The Road to Dien Bien Phu is a two player military simulation of the First Indochina War; the struggle between the French Union who sought to retain Indochina within its influence and the Vietnamese Communists (the Vietminh) who wished to be independent of French control. The game portrays all of Northern Vietnam and Laos from the end of 1950 to the end of 1954, when the decisive campaigns of the war were fought.