1975 White Christmas Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Start of Each Phase
  • Phase 1 - Draw Cards
  • Phase 2 - Play Cards
  • Phase 3 - Sighting
• Actions
  • Inspect
  • Radar
  • Move
  • Influence
  • Rescue
  • Special Order
  • Action Wild
• Sighting Effects
  • Cessna Aircraft
• Aircraft Carrier Upgrades
• End of the Game
• Solo Mode
  • Solo Setup
  • Phase 1: Draw Cards
  • Phase 2: Play Cards
  • Phase 3: Sighting
  • Chambers' Actions
  • Endgame and Scoring
• Facts and Figures
• How Much Is a Human Life Worth?
• The End of the Conflict

Components

• 32 People Tokens: Vietnamese, Soldier, Businesswoman and Politician
• 1 Score and Influence Board
• 4 Score Markers
• 4 Influence Markers
• 18 Radar Tokens
• 48 Mini-size Cards:
  • 4 Helicopter cards "CH-53 Sea Stallion"
  • 4 Helicopter cards "CH-46 Sea Knight"
  • 10 Staircase cards
  • 18 Special Order cards
  • 5 Rooftop cards
  • 7 Sighting cards
• 66 Standard-size Cards:
  • 38 Action cards
  • 4 Influence Effect cards
  • 20 Aircraft Carrier cards (with upgraded side on reverse)
  • 4 Turn Order cards

Both Helicopter types have a night-mode side on their reverse.

Setup

1. Place the Score and Influence Board in the center of the table.

2. Take the 4 Influence Effect cards. Randomly select one side of each card and place them under the board, matching the colors with the Influence Track.

   Each card has 4 different positions, giving you a total of 256 combinations.

3. Each player chooses a color and takes:

   • a) The 5 Aircraft Carrier cards, placed in order in front of you on the non-upgraded side (the one showing the "Special Order" Folder).
   • b) The 2 Helicopter cards, placed on the Daytime side up on the first two carrier cards.
   • c) A Score Marker, stacked randomly on the starting space of the Score Track.
   • d) An Influence Marker, stacked randomly on the starting space of the Influence Track.

4. Assign Turn Order Cards based on Influence Marker position (topmost receives Turn Order Card "1," then "2," etc.).

5. Shuffle and place the 18 Radar Tokens face-down in the designated board area.

6. Each player receives one Wildcard Action card, placed face-up next to their Aircraft Carrier.

7. Shuffle the remaining Action cards into a deck and place it under the "Inspect" Action slot of the board.

8. Draw 4 Action cards and place them under the other Action slots of the board.

9. Place the People Tokens in a general Supply.

10. Reveal 3, 4, or 5 Rooftop cards depending on player count (2, 3, or 4 players). Check the bottom-left corner of each card to ensure you select the correct ones.

Put all unused material back in the box. The game begins with the player holding Turn Order Card "1."

Illustration: Game setup for 3 players.

Gameplay

The game lasts 4 rounds. Each round has three phases:

• PHASE 1 - Draw Cards
• PHASE 2 - Play Cards
• PHASE 3 - Sighting

Start of Each Phase

At the START OF EACH PHASE:

1. Redistribute the Turn Order Cards according to the Influence Track positions. Ties go to the Influence Marker on top (i.e., the player who arrived last in that position). The player with the most influence receives the "1" card, and the remaining cards are assigned in descending order.
2. Refill the Special Mission Row to 4, 5, or 6 cards depending on player count (2, 3, or 4 players).

Each phase is resolved in ascending turn order.

Phase 1 - Draw Cards

At the start of Phase 1:

1. Add one face-down Staircase card to the left of each Rooftop.
2. Reveal the top Sighting card for the round. Seeing its bonuses will help you decide whether to try to obtain it in Phase 3.

Then, in ascending Turn Order:

1. Take one Action card from any Action slot of the board.
2. Immediately perform the Action on the board corresponding to its slot (see "Actions").
3. Refill the Action Row (if necessary) with the top card of the deck. If the deck is exhausted, create a new one by shuffling the discard pile.

Repeat until each player has five Action cards in hand.

Illustration: Take the second card from the Action Row and immediately resolve its Influence Action.

Phase 2 - Play Cards

At the start of Phase 2, reveal the Staircase cards and place People Tokens on each free space from the supply.

Then, in ascending Turn Order, each player plays one Action card.

Play a card from your hand, or use the face-up card next to your carrier (which starts as an Action Wild). If you do, immediately replace it by placing a card from your hand face-up.

This Action Wild card allows you to choose any of the four available Actions.

