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Playing solo through the Playbook tutorial as a first timer to the COIN series.

Fire in the Lake, Insurgency in Vietnam, GMT Games, Components

Fire in the Lake (GMT-2014) - Front Box Cover

While the battle for Tay Ninh continues to dominate the attention of ARVN troops and police, several cadres of VC guerrillas take the opportunity to enter, with force, into a lightly defended Saigon.

Fire in the Lake - Insurgency in Vietnam by GMT Games. COIN Series, Volume IV

The Long War board state at the start of the game.

I'm still amazed by how deep this game is and how I keep discovering new strategies for each side. I just love this game.

My daughter trying to get more control with her NVA forces.

Fire in the Lake (2014)

Players

1–4

Best: 4

Playing time

180–180 min

Age

8.06

Average rating

3,411

Ratings

4.17/5

Weight

#569

BGG rank

Top 1,000

Alternate names:El Lago en Llamas

Designer:Mark Herman, Volko Ruhnke

Artist:Rodger B. MacGowan, Mark Simonitch, Chechu Nieto

Publisher:GMT Games +1 more

Average rating, ratings count, weight and rank are sourced from BoardGameGeek (BGG).

Game DNA

Strategy7.0

Luck7.0

Interaction4.0

Complexity8.3

Theme5.0

This game's strategy, luck, interaction, complexity and theme.

PoliticalWargameModern WarfareCivil WarVietnam WarVariable Player PowersSimulationDice RollingVariable Phase OrderArea Majority / InfluenceSolo / Solitaire Game

Overview

Volume IV in the Series: COIN (GMT) dives headlong into the momentous and complex battle for South Vietnam. A unique multi-faction treatment of the Vietnam War, Fire in the Lake will take players on US heliborne sweeps of the jungle and Communist infiltration of the South, and into inter-allied conferences, Saigon politics, interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, air defense of Northern infrastructure, graduated escalation, and media war.

Fire in the Lake features the same card-assisted counterinsurgency game system as GMT's Andean Abyss, Cuba Libre, and A Distant Plain, with twists that take the Series to another level, including:

Pivotal events that trump initiative (Tet Offensive, Vietnamization, Easter Offensive, and Linebacker II) Inter-coup campaign effects that vary by RVN leader Counterinsurgent guerrillas (US-led Irregulars and ARVN Rangers) Insurgent troops (NVA) for direct force-on-force engagements Tunneled VC and NVA bases Trail construction and degradation A larger-than-ever event deck for even greater play variety Short and medium-length scenarios with either random or period-event options

-- description from publisher