Storm Over Dien Bien Phu rules summary

Counters: Setup Area number enclosed in a black box.

Reinforcement Turn number enclosed in a red circle. Three French units with a * come into
play via a card.
Unit values are Firepower Defense Movement (with only Defense on the spent side).
Elite Unit values in white.
Replacement Unit values in yellow.
Setup: Place your units in their setup areas and on the turn numbers on the Turn Track.
Place the Viet Minh replacement units in the Replacement Viet Minh Units box.
Shuffle your deck of 27 cards. Place the Turn marker on turn 1 on the Turn Track.
Note: on turn 1, all Viet Minh units can assault at any trench level.
Sequence of Play: Each turn has the following sequence:
A. Draw Phase each player draws up to the value of his card number on the Turn Track.
If you have more cards than your card number, discard down to this number.
Each player who controls the following sets of areas gets a bonus card for each set. These
bonuses are cumulative, so if you control all six areas, you will get two extra cards (as the
French do on turn 1). Each set is identified with a white or gray bonus symbol:
Areas 6, 9, and 14 (Gabrielle, Anne-Marie, and Beatrice)
Areas 16, 20, and 21 (the runway areas)
Note: at the beginning of a turn, if you dont have enough cards in your deck to replenish
your hand, shuffle your discard pile into your deck and then draw your cards.
B. Impulse Phase starting with the Viet Minh player, alternate performing impulses.
You may pass. If you have no units that can perform actions and no cards in your hand,
you must pass. If the French player and then the Viet Minh player pass in succession, the
Impulse Phase ends.
If the Viet Minh player passes, the Impulse Phase ends unless the French player discards a
card. Then the turn continues normally with the French player taking his impulse, and so
on.
C. End Phase
1. Starting with the Viet Minh player, any number of cards may be discarded.
2. French supply status is determined.
3. All French units not marked Out of Supply and all Viet Minh are flipped face up to their
fresh side.
4. All Fired and Out of Supply markers are removed.
5. The Viet Minh player rolls for replacements (except on Turn 1 or if the No
Replacements marker is on the Turn Track).
6. Starting with the Viet Minh player, reinforcements and replacements are received and
placed.
7. Advance the Turn marker one space or determine the winner if it is currently turn 8.

Playing Cards: A card with two effects can only be played for one or the other.
Cards can be played whenever the restrictions are fulfilled, which can be during your
opponents impulse.
You can play multiples of some cards: Improved Defenses (the first card doubles the defensive
value and the second card triples the value), Mortar Support, Night Assault, Mines, Debouchez
a Zero!, and Fighter Bombers.
Improved Defenses, Mortar Support, and Night Assault effects are cumulative.
Mines, Debouchez a Zero!, and Fighter Bombers are resolved individually.
Impulses: For your impulse, you can perform one of the following actions:
Unit Action select an area and either move or fire any number of your fresh units there.
The Viet Minh player has two additional Unit actions available: Sap and Assault.
The units must all perform the exact same action (e.g., fire at the same area or move into
the same area).
Once the action has been performed, flip the activated units to their spent side.
Card Action play a card that starts with For your impulse (even if the card is subsequently
negated).
Movement: Units pay a number of Movement Points (MPs) to enter an area.
It costs 1 MP to enter an adjacent area.
It costs an additional 1 MP to enter an area that is enemy-controlled and/or contains at
least one enemy unit and/or cross a river (if crossing at a bridge, the latter condition
does not apply).
It costs an additional 1 MP to move out of an area that is enemy-controlled and/or
contains at least one enemy unit.
Viet Minh units may not enter French-controlled areas that contain French units.
French units may not enter areas where the area number is printed in red (around most of the
map edges).
French armor may not cross a river except at a bridge.
If the moving units have differing Movement values, use the lowest value of any unit in the
stack.
Each player may have up to nine units in the same area at any time during movement.
Fire: Fire can be performed by units with Firepower values of 1 or more, or as directed by a
card.
Fire can be performed against enemy units in the same area or in an adjacent area.
Fire does not affect friendly units in the target area.
A Fired marker is placed in the firing units area when firing into an adjacent area.
1. Roll two dice and add the total to the Firepower values of all of the firing units. The
total is your Attack Points.
2. The Defense Points are equal to the largest Defense value of a single defender plus the
defensive value of the terrain in the target area (which may be modified by a Trench
marker).

