Golan 1973

Yesterday Mark and I played a game simulating the Syrian attack on Booster Ridge. We ran in twice, the first battle was at night. In this engagement the Syrians had better night fighting equipment. 

The IDF was unable to fire until the range was below 800 meters with the Syrians able to fire out to 1,000 meters. Unfortunately for the Syrians were unable to utilize this advantage. The fight occurred between 500 to 600 meters.

The numbers counted quickly as the IDF lost the right company with the Syrians turning the flank. The conclusion was the Syrians taking the hill but unable to advance past it as they lost over 60% of their T-55. The follow on mechanized division would have to carry on the fight with their tank battalion and a reconstituted battalion from the brigade.

The honors in this engagement go to the recon company from the Syrian brigade. They did yeoman service in identifying the Israeli positions. The goat in this has to be the IDF artillery. In ten turns (an hour and a half) they were only to put one illumination round on the Syrians.

In the next fight we made the engagement in the daylight. The IDF went from two companies to one and the Syrians added an additional two battalions to the brigade (not sure were they came from). In this fight the IDF had the ability to fire our to 2.4KM while the Syrians were only able to fire out to 1.5KM. The Syrians lost a great deal of their armor in approaching the hill. Eventually they caused the loss of the right platoon (again) and an organized assault cause the hill to be captured. Once again the losses were over 60% for the Syrians.

In both engagements the IDF had less than their historical order of battle. In the day engagement the Israelis had a third of their historic tanks.  The only reason the battles were close was the training level. The IDF were rated as good, possibly they should have been excellent. The Syrian were rated marginal, the best they could expect. In these engagements we could see how the battle happened historically. Kahalani’s 77th Armored Battalion was devastated of the initial days of the war. But due to the terrain, training and replacement they were able to hold. This was an enjoyable game and I look forward to running more of these types of battles in the near future. We were even thinking of doing the Sinai soon. Unfortunately I need to paint up some new forces. M60s for the IDF and desert tan for the Egyptians.

Thank you Steve and Dragonhead Distributors for allowing us to play there. Rules used were FFT3. Miniatures are 3mm from PicoArmor. Terrain and painting done by yours truly. 

The Syrians getting organized to take the ridge. OK not very historical.

Mediterranean Goodies

It is a very good time for gamers interested in the Middle East. 

To start off Wargames Illustrated in Issue #312 offered a 1967 Six Day War supplement. This will go along with their release over the next month or so of the vehicles of the Six Day War. Many of these will be repackaged Vietnam ear weapons with some notable additions. This includes the M50 Super Sherman and the M51 Isherman (the i-Sherman). Both of these are useful for my preferred period the 1973 October War. And they do have a certain coolness factor.

I am also glad they will be repurposing some of their Vietnam vehicles. I have wanted to purchase the ZSU 57 but I didn’t need four of them, so I am pleased they will be selling them in groups of two. I need to check and see if Mark needs one.

While right now they only have four product codes showing, more are on the way.

Nice complements to these are the releases and announcements from Khurasan Miniatures. They are releasing for next month a new line of Yom Kippur War figures starting with Syria with Egypt and the IDF coming soon.

The Syrian Infantry looks really good and I bought one of the new T62s as a test. The prices for the infantry is acceptable but the cost of the tanks are approaching FoW. I just need to wait to see the quality. I have been impressed with his figures in the past and on that I made my purchase.

Lastly Mark and I will be running a Golan engagement on Oct 26th at Dragonhead Distributors. Rules are FFT3. Game will start around 12 so stop buy if you can.

Now back to painting the 3mm aircraft insignias, again.

Report from the Front

It has been a couple of interesting weeks on the miniatures and gaming front.

I have not only finished a successful Union victory in the Shenandoah in 1862, I have been called upon to defend Richmond as the Confederate player in the GCACW game of “On to Richmond”.

For miniatures I have been lucky in gathering and paining most of the forces I will need for TOOFATLardies Summer Special Hell’s Highway as I defend a very long road against 30th Corps. The Germans are very hard pressed in this game, than again they were historically.

