“The poor display of any will to fight by the [ARVN] 22nd Division at Tan Canh is discouraging and makes the defense of Kontum City difficult to foretell… In light of this there is little basis for confidence that Hue or Kontum will be held.” –General Creighton Abrams to Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird.

Following the 1971 defeat of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam) in their Operation Lam Son 719 offensive in Laos it was very apparent the US policy of “Vietnamization” was in serious trouble, The North Vietnamese High Command walked away from the Paris Peace Talks during the fighting and advanced their plans for an all-out offensive against South Vietnam.

In April 1972 the North Vietnamese and their Communist allies in the South, the National Liberation Front (NLF), launched a broad offensive, code named Nguyen Hue (name of the Vietnamese leader who defeated Chinese invaders in 1789) against the ARVN in South Vietnam from their strongholds in the Central Highlands as well as from Laos and across the DMZ (de-militarized zone) that bordered North and South Vietnam. Dubbed the “Easter Offensive” by the US press, the Communist attack was the largest since those during Tet in 1968, and like that earlier offensive, the Communists hoped that the offensive would initiate insurrections throughout South Vietnam and the collapse of its government. One of the most violent battles of the Easter Offensive was fought over the town of Kontum. The central highlands town had been subject to many attacks over the years, but this was the most prolonged and unlike the earlier fights which were waged by the NLF, this was a large-scale conventional battle that included tanks and massive numbers of artillery and rocket support. Can you do as well or better than your historical counterparts?

Each copy of Bad News on the Doorstep is composed of the following:

Two 11 by 17 inch map sheets
104 un-mounted, double-sided units
10 pages of rules

Players will need a standard deck of cards with all Ace, 2 and 3 cards removed, one six sided (D6) and one ten sided (D10) set of dice to play the game. Treat a DR of 0 on the D10 as ten, not zero.

Bad News On the Doorstep: The Battle of Kontum, May 1972

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