Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965
BGG rank
BGG #22,050
BGG rating
6.3

Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965

1971

Rules assistance for Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 1–2 players
  • 120 min
  • 12+
  • Complexity 2.3/5

For 1 player

Rules assistant for Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965 is a board game released in 1971 for 1–2 players, 120 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by John Young and John Kramer (I) and its main mechanics are Dice Rolling, Variable Set-up, and Grid Movement.

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About the game

Grunt, Company Commander in Viet-Nam, appears to be the first commercial squad level wargame. The rules cover areas such as U.S. air strikes, Medevac evacuation by helicopter of U.S. casualties, 'body count' victory points, NLF ambushes and booby traps. It was first printed as a magazine game in Strategy & Tactics magazine #26. SPI said: "This game is unique in many ways. It uses a combat system in which the defensive value of a unit depends on the terrain the defender is in ... The game provides for true hidden movement for one player (the guerillas.) A wide selection of scenarios and Orders of Battle are provided." In 1975 SPI released John Young's design Search & Destroy, a heavily revised version of the Grunt game system. Search & Destroy successfully fleshed out the concepts introduced in Grunt, and benefitted from the increases in design and graphics that SPI saw from the early to mid seventies.

Questions and answers

Grunt: Tactical Combat in Vietnam, 1965 supports 1–2 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.