The Domino Effect - US Forces - Part 1

Hello All

As James Spoke about in this post The Domino Theory Lives On... James and myself are getting into FOW Vietnam. James picked the new Local Forces PDF for his force (my favourite option too!), so I went for the Free World Forces.

I decided to go for the US to begin with as although I love the ANZAC models the US are the iconic Free World Force of Vietnam and so seemed to make more sense to focus on, but a few emails and phone calls to the gaming stores I normally order from returned no US infantry... but I was able to find some ANZAC infantry, so it was onto plan B! Now at this point the title of the post and the 11th Cav badge might be confusing you so I had better round out the story.

Look out for a full review
soon.

I like to paint either listening to a podcast (if anyone knows of a good Vietnam podcast please message me as I haven't found one yet), audio book or documentary, if possible based on the army or battle I'm currently paint a force for. Audible had a sale on, so I was looking for a couple of books to listen to and came across Black-Horse Riders by Philip Keith. It's about a company of US infantry (Charlie Company), who get trapped in the middle of a PAVN fortress complex on the Cambodian border, little air support can get to them and the only ground forces in the area is a company from the 11th Cav, 4 Kilometers away. It's a great listen and after a couple of chapters I knew I had to collect a US force based on the book! With that I restarted my search for US infantry and found some on Ebay and so the ANZAC's were pushed to the back of the painting pile (I still hope to get them done in the near future) and it was onto US!

Trying to write a list I liked was a hard choice and I ended up basing the army on Charlie Company from the book. These guys are airmobile but are without their transport helicopters for the battle so I have used the standard infantry company for my force. I picked the minimum 2 full infantry platoons, HQ and a Medic. I have included a Platoon of the 11th Cavalry to represent the forces linking up with the company (and because Sheridans look so cool!). Almost every Vietnam mission had fire support so three 105mm artillery with an AOP helicopter was essential and finally a flight of two Cobras as they are the only aircraft talked about in the book (and they do look great!). This gives me a nice core of platoons with a little of everything, half of which are very mobile. Having never played FoW Vietnam my thoughts on list building might be way off but that'll be a fun experience for the table top.

Confident    Trained	Rifle Company (25th Infantry)	USA Vietnam
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Rifle Company HQ  p.47	2 1	Cmd M16 Rifle team Medic team	35
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon  p.47	1 6 2 1	Cmd M16 Rifle team M16 Rifle team M60 LMG team M67 90mm recoilless gun	170
Rifle Platoon  p.47	1 6 2	Cmd M16 Rifle team M16 Rifle team M60 LMG team	150
Support Platoon
Blackhorse Cavalry Platoon  Confident  Veteran   p.39	3 3	M113 ACAV M551 Sheridan	335
Aeroweapons Platoon (25th)  Fearless  Trained   p.19	2	AH-1G Hueycobra	200
Field Artillery Battery  p.49	1 1 3	Cmd M16 Rifle team Staff team M101A1 105mm howitzer	100
C&C Helicopter  p.51	1	Observer UH-1D Chuck Chuck	10
Company Points:			1000

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Tour of Duty Book

Going forward after I get to the planned 1250pts I will probably look to turn these into an full 11th Cav Company and Airmobile Infantry company so I can mix things up a bit from time to time. One of the great things about FoW Vietnam is the US infantry is basically the same for all the lists, so it's just really the support and transports that change. So by buying a few extra pieces you can play with some very different lists and not break the bank. It also means I get to paint up more helicopters which is never a bad thing!

Well thats all from me today, I hope to have the first platoon finished very soon. I'm also knee deep in terrain for Vietnam I need to make, my wife's patience with the mess is being pushed to the limit, so I hope to have them done soon too and pictures posted up.

I hope you enjoyed the post, until next time!

Ben