Give the Sturgeon a Chance

The Sturgeon Class (SSN 663) was conceived as a quiet under-ice boat that could take ASW operations to the Soviet bastions within the pack ice. For the sailors they were so much more.

While designed in the 1960s they were found as a complement to the more modern 688 class. The 688 class boats were often assigned to the carrier and Surface Action Battlegroups as escorts. The best ASW weapon was found to be another submarine and not the more commonly thought destroyers. This allowed the 637 class to be given other tasks. Much more interesting for their crews (and todays gamers).

For naval games set in the 1980s the Sturgeon Class will be operating under ice, on spook ops, or waiting at choke points for passing Soviet shipping. With a sonar suite or par with their more modern kin and a weapons suite better than most these boats have a place on any gamers collection.They have at their disposal in the 1980s Mk48 torpedoes, Harpoon cruise missiles and Subroc. A very powerful mix.

While this blog deals mostly with the land and air war during the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 operations, this boat was part of the American response to the conflict.

The miniature is 1/6000 scale from Figurehead.

Looking for the Missing Link

I recently went on a hunt for a set of links I lost dealing with Arab and Israeli forces. I thought it was in French and dealt with models but my Google abilities appeared to be lacking. After a day and a half, ok I am stubborn, I found them. I was glad they were as good as I remember.

Here they are for you as well.

Lebanon

http://als.miniature.perso.neuf.fr/index.html

Arab

http://www.tsahal-miniature.com/arabe.miniature.html

Israel

http://www.tsahal-miniature.com/

What amazes me is the junk both the West and the Soviets sold to these countries. Israel using versions of the Sherman into 1973 is hard to believe. Than again the Lebanese used theirs into the mid-1980s.

There is a good mix of color photography to help the modeler and gamer. Let me know what you think. Also what are your favorite sites for information from the Arab Israeli Wars?

Next up a strange aircraft just released that was used by Egypt in the Arab Israeli Wars. Once I get them painted. Oh bother.

A Growing Village

It has been to long since my last post with most of my time being spent on getting ready for Cold Wars and getting my Lebanese village in order.

As you can see from my 2011 Projects list I have been busy with doing up buildings and figures. Currently on my bench is a “Straight Flush” Radar system to be used in Lebanon and the War of Attrition. After that I have five buildings to finish up and than I can get back to writing and gaming.

I hope to see you at Cold Wars in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Mark and I are running two games on Saturday.

Below are the recent images of the village. The five buildings primed black are waiting to be finished.

The market area has been the most fun to work on. To the left will be the Lemon/Olive Orchard. 

Where Have I Gotten To?

I would first like to thank Bob over at Evil Bob’s Miniature Painting service for the excellent work he has done for my Lebanese militia and Syria Commandos. I look forward to using the militia against Mark’s IDF.

These pictures are from Bob’s blog.

Now some of you may wonder why I appeared to of fallen off the planet. I have enjoyed gaming this period with friends and have introduced the TOOFATLardies’ rules to many gamers new to the TFL way of gaming. At Historicon I had a great time watching my PLO get hammered by a well played SLA sweep. But current events in Syria and Libya have been hitting me very close to home. I wish the people over there well and I find it hard to game a conflict so recent that the players could have been there.

I thank you all for your understanding as a take a hiatus from the world of Lebanon 1982.

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.

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.

The Charioteer Rule

This is a special IABSM rule for the use of armor by the PLO and the Lebanese militias. It is named for the Charioteer tank/tank destroyer used by the PLO, Lebanese Arab Army and the Tigers Militia. It is equally applicable to T34/85s and T54/55s used by these forces. This is to take into effect the lack of training and maintenance.

If the player wishes to use the tank, it requires a ”big man” activation. A single die is thrown.

• On a 1-4 there is no effect. The tank can neither move nor fire. It is just a target.
• On a 5 the tank can only fire its weapons.
• On a 6 the tank can activate as below.

If a tank rolls a 6, than it can move or fire using a single die. That is a single die for movement or the correct number of dice for firing, but not both in a single turn. To keep moving, or firing the big man will need to stay with the tank. This rule does not affect Technicals.

Cold Wars AAR

For me this was one of my better Cold Wars HMGS Conventions.  I ran two games; played in a third and watch a few interesting games as well.  Attendance seemed to be down but that did not deter anyone from having fun. 

