NAM Nationalist Forces – Part 2 The Local Force and Special Task Battalions

by NDNG-Dane and Tom Burgess

Welcome back Comrades,

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BRIEFING

We last briefed you on our glorious regulars from North Vietnam, now we will cover the heroic Local Forces who strike at the enemy from the South and the Special Tasks units that attack the bases of the Capitalist.Local Forces Battalion
These are the infamous Viet Cong, the guys in Black Pajamas, that operated in the Republic of Vietnam. Raised as local units, they could melt away into the jungle quickly after making quick strikes against Free World Forces. As local forces ranks became depleted after the Tet Offensive, regulars from thePeoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) often were detached to help refill the ranks of Local Force units. Sometimes, entire PAVN units would just be re-designated as Local Force Units of the National Liberation Front (NLF).

In the older version of the game, we first saw Local Forces in a PDF. They were later added as a “Local Force Company” in Tour of Duty and then were expanded to a battalion size unit in Brown Water Navy.

The Local Force units, not as fanatical as the PAVN regulars, were previously rated as Confident Trained. Under the ‘Nam Version 4 statistics, they retain a “Confident” 4+ rating for Morale, Rally and Counterattack, so no change there. Their Assault is 4+, so they hit in close combat as well as the regular PAVN units do. What has changed is their Skill, a 5+ now. So their ability to execute movement orders and range in artillery is somewhat difficult to achieve.

A full Local Forces Company in Brown Water Navy had 16 rifle teams at 190 points. To that, you can add an LMG team (15 points) and a Type 31 Mortar Team (20 points). You could then upgrade three rifle teams to B40 RPG teams for +5 points each (+10 points for a B41) and upgrade from rifles to AK47s (20 points per platoon.

In the new version of  ‘Nam, the Local Force Company there are several changes. There is no longer an option for the Type 31 60mm Mortar, but the upgrade of some rifle teams to B40 RPGs is mandatory, as is the LMG. A full Local Forces Company with 13 Rifle Teams, three B40 Teams, and on LMG Team in ‘Nam comes in at 10 points (10% of a 100 point V4 forces) as compared to 230 points (15% of V3 1500 points force).

As in Brown Water Navy, you can also still upgrade the B40s to B41s (at +1 point per team.) You can also upgrade the Rifle Teams to AK-47 teams at cost of + 5 points, which only makes sense if you are fielding the full company. The +5 points for the upgrade remains the same point cost, even if you are fielding smaller nine and five Rifle Team versions of the company.

In Brown Water Navy, the Local Force Battalion only had one weapons platoon option, the Local Forces Anti-air Company. There were Type 57 HMG, HMG Nests, Type 36 57mm Recoilless Rifles, and Type 53 82mm Mortars that you could field as part of the Battalion HQ. In “Nam” these now join the Anti-Air Company as separate units in the formation.

The Local Forces Machine-gun Platoon with three HMGs is just 1 point in ‘Nam. That’s quite a bargain compared to the 2 point PAVN Machine-gun platoon. Half the cost for a reduction of Morale by one point. Or the Nationalist players can HMG Bunkers instead at just 2 points for three bunkers.

The Local Forces Battalion in ‘Nam can take an 82mm Mortar Platoon available at 2 points for three tubes. Again quite a bargain compared to the same Type 53 82mm Mortar unit in the PAVN Battalion costing 2 points for just one level better morale. But note that these only have a 32″ range.  They appear to be the Type 31 60mm mortars that were part of the Local Forces Company in Brown Water Navy. These are now mixed with what was the Battalion HQ’s Type 53 82mm mortars into a single unit.

The Local Forces Battalion in ‘Nam can field a 12.7mm Anti-air unit with three guns teams at 1 points. This is comparably cheaper than the 2 points for the PAVN version of the unit. However, unlike the PAVN Battalion, the Local Forces Battalion can only field one Anti-Air unit. The Brown Water Navy Local Force Anti-air Company was also limited to a single platoon.

The Type 36 57mm Recoilless Rifle provides some stand-off Anti-Tank capability for the Local Forces Battalion. As with the other weapons units in the Local Forces Battalion, these are just 1 point for three gun teams. Their range in ‘Nam dropped to 20” from 24” but they also now have HEAT.

There are two more units available as formation units in the Local Forces Battalion. These are a single the Special Task Company, to be covered later in this article, and the PAVN Company, already covered in Part I of our review of Nationalist Forces in “Nam”. The Local Forces Battalion can field one of each.

