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- The First Indochina War -
Seventy-five years ago, Viet Mihn troops led by Ho Chi Mihn invaded the Annam sector of French Indochina (now Vietnam) from their training bases in Communist China. In four years of very active combat, with at least half a million killed, they forced France to give up hegemony over Indochina, leading directly to the independence of North and South Vietnam as well as Laos and Cambodia. With the withdrawal of France from the region, American military aid was rushed to the three non-communist nations. It wasn't sufficient to prevent North Vietnam from exporting revolution to South Vietnam and the other two countries, leading to steadily increasing American involvement in the Vietnam war. That, in turn, set the stage for many other wars in Indochina, such as the Sino-Vietnamese War, the Thai-Lao-War, and the Khmer Internal War.
The First Indochina was therefore part of a very complex series of conflicts. In general, though, it can be seen three ways:
- The first and simplest view is of the Indochina war as just another proxy war in the Cold War. In that view, it's just a simple two-sided conflict, communists versus capitalists. That really shortchanges the vast complexities of the many sides involved. We do, however, represent this with two-team Quads games.
- A second view is a more nuanced version of the first. Yes, it was part of the Cold War, but the major powers had their own disagreements. On the communist side, Mao and Stalin were gradually drifting apart, but with the death of Stalin, Mao became outright hostile to the "new" post-Stalinist communism. In the Vietnam war, although both Russia and China supported North Vietnam, they were never on the same page, and Russian and Chinese agents would in fact sabotage each other. On the capitalist side, there were many disagreements between the British and the French, and between the Americans and the French, especially after the Gaullist takeover of France in 1958. We represent this five-way conflict with 5-player games.
- A third view sees all the Cold War agents being transient in nature. It sees the Indochina war as part of a larger and longer conflict between the Old Order in Indochina (traditional Lao-Thai-Khmer society, mostly Buddhist), the Middle Order (French-educated colonial-era elites in Indochina, mainly Roman Catholic), and a New Order (communist-educated new elites, mostly atheist.) In this third view, rather than the locals being pawns of their Cold War sponsors, it is the locals that are the real players and the Cold War sponsors that are the pawns. We represent this view of a three-way culture war with 3-player games.
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LINK TO JANUARY SCOREBOARD
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Settings -- Bronze
Map: Indochina
Players Per Game: 8
Game Type: Quads
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Escalating
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: YES
TRENCH: NO
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours ONLY
Joinablility: Public
Settings -- Silver
Map: Indochina
Players Per Game: 3
Game Type: Standard
Initial Troops: Auto
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Nuclear
Reinforcements: Adjacent
FOG: YES
TRENCH: YES
Round Limit: 20 rounds ONLY
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public
Settings -- Gold
Map: Indochina
Players Per Game: 5
Game Type: Assassin OR Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Freestyle
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Parachute
FOG: ANY
TRENCH: NO
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public
Medal Criteria
- Tokens are for wins only.
- Each Bronze victory scores 5 points.
- Each Silver victory scores 15 points.
- Each Gold victory scores 25 points.
- Scoring formula = (Points from Bronzes + Points from Silvers) X (Points from Golds)
- 5500 points are required for a Challenge medal, including at least one Gold AND at least one other (either Silver or Bronze)
Scoring example: Four Bronzes (20 points) plus six Silvers (90 Points) X two Golds (50 points) = 5500 points.
Nota Bene: Your Bronzes and Silvers are multiplied by your Golds. Anything times zero equals zero, so no Golds means no score. And yes, the Gold requires Freestyle games, and yes, I understand that many people (including myself) absolutely hate Freestyle. But the whole point of the Challenges is to make you step outside of your comfort zone, so here you are. Get ready to step outside.
Notes
- *No sign-ups required. Monthly Challenge FAQs.
- Games must start between CC Time: 2025-01-05 09:00:00 and CC Time: 2025-01-31 23:59:59 to be considered for the challenge.
- Wins will count until CC Time: 2025-02-28 23:59:59.
- Any issues will be solved by Dukasaur, and His word is final.
