Below are capsule reviews of six widely-available sets of Vietnam-era miniatures rules for use with 15- or 20mm figures. The rated games are: Body Count; Buckle for Your Dust!; Vietnam 1967; Operation 'Nam; Charlie Company, and Free Fire Zone (2nd Edition). The following Summary Table highlights the relative strengths and weaknesses of these rules sets at a glance. I have assigned the characteristics listed along the left hand side numerical values from "1" (disappointing) to "5" (superb).

-	BC	BFD	'67	'NAM	CC	FFZ 2
EASE OF USE*1:	2	3	3	2	4	4
AUTHENTICITY:	3	4	2	3	4	5
COMPLETENESS:	3	4	1	3	3	5
APPEARANCE*2:	3	3	1	4	3	4
SUPPORTING TEXT:	2	5	1	3	3	4
OVERALL*3:	2.5	4	1.5	3	3.5	4.5

*1: Includes organization, literacy, quality of charts/tables.
*2: Includes quality of artwork and binding
*3: Average of the five foregoing values for that game, rounded to the nearest .5

BODY COUNT (Tabletop Games, UK, ca. 30 pp., 1988?; $11): The complexity of these rules does not, in my experience, add much to the players' enjoyment, while at the same time placing a heavy burden on a referee. For example, Body Count requires individual figures to be rated--like role-playing characters--for each of six abilities such as Technical Competence, Fieldcraft, and Aimed Fire (sniping). This slows down the preparation of a scenario, unless all the soldiers on a given side are assigned (improbably) identical ratings. There is a cumbersome Spotting procedure. Perhaps the most-used formula in the rules--that for calculating Fire Points for small arms--has several steps and requires alot of "head math" In convention play, at least, all this work tends to be thrown onto the referee.

Body Count emphasizes technology and weapons interactions at the expense of both tactics and playability. For example, hand grenades are thrown individually (with a die roll and modifiers for each), instead of simply being factored into Close Combat results as has become common in the ten-odd years since these rules were published. Aircraft fly at one of four different altitudes, and have an "evasion" mode. Finally, players must choose the ammunition type(s) to be used by Allied supporting artillery. The latter are allowed to fire single rounds for effect; each round has an individual burst radius.

Body Count also suffers from substandard organization. I had to highlight, correct spelling errors in, and rearrange the rulesbook--literally cutting-and-pasting--before I felt I could referee a game. The situation is partially saved by the inclusion of a good, A-l I sized, double-sided rules card.

VIETNAM 1967 (Peter Pig, UK, 10 pp., 1994; $6): Simple, chatty rules written in British English; construction-paper pages of various colors are bound so as to lay flat on the table, or backfold. No illustrations. Suggestions for setting up the gaming table show that Vietnam 1967 was intended for players with low esthetic standards and tight budgets. Covers almost everything the "big boy" rules sets do--artillery and air-delivered support fires; antiaircraft; armored vehicles; sniping; interrogation; morale, etc.--but in the most generic and rudimentary way. Weapons characteristics, too, are generic. Features an interestirig system for generating both terrain, and the Viet Cong opposition, randomly. Not playtested.

OPERATION 'NAM (J. Brown/AP, 40 pp., 1994; $12): Again, the emphasis here is on weapons effects rather than tactics or "the human factor." Rules for artillery and air support are micro-managed to the point where ordnance types must be specified by battery or aircraft, and the fire of single artillery rounds can be resolved. There is a better-than-average section on U.S. and Communist weaponry and equipment of the Vietnam era, and a very good section on the characteristics and employment of mines and booby traps. The optional Ammunition rules are excellent.

Like Body Count, these rules required heavy editing, highlighting, and reorganization before I felt comfortable using them. The author sometimes employs nonintuitive, non-military terminology ("departure" when weapons effect radius is meant; "combat" instead of melee/assault/close combat). Unique terms (and their associated abbreviations) proliferate in Operation Nam, which also calls for the use of nonstandard dice (d12s). Finally, these rules implicitly assume that players have access to a large game table covered with impressively realistic terrain; they might thus be more suited for club play than for the average basement gamer.

BUCKLE FOR YOUR DUST! (Paddy Griffith Associates, UK, 63 pp., 1996; $16): Eye-catching cover art, never-explained title. Extensive historical material, including glossaries of slang, a chronology of the war, and a solid list of fiction and nonfiction reference books. The section on unit organizations covers virtually every troop type which participated in the war, though not in great depth. The Rules of Engagement (ROE) subsystem is top-notch, illustrating the game's deliberate and welcome focus on "the human factor" instead of technology. Buckle includes two sample scenarios, six pages of stand- alone riverine combat rules by Paddy Griffith, and a section called "One-Braincell Vietnam" (rules for 1/300th scale) by Andy Callan. A major physical drawback is that Buckle's glossy pages, while pretty, cannot be highlighted: the rules and (bound-in) Quick-Reference Sheets must all be photocopied in order to be usefully annotated. Rules do not lay flat or backfold.