Mark Kinsey and myself ran two games dealing with Lebanon 1982 and Dr Mercury had two 28mm games covering the conflict as well. All in all the Vista Room in Lancaster was a little bit of Lebanon (in the Middle East that is).

On the Purchase front I picked up a pack of Modern Havoc 15mm Insurgents to add to my PLO.  These twenty additional figures are armed with AK47s and RPGs and will add a lot of additional figure poses for the table. Unfortunately I had to increase my figure count by the same twenty. Oh bother. Also picked up trees for the village. This was not a big purchase show for me.

Now on to the battles and After Action Report

The first fight was “Lebanon 1982 - Fight at Ishiya” This is a village in the Bekaa were the IDF is looking to move north as fast as possible while destroying as my of the PLO infrastructure as possible.

The Battlefield - Image from Doctor Merkury

Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. The IDF had a platoon of infantry with Magach support.  While they had two perfectly good roads to use, they set up on the table edge and started to move through the rough terrain. Now as a game master I should have place the figures on the road and said you start here. My fault.

The IDF started by approaching a cluster of houses and found a PLO arms cache, but also civilians, militia and a news crew. Now after failing to spot the news crew (even though I had figures on the table) they proceeded to use the machine guns and Magach tanks on the people and buildings getting a clean kill on the entire news crew.

Things could not get worse for the IDF, well they could and did. For over three turns they continued to pummel the buildings. It took an order from over the radio to get them moving, ever so slowly. In desperation (on the game master’s part) I said something like, “I paid a lot for that latex road and you guys need to use it.

Once they got on the road they moved towards a market building and encountered a second PLO team with a machine gun. This slowed up the column again and the reinforcements. The IDF received a jeep platoon.

At this time the Syrians appeared on blinds (we were using a Lardies rules). It was funny that the IDF was not concerned about the new column approaching the village center. The Syrians had two platoons of T55s and a platoon of BTR60s.

It was only when the command tank was hit by an RPG and received engine damage that the IDF realize they were in trouble. The command tank earlier lost their commander. The Syrian Infantry and lead platoon of T55s fired on the tank and the crew bailed to a building. More on that latter.

The rest of the IDF column made a run for the edge and it looked like they were going to make it, until the PLO moved their one heavy asset, a Charioteer, to stop them. There is something humorous in having a 1950s tank (or tank destroyer) frightening off the IDF. Only by luck was the PLO tank unable to get the last M113 in the column. (In the future I need to write up some PLO specific tank rules. Should make for interesting and comical battles.)

Back to the tank crew. They were holding up in a building being shot at by a platoon on Syrian and a defiant group of PLO. There situation did not look good, so the jeep platoon went in to recover them. Luck was still with the Syrians as they were able to get into a firing position and disabled the jeeps and captured their crews and the crew of the tank.

This game was a PLO and Syrian victory. I think the IDF commander was lucky to have been an early causality, if not Ariel Sharon would not have been happy with the results.

The second battle was “Clearing the Orange Grove”, an infantry fight based on a scene in Waltz with Bashir. This was to have the IDF moving through an agricultural area on the coast road.

This operation was smaller with only a platoon of infantry. Each player had control of a M-113 with three fire teams. 

This operation followed doctrine with the infantry working with the APC. This time the PLO came off for the worse. Their teams put up a good fight, but the combined firepower of the IDF contained any PLO threat.

This is a game I will want to bring back to a convention.

I want to thank all of the players and Mark for taking part in the two games. I hope to use Mark’s Orange Grove (that he forgot) in the future game.

Please look at Daddy’s Little Men and Doctor Merkury’s Lab for more (and better pictures) running a game does not allow time for taking pictures.

The Growing Village

It has been to long since my last post with most of my time being spent on getting ready for Cold Wars and getting my Lebanese village in order.

As you can see from my 2011 Projects list I have been busy with doing up buildings and figures. Currently on my bench is a “Straight Flush” Radar system to be used in Lebanon and the War of Attrition. After that I have five buildings to finish up and than I can get back to writing and gaming.

I hope to see you at Cold Wars in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Mark and I are running two games on Saturday.

Below are the recent images of the village. The five buildings primed black are waiting to be finished.

The Village Market Place. This was the most fun to work on. To the left will be the Lemon/Olive Orchard.

South of Sidon by Macaulay Connor

7 June 1982

South of Sidon

by Macaulay Connor

Today this reporter came upon the results of a recent and bloody Israeli sweep south on Sidon. At least three IDF soldiers were killed in an ambush.

