CS Middle East: High Water Mark (Saasa Ridge, Syria; 12 Oct 1973)

Started by Crossroads, November 04, 2017, 07:30:33 AM

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Crossroads

Israeli Turn #4 - Tankers, start your engines!

Before that, though, let us look at the Syrian turn replay first. Tough sledding for you thus far.  But a breakthrough is imminent, said the enemy radio transmission I intercepted. Or was it Berto's email, I'm not sure. Turn 3 certainly had more friction than what I wished for. Things should start to get moving now, though.

During replay, I witnessed some Syrian shelling, looked like mortars from the Tel Shams reverse slope. Then, the inevitable direct fire. My point company is now at range from Saasa Ridge too, I noticed, but they are so far they are not (yet) causing me any issues. However, the AT Gun position at the front of me scores another direct hit on my Chieftain. I am down ten tracks now.

After Concealment calculations, there's good news though. Berto moved what looks like a BTR coy to the map edge.

BTR, you say? Sure, look at the NATO symbol: wheeled, armored, amphibious personnel carrier. BTR quite likely. CS Middle East 2.00 now boasts 450+ unique NATO symbols to identify each unit. When playing with Fog-of-War, with enemy unit names not visible, the easiest way imho is to look at the NATO symbol. So if you prefer to play in 3D, have Counters on in the side bar. And when playing with 2D, then have 3D units in the side bar. That's what I do anyway.  :)

Smart move, should he see trouble, he could immediately take them off-map. I will of course next need to make sure he doesn't have a chance to see what's about to hit him  :knuppel2:

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: Crossroads on November 10, 2017, 11:49:56 AM
After Concealment calculations, there's good news though. Berto moved what looks like a BTR coy to the map edge.

...

Smart move, should he see trouble, he could immediately take them off-map. I will of course next need to make sure he doesn't have a chance to see what's about to hit him  :knuppel2:

Before dealing with them, let us look at the Victory Dialog, and Strength Dialog at the start of turn #4 first.

Strength dialog tells me my 155 batteries took of 5 100mm AT Guns during the barrage. Not bad! Those must be six-tube AT Gun batteries, no wonder my assault on them failed.

As for Victory dialog, I start the turn 20 points above the water. Let's build from that, then.



Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Now, for those BTRs. I see them, because they are visible from this hex, and this hex only. This is a devilish map by the way, Visibility is 20 hexes, so weathers good, but the area is full of hills and basins, so you never really know who sees you and who doesn't...

As for the fire mission, I pick the two troops that are Conserving Ammo. My HQs been moving around constantly btw, so this will be a PITA for the most of the battle, I assume. You just can't stay put here.

Easy pickings, however, even when you have even just a couple of shots to use. Load HE! Up! Fire! Firing!  :nerd:

And they're gone...

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Next, let us see how's things at the Southern side of Tel Shams.

And since we're playing with Armored Facing ON, better switch to having 3D unit images on chits, first. I switched to darker map tiles too, that's one of the mods available in 2.00.

Back to action: I did not make a note of it, but during the previous turn I managed to move my Recce platoon to Minefield, as part of the confusion of moving everything there. Luckily, they took no casualties.

Now, I move them one hex forward, to a vacant enemy IP. One of the neat little details with 2.00 build is the new Dynamic Recon rule. Recce units, and them only, can use the amount of their Fire Cost to perform it, very neat as for instance I just moved one hex forward, and can now immediately recon what's around.

There's the new Icon on it, Binoculars-on-Recce-Symbol, on the left. There's the Save APs for Dynamic Recce there as well, with the little Lock, on the right, too. I probably should have used it before moving, to ensure there's enough points. But there was, so no harm done.

Lesse, anyone hiding out there?

Now you don't see them...

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: Crossroads on November 10, 2017, 12:10:48 PM
Now you don't see them...

Now you do! :wow:

Dang, there's an HQ and Commander at the Tel Shams height, they've probably been there all along, I just hadn't spotted them before! 

I select the two furthermost Patton troops for the task. Load HE! Up... OK, not gonna overdo it.

But they didn't survive the volley, either.