Mark and I had a chance to spread the message of Lard to the Leigh Valley and a small gaming event. Well it is small compared to Historicon or GenCon but I was presently surprised at the turn out. Steve of Dragonhead Distributors set it up and the mixed crowd was well over 200. This included Magic players, modelers (plastic not runway), Flames of War Tournament and general gaming.

IDF getting ready.

We ran a game from the Summer Special set in the southern Golan. Even though we wrote the article, it was fun testing out different ideas. After a lot of brewed up Syrian tanks the IDF came away with a minor victory. We also found that the 120mm mortars are good Katyushas are bad.

Syrians at the ready.

My gaming world also crossed over to vampires. That is my only guess as either a Pro-British vampire, or my dog Maya bit my latest box of German figures from Peter Pig. I am certain it had to be the vampires though.

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.

Book Review - Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat

Recently, I purchased a MiG-19 on a whim. It was a good price and the arms race going on in Lebanon 1982 was heating up as Mark was showing off his A-4. So in defense the pro-Syrian side purchased the MiG-19. My total knowledge of this MiG came from the Internet. And while much of the information on Wikipedia is good (better than nothing) I was looking for even more. Osprey having in general good monographs, I purchased Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat by David Nicolle and Tom Cooper.

On first reading through this short work I was disappointed. As I was trying to put this post together I reread many of the sections and my opinion improved.

I find the book to have two key strengths. The book is a rare find as it is coming from the Arab/Egyptian point of view. As little is written about either the Egyptian or Syrian air forces this book is an asset to anyone interested in the Arab Israeli Wars from 1967 to the present. I assume that if I read Arabic I may have a better chance finding sources on their militaries. While many of the reported air-to-air battles are sketchy in the book they do allow a gamer to set up historical battles to game. I look forward to using these for a Bag the Hun meets Bag the MiG.

Unfortunately the books weaknesses were more academic. There are no maps so figuring were the airfields are located is a problem. There are also no notes on sources. While this is common for many of the Osprey publications I find that this subject is so unique that they really need to be there.

The authors also start out with the thesis that the Arab/Egyptian forces did better than what was reported in the West. Their lack of documentation and possible charts make it difficult to determine if they proved their point. I do understand they Arab/Egyptian units were very brave as it takes courage to take off in a jet while your airfield is under attack. The Arab/Egyptian were also not help in many ways by their Soviet allies.

While they labor the points that Israel claims of losses to AAA were really lost to Syrian or Egyptian fighters, it does not reverse the fact that the losses were weighed heavily towards the Arab/Egyptian forces. Also the US in Vietnam had similar problems with reports on reasons for losses.

Over all I am happy with the purchase as it fits a hole in my collection. I hope when the authors release their book on MiG-15 and MiG-17 units that there will be improvements.

Is there a Problem With History?

While this blog was by design a communication tool for our gaming community I am surprised at the lack of traction from within the area of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. While I do not know how prevalent the Internet is in Lebanon and Syria, I do know that Israel is on par with the United States.

From what I have read, 16% of the population of Syria has Internet access; the issue is the lack of content. While I know the government is not blocking my blog directly (at least I hope so) blogs and social media are often targeted.

So if the region is able to get to my blog, and they understand English, why am I not seeing higher numbers for the region? Any guesses? My guess is they have the same problem we have in the west, a lack of interest in history.

Have other bloggers found similar dismal numbers?

A Problem with Syrian Airpower

Found an interesting problem with Syria using their newest toy. The HOT missile used by Syria had a range of over 4,000 meters. That means the Gazelle can be, in game scale, over to 32 meters away from their targets. This makes the picture clearer to me, as when they were used against the armored columns in Lebanon the IDF assumed the missile strikes were coming from Sagger positions as they never saw the helicopters. It also appears the neither did the IAF. Often the column would send out patrols to find troops that were not there.

While it was reported that Syria was using the HOT missile, they also had the AS-12 when they received their first batch of Gazelles. They had even a longer range of 8,000 meters.

