The Breakout!

Have been working on a new scenario for Platoon Forward.  It is entitled "Breakout" and consists of you getting your men back to friendly lines after being cut off.  ( Think Steiner in Cross of Iron.)  Of course totally avoiding combat isn't real fun so you will run across something while you try to dodge patrols.   Here is my final playtest.
A second thing I tried is moving Platoon Forward down a level to make it more like Squad Forward.  Here the platoon leader would be an NPC.  I don't want to keep track of all ten men in the platoon for picked the two NCOs and two privates.
Vietnam 1967.
Sgt Lawrence's squad strayed too far from the LZ  and when the NVA attacked they were cut off from the LT.  They waited until dark and decided to try to slip past the NVA back to the LZ.
Characters  ( Rolled up using the tables in Grunt's Forward)
Sgt Lawrence  Gr I   Drifter before he found a home in the army.   Gambler and greedy
Cpl Black       Gr 0   Storeclerk from a small town before drafted.  Conformist/ position
PFC " Moose" Edwards   Stereotypical big kid from the midwest.  Very cheery and religious
Pvt "Mongoose"Smith   Son of a migrant; grew up in slums but volunteered for the army as he believes in the American dream. 

2 4 man teams each with a thump gun.  1 M 60 also attached.

Forgot to take a picture of the board.  US moves from right to left.  there is scattered jungle throughout.  One house in the middle and swamp/heavy jungle on the left.   There is no turn limit but reinforcements come in 3 turns after the shooting starts.

1 Squad moves out!

The patrols are all dummies but they spot a supply cache next to the house.  They are seen and a firefight erupts. Lawrence's boys get the better of the fight with the second hit killing the NVA officer. ( Mongoose can't hit a thing however! ) One unnamed PVT is KIA with a headshot.   Lawrence tells Black to get his fireteam close enough to blow up those boxes.  The team moves to within 40 yards and ...

Moose hits them with his thumper!

Job done the squad needs to get back to the LZ.  One man is hit in the abdomen on Black's fireteam; leaving no one behind a two man carry is instituted.

Two man carry-- Moose can almost do it himself!

Bad guys show up at the top on the table.  1 A and 1 B blind. 

The squad moves along the road so they don't get lost in the dark.

Moment of truth!  The board edge is only 60 yards away and the squad is in soft cover.  Results for the enemy could range from a full squad plus MMG to nothing.  Guess what?  I roll Nothing!  ( unlikely but possible.)   The squads links back up with their platoon after destroying some NVA supplies.  They had 1 KIA and 1 WIA.

Great scenario!  There is a fairly wide range of forces you can encounter but I don't think it would be more than a stiff game.  This one was easy with a great deal of tension.  Tension was also created by the back story of my 4 guys.  I was always afraid one of them would get hit.  I do like dropping the level down to a squad and will probably try that again.
I plan to give the scenario to Rich for the summer special

For those of you that want to try this the only NVA forces I rolled up were:
1 NVA officer and 4 soldiers.  For more of a challenge add a patrol of 3 soldiers.

Enjoy

Joe