America's last Vietnam Battle - Linebacker II - the historic B-52 attacks against North Vietnam that brought (temporary) peace and got the American POWs home. A fascinating air campaign simulation! 134 minis including aircraft, SAMs, AAA - 22x34 campaign map - mission planning, event cards, attack wave layouts, SAM engagement board, airbase cards, rulebook, dice, roundels, counters, chips and more.
Either a 2-player contest or SOLO against a "system" (for either side), one side plays the US forces charged with executing the American President's campaign to bring the North Vietnamese back to the conference table, while the other plays TWO adversaries - the North Vietnamese AND the SAC Command staff in Omaha! Game play is organized by raid wave and combat is conducted for each attacking support sortie or cell of B-52s by each SAM battalion. Wild Weasel, Iron Hand, chaff, ECM, MiGCAP, AAA, and GCI are all modeled in an exciting and realistic sim of this complex campaign.
Game Concepts
The basic design features a main aviation chart map that includes a number of target boxes, covering the area involved in the historical campaign. Players use miniature aircraft, SAMs, AAA batteries, chips and counters to simulate the historical raids, one wave at a time. The NVA player sets up their air defense, then the US player puts together their raid wave plan layouts indicating how many bombers will attack which targets (and routes, altitudes, TOT, etc.). Here are some of the components:
Combat
The actual combat system is simple, realistic and fun. ECM and chaff support aircraft, F-111s, escorts, MiGCAP and Weasel/Iron Hand flights each have their own separate rules for engagements vs. the North Vietnamese AD system - including air combat - and Aardvarks have their own bombing effectiveness table. But the heart of the system is the attack vector board and the SAM Engagement Track!
The target card goes in the center of the board (each separate target has a card). The B-52 cells attacking the target have an inbound and an outbound vector (indicated on both the raid wave plan and the vector strips on the main map). As SAMs engage the BUFFs and bombs are dropped, results and SAM firing counts are tracked here. Also, the target card is marked with the previous attack vector and if a PTT (post target turn) was used by the prior attacking cell - these factors create mods that impact the SAM crew's odds at hitting a bomber.
This is where the BUFFs go up against the SAM crews. There is a mission card and an AD card (they are both blind draws off the top of their respective decks). Each player places a card for that cell (3 B-52s) of bombers being engaged. Then the players simply follow the instructions to determine the "hit" number. Odds for a SAM hit range from 2.78% to 16.66% and depend on the dice. Bombers in their Post Target Turns (PTT) without cell integrity hitting repeat targets by the same routes are more likely to get hit. It can be even worse if they are G-model planes without ALT-22 ECM packages or bombers outside of a Chaff screen - or if the missile crews fire two SAMs at the same target! The system is fun, suspenseful, realistic and quick. The cards make each engagement unique and add historical flavor to the battle - since they are based on actual people and events that took place during the campaign.
Minis
The game has 134 minis - all the aircraft, MiGs, AAA Guns and SAMs you need to simulate the historic campaign right down to the last EB-66. Also, there are cool basing layouts so you can park your aircraft between raid waves in style (and keep track of which have already sortied, and which are available for the next wave of attacks).
The US player has two adversaries
So, as with so many aspects of America's war in SEA, there is more to worry about than just the North Vietnamese. The US player has another issue - the SAC brass. For those who know the history, the operational planning for the first few days of the campaign left something to be desired - and resulted in large US bomber losses. In fact, it is not too much to say that, had the NVA themselves actually participated in the SAC planning meetings, they could hardly have devised a plan weighted more to their strengths than that which SAC HQ put together! To simulate this in the campaign game, the NVA player gets "trump" planning cards that potentially cancel the US player's ability to change targets or tactics. As the campaign progresses, this effect lessens (as the US player gets more "plan change" cards and the NVA player eventually gets zero trump cards). Here is the planning layout:
An important part of the game is the US player's requirement to adhere to the SAC plan for nights 1-3, and then their progressive ability to enact changes to improve their odds at winning thereafter. As such, a beautiful playbook comes with the game - and it includes a detailed series of maps with historical targets, bomber routes, cell assignments, TOTs (Time On Target) and support force composition for each raid wave. Here is a page from the playbook showing the target and route details for the bombers on night 1 Wave 1:
