| Author: John R. "Buck" Surdu | |
| Publisher: LMW Works | |
| Date Published: 2002 | |
| Period: Vietnam | |
| Scale: Large Skirmish | |
| Status:Available through Brigade Games, Old Glory, directly from LMW Works, or Amazon.com. | |
| Notes: Works equally well for WWII |
Fire Team Vietnam was proposed by Russ Dunaway of Old Glory to help promote an upcoming line of 28mm Vieetnam figures from West Wind (distributed by Old Glory). The timeline for development was very short. BAPS works well for Vietnam skirmishes, so why write another set of rules? Old Glory wanted to sell platoon bags of figures, approximately 40. To me this meant that each player should comfortably control a platoon. While this is possible for experienced BAPS players, one or two squads is more reasonable. Due to the time constrains, however, Fire Team Vietnam (FTV) needed to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Photo courtesy the Vietgaming Yahoo Groups list. Figures by
Britannia Miniatures.
The firing and movement systems are very similar to BAPS. The command and control system is entirely new, and it allows players to easily command a whole platoon. It also maintains some level of friction. This system revolves around five activation status levels: active, neutral, gone to ground, pinned, and routed. At the beginning of each turn, the owning player rolls the new activation status of each squad. This roll takes the role of both command and control and morale check. The result is a new activation status that determines what the units can do in the upcoming turn. As an added bonus, I was able to get rid of much the table clutter associated with the many counters used in BAPS.
The hand-to-hand combat system in FTV is much more streamlined then the man-on-man system used in BAPS. Also, I did something I have always wanted to do to BAPS, but every time I tried, loyal BAPS players asked me not to: I made rolling for damage to vehicles two rolls instead of five or six. I don't think there is any loss of flavor, and it sure speeds that part of the game up!
None of this should imply that BAPS is no good. BAPS and FTV have different targets, in terms of layers of abstraction. If you like BAPS, you will probably like FTV. Most people who have tried them both agree. Chris Palmer's wife, Jennifer, said she thought FTV was easier to learn than BAPS.