Charlie Company from RAFM, is probably the best set of Squad/Platoon level Vietnam Rules I have seen.. Now this is pretty much my opinion and like buttholes we all have one and they all stink, but here is my two cents... Charlie Company gives you a pretty loose set of rules, that allows a lot of "Command and Control" feel, and "roleplay with miniatures". It allows you to become a squad leader, platoon sgt, or a grunt. It is a fresh change from the idea of having to have two sides of players and thus having to find twice as many players as needed for a game, by allowing the GM, to setup and run the VC..A good, fair, GM, can make the game challenging as anything...and like all field missions you could run into exactly what the OPORD tells you is out there...or you could run into more..(pray that you don't)..or you might run into nothing at all... Almost all the VC are hidden at the start of the game, and their positions are usually revealed upon being spotted or having them fire on your guys or running across the open or something like that. The combat is pretty intensive with the idea for the American troops is really not being the quality of the firepower to put against the enemy, but actually the quantity... Which pretty much seems to run exactly the way the war was fought... A good group of players and a good GM, can take a simple game, and turn it into something memorable...Take a road, and a run it down the middle of the table...put a few turns in it, and have it cross a stream..put a village at the end...line the edge of the road with trees and brush, make everything else heavy forest, and toss in a few determined VC snipers, and watch what happens! Additionals such as engineers, riverines, armor, air support, etc, can be included or excluded determined upon the scenario. Additional things that are good are simple explanations on things such as, short histories of the types of troops used in the war..creating a campaign game, a glossary of terms, and a scenario generator that is basic but usable... Perhaps the bad part of the book is mostly typos, and a missing chart, although this can be easily worked out and the chart is in the back. The artillery rules can be pretty confusing at first too. If you are an old school, I go - You go, type of mini wargamer used to playing Napoleonic style fights, then you are in for a hot awakening..This is one of the few games that I have seen that gets players emotionally involved...It's okay if you are Field Marshall So and So, and your French Guards get hit by Wellington's Artillery and 50 men are killed...but when you are caught and pinned down behind some logs due to some damn snipers that you can't locate, and your point man is 100 in front of you and is seriously wounded by a booby trap and is screaming his head off for help...and you look down on the unit sheet and see that that miniature is not, "Point man so and so," but "SP4 Bill Johnson, from Gatlinburg Tenn." and was ready to Deros in 3 Months, then it gets a little more personal. Other game systems that I know of... Body Count...English...STAY AWAY FROM IT!...unless you are a maths expert and like doing lots of calculations... Buckle for your dust..No idea on this one.. INCOMING..The Vietname rules for Crossfire, found on the Grunt website . Where's Charlie?..An okay set of rules, that make the VC seem invincible and basically gives them a Romulan Cloaking device. Free Fire Zone..A set of rules I have NO idea about... Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com