Ars belli

 The Siege of Long San   November 1950, the world holds its breath. Will the besieged fortress of Long San fall to General Giap's men or will it hold out, so close to the Chinese border? Once the turn routine has been assimilated, Tonkin is a very easy game to play. The game aids are well done and allow you to let the rulebook aside. The reinforcement phase requires both sides to make a choice: they can request reinforcements, supply depots or a mixture of both. The VietMinh opts for the latter. It had few depots and had to make up some of the losses suffered the previous month. On the French side, the retention of the city of Long San made it possible to keep the numerous depots there. It will therefore be a full wagonload of reinforcements to repair the motorised and riverine units that suffered most last turn. On the French side, it is clear that holding the Chinese border is going to be difficult in the long run. It is only possible to reinforce damaged units near a supply...

 Tonkin - first try Today we leave the cold Russian steppes for the damp Indochinese jungle. Together with my partner Pionpion, we are embarking on the first scenario of Kim Kanger's game Tonkin. It is 1950 and General Giap decides to launch an offensive on the Sino-Indochinese border to take over the fortified camp of Lang Son. We are in a mountainous and forested region, favourable to guerrilla warfare. The fortified post of Cao Bang is quite alone in the north, isolated from the rest of the country by the mass of Vietminh divisions that have concentrated around the French fortifications. The initial deployment is more or less mandatory for the regular troops. The VM player has many guerrilla troops which he places all over the map to spread insecurity and block French communications. Here, many of these irregular units are placed in the plain between Hanoi and Haiphong. Two units landed at the beginning of the RC4 leading to the Chinese border, isolating the northern french troo...