On this the second day of the Israeli Operation Peace for Galilee Israeli infantry were sweeping north through an orange grove near this unnamed market town. While there were reports of Fatah militia in the area, numbers were unknown.

Two roads bordered the grove and heads north towards the market. The IDF appears to have been following these parallel roads when an ambush occurred causing the loss of three soldiers who were on an M113.

While we cannot approach the village at this time I can say we can hear heavy weapons coming from the village itself.

While the IDF is limiting their comments on this engagement, this reported was able to find out from resident that Fatah did take some losses.

After Action Report

It has been to long since Mark and I play IABSM and it showed. We missed adding in a few of the IDF cards and took a couple of actions before we got back our sea legs.

Unfortunately this effected Mark’s IDF more than me. He ended up get a M113 to far in front of the column and was hit by RPG7s. Between this and AK47 fire the M113 came out the worse for ware.

Once Mark was able to get his two infantry sections on the table he was able to clean out the militias with limited loses. His superior Big Men allowed the IDF to move faster than my running Fatah troops.

The game came to an end when the IDF was able to get to the village and than faced a HMG. Over all I (as the PLO player) feel that the PLO won as we destroyed (ok immobilized) an M113 and killed 4 IDF soldiers, three of which were in the M113. The PLO lost only 12 men (out of 18 active men).

This was fun and I look forward to have a go with my new village. Mark and I both have the ability to have villages set up at our respective houses, which will make gaming easier. 

100th Post

With this being my 100^th posting I would like thank you all for visiting my blog. I have had over 13,000 page views from 72 different countries. This is better than I could have ever hoped for.

I would like to thank my friends like Mark Kinsey for his support. He has helped me to acquire new buildings, terrain and miniatures in a new scale. Something I said I was not going to do. Thank you Mark.

I want to also thank Richard Clarke and Chris Stoesen over at the TOOFALardies for their input on the rules and the period.

So as the year continues I look forward to doing more with Lebanon 1982, and The War of Attrition. Operation Raviv and Green Island are both coming along nicely and I look forward to playing them and reporting back to you about the results.

Once again thank you all.

Jon

ZPU-4s

Well we are now into February and that means to me Cold Wars is around the corner. This week Mark and I will put the finishing touches on our two games. By the end of the weekend I hope to be able to add to my Syrians with two new platoons, one of T55s and a second with T62s.

My Arab forces have also added to their air defenses with two ZPU-4s. Why do I need two? I don’t know, I think I forgot and than ordered the second.  There is a big difference between the QRF and Peter Pig anti-aircraft guns. While I consider the Peter Pig weapon a miniature, the gun from QRF was a real model with more pieces that I knew what to do with. I even end up with a spare piece that I think was the towing bar. I am not sure with is the correct scale as the Peter Pig Figure is smaller if I do need a third I will problem go with the Peter Pig miniature, it was easy to put together.

Now were are Marks A-4s :)

ZPU-4 from Peter Pig near the mosque.

ZPU-4 from QRF.

Getting Serious

I apologies to the readers of my blog as I am going to get serious on you all. This blog started as a gaming venue so I could work towards getting my ideas ready for publication. This area of the world always interested me. So much so that I am a recent (although very bad) student of Hebrew.

While I did not get over the eastern Mediterranean until after the USMC debacle, I understood the passions that are involved in this area of the world.

As a student in high school I wrote a journalism piece dealing with the assassination of President Sadat. I remember it well as I had a though time reading it aloud. I would never of guessed that his successor would be in power almost 30 years latter. It should give every American pause as not only is Egypt one of America’s largest benefactor of aid under the Camp David Accords, but we support its defense through offering our M1 Abrahams tanks. Egypt is second only to the US Army in the number of M1s in inventory.

These wars of my youth, Lebanon, Yemen, the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War are all still with us. Some of the players have changed, but only the names. This year Lebanon’s government, never very stable falls and is held together by Hezbollah, Tunisia the home of the PLO after they left Beirut has overthrown their President of many years. Yemen is fractured with Saleh being President of one part of Yemen since 1978.

Remember back to the late 70s and think what you were up to. Did you think things would always stay the same? Try to watch the news coming out of the Middle East and ask can anyone make a difference?

 American made M60s and M113s in Egypt during the demonstrations.