So in our next game Mark I will set up my Gazelle across the street from your house, and at Cold Wars, it will be set up in the restaurant next to the breakfast bar.

Syrian Airpower

IDF intelligence reports the presence of Syrian airpower not in the Bekaa Valley. Exact numbers are difficult to obtain but in the European arms market, there is a strong request for Syrian decals. Stay tuned.

Pictures from the Third Battle in Lebanon

Our Saturday battle was a good time as we got our friend Doc Mercury over to play. He now has a large force of PLO/Militia to paint up and got his first taste of Lebanon 1982 with Mark and myself.

This battle changed many times as we were setting it up and at times as the referee I was not sure what the players wanted to try out. (I need to remember to always make the IABSM/CDS cards and the sides set before I get to the gaming venue.) Mark wanted Syrians, Doc did not care and I was planning on using PLO (that is what I had cards for).

The action was very fast as the two platoons headed across the town looking for PLO and a way to exit to the north.

Here is the long road with the referee in the distance.

The PLO was found by the IAF (or was it a drone) running towards one of the major buildings.

After a couple of inefficient shots by the PLO the IDF found this relic on the battlefield and fired on it. The IDF player was a little miffed that it was all caught on camera and the T34/85 was not operational. Always remember to not fire on anything near a mosque.

The tank as a decoy allowed the PLO to assault the tanks. Luck was not with the PLO today as none were damaged and the infantry cleaned out the building.

As the Merkavas went past the market a group of Syrian commandos attacked the column. They had as little luck as the PLO.  They held the market only a turn before being forced out by the infantry.

Here we have the infantry holding the market.

While all of this was happening the Syrians brought on three T55s. There only success was against an empty M113.

A good game and a great learning experience for me the referee. I look forward to our next game.

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.

It is even less safe now.

While it appears it will be difficult (or very expensive) to find or build a SA-2 there are still a great deal of assets that Syria and its proxies can use. Some of which I already have (or could get). 

From QRF is the ZU23-2 a towed twin 23mm anti-aircraft gun. This piece of firepower has been around since the early 1960s and is still in production.

Peter Pig has the ZPU-1 with is a 14.5mm machine gun that is still seen in Middle East conflicts today.

The ZPU-4 (also by Peter Pig) is a four barrel version with 14.5mm machine guns. With an effective altitude of over 4,500 feet both of these guns can cause havoc on low flying aircraft and helicopters (not to mention troops and buildings).

What troops want to be without some protection. Not everyone has an air force like the IAF. For those troops traveling light there is always the SA-7.  Here is the SA-7 by QRF. Used since the War of Attrition while not always lethal it is effective at protecting targets by reducing  the pilot's accuracy.

Airpower comes to Lebanon

It appears there is a new arms race occurring here in the world of Lebanon 1982. Mark has displayed (in his usually awesome manner) an Israeli Cobra. Link to Daddy's Little Men

While the PLO's wish for air power is limited to Katyusha rockets, the Syrians are quickly (for the Syrians) working on their Aérospatiale SA.342 Gazelle. This kit provided by my favorite arms dealer (Mark) is primed with two rocket pods. My only source for colors is coming from acig.org. It appears they are using the colors of a captured helicopter in an Israeli museum.

I plan on using a darker green similar to the green used on the Syrian MIG 21s. My assumption is the green on the Gazelle is a faded color.

The Syrians are also waiting on the arrival of a Su-17 from QRF. While I read in a report from the 7th Brigade that they were attacked by a Su-7, I found reports that Su-17s were used. These reports and the fact that no one makes the Su-7 in 15mm or 1/100 scale lead me to buying the Su-17. 

New Recruits

Thanks to my chief recruiter Mark "Amid" Kinsey, I have thirty-one new Syrian recruits on my work table ready to be primed and painted. They are from QRF, and while they are different than the 15mm figures from Peter Pig, they look good and I am sure they will look even better painted. My only complaint is the limited number of RPGs. There are only one per pack of infantry which is very light for Lebanon.