The rules play similarly to Battlefront WW2. Tweaked for the Vietnam War focusing on the small squad and platoon size games. Skirmish level as some call it. Its available as a Print on Demand copy from The Plastic Soldiers Company.
A while back I came across Lttle Wars TV, After Action Report (AAR / Batrep) for their Vietnam Games and since I have thoroughly enjoyed watching their videos and also their Blog posts on Spotify. These have been been great to listen too while busy with other stuff.
They have a Youtube channel and Spotify Blog and a Patreon. Their website has some free stuff like many of the scenarios for their games.
Their club appears to have a very nice location and venue and one I am rather generous of. My club has over 150 members but mostly Sci-fi and Fantasy is played. A few Boltaction Games and the occasional Chain of Command or Black powder. So its great to see their interest in historical gaming and its benefits.
If you like Historical Gaming.. well check their stuff out. I certainly can recommend it. The production level of their videos is very very good and they have obviously got some talented editors etc. I also love the what-if games and posing of historical questions.
Its interesting to see how a lot of their stuff is run in smaller scales and though I do love my 28mm it is nice to see the likes of the 6mm tank battalions etc, which you can sadly never game in 28mm.
While listening back through some of their early Blogs, one of the question posed to a couple of their interviewees, was how did they see the decline in historical gaming and this struck a cord. The club I help run has over 150 members. We are the largest club in Wales and probably if not, one of the largest clubs in the UK. We run three gaming nights a week.. two mostly RPG focused evenings and one Boardgames and Wargames focused evening So on a our weekly Thursday Night Gaming for Boardgames and Wargames, we have an attendance ranging from 45 to 60 at peak times. So for a second I will exclude our lovely Boardgamers. The miniature wargamers we are left with, mojoratively play fantasy or science fiction games. Yes 40k is of course our greatest group. With the likes of Oldworld and AOS and Frostgrave and Fantasy battles etc making up the rest. We do have a few historical players. Mostly playing Boltaction WW2 at time of writing. Occasionally some chain of command WW2 gets played and some Black Powders or African Bush Wars but its very safe to say that historical gaming makes up a small proportion. Which is a I think a little sad. It would be nice to see more historical games played.
In one of the blogs by Little Wars they discuss the use of Wargaming by a History teacher and later Dean of a private school and how well it was received by teenage students and the skills and the interests it helped develop in those youths over time. And how their historical gaming society was running schemes to encourage new players and younger players to historical gaming.
Due to legal reasons our club has to ensure any minors (Under 18s in UK) are accompanied by a responsible adult for safeguarding reasons as the club uses multiple sperate rooms at our venue and so by law we have to ensure child safety. We do get some younger players but most are again into the Science fiction or Fantasy games usually their fathers are playing too in general.
So I decided to look at the BHGS - British Historical Games Society : https://www.bhgs.org.uk/ Seeing if they were doing similar. Sadly it appears from their website, they are primarily focused on tournament events and competitive play, rather than historical and narrative play such enjoyed by the Little Wars TV members.
This was also in line with the question in one of their blogs put to the Managing Director of Osprey books about the future of historical wargaming. And I must profess it got me thinking and initially I was quite struck by the decline and changes over the year in our club, but change of venue etc have all played a part.
But looking at the whole of Historical Gaming Industry in the UK.. and how clubs etc are faring. I must say I feel we are seeing a decline. And may be things need to be done to tackle it. Not exactly sure on what and how. But certainly I think we need to do something as a hobby and industry. Something I will be mulling over going forward.
So if you have read this far on this post. Well done and please comment below on your thoughts.
Want to find more info and posts on Vietnam Miniature Wargaming, history and Model Ranges, Battle Reports etc, then let me recommend - Fields of Fire Reloaded Forum.
The original forum sadly went down and this is a replacement. Not sure all previous members realised the forum was re-created.
A good mix of folks from across the globe and some interesting games and info for all aspects of the Indo-China and Vietnam War periods in all Scales from 6mm, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm.
Here is the previous to the battle report for their big game! A gorgeous table and great game. A standard I would love to get to one day with my Vietnam Gaming.
And here is the actual games report in all its glory!
If you loved that video and wondered how they made the table here is a video on the table terrain making.
And so it is now late in 2025.. I have had a tough year.. not done a huge amount of gaming and had some major health issues. 2024 saw two doses of covid and some broken toes and this year has seen a prolapsed disc in my spine on 30th of April and then months of recovery and boom it got worse in October and now I am back on the road to slow recovery and avoiding surgery I hope.
So hoping to setup my self to get back to painting and get some NAM games in next year. And return to some regular blogging once again.
I seem to have a habit of finding systems and miniature ranges just after they have gone out of print. Certainly seems with Gale Force Nine and Battlefront merging or buyout, which ever it is.. the Nam range has been dumped in leu of Team Yankee.. Which frankly from the games I have seen played suffers with the whole Flame of War Tank Carpark issues again.
So I am looking forward to getting some figures painted and table ready and some scenery for 15mm and 28mm built up and on the table.
Update - I just hit post on this and then had a look back at some of my previous posts and games and wow.. 2011.. was the first posts here I made. A lot has changed for me and a lot hasn't. Its kinda scary. I guess that Wargaming and Table Top Roleplaying is still in my blood!