However, if any of the following applies, the terrain is ignored:

The firing units are in the target area.
The defending units do not control the target area.
The target area has a Fired marker belonging to your opponent.
The area is being Assaulted.
3. The number of damage points is equal to the Attack Points minus the Defense Points. If
the number is zero or less, there is no effect.
The defending player applies the damage points to his units in the target area. Excess damage
is ignored. The points can only be assigned as follows:
1 Point = flip a fresh unit to spent OR retreat a spent unit into an adjacent area.
2 Points = eliminate a spent unit OR flip a fresh unit to spent and retreat it into an
adjacent area.
3 Points = eliminate a fresh unit.
Retreats can only be made into an adjacent area controlled by the defenders side.
French armor cannot retreat across a river except at a bridge.
If there are multiple retreat destinations, select the one that contains the fewest number of
enemy units and would not cause overstacking (more than nine friendly units in the area).
If there are multiple retreat destinations that each contain the same number of enemy units,
the defending player can choose where each unit retreats to, and the units do not have to go
to the same area.
Retreating that would cause overstacking is only allowed if there are no other friendlycontrolled areas. If the retreat causes overstacking, retreat the units again. If the next area
would cause overstacking, retreat them again. A unit may never retreat back to the area
that was the target of the fire action.
If there are no legal places for the units to retreat to, they are eliminated.
Sap: Sap can only be performed by the Viet Minh player in an area that he controls.
The Sap action raises the trench level of the area, up to a maximum of three. Place the
appropriate marker.
To perform the action, either flip two fresh units to spent for each trench level increased or
discard one card to increase the trench level by the value in a pink circle on the card.
Each trench level increases the Defense value of the area by one, up to the maximum total
Defense value of 3 (including the Defense value of the area printed on the map).
Remove the Trench marker if the area becomes French controlled.
Assault: Assault can only be performed by the Viet Minh player.
Assaults may be performed over a river.
The area the Viet Minh units are in must have a trench level of three [EXC: on turn 1, all Viet
Minh units can assault at any trench level].
1. The activated units perform a Fire action into an adjacent French-controlled area. The
defending French do not receive the defensive value of the terrain in the target area.
2. After the Fire action, if there are no French units in the area, move the assaulting units
into the area. Either way the Viet Minh units become spent. No Fired marker is placed.
3. Eliminate one assaulting unit.

If the Giap Demands Success card was played, an additional unit is eliminated for each
reroll. You may not reroll more times than the number of assaulting units.
If there are Viet Minh units in the area being assaulted, the number of assaulting units cannot
exceed the number that the assaulting area can hold (i.e., no potential overstacking).
An assault can be performed even if the area containing the assaulting units also contains
French units.
French Supply: During the End Phase, the French player rolls two dice and adds +2 for each
Viet Minh-controlled runway area (the three areas with blue area numbers) and +1 for each
Viet Minh-controlled area west of the river and adjacent to a runway area (the six areas with
green area numbers).
If the final value is 2-8, all French units are in supply and are flipped to their fresh side.
If the result is 9-15, one French area is out of supply.
If the result is 16 or more, two French areas are out of supply.
The Viet Minh player places Out of Supply markers in the appropriate number of areas (one,
two, or possibly three with the Heavy Flak card).
All French units in the Out of Supply areas are not flipped to their fresh side.
Replacements and Reinforcements: Each turn, except on turn 1 or during a turn when the
Emergency Replacements card is played, the Viet Minh player rolls a die during the End
Phase and receives half as many units as replacements (fractions rounded up). These are
drawn from the 1-7-2 replacement units in the Replacement Viet Minh Units box.
Reinforcements arrive on the turn number shown on their counters.
The Viet Minh player places his replacements and reinforcements first:
The units may be placed in any Viet Minh-controlled areas (even if French units are
present).
The units may also be placed in French-controlled areas containing no units provided
there is a continuous chain of Viet Minh-controlled areas that start adjacent to this area
and run to the edge of the map.
The stacking limit of nine units must be observed.
If the Viet Minh player has no valid areas to place his units, they are eliminated.
The French player places his reinforcements in any French-controlled areas (even if Viet Minh
units are present). If the French player has no valid areas to place his units, they are
eliminated.
Control of Areas: At any moment during the game, if the player controlling an area does not
have a unit in the area and his opponent has at least one unit in the area, control transfers
immediately to the opposing side.
Victory Conditions: At the end of turn 8, the Viet Minh player wins if he controls at least six
of the nine defensive level 3 areas (these areas each contain a Victory Area symbol).
Otherwise the French player wins.