Meatgrinder: Battle for Xuân Lộc 1975 (2011)

Overview

(from ATO website):

Two years after the last US troops left Vietnam, People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) General Van Tien Dung launched Operation 275, a "limited" offensive designed to set up an attack on the provincial capital of Pleiko. Rapid collapse of South Vietnamese (ARVN) forces caused a change in plan, with PAVN forces quickly taking one city after another, pausing only before an attack on Saigon itself. Based on previous performance, when three full PAVN divisions, supported by tanks and ample artillery, attacked one depleted ARVN division at Xuân Lộc, Dung expected a cake walk. What he got was a Meatgrinder instead.

For two bloody weeks, a division regarded as "unreliable" held back everything the PAVN could throw against them, inflicting heavy losses. No one, on either side, expected such heavy fighting. And hardly anyone thought that this would actually be "the last battle" of a 30 year conflict. It was.

Now, Against the Odds lets you refight this key moment in history, with Meatgrinder: Battle for Xuân Lộc, 1975. The design uses a variable initiative system that keeps both sides uncertain, and features all the weapon systems that made this battle, and this period, so distinctive. The ARVN player employs cluster bombs, daisy cutters, M-48 tanks, and helicopters against seemingly overwhelming numbers of PAVN troops, artillery, and T-54 tanks. Leadership, close assaults, and airborne operations are also included...all the tools for attack and defense that made this a classic confrontation.

Meatgrinder and issue #33 of ATO: Map - One full color 22"x34" mapsheet Counters - 280 full color 1/2" die-cut pieces Rules length - 10 pages Charts and tables - 2 pages Complexity - Medium Solitaire suitability - Average