Objective: Vietnam

Description from the publisher:

Objectives: Vietnam is a cooperative, competative card game for one to six people where players compete against the game to take objectives by battling the NVA forces.

The cards

Objectives: Vietnam runs with three decks of cards. The first deck is the Objectives deck. These cards are places and events that the players must collect before they accumulate in the “War Weariness” pool. Objectives are guarded by a number of NVA cards as designated by the NVA score on the Objective card. Each Objective card also has a Value. This is the number of points the players receive when they take the objective. NVA cards are the second deck and represent the North Vietnam Army. These cards come in different strengths and have varying abilities. The last deck is the Free World deck. These cards are dealt to the players face down and represent the resources they have to take objectives and affect the War Weariness pool. Players may not share or expose their hands to other players during the course of the game.

Setup

Shuffle each deck separately and then deal out a number of Free World cards face down to each player as determined by figure 1 (Number of players). Play starts with the player to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise around the table.

Sequence of play

When a players turn starts they draw one Free World card. If the player has less than their starting hand in Free World cards they draw up to their starting card total instead. Once the player has drawn their cards, the top Objectives card is turned over and placed in the middle of the playing field. This is mandatory and will always happen each players turn. This is the War Weariness pool. The player now has the option of attempting to take the objective (see combat) or take an additional Free World card and pass his turn to the player to his left. If you do nothing in your turn you can always draw one Free World card and this can bring your total cards above your starting hand size. There is no upper limit on the number of cards you can have in your hand.

Combat

When a player decides they are going to take an objective they deal out a number of NVA cards equal to the NVA score on the Objective card face down. Starting with the attacking player, each player “bids” the cards they will use in the attack by placing them face down in front of themselves. Once all players have bid their cards, the player cards are revealed and then the first NVA card in line is revealed. Add up the strength value of all exposed NVA cards each reveal phase and compare it to the total of the Free World card strength. If the NVA total is double the total strength of all the exposed Free World bid cards, the objective is overrun and lost (See losing combat). If the total is not double the attackers strength and there are more NVA cards to be revealed, the players go around again bidding more cards for the next reveal phase. This continues until all NVA cards involved in the battle are face up. If the attacking players have a higher total Strength than the strength total of all NVA cards in play then they win the objective and it is placed to the side. If there are four or more players, the attacking player now draws a number of Free World cards equal to the NVA value on the Objective that was just secured and can now give them to the other players as reinforcements. The player may only keep one card for himself and he may not look at any of the cards being distributed. This may take the player over his starting hand limit. He may then attempt to take another objective or end his turn. If an attack is declared and the players feel they can’t take the objective they can call off the attack but the player that called the attack must discard his entire hand and his turn ends. The objective is treated as if the players lost combat.

Losing combat

Should the players be defeated by the NVA, the objective is placed back in the War Weariness pool and a token is placed on the card. Objectives that have tokens on them add one to the NVA value for each token on the card. This is cumulative with any other effect in the game

War weariness

As the game progresses, cards will begin to build up in the War Weariness pool. The more cards in the War Weariness pool the more difficult it will be to take objectives. Starting with the third card in the War Weariness pool, add one to the NVA score for every Objective card. Once you have six cards in the War Weariness pool you add one more and finally when there is nine cards in the War Weariness pool you add one more for a total of +3 to the NVA score on all Objective cards. If a duplicate Objective card is added to the War Weariness pool it is shuffled back in to the deck and a token is added to the original card in the War Weariness pool instead.

Ending the game

If there are 10 cards in the War Weariness pool at the end of any players turn the game wins. The players win if they accumulate a total of ten points per player, 15 in a single player game. (IE a 4 player game needs to get 40 points in Objectives). The player that initiates the attack keeps the points of the objective if the players win the objective. The player with the most points when the players win is deemed the winner of the game. Note that if the game wins, no one wins.