Each Action card (except Wilds) shows two Actions, one of which is always Rescue. Choose one Action to perform, then discard the card.

If you cannot or do not wish to perform an Action (see "Actions"), discard the card without applying its effect.

The rest of the players do the same, following turn order.

Repeat this process until all players have no cards left in hand.

Phase 3 - Sighting

At the start of Phase 3, discard the Staircase cards. If any contain People Tokens, move them to the free spaces on the Rooftop, following the arrow on the Staircase card. If there is no free space on the Rooftop, discard any remaining People Tokens.

Illustration: At the end of this phase, the Rooftop has one free space, so move the Soldier up and discard the Politician.

Aircraft carrier radars detect incoming South Vietnamese defectors arriving in stolen helicopters.

Next, in ascending turn order, declare the number of tokens you wish to play (it may be zero) and place them face-down in your play area. Once all players have done so, reveal the tokens simultaneously.

• The player with the highest total points (and in case of a tie, the player with the lowest Turn Order Card) wins the card. (For the "Sighting Effects," see that section.)
• The other players score one victory point for each Radar Token they played, regardless of its value.

Return all played tokens to the supply and shuffle them with the rest.

Actions

Inspect

Secretly look at the Staircase card of one Rooftop to see which People Tokens will appear in Phase 2. You also immediately gain 1 Victory Point.

This Action is only on the board, so it can only be performed during Phase 1 by taking the top card from the Action deck.

Radar

Take one Radar Token from the Supply, secretly check its value, and keep it face-down in your play area.

Move

Move one of your helicopters from the Aircraft Carrier to any free Rooftop, from one Rooftop to another, or from a Rooftop back to your Aircraft Carrier.

• Each Rooftop can hold only 2 helicopters.
• The top landing zone is for CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, and the bottom zone is for CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. Each card includes a marker icon to clearly indicate its designated landing zone.
• To move a helicopter to a Rooftop, the appropriate space must not be occupied. A Rooftop may hold both of your helicopters.

Returning a Helicopter to Your Aircraft Carrier:

• If there is space available on your carrier, you MUST unload any rescued People Tokens (see "Rescue"). If there is no space, choose which People Tokens to unload, leaving the rest on the helicopter. Whenever you later have available space, you must unload all rescued People Tokens.
• Scoring: Each time you unload rescued People Tokens, you score the Victory Points indicated on your helicopter. A reminder is printed on the carrier spaces. Don't forget it!

Helicopters can only move from your carrier to Rooftops if the destination is empty. If you choose to take off a helicopter that still carries People Tokens, those People Tokens must be returned to the supply before moving.

Influence

Advance your Influence Marker one space on the Influence Track.

Any Action or effect shown on that space is resolved immediately. If you cannot resolve it, the opportunity is lost. If the space's Action is another Influence, advance again and resolve the next Action or effect.

This symbol marks the threshold your Influence Marker must cross in order to perform Upgrade 1 of the Aircraft Carrier (see "Aircraft Carrier Upgrades").

Rescue

Take one People Token of the indicated type from a Rooftop card or Staircase card where you have a helicopter.

This symbol indicates that you may rescue any type of People Token.

You must have a helicopter on that Rooftop with free capacity and the ability to carry that type of People Token (not all helicopters can transport every type of People Token). Each helicopter grants different Victory Points depending on the type of People Tokens rescued. These points are only scored when the People Tokens are unloaded on your Aircraft Carrier (see "Move").

Special Order

Choose one of the following options: complete a mission or upgrade your Aircraft Carrier. All Victory Points from this Action are scored at the end of the game.

• Complete an Order: Discard rescued People Tokens from your Aircraft Carrier to fulfill one of the cards in the Special Mission Row. Take the completed Mission card and keep it hidden in your play area.
• Upgrade the Aircraft Carrier: If you meet the requirements shown in the Special Mission folder of one of the five Aircraft Carrier cards, flip it over to reveal its upgrade (see "Aircraft Carrier Upgrades"). The card also reveals additional Victory Points.

Example: Using your Special Mission Action, you decide to discard 3 Radar Tokens (with a total value of 11) to fulfill Upgrade 4 of the Aircraft Carrier.

Action Wild

This is the Action Wild symbol, which allows you to choose any of the four available Actions on the cards: Radar, Influence, Move, or Special Order.

Sighting Effects

Each sighting card may arrive with one or two Passengers, who immediately join your Aircraft Carrier.

Take these People Tokens from the supply (not from the Rooftops) and place them in a free space on your carrier. If you have no available space, or the supply does not contain the indicated type of People Tokens, the opportunity is lost.

