Fire Support Base 'Mary-Helen'
FSB Mary-Helen is a fictional, company-sized fire support base, set somewhere in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
The fire base is the focal point of a Vietnam solo-wargame campaign that starts in September of 1967 and will run until the mission has been accomplished, the FSB is dismantled and the unit stationed there is reassigned.
The FSB Mary-Helen campaign is being run using the FNG:Operations rules system written by Darby Eckles.
You can get a full Intel briefing about the new Area of Operations and a Map of the AO which will give you some background information about Bravo's new home.
Objective of the Campaign
Bravo Company, a US Army Infantry Company, is to establish a Fire Support Base in an area of increasing communist activity with the objective of reducing that activity and re-establishing firm control by the South Vietnamese Government. Bravo Company has several other units attached to it that will help it accomplish the mission.
This section of the site and it's associated Blog, will follow the progress of this campaign as I play it out and follow the trials and tribulations of a single Company as it plays it's part in the fight against creeping Communism in South-East Asia.
The 105mm howitzers fire into the grey distance, booming as you walk past and are accosted by your orderly,
Second platoon walked into a VC bunker complex and stirred up a hornets nest. First platoon is about 3 clicks away, but can only get there by chopper due to the river between them. The LRRP team out at the edge of the AO think they hear beucoup movement around them, and HIGHER wants us to send some Engineers down to dig a well and build a hog pen for some District big-wigs Auntie. Intel picked up a suspect that says that the VC will also hit that Ruff Puff O.P. down by the crossroads, and it looks like the weather is going to get nasty and we won't be able to fly for much longer. What do we do sir? Reinforce Second Platoon, pull out the LRRPs, or please the brass?
- Introduction to FNG:Operations.
Where's the Wargaming?
Most of the game is played by reference to event charts and assorted tables including combat encounters. However, the intent of the writer of the rules, Darby Eckles, was to use FNG:Operations as a backdrop and raison d'étre for table-top battles in order to give a sense of continuity and purpose behind individual games.
I am attempting to develop a system that will allow me to recreate some of the encounters generated as table-top actions and to report them here.
This IS a Fiction
FSB Mary-Helen is NOT about any real Vietnam Fire Support Base and will probably bear little or no resemblance to a proper non-fictional installation. The Campaign is purely a wargaming endeavour on my part and as such will take many actions, produce many results and re-enact many twists and turns that simply have no basis in reality. However, if you know about thow these places were laid out and how they worked in real life, then I would like to hear from you.
Timeline
The Campaign 'Day' constitues one-turn of the game based on a normal calander. Each game-turn, or Day, is broken down into three phases: morning, afternoon and night.
Anyone who has a copy of FNG:Operations and has tried to run a campaign of this nature will know that there is an incredible amount of detail to keep track of in order to run it successfully. Bearing that in mind do not be surprised by the relatively slow pace at which things move along and are presented here and in the Blog.
