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Quite right, Borat–but ARVN units can’t pacify solo, nor are they necessary for pacification to succeed. I’m still a little puzzled as to what a “pacified” province is supposed to be, and what the game mechanic is supposed to model–CORDS, perhaps (http://www.historynet.com/cords-winning-hearts-and-minds-in-vietnam.htm)?… but then CORDS advisors were small teams attached to South Vietnamese government and military offices, not US combat formations. Alternatively, the game mechanic might represent the view that SV was incapable of governance reform that wasn’t US-led.
The discussion highlights the point in the review–namely that unpacking game mechanics can be a useful avenue into discussing the underlying real-life social, political, and military processes.
ARVN units do play a role in pacification as you will usually need 2-3 of them to go with the US units in order to get a succesful pacification die roll.
Carl, it should be added, is also reflecting on “hearts and minds” this Easter: http://www.lineofdeparture.com/2011/04/23/easter-uprisings/
For those of you who don’t know Carl, he’s a cynic when it comes to pop-centric COIN—and, it should be said, the inventor of the terms “COINdinsta” and “COINtra.” Since he’s being uncharacteristically cryptic, I’ll have to assume that is what he is commenting on, rather than my choice of CCR songs.
Assuming that’s your objection, let me unpack that paragraph:
Believe that host country efforts are essential to building legitimacy? Allow ARVN units to engage in pacification.
I found the pacification process in the game a bit odd: the only actions that can be taken to strengthen the South Vietnamese government are those that exert tighter control over provinces under the aegis of US forces. Moreover, the sole purpose of pacification in the game is to reduce the risk of coup, or the cost of maintaining the government. I’m not sure that really addresses the roots of the 1963 and 1964 coups. Moreover, there were no coups in the period covered by the game—it was Thiệu throughout—so its a slightly odd mechanism in that respect too.
Think that local attitudes matter to COIN operations? Perhaps NVA/VC units should suffer a penalty when fighting in pacified areas.
You’re reading “hearts and minds” and/or time-travelling FM 3-24 into this, and you needn’t be. Exerting a powerful balance of control and administrative presence over an area makes it easier to develop intelligence sources, and it should act as a combat multiplier of sorts. Remember, I’m a COIN fence-sitter.
Want to model more substantial US efforts to strengthen South Vietnamese governance? Allow some stability to cumulate over time, rather than resetting the coup marker to zero each new year.
Aspects game tends to reset at the start of each year, which I didn’t like.
Want to reflect the impact of US domestic politics on the war? Have the status hawk/dove marker somehow affect the cost of US replacements or the pace of reinforcements.
Sure, US politics of the time was infinitely more complex than “rising anti-war protests makes increasing troop commitment more (politically) costly,” but I do think more closely linking the hawks/dove track to US capacities would make the game even more interesting.
All that being said, the game is up to 10 years of the Vietnam War playable in 1-6 hours. The designer necessarily made choices on what to include and what to exclude, and from an educational point-of-view I think that always provides interesting grist for the class discussion mill.
Or perhaps you WERE commenting on the CCR soundtrack?
Oh, come on.