In addition, some cards grant one or two Actions that you may perform immediately or, at no cost, during any of your later turns. The Actions a sighting card can grant are:

• Perform one Influence Action.

• Perform two consecutive Move Actions. If you have the Aircraft Carrier Movement Upgrade, you may move both helicopters in each Action.

  The printed term "Aircraft Carrier Movement Upgrade" refers to Upgrade 4, "Advanced Communications."

• Perform two Special Order Actions, one after the other.

• Perform one Rescue Action of any type of People Token.

Cessna Aircraft

The last card is special and is always resolved just before the end of the game. At game end, reveal all your Radar Tokens and sum their values for scoring. The player with the highest total scores 8 points, the player with the second-highest total scores 5 points, the player with the third-highest total scores 2 points. In case of a tie, the player with the lowest Turn Order Card wins. For 2-player or solo games, the points are 8 and 3, respectively.

You must have at least one Radar Token to score points.

Aircraft Carrier Upgrades

1 - Activate night-mode: CH-53 Sea Stallion: Your Influence Marker must have reached or crossed the threshold on the Influence Track.

Flip the CH-53 card, wherever it is. From now on, use its night-mode side with improved characteristics for the rest of the game.

2 - Activate night mode: CH-46 Sea Knight: You must have completed at least one Special Mission (i.e., own a Special Mission card).

Flip the CH-46 card, wherever it is. From now on, use its night-mode side with improved characteristics for the rest of the game.

3 - Special Rescue Device: You must discard two People Tokens of the indicated type plus one additional token of any type.

From now on, when performing a Rescue Action, you may collect two People Tokens of the indicated type in a single Action, from any Rooftop and using one or both helicopters. If it is a "rescue any type" Action, you may rescue two People Tokens of your choice (same or different).

4 - Advanced Communications: You must discard Radar Tokens with a total value of at least 10 points.

From now on, when performing a Move Action, you may move both of your helicopters once each.

5 - Clear Landing Space: Discard two People Tokens of any type.

You free up two additional rescue spaces on your Aircraft Carrier.

End of the Game

The game ends at the conclusion of the fourth round, after points from the final sighting have been awarded.

Add the following to the points you earned during the game:

• Helicopter passengers: Score 1 point for every two People Tokens still on your helicopters (not unloaded onto the carrier).
• Aircraft Carrier upgrades: Score the points indicated on any upgrades you completed on your carrier cards.
• Special Orders: Score the points shown on your collected Special Order cards.

The player with the highest total score wins. In the event of a tie, the victory goes to the player with the lowest Turn Order Card.

Solo Mode

In this game mode, you face the challenge of evacuating as many civilians as possible under limited time and resources. You will compete against Captain Lawrence Chambers, who, while commanding the USS Midway, made very difficult decisions of great humanitarian value throughout the operation.

Solo Setup

Prepare the game similarly to a 2-player game with the following exceptions:

• Choose one color for yourself and another for Chambers.

• Flip Chambers' helicopters so they start on the night-mode side.

• Remove the two Rescue Wildcard cards from the game.

• Remove three Action Wildcard cards from the game; place the remaining one next to your Aircraft Carrier.

  In this solo mode, your Action Wildcard can only be used once. After using it, remove it from the game, instead of discarding it.

• You always start first, so take Turn Order Card "1" and give the Turn Order Card "2" to Captain Chambers.

Phase 1: Draw Cards

At the beginning of each Phase 1:

• If Chambers leads on the Influence Track, he gains 1 victory point.
• Chambers moves one position forward on the Influence Track.

Your turn follows the normal rules, but to determine which card Captain Chambers takes, follow these steps in order:

1. Draw and discard the top card of the deck.
2. Take the Action card located under the lower Action icon of the discarded card. Place this card face-down next to his Aircraft Carrier, forming a personal deck.
3. Execute the Action indicated on the board position of that card.
4. Refill the Action Row with the top card of the deck.

Illustration: You discard an Action card with the Influence symbol, so Chambers executes that Action and takes from the board the card located under that same symbol.

Phase 2: Play Cards

At the start of each Phase 2:

• If Chambers is leading on the Influence Track, he gains 1 victory point.
• Shuffle his deck of five cards.

Your turn follows the normal rules, but to determine which card Captain Chambers plays, follow these steps in order:

1. Reveal a card from his deck and place it in the discard pile.
2. Execute the Rescue Action shown on the upper part of the card, if possible.
3. If that's not possible, execute the Action shown on the lower part of the card.
4. If neither is possible, Chambers does not perform any Action.

Phase 3: Sighting

At the start of each Phase 3:

• If Chambers leads the Influence Track, he gains 1 victory point.

