lesson that paintballs does travel through a bush sometimes.  Under advice from his ghost, 2 defenders went about in a flanking move.  They got a 1 to 1 exchange.  7 v 15.
OPFOR continued probing the defenses of BF.  They were now attacking from the 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions.  The camp was missing 3 men from a flanking maneuver and currently numbers at 12.  In a surprise move, the 3 o'clock position was overran and the defenses collapsed.  The ladies in the foxhole fought to the end.  The siren was sounded from the foxhole and the flanking defenders realised they arrived too late.  7 v 2.

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Afterthoughts:
One of the more enjoyable woodsgame I've played to date.  Compared to Bukit Ramly, this venue have more options for movements and flanking.  Each side had their "perfect" game so everyone went around happy.  I'll probably go for another game next time.



Special thanks:
to our Orange ref - Laogao, for reffing for us.  He did so despite having a broken rib.




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event url: http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=170431562461&index=1

source of actual day's photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=133148&id=72429483690&ref=mf

pictures credits:
Matthew Daniel Heng,
Lim Deqiang,
Cassie Siua,
Farid aka arms dealer
Wargh! Dogs
~

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