Infantry movement is a little faster in Buckle than in other games (8" in the open, 6" in Rough terrain). There are extensive but easy rules on Spotting and Observation. The small arms firing procedure is a little awkward, especially since one must calculate how many of one's men who have been ordered to fire at the enemy actually have the guts to pull the trigger! The author, Greg McCauley, is a resident of Australia and treats the highly professional soldiers of his adopted land in some depth, however scarce they were (relative to U.S. and ARVN troops) in Vietnam. There is a brief but workmanlike discussion of Allied and Communist infantry and armor tactics during the war, plus a perceptive piece on the role and dilemma of the ARVN. It seems to me that once the two sample scenarios have been run through, this highly literate rules set would require fairly extensive pregame preparation by a referee; however, it also looks like it would provide a very good "feel" for the period. Not playtested.

CHARLIE COMPANY (Ulster Imports, UK, 48 pp., 1988; $12): This game features excellent sections on how to generate a U.S. Army or Marine Corps infantry company, use it in a scenario, then "clean up" afterward by reorganizing it and replacing fallen officers and men. This allows one's company to "live" and change through time, just as its real-life counterparts did. Charlie Companv thus provides both period insight and a game well-suited to campaign play. Not surprisingly, the notes on comparative squad organization (and field variants) are first-rate.

Charlie Companv features an easy-to-understand, card-based system for generating both the US players' mission and VC/NVA opposition forces at random. There are detailed notes on terrain types and their respective game effects. Refreshingly, the command system stresses adherence to Operational Orders for the U.S. side, as well as the well-known rigidity of the VC/NVA in adhering to their own plan. This emphasis precludes the kind of anarchic scramble which too often passes for infantry tactics in multiplayer Vietnam miniatures games. Movement allowances in Charlie Companv are noticeably higher than in the other rules sets reviewed (Patrol movement is 12" per turn in clear terrain; March is 18").

Combat resolution can call for huge numbers of six-sided dice to be thrown, although various modifiers (for target cover, visibility, etc.) typically reduce the total to fewer than 10. Interestingly, there are separate Combat Results Tables for the U.S. and the Communists--to the definite disadvantage of the latter. Air and artillery support fires are unfortunately conducted "by the round," with primary and secondary zones of effect; this slows down the game if these types of fires are allowed to play a prominent role (as, for the Americans, they did historically).

Armored cavalry, riverine units, Special Forces, tunnels, street fighting, and anything else not directly connected with the everyday reality of the average U.S. grunt in the field were deliberately excluded from Charlie. The game comes with one double-sided, cardstock sheet of charts and tables. Two grimy thumbs up.

FREE FIRE ZONE, 2nd Ed. (Firebase Games, UK, 86 pp., 1996; $17): I abandoned Body Count for the First Edition of this rules set a few years back, and the First Edition for this update. Features a new color cover and a significant number of extra rules sections.

FFZ 2 highlights the historical differences in the way the Communist side planned, communicated, laid on support fires, policed the battlefield, etc., as opposed to the way the Allied side did these things. The turn sequence and most of the major rules systems are quite "clean" and easy to use. Soldiers need to pass Motivation tests in order to perform any offensive activity. Helicopter movement is a little awkward. One annoying fact is that, after several dice rolls, "hits" can be inflicted which do NOT in fact hit anybody. The optional Ammunition and Ammo Resupply rules are good. Comb binding allows FE;Z] to lay flat, or backfold.

The author of FFZ 2 has a keen sense of what it is most important to try to simulate in infantry combat at this level and in the Vietnam context. For example, there are extensive rules for illumination and night combat; recon-by-fire; collateral damage (beaten zones); destruction of bunkers, and ambushes. There is explicit treatment of such things as the interrogation of civilians; treatment of POWs; search procedures; and clearing of helicopter landing zones (LZs). These things might be considered "chrome" in rules designed for another setting, but not in Vietnam. The Second Edition has added sections on field engineering, demolitions, sappers, tunnels, and street fighting. In addition, He author knows well what NOT to include: for example, the game very usefully abstracts the employment of air and off-table artillery. FFZ 2 is simply the best platoon- and company-level miniatures game about Vietnam I have yet seen.

No gamer could go far wrong if he or she decided, as I have, to use Free Fire Zone (Second Edition) as the primary set of rules; the relevant sections of Charlie Company to randomly generate scenarios and support campaign play; and Buckle for Your Dust! as an authoritative reference source.4

Finally, I am struck by the preponderance of rules set of British and/or Australian origin amound the current offerings on Vietnam. Has the special trauma Americans feel when they remember Vietnam discouraged efforts to bring out more U.S.-designed rules sets on the subject? Are we so happy with the rules already on the market that we think no improvement is needed?5 Or are there dozens of sets of "house rules" out there whose authors lack the Anglo-Australian will to publish? I should hope that there is at least one example of cornfed American brilliance in Vietnam rules- or scenario-writing which is suitable to appear in a future edition of MWAN. If so, we look forward to seeing it!

4 Any gamer interested in simulating riverine combat in Vietnam would be well advised to examine, in addition to Paddy Griffith's river combat section of BFD, above, the now out-of- print rulesbook MEKONG...VIETNAM (GHQ, 44 pp., 1987; $15?). The amount of hard research into Brown Water Navy weaponry and unit organizations that went into these rules (and which is very efficiently passed on to the reader) is phenomenal. Designed for Microarmor (1:285 scale) miniatures.

5 The gross proliferation of American-designed rules sets for other, already well- saturated, periods suggests not.