Your turn follows the normal rules. Captain Chambers takes from his reserve as many tokens as you have plus one. This is calculated based on the total Radar Tokens you have, not the ones you bet.

Illustration: Since you have two Radar Tokens, Captain Chambers plays three tokens.

If Captain Chambers doesn't have enough tokens, he will use all he has.

Illustration: Chambers performs the double Move Action but does not rescue the Vietnamese from the reserve.

If Captain Chambers wins the sighting card, he never rescues any People Tokens from the reserve. He only executes the Actions indicated on the cards (see "Chambers' Actions").

If Captain Chambers loses, he earns 1 victory point for each token played, like in the multi-player game.

Chambers' Actions

• Radar: Captain Chambers secretly takes one Radar Token and leaves it face-down in his play area.

• Influence: Chambers advances one space on his Influence Track. He does not receive any additional effects or Actions.

• Move: Chambers moves one of his helicopters according to this priority:

  1. From his Aircraft Carrier to a Rooftop.
  2. From a Rooftop back to his Aircraft Carrier.

  Chambers always moves the helicopter that maximizes potential Victory Points from a rescue.

  Check all free Rooftops and determine which helicopter travels to which Rooftop. In case of a tie, the leftmost helicopter moves. If multiple Rooftops have the same value, the helicopter moves to the leftmost Rooftop.

  When a helicopter moves back to the carrier, it unloads all People Tokens, scores points as indicated on the helicopter card, and returns the tokens to the reserve. Chambers never keeps People Tokens on his Aircraft Carrier.

  Move example: Captain Chambers has his CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter on the Aircraft Carrier. With a Move Action, he must relocate it to a Rooftop. By calculating the rescue values of each Rooftop, he must fly to the one on the right, which will give him the most points (2 + 2 + 0 = 4). The example shows the three Rooftops with values 3, 2 and 4, from left to right.

• Rescue: Chambers rescues the character indicated on the card. If there are multiple options, he rescues the one that gives the most victory points. In case of a tie, he uses the leftmost helicopter.

• Special Order: Chambers does not need to meet any requirements; he completes them automatically:

Endgame and Scoring

• During the game, Chambers scores only for having more influence than you, for the Rescues performed and for the Radar Tokens.
• At the end of the game, he also adds points from his Aircraft Carrier upgrades, points from his Special Orders and 1 point for every 2 People Tokens on his helicopters.

Facts and Figures

Although it had been prepared since 1973, it was on April 29, 1975 that the U.S. Army activated Operation Frequent Wind in response to pressure from the North Vietnamese Army to enter Saigon.

The operation lasted only 18 hours, but in that time around 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter flights from the embassy and from rooftops to the many U.S. ships (USS Midway, USS Hancock, etc.) waiting at sea.

More than 80 helicopters of various types took part, including requisitioned civilian helicopters. About half of them were pushed overboard or ditched at sea to make room for new arrivals. As it was an evacuation operation, there was no direct combat, but even so, two Marines lost their lives when a North Vietnamese rocket struck near the airport. They were the last American soldiers killed in Vietnam.

How Much Is a Human Life Worth?

On April 30, 1975, Major Lý Buang of the South Vietnamese Air Force evacuated his wife and five children in a single-engine Cessna O-1 "Bird Dog" aircraft. Searching for an American ship, he flew out over the sea. On the horizon appeared the USS Midway, but its deck was crowded with helicopters and there was no space to land.

Unable to communicate by radio, Major Buang dropped a handwritten note explaining that he was flying with his family, had no fuel, and begged them to clear the deck so he could land. After reading it, Captain Lawrence Chambers, newly in command, did the unthinkable. Knowing he risked a court-martial, he ordered helicopters and equipment valued at $10 million to be pushed overboard.

With the deck cleared, Lý Buang landed skillfully, becoming a hero alongside the captain. Today, the Cessna is displayed at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida, and the USS Midway has been turned into a museum ship in San Diego.

The End of the Conflict

Operation "Frequent Wind" represented an unprecedented logistical and human milestone. The perfect coordination of so many forces — Aircraft Carriers, helicopters, and troops — in a chaotic environment allowed thousands of lives to be saved, including Americans, Vietnamese collaborators, and diplomats.

However, this tactical success cannot be separated from its historical context. The desperate need to evacuate was a direct consequence of a long, costly, and deeply divisive war, in which U.S. involvement was criticized both domestically and internationally. The U.S. intervention in Vietnam left millions of victims, a devastated country, and an American society marked by trauma and distrust toward its leaders.

"Frequent Wind" was the dramatic closing of a conflict that should never have escalated to such a magnitude.