SLA vrs PLO

The South Lebanese Army while investigating the report of an arms cache in one of the neighboring villages came under fire prior to withdrawing, Associated Press has reported today from Beirut.

While it has not been confirmed, unidentified members on staff say it was a poor showing for the SLA. No additional comments have been received from official sources.

Now for the PLO view…

It was a great day for the PLO. Two columns of the SLA attempted to enter the village looking for arms and supplies. One column was to approach the village, clear a roadblock and support the second column approaching the village’s stores and warehouses.

Trouble started early as the right column moved faster than expected and their M-113 was quickly engaged in a firefight from one of the warehouse buildings. After taking three hits by RPGs the M113 retired to check on the damage to the APC.

This left the four squads to secure the warehouse complex. One squad unfortunately had trouble crossing the road and was brought under fire by a PLO LMG team firing from the roof. A squad was able to take one building but was forced to pull back after the M113 and a third squad pulled back. A fourth squad did reach their objective, but was unable to contact the left column. They also pulled back with the other three squads.

The left column was unable to remove the roadblock as they were under fire. Once they secured the PLO position they received orders to pull back to the start line.

(The PLO leader at this position has a different stand on this as he was holding off a superior force and he only left once his position was untenable. He escaped with his own life and his RPG team and the truck. It was our only truck.)

While causalities were similar, 7 PLO for 8 SLA, the fact that the PLO held the field allowed them to recover arms from the causalities and check on their wounded.

 Right column bring the warehouse under fire with the M-113.

Left column under fire while approaching the roadblock.

 SLA pulling from one of the warehouse buildings.

 LMG team bring the SLA squad under fire.

 The PLO commander at the roadblock returning the truck.

M-125 Mortar Carrier

With the completion of the M-125 mortar carrier, I have now completed more figures in the different categories than I have bought this year. Mean the lead pile is getting a little smaller.

Waiting on the blank cards to finish out the deck for my SLA game. Right now the led M113 bumped into the Lebanese militia holding up in one of the buildings along the road. So much for the battle plan.

Platoon Forward - Lebanon Style

In getting ready for my first Platoons Forward campaign I used the rules and modified them slightly to fit a Lebanese militia faction. From my rolls I think we come from a religious organization.

The road looking towards the village.

My concern is that in the past my PLO can win a game but normally there are few troops left standing.

As we are guarding the southern approaches to the town we have acquired an old truck that will enable us to move half of the unit at a time.

Platoon Commander (Avg Die)

• Pragmatic
• Religion
• Even

Second in Command (D4)

• Egotistical
• Religion
• Even
• Military Family

o   +1 Officers

o   +2 Major and above

Headquaters

An RPG Team of two men and a radioman

Support

LMG Team of three

Squad #1

4 AKs

1 RPG-7

The Bigman's Headquarters (Looks a lot like a warehouse out of Clear and Present Danger.

Squad #2

4 AKs

1 RPG-7

Squad #3

4 AKs

1 RPG-7

 

 Showing both sides of the road.

 

Squad #4

4 AKs

1 RPG-7

Roadblock on one of the two roads.

Number of squads was determined by an averaging die as the PLO and militias really did not follow any formal TOE/OB.

Next up the aggressor.

It is Finally Done

With the last of the olive (or were they lemon) trees my quiet village is now complete. We do have some concern about certain (bombed out) areas. We even have a flock of sheep coming into the older part of the village. As it has expanded, we look forward to the radio tower for our new station.

 The village on a 4 by 6 table. White boards was to experiment with a Photoshop effect.

 A view of the town and the market.

 An over view of the orchard.
The warehouse is in the center of the picture.

 My favorite part, the older section of the village.

We found our Driver

I am very happy, Cold Wars is past and I had two really good games. One of which I will be running again at Historicon in July.

But the main reason why I am very pleased with myself is that I have caught up on my painting. Everything I ordered or bought at Cold Wars is finished and table ready.  I even was able to catch up on some of the excess figures I had such as drivers (as reported in the header).

Not to worry, I still have plenty of miniatures to paint. I have the last of my Raviv Egyptians and sixteen Peter Pig Harden Militia Female Fighters. I plan on basing them on Gaddafi’s female guard, doing them in a dark blue. Great for Junta.

Studying (and gaming) History through the News

The events going on in the Middle East today are on par with the opening up on Eastern Europe in 1989.

As a gamer, I have always been interested in the conflicts in the desert going back to the first time I saw Lawrence of Arabia. Today my bookshelves are full of books on this part of the world. These include the Egyptians crossing the canal in 1973 to the Ottomans trying to cross into Egypt in 1915.

While I have no interest in gaming the event happening right now, this does not mean I will not look at events that happened in the past in these countries.

In 15mm (my prefered scale) we can easily do the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. Any of the WWI rules will work nicely including TOOFATLardies “Through the Mud and the Blood” and “I Ain't Been Shot Mum”. Figures can be obtained through QRF, Miniature Figurines and Eureka.

Also in 15mm there is the possibility of gaming the (North) Yemen Civil War. This conflict can be gamed using most Cold War rules set. As the conflict occurred between 1962 and 70 figures and tanks are easy to come by.

I left out the more well know conflicts, World War I and II, 1948 Israeli War of Independence, 1956 Sinai, 1967 Six Day War, 1970 Black September, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and 1982 Peace in Galilee. It is a rough neighborhood.

I hope we are all following the news and reading about the history of this fascinating region.  I look forward to any thoughts you wish to share.

 I do love Zeppelins.

Egyptian Vehicles 1968 to 2011

The War of Attrition ended over forty years ago. The Crossing of the Canal occurred four years latter. It is surprising that much of the equipment still exists in the Egyptian inventory. While most is in reserve or storage I would think they have more value as scrap.

Some of the logistic goes back to the very early days of the Cold War. I am sure there are even a few UAZ-469s lying around there somewhere.

Here is a partial list of what I found.

T-62

T-54/55

BMP-1

OT-62 TOPAS

BRDM-2

TPP Tracked Pontoon Bridge

PMP Heavy Folding Pontoon Bridging Systems

TMM-3 Motorized Bridge Layer

KMM Motorized Bridge Layer

ZIL-157 6X6

ZIL-131 6X6

GAZ-66

Any additions or comments are welcome.

"Now if we could only find the driver."
One of my UAZ-469 from Peter Pig. Figures from QRF.