Lam Son
(D. Casciano Co Zip Loc game)
Review by Alan Sharif

Lam Son is Vietnamese for total victory, and this game covers , as
opposed to simulates, the Vietnam war from January 1965 till December of
1975, should play last that long. As each turn represents two weeks, a
full campaign weighs in at a rather hefty two hundred and fifty four
turns, and is spread over two full sized maps. Luckily, a fair number of
shorter scenarios are provided for any Vietnam nut who is already
foaming at the mouth at the thought of fondling the myriad of colourful
counters that accompany this game. Personally, I would not be in such a
hurry.

This is a very simple game of the move and fight variety. Each player in
turn receives reinforcements and replacements, and is some case is
obliged to make withdraws. Movement follows and uses standard practices
throughout. The allied player has air mobile and helicopter types that
hop about the map, and gunboats too. During the allied player turn only,
there is an air combat phase. Air units are each allocated a target on
the map and then a die is rolled on the air effectiveness chart. The
resulting figure is multiplied by the number of attacking air units and
then this total is used on the air attack/bombardment CRT and resolve
via another die roll. This means you are unable to judge just how
effective an air assault will be, an aspect of this title I rather like.
Combat is next, based on odds and terrain and with fairly standard
retreat, exchange and elimination type results. The Communists consume
supply units to attack and have a phase in there sequence of play for
receiving new supply units, in Hanoi usually. A second movement phase
then follows allowing mechanised units, only, to move again.

As you can see this is, as I stated previously, a very simple game.
Unfortunately, Vietnam was an incredibly complex situation. The game
acknowledges this in the counter mix with US, ANZAC, ROK, NVA, NLF,
ARVN, Laotian Kings Guards, Cambodian, Khymer Rouge, Pathet Lao, Thai
and the Philippines Civil Action Group represented. Sadly, the rules do
not reflect this at all as no rules reflect the political restraints of
the time. Other obvious oversights concern guerrilla units. In my mind
these should at least be able to retreat before combat and maybe
infiltrate enemy zones of control if not in clear terrain. No such rules
apply, they are simply normal infantry that just happen to set up behind
enemy lines at games start. Supply rules are practically non existent,
not a very accurate assessment of the situation in Vietnam. The
replacement rules are decidedly iffy. Eliminated units are placed at the
bottom of what is a replacement stack. Each turn the top unit on the
stack returns to the map and is placed in a friendly city. This
replacement system is about as accurate a simulation as Bugs Bunny is a
simulation of a rabbit. On a more graphic level, the game is titled Lam
San, rather than Lam Son, on the map. The scenario instructions are so
vague that in some cases I had no idea whose side some of the various
fractions were fighting for, hard as this may be to believe. Even
reading the brief history supplied with the game did not help. Players
without a decent knowledge of the Vietnam war will have to take a trip
to the library before being able to play a scenario just to find out
whose fighting who.

Lam Son fails in so many areas that I cannot recommend it. Whilst one or
two good ideas exist within its pages, most of the game was either
underdeveloped or comprises of rules taken from the twilight zone.