Dien Bien Phu: The Final Gamble

"Dien Bien Phu - The Final Gamble" is a two-player wargame about the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 that not only ended the French Indochina War but also had political repercussions far outside the region itself. One player represents France and her colonial troops. The other player represents the armed force of Viet Minh, the communist/nationalist independence movement of Vietnam. This is a cage fight. There are no victory points, there is no marginal victory and there is no draw. Viet Minh wins by forcing the French troops to surrender. France wins by not surrendering.

Map and scale: The map covers the former village of Dien Bien Phu and surrounding areas. There is a small submap of the French strongpoint "Isabelle" further south in the valley. There are several groups of French strongpoints scattered around the map, each one with a female name (all named after the commander - de Castries' - mistresses, according to lore). The map is divided into three divisional sectors (plus a fourth one facing the submap "Isabelle"). Each sector has several zones that represent Viet Minh trenches winding from the map edge towards the center of the map. Each hex represents 150 meters and each game turn covers three days. There are 21 turns in the game, but historically, it ended after 19 game turns with a Viet Minh victory. The scale allows stacking of three French units (usually infantry companies) in a hex, but there are no stacking limits for Viet Minh battalions, which creates a chess feel.

Three Viet Minh battalions form a regiment and three regiments become a division and there were almost four full divisions in the valley, as well as a full artillery division off map. There was also an equivalent of another three divisions in a replacement pool outside the valley. The French troops were a colorful array of colonial paras, Vietnamese troops, units from French Algeria and Morocco, and, of course, the French Foreign Legion. Some units are of average quality, some are outright terrible, but some are the very best that could be mustered ... anywhere. A French battalion consisted of four companies and there were 12 battalions together with 11 auxiliary light companies at the start of the siege, as well as 16 artillery and mortar batteries, and three tank platoons. Waiting in Hanoi were another five para battalions together with an expected replacement pool of about 14 companies. In neighboring Laos, there were four battalions ready to march and perhaps save the day at the very end.