Dien Bien Phu (1st Edition)

Positions at ‘Huguette 6’, DIEN BIEN PHU, FRENCH INDOCHINA, 18 April 1954: French attempts to break through to the beleaguered strong-point of ‘Huguette 6’ on the night of April 17th had fallen short. For a week, nightly breakthroughs had been made to keep Captain Bizard and his polyglot garrison resupplied. The Viet Minh ring around the strong-point began to tighten and Bizard was told he was on his own. His choices were grim: make a last stand, surrender, or attempt a break out—the latter posed a slim chance at best. The French com-mander chose to break out. On Easter morning, 18 April, the mixed bag of Vietnamese volunteers, French paratroopers and Foreign Legionnaires lined up in their trenches, slung partially filled sandbags over their chests to protect themselves from grenade fragments, and advanced toward freedom and survival...

DIEN BIEN PHU is a VARIANT that moves the ASLComp line forward into the early phase of what would later be known as The Vietnam War. With the 1949 Communist success in China, their com-rades in Indochina were incited to plan a war to free their country from the French colonial empire. General Giap led his troops into an unsuccessful direct confrontation with the weakened, but still strong post-WW II French military machine—a gambit he would later regret. It would not be until the end of 1953 that the Viet Minh could rebuild to create an even stronger force than before: fielding six infantry divisions and a heavy artillery division—with gun crews trained in China. Facing unrest in Algeria and political upheaval in France, General Henri Navarre took command in French Indochina—with plans for decisive action against the Viet Minh using a new concept in military strategy: the air-land base, or ‘airhead’ in the midst of enemy positions.

DIEN BIEN PHU expands the system with new combatants, cartog-raphy and situations. The battle for a series of strong-points known as Champs Elysees is depicted utilizing the new historical map plus six scenarios that are played on it. An additional nine scenarios are provided for use on the three new 8 x 22 maps, depicting a variety of actions that pit the combatants in defensive and offensive operations. New VARIANT rules bring it all together in an easy-to-learn fashion that will have you up and running in no time.