The 'Nam: Vietnam Combat Operations

Game cover for The Nam: Vietnam Combat Operations

The Nam: Vietnam Combat Operations is a freely-downloadable real time strategy game about the Vietnam War. Developed over the course of 20 years by amateur developer Tiger Yan using the Command and Conquer engine, the game was released in 2020. It is a Vietnam War RTS that recreates company-sized combat operations covering Vietnam's various conflicts with America, Cambodia and China.

Originally covering just the American War from 1965 to 1975, its twin expansion packs, The Nam: Wider War and The Nam: Tour of Duty, were released in 2021 to add new units, music and maps while expanding the game to include operations in Laos, Cambodia, the air war over North Vietnam and the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.

The game and its various expansion packs have been prominently featured by the media as an example of a COVID-19 lockdown project.

Overview

A heavily-laden US Marine convoy rumbles down a dirt road in I Corps, South Vietnam. Most of the game's battles take place in this region, where US Marines clashed with some of the most battle-hardened regular units of North Vietnam.

Gamers can play either a US Marine Lieutenant Colonel commanding a full battalion, or a North Vietnamese Colonel commanding a full regiment.

The US Marines can draw support from additional service branches like the Army for Special Forces (SF) troops, the Air Force and Navy for land and carrier-based air support, the Navy and Coast Guard for riverine warfare ships, South Vietnam’s Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and even various tribes as mercenaries.

The VC and PAVN can set-up and capture villages or go underground and fight from hidden tunnel systems.

The expansion packs give Vietnamese Communist players access to more units, including the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Pathet Lao in Laos and even China’s People’s Liberation Army, who briefly invaded Vietnam in 1979. These subfactions can only be accessed either by Americans or Vietnamese upon capturing special buildings.

Promotional graphic featuring an M48A3 tank, heavily-used by US Marines during the Vietnam conflict.

The game has hundreds of units ranging from Marine riflemen to Vietcong guerrillas, all the way to water buffalo, villagers, even Indochinese tigers prowling wild through the bush.

Among the many battles players can recreate are Khe Sanh, Hamburger Hill, the Tet Offensive, the Easter Invasion, Operation Rolling Thunder, the Cambodian War and the Sino-Vietnamese War.

The game is a nonprofit initiative, with the developer asking only for fans to support landmine clearing operations in Cambodia.

The game can currently be downloaded for free through The Nam's social media and MODDB pages. Whichever side and scenario players choose, each battle will test their command, control and improvisation skills to the utmost.