Partizan Loot : Chinook Gunship ACH-47

I really enjoyed my outing to Partisan (Newark) on Sunday. As well as helping man the Wargames Development (WD) stall running a game of "633 Squadron", I found myself mostly "looking" so no crazy massive purchases to announce. However I did add to some "ongoing projects" (see below, one of them is the [20mm-1/72] Vietnam period of interest): 

In addition I stocked up on Vietnam "casualties of war" for dead and wounded markers from Grubby Tanks. Also, I did see Early War Miniatures as somewhere that understood my early WWII interests. I have a rolling France 1940 project (yes French & BEF but even the fringe Danish, Norwegian [Narvik] and Dutch elements) plus Italian East Africa projects (future purchases) to consider. 

https://earlywarminiatures.com/

But .. the best thing about Partisan was meeting up with old wargaming friends. Decades may have passed but meeting up, talking shop and even rolling dice (perhaps flying a RAF Mosquito down a fjord for instance [see 633 Squadron Game]) means that the conversation just starts where you left off! Fantastic and it is so good for the soul.

Tunnel Rats - Purple Haze, Stand Alone Game

I was so glad that I snapped up the Purple Haze Vietnam boardgame (I got it from Zatu Games as I was too late for the Kickstarter) as it appears to be now sold out everywhere. There is a queue of people waiting around the block for the second print run to come in. On hearing this, on impulse I looked around for the four extensions, but the only one I found still available was "Tunnel Rats". This a more stand alone game based around the US efforts against the likes of The Tunnels of Chu Chi. It appealed (see below, it is as "good" as it "looks"): 

On a "whim" (shiny thing) I got it and I am so glad I did. Atmospheric Vietnam, excellent, but with the format of a Dungeon Hack in cooperative play. Three "rats" explore the complex and for once there is not the overwhelming potential of US firepower to get you out of jail, but rather both sides are armed with knife and pistol - but even using the latter pistol is very dangerous underground (see below, the byzantine tunnel complex unfolds as the "rats" explore): 

Please see: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/431208/purple-haze-tunnel-rats for more game mechanism details.

I my eyes the game is designed to play on your nerves, as in jangle them, it builds up tension. It is not so much the dangers of combat but rather the thought of ending your days entombed under the Vietnam soil because "you never got out" in time. You play against a diminishing deck that represents your mental stamina, being a "Though bastard" (TB). The TB cards are spent as you progress down and backout of the complex. Complete your mission before the claustrophobic horror gets you! Clever mechanisms abound.

Highly recommended. There are three missions in teh game, but you will play each numerous times before they "dry out" and there is much scope to design your own or run as the DM with "rat" friends searching the complex.