The special rules ‘Nam for the Local Forces Battalion formation are the same as the PAVN Battalion with Charlie Owns The Night, Guerrilla Fighters, and Born in the North to Die in the South. Also, note that the Local Forces units all have the Scout special rule.

One if by land, two if by sea!

A unique special ability the Local Forces Battalion has is the option to take Booby Traps as part of the Battalion HQ.  These cost 1 point each in ‘Nam (these were 20 points each in Tour of Duty). They operate the same way they did under Tour of Duty.

The lower overall point costs, and the ability to boost the formation with a Special Task Company or/and PAVN Company all make the Local Forces Battalion a very flexible and effective formation. They know the ground and can sneak up on their Capitalist foes.

Special Task Battalion

Next, we will look at the Special Task Battalion in ‘Nam. These are the Sappers that were introduced in Tour of Duty. There, these were a support choice option for the PAVN Battalion. In ‘Nam they can now form their own battalion formation and, as previously noted, Special Task Companies can be added as formation units and/or support units to the PAVN Battalion and Local Forces Battalion.

In Tour of Duty, the Special Task Company was a very expensive formation. A company with three platoons cost 370 points (24% of a 1500 point V3 force) before upgrades! That was four AK-47 Pioneer Teams and six Pioneer B40 RPG teams that were rated as Fearless Veteran. In ‘Nam that same unit coast 17 points (17% of a 100 point V4 force). Interestingly, the Special Task Battalion can field  82mm Recoilless Rifle company as a formation unit. In other Nationalist formations, this is only a support option. This allows the ‘Nam Special Task Battalion to take two of these units, one as a formation unit and one as support. We will look closer at the Type 65 82mm Recoilless Rifle in our fourth article in this series. The Machine-Gun platoon, Mortar Company, and PAVN Infantry company were already covered in Part 1 of this article series.

The To Hit for the Special Task Company Teams in ‘Nam is a 3+. This is curious because the Special Task Battalion HQ Teams have a 4+  To Hit. If these units are still supposed to be veteran the companies should also have a To Hit of 4+ like the HQ. It seems we will have to wait for the publication of the unit cards or see a clarification elsewhere before we know if this is a typo or a deliberate reduction in the capabilities of the unit.

Though the Special Task Company in ‘Nam can upgrade its B40 RPGs to B41s at 1 point each and can add up to three more AK-47s teams also at 1 point each, the other upgrade options from Tour of Duty are gone. The company can no longer add an LMG and it can no longer swap out an AK47 team for a

Flamethrower at deployment.  The later is rather disappointing given the changes to flamethrowers in the V4 rules for them. Finally, the AK-47 and B40 teams in the ‘Nam Special Task Company are no longer Pioneers. Instead, they have a normal infantry AT 2 rating for assaults rather than the AT 5 they had as Pioneers in Tour of Duty.

The’Nam Special Task Company retains it’s unique Special Rule, One Slow, Four Quick’s. This is essentially the same as Spearhead expect the unit does not create a deployment space that other Nationalist unit can deploy in later.

The biggest disappointment in ‘Nam for the Nationalist player is that no new models were released for any of the Nationalist forces. The Special Task units especially needed some specific models, but unfortunately ‘Nam simply directs the Nationalist player to use VPA702 which is the same pack as the standard PAVN Infantry.

The Special task units, like WW2 pioneers, really need specialist figures with Bangalore torpedoes, wire crossing ladders, satchel charges, wire cutters etc.  Also, every picture I’ve seen of PAVN sappers shows them as really ragged and much less uniform looking than the PAVN regulars. They really do demand their own sculpts or at least some alternate sculpts that can be mixed with line PAVN and/or Local Forces figures.

Conclusions

Both the Local Force Battalion and Special Task Battalion dramatically increase the options and flexibility of Nationalist forces in ‘Nam.  They are both effective and each provides a great deal of flavor. The Local Forces Battalion looks to be the initial favorite of the two. It’s so cheap and gets some great options at the formation level. The Special Task Battalion is intriguing, but until we know if its Special Task Company teams are hit of a 3+ or a 4+, the jury still might be out on this specialist formation.

Until next time comrades! Take the fight to the enemy! Having covered our foot soldiers, in Part 3 we will brief you on the tanks and armored transports in our Ironclad formations.