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Otherwise, that's about it. I now have the Combat Engineers at the two minefields there.

And while at it decided the availability of the third Engineer platoon in this area is an overkill, so loaded them up, and started to move them to the northern side of Tel Shams...

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Here's the Israeli Phase for Turn #4 done and dusted.

The pink area portrays the area where I hope most of the Syrians reside, I saw Mortar fire from there, so it's not totally empty at least.

On the Southern side of Tel Shams heights, come next turn, the Minefields are gone. Then it is fast forward with my two Patton Coys of the 71st Armored there.

On the Northern side, I plot more artillery to deal with those pesky Syrian AT Gunners. Three missions, on the further most AT nest, one on the close one, one on the Syrian infantry position, and finally, a Smoke Mission to top hex as I plan to move my Recce there come next turn. I also make the key Combat Engineer platoon cover themselves in smoke, need to have that minefield clear by next turn!

I also moved a couple of Centurion troops towards Saasa. Next turn, I'll return the fire I've been receiving from Saasa Ridge  :knuppel2:

The noose is tightening. The first turns are always the longest, but it's good to have the proper units finally there or thereabouts where I want them to be  :)

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

That's the turn done. Let us look at Strength and Victory dialogs again.

Strength report tells me I did not lose any further units this turn, while I managed to knock down one AT Gun, a couple of more infantry strength points. And of course, those BTRs (that's what they were). And the HQ and Cdr units too. Not bad.

Berto's got quite a few tank platoons around, I am sure of that. Knowing him, he's been slowly maneuvering them into firing positions. When will I see them?

As for Victory report, that's 50VPs knocked off this turn. Nice!  O0

No time to get excited though, Berto's Phase awaits. Again, I am sure he's got something cooking there...

Over to Berto it is!



Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Israeli Turn #5 - Things Heat Up

Keeping it close, or trying to, read the enemy radio message I intercepted. Or was it Berto's email again. I get confused.

And indeed he does. Without much infantry support, I need too. So when I spot them, after they've taken a shot at me first, I would have massive firepower available to blast the enemy strongpoint to pieces.

That is now working on the northern slopes of Tel Shams, but still not so at southern slopes, as we're about to find out.

Let us start with Syrian turn replay first though. Enemy mortars hit an area intensively on the road north, towards Saasa. I've evacuated those hexes, so no harm done. Two knocked out Centurions more during Syrian turn, as he reinforced his AT Gun strongpoint still blocking my way to move east, north of Tel Shams. Ouch. :buck2:

Then, friendly artillery. Three batteries did what three batteries do: the further AT Gun Bunker was wiped out, and the forward one took casualties as well (orange circles).

Additionally, there's a Smoke cover at Tel Shams top now for my infantry units. 

Finally, Minefields cleared at the green circles, and my Recce platoon ready to dash forward on the yellow circle.

Move out!

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: Crossroads on November 12, 2017, 05:02:55 AM
Move out!

Before that, let us check out the Strength and Victory reports.

Strength report accurately depicts the added two tracks I've lost. On Syrian losses, I see there's now 10 AT Guns wiped out. So that's a 2-gun section remaining at the forward bunker. I should be finally able to deal with it. The added infantry will be a pain though.

By the way, in case you're wondering: the Strength Dialog reports available no of units on Strength sides, will on Losses sides it reports the no of lost strength points. So for instance the tank tally is not a number of available runners, but a number of tank troops, each troop in varying condition depending how many losses they've taken each.

Victory report tells me I am 80VPs above the water line, yet well short of a result here. I expect that to have changed, once I've secured the area here.

I was originally hoping that by turn #8 I could have a strong formation start to head towards Saasa Ridge. We'll see about that.



Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: Crossroads on November 12, 2017, 05:02:55 AM
Move out!

OK, so now let us move out!

Moving back to boardgame view, opting for 3D images on chits, and changing the Unit list to have chits too, here's how the situation looks in the beginning. The only hostiles are the three units in that pesky bunker. Viewing the Unit list (which by the way now can be moved between left and right side of the game dialog  :bd: ), I see that's a LMG section I was worried about. Could not quite ensure in 3D view if it was some nasty tank-hunting unit instead. Two of the units are Disrupted, even.

