Vietnam Solitaire

Vietnam Solitaire Rulebook

Table of Contents

A. Game Overview

This game is a solitaire (one-player) game. The player controls the American / South Vietnamese side against a simulated North Vietnam.

A1. Game Components

The game map depicts South Vietnam, divided into five named regions, each with four numbered areas (1, 2, 3, 4). The map also has the Ho Chi Minh Trail, made up of six named areas.

The game counters include:

North Vietnam:

NVA = North Vietnamese Army units
VC = infiltrated Viet Cong
Trail = Ho Chi Minh Trail counters (the optional rules describe additional Trail counters)

America / South Vietnam:

ARVN = South Vietnamese Army units
Grunt = American infantry units
AirCav = American air cavalry units
B-52 = American strategic air force units
Green Beret = special forces units
Napalm = tactical air force units

There are also a game turn counter and a Political Point (PP) counter. Playing the game requires two six-sided dice.

A2. Game Setup

In each region, place 1 VC unit in area 1 or 2, and 1 ARVN unit in area 3 or 4. Place 1 Trail counter in Hanoi and 1 Trail counter in Haiphong. Place the PP counter and the Turn counter each on the 1 space of its record track.

(Translator's note: the printed setup text ends with a stray "1" after the final full stop. It is not a rule and is omitted.)

B. Playing a Game Turn

Set the PP counter to the same number as the Turn counter. Carry out the following actions in order, one time each:

Forming the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail by B-52 and Green Beret
Building / moving units
Combat: Napalm and ground combat
Placing enemy units: NVA and VC
Armed forces
NVA / VC offensive
Air Cav redeployment
Final Political Points for the turn

B1. Forming the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Roll 2 dice and place a Trail counter in the Trail area with the matching number. If that area already holds a Trail counter, do not place an additional one.

B2. Attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

A Trail area on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that holds a Trail counter may be attacked as a target for removing that Trail counter. Hanoi and Haiphong may be attacked only by B-52. All other Trail areas may be attacked by either B-52 or Green Beret. There are two B-52 units and two Green Beret units. This is the maximum number of Ho Chi Minh Trail attacks that can be made in one turn. (Note that one Trail area may be attacked more than once.)

B-52 attack:

Place the B-52 in the area being attacked.
Increase the PP record by 2.
Roll 1 die. On a 1 to 4, remove the Trail counter. On a 5 or 6, the Trail counter remains in place.

Green Beret attack:

Place the Green Beret in the area being attacked.
Increase the PP record by 1.
Roll 1 die. On a 1 or 2, remove the Trail counter. On a 3 to 6, the Trail counter remains in place.

B3. Building / Moving Units

Units may be placed in any area of any region, including areas occupied by NVA or VC. There is no limit on the number of units that may occupy an area.

Place an ARVN: increase the PP record by 1.
Place a Grunt: increase the PP record by 2.
Place an AirCav: increase the PP record by 3, and you may move the new and existing Grunts and ARVN to any area within the same region.

A new or existing AirCav may move to any area of any region. A new or existing Grunt may move to any area of any region by increasing the PP record by 1.

There is a limit on the number of each unit type that may be on the map at the same time: ARVN 10, Grunt 4, AirCav 2.

B4. Combat

There are two kinds of attack: first Napalm, then ground combat.

Napalm may attack any enemy unit, and as many Napalm attacks as you wish may be carried out each turn. To carry out a Napalm attack, place a Napalm counter on an enemy VC or NVA counter. Increase the PP record by 1. Roll 1 die. On a 1 to 4, that unit is removed. On a 5 or 6, it is not.

Ground combat occurs only in an area where North Vietnamese / Viet Cong units and American / South Vietnamese units are together. To resolve ground combat, roll 1 die for each unit taking part in the combat. Cross-reference the unit with the terrain of its area in the table below. If the die roll is equal to or less than the value shown, that unit scores 1 hit.

Unit	Jungle	Paddy	Urban
VC	2	1	1
NVA	2	2	2
ARVN	1	2	2
Grunt	3	3	3
AirCav	4	4	4

For each hit, remove a unit. VC are removed before NVA; ARVN are removed before Grunt; Grunt are removed before AirCav.

Each time an ARVN unit is removed, increase the Political Point record by 1. Each time an American or American AirCav unit is removed, increase the Political Point track by 2. Combat ends when no units remain, or when only one side has units left.

If both sides still have units, the player may choose to retreat to a higher-numbered area that contains no enemy units. (For example, from area 3 or 4 to area 5.)

Units may not retreat from area 6. If the player does not choose to retreat, repeat the combat steps until one side is eliminated or the player decides to retreat.

Example: two ARVN units and one AirCav unit are in areas 1 and 2 of the Hue region together with one VC unit and one NVA unit. This means combat occurs.

Roll one die for each unit.

An NVA unit hits on a 1 or 2, so a roll of 2 is a hit.
A VC unit also hits on a 1 or 2 in a jungle area, so a roll of 5 is a miss.
Two ARVN units in a jungle area hit only on a 1, so if both roll 3, both miss.
An air cavalry unit hits on a 4 or less, so a roll of 3 is a hit.

When the North Vietnamese / Viet Cong side takes 1 hit (from air cavalry), it removes one unit, with the VC removed before the NVA. When the American / South Vietnamese side takes 1 hit, it removes one unit, with the ARVN removed before the American units. At this point the player may decide whether to retreat or to continue.