Lebanese Soldiers Patrol Downtown in Beirut

While this is a small image, these are modern (Cold War era) weapons usable for both a conflict in Beirut in 1982 or today in 2011. The M113 and the jeep just keep going and going.

Is anyone out there doing current battles in the Middle East that does not include Afghanistan and Iraq? Yes I know Afghanistan is not technically part of the Middle East.

Recycling an Item

I had to renew my subscription to Wargames Illustrated and every year I look to see what they offer as an incentive. Recently they were offering some really nice looking tanks and assault guns for World War II from Flames of War. As none of them would convert over to the Middle East (can you imagine a King Tiger in the desert) I went with the American Fire Direction Center. It looked like a nice enough tent set up but I was surprised at the quality of the castings. I see this as a base camp for either side in Lebanon 1982 or the War of Attrition. Possibly to be used as part of an Egyptian camp looking to be raided by the IDF.

What other items have you been able to recycle for the gaming table?

Image from the Flames of War Website.

Politics of War and Air Operations

In Shlomo Aloni’s book Israeli A-4 Skyhawk Units in Combat I read two interesting points about the air campaign over Lebanon in 1982. The first is just the numbers of A-4s that were available for Close Air Support (CAS) missions once the SAM batteries were suppressed. The aircraft often ended up flying a racetrack route waiting to be called. Units with an FAO will be able to call in a lot of airpower, within the rules of engagement. I am sure this will make many IDF players happy playing that side. An A-4 can bring a lot of ordinance. I can see there will be an offset in victory conditions to balance that out.

The second item was the impact of the War Cabinet on Operation Peace in Galilee in general and the air campaign in particular. I knew that in 1981 (pre Peace in Galilee) two Mi-8s were shot down by an order given by the cabinet. They made the decision and than afterwards tried to reopen debated. The IDF/AF Officer had to inform the cabinet that the order was already carried out and the two helicopters were shot down. This was all done in less than a half an hour.

What this book pointed out to me was that the ground and air operations were started and stopped as the War Cabinet debated Mole Cricket 19, the SEAD mission against the 19 known Syrian SAM batteries. This was going to expand the war even though the IDF and Syrian forces were already shooting at each other.  This would be an interesting addition to any campaign or scenario design. In a campaign game, as the IDF player is marshalling his or her forces, they will need War Cabinet approval to move forward while also racing against the clock to complete the campaign before a United Nations ceasefire is imposed. All makes for an interesting game.

2011 - Looking Forward

It is hard to believe that 2010 went so fast. For me it has been great. I started a blog (been wanting to do that for awhile), got back into 15mm figures (thank you Mark), and several new periods.

Lebanon will be an on going project for 2011 as will the War of Attrition. The figures for Operation Raviv are coming along nicely as is the idea of building Green Island for doing the raid (Thank you Mark)

I have even started a check list to show my progress painting. A positive number shows I am getting down the stacks of figures, and a negative number means I bought some more. Not sure how to handle selling figures or the figure I ordered last year from QRF.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you at the conventions and online.

Civilians in Modern Wargames

As I am waiting for the weather to change so I can do some priming outside I was looking for additional 15mm figures to base. I had picked up this pack of Arab Civilians from QRF for a market that I wanted to buy from a vendor that unfortunately disappeared. So I now have eight male civilians for my village and not sure how to use them. They can be used as background like terrain but I would like something more. The problem is I do not want them to turn into target. How do other gamers use, or don’t use civilians?

Pictures from the Second Battle in Lebanon

These are the images for the battle we fought on Thursday evening. It was an action between Mark and myself.

Looking over the expanded town. We have to remember to remove the beer bottle next time.

The remains of a Syrian tank taken out by the IAF greet the IDF.

Here is the column working its way into town.

Here we see a command M113 with an officer directed the column to a new objective. Finding an IAF pilot.

Here the led Magach is taken out by fire from this building. Fire came from all four floors. There were four RPG shoots and a recoilless rifle.

Unfortunately (for my militia) the IDF cleared the building floor by floor. While the IDF lost an entire tank crew, the infantry was able to clear the entire building with only losing three soldiers. The militia was less luckily, losing sixteen men, one of which was their Big Man.

While the IDF did recover the pilot (working on a figure for that) the losses were heavy. We are still working through using Charlie Don't Surf. While I like the rules Mark and Doc Mercury point out the need for sooooooo many dice. I will work on the AAR from our Saturday game tomorrow. 

Thank you for visiting.