Courage Under Fire: The Battle of An Loc

Courage Under Fire is a low complexity, low counter density game on the assault on An Loc during the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive in 1972.

The NVA launched the "Easter Offensive" and the village of An Loc became a critical objective as it was astride highway QL-13 halfway between a large base area in Cambodia and the city of Saigon. On or around April 12th, the North Vietnamese began a 7,000 round a day bombardment and launched attacks beginning on April 13th. Under attack by two NVA and one Vietcong division (a total of about 35,000), the ARVN 5th Division along with ARVN airborne and ranger units, which numbered about 7,500, held off the continued assault by infantry and tanks with the help of US airstrikes and B-52 arclight bombings.

The game uses area movement and interesting chrome such as NVA sappers, variable applications for artillery bombardment and of course airstrikes as the ARVN is hard pressed to duplicate the efforts of the 5th Infantry.

The NVA Player has just a few turns to take enough of the ARVN controlled areas and gain victory while the ARVN Player must maintain the ARVN Resistance Level or be forced to withdraw and lose the game. The game is easily playable solitaire and short enough to be played more than once in an evening for competitive players.

Game Components:

One, 11" x 17" map
36 single-sided unit counters
One, 2-page rule book

(description for second edition from http://hfdgames.com)

1st edition: published in Panzer Digest #4.