The player decides to continue. The combat continues between the remaining NVA, the remaining ARVN and the air cavalry. During this round only the NVA take a hit, and the American player removes the remaining ARVN unit. At this point the American player decides to retreat, judging the risk of losing the air cavalry in a further combat round to be too great. (Note that a retreat must be to area 3 or 4, which contains no enemy units.) The NVA remain in areas 1 and 2.

B5. Placing Enemy Units

Complete the placement of 2 units from the VC uprising and the arrival of regular North Vietnamese Army units.

Roll 1 die to determine a region. If a 6 is rolled, no placement is made in that region. If the region selected by the die roll contains no American or South Vietnamese units, roll again to select a different region. In the selected region, roll a second die to determine the area within that region, and place 1 VC unit there.
Each Trail area corresponds to a region on the map (indicated by the arrows). If a Trail area has a Trail counter, roll 1 die and place 1 NVA unit in the area of the corresponding region. For example, if there is a Trail counter in Hanoi, Hanoi corresponds to Hue. The player rolls 1 die and gets a 5. 1 NVA unit is placed in area 5 of the Hue region.

Units are placed regardless of which side's units of any type are in that area. There is no limit on the number of NVA or VC units.

B6. Armed Forces

An NVA or VC unit placed in an area that contains enemy units immediately engages in combat, as described under ground combat above.

B7. NVA / VC Offensive

Roll 1 die to determine a region. If that region contains NVA or VC units, an NVA offensive is carried out in that region. Move all NVA / VC units in that region to the area with a higher number than the one they currently occupy. (A unit in area 6 moves to area 1 or 2.) If a unit ends its movement in the same area as a player unit, ground combat is resolved as described above. Otherwise, keep moving the NVA / VC units until they enter the same area as a player unit.

Note that combat is resolved only once per region. (Rare exceptions exist where NVA / VC units occupy two areas adjacent to two areas that contain American / South Vietnamese units.)

If the region contains no NVA or VC units at all, no offensive takes place there this turn. If the die roll is 6, an offensive takes place in every region that contains NVA or VC units.

B8. Air Cav Redeployment

Each American AirCav unit may move to any area of any region that contains no NVA or VC units.

B9. Final Political Points for the Turn

For each region that contains only NVA or VC units, increase the Political Point record by 2. For each region that contains only player units, decrease the Political Point record by 1. A region that contains no units of either side has no effect. If the Political Point total reaches 14 or more, the game ends. Otherwise, determine how many Political Points may be used in the next turn.

Roll 1 die once and apply the following modifiers to the result:

Political Points 5 or less: -2 to the die roll
Political Points 6 or 7: -1 to the die roll
Political Points 8 or 9: no modifier
Political Points 10 or 11: +1 to the die roll
Political Points 12 or 13: +2 to the die roll

Modified die roll	Effect on the next turn
1 or less	Play normally
2	B-52 may not be used
3	Green Beret may not be used
4	B-52 and Green Beret may not be used
5	No American units may be raised
6 or more	Immediately remove one American unit of any type

(Translator's note: the Japanese text says "派兵不可" (cannot be dispatched) for the modified roll of 5. "Raised" follows the English map's wording for the same effect.)

(Translator's note: the English map's turn panel lists different Political Point adjustments for the end of turn (NVA/VC-only region -2 PP, US/ARVN-only region +1 PP). Those figures do not appear in the Japanese text, and this translation follows the Japanese rules above.)

C. Victory Conditions

Victory is determined by the turn on which the game ends.

Game ends on turn	Victory level
1-6	Disastrous defeat: "Apocalypse Now"
7-8	Defeat: "Hamburger Hill"
9-10	Draw: "Full Metal Jacket"
11-12	Victory: "Good Morning, Vietnam"
13+	Major victory: "Rambo"

D. Optional Rules

D1. Shortened Game

Start the game with no Trail counters. However, each Ho Chi Minh Trail area may hold 2 or more Trail counters, and one NVA unit is generated for each of them.

D2. Further Allied Participation

This rule assumes that South Vietnam received far more foreign aid than it did historically. At the start of the game, you may place 2 Grunt counters for free in any areas. These are in addition to the normally allowed units, up to a total of 4 extra. Additional counters must be printed.

(Translator's note: the Japanese sentence on the Grunt limit is ambiguous about whether the 4 is a total or an extra allowance. It is transcribed as printed.)

D3. Historical Game

This game does not use Political Points. Instead, use the chart below to determine which units may be used each turn. There is no limit on the number of attacks or casualties.

Turn (year)	ARVN	Napalm	B-52	US units
1 (1963)	2	1	0	None
2 (1964)	2	2	1	1 Grunt
3 (1965)	2	2	1	2 Grunt, 1 AirCav
4 (1966)	2	2	1	3 Grunt, 1 AirCav

Turn: the turn number on the turn record track. Each turn carries a year for historical interest.
ARVN: the number that may be placed each turn. At any one time, only 10 ARVN units may be on the map.
Napalm: the number of Napalm attacks that may be carried out that turn.
B-52: the number of B-52 attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that may be carried out that turn.
Armed forces (NVA/VC): the number of offensives by armed forces on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that may be carried out that turn.
US units: the number of American units that may be on the map. At the start of that turn, place or remove American units so that the total equals the number shown in the chart.

Victory is determined by how long it takes until the player's held territory is reduced to one region. The target is 1975: doing better than history by prolonging the war.

(Translator's note: the source's own final line reads "1975（史実の結果よりよい（＝長引かせる）ことを目標とします。" — the goal is to do better than history, i.e. prolong the war, reaching 1975. Transcribed as printed.)

E. Designer's Notes

(Omitted in the source document: "（略）".)

F. Counters

(Omitted in the source document: "（略）".)