No worries then.

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Southern Pincer

So, time to get started.

Left: Before moving the infantry forward, time to have the Pattons in close fire support mode to have a word. Load HE!  :knuppel2:

Center: And dang, the blasted hostiles retreat to Tel Shams height, to enjoy of the smoke cover I put there for my own units  :o

Right: Not good. I do have plenty of close support in place though, so let us move a couple of Patton troops to a hex where they have visuals to them. Now they enjoy the cover of Smoke though, halving the effect of my Direct Fire  :-[

I have Visual Hexes toggdled ON here btw. With Extreme Fog-of-War, you can only observe Visible Hexes from a hex you have eyes on. No more studying the map with the mode on, to see where to go to, and how to advance. Quite like this addition that was put there in 1.02 iirc

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Southern Pincer, Cont'd

Quote from: Crossroads on November 12, 2017, 05:41:41 AM

Not good. I do have plenty of close support in place though, so let us move a couple of Patton troops to a hex where they have visuals to them. Now they enjoy the cover of Smoke though, halving the effect of my Direct Fire  :-[

And so the two volleys each of the Patton troops failed to dislodge them. They must be having a laugh right now  :tickedoff:

Left I have a look to my infantry next. Here's how it looks like with Reachable Hexes ON at the moment, from the hex where I have the Engineer and Recce platoons at. The forward Engineers just moved to that position a bit earlier.

Center ... I then move the Recce platoon there. There was an ambushing Syrian infantry platoon next there (of course there was), and that move triggers their Opportunity Fire. The funny thing with Opportunity Fire die rolls is that they only fired now.

They score a 1SP Kill and Disruption, at Engineers though. Engineers are out of APs, so I then move the Recce platoon to the position. They have the APs for either a fire mission or for a dynamic recce mission. As recce is what they do, I opt for that...

Right ...and, nothing more to see. It is not a 100% certain thing though, this dynamic recce that is. Also, this continues to be a devilish terrain, there's basins and what not that could hide an armored tank battalion there...

Note that I keep Elevation levels visible at most times. They are now fitted to a font size that's rather nice to look at. So why not. Also, I am back to stock map tiles here, from previous turn, they make the elevation levels a tad easier to observe. I do keep Contours OFF though, there's enough information as-is now   :nerd:

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Southern Pincer, Cont'd

Time to press on.

Left: I move a two Patton troops forward, with Save AP For Firing toggled ON. Nothing happens. So far so good.

Center: I then move my Halftracks forward, for they are the only recon(ish) asset I have that can dash forward. It's arrival upon the Patton hex triggers an Ambushing Syrian Recoilless Rifle team to have a shot. They target my Pattons of course, hitting one track and Disrupting the rest. I fire back, each remaining Patton troop was good for one volley. I might have taken off one RCLR from that unit iirc.

Right: ...as encouraged by that, I decide to move my M113s forward to reconnoitter furtther. The Syrian RCLR team had a remaining volley though, and wiped out them completely  :wow:

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Southern Pincer Turn #5 Done

Having kept my formation closely together, I continue to bring more firepower forward. Fighting ambushing tank-hunter teams no fun, but someone's gotta do it right.

Left: A fresh Patton troop into fray, Load HE!, and they score a hit and a retreat. Rough hex is a neat place to fall back though, as it provides a nice Terrain Effect Modifier.

Center: They are definitively out of Action points now, so time to dash my halftracks forward, to observe what's there in the enemy rear section. They never make it though, there's what looks like an Infantry platoon there in that Rough hex already, and they wipe out the hapless Halftracks. Poor devils. Recon-by-getting-shot-at is now fun. I have no units that can revenge them anymore, so stop here.

Right: From 80VPs at the beginning, I am down to 58VPs now.

War is brutal and cavalry gives no quarter so that's the way it is.

I have plenty of opportunities to claw back at Northern pincer though, where the enemy is visible and sits passively on their strong points.

Onward and forward.

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY