CS Middle East: The Crossroads (West Bank, 5 June 1967) -- DAR vs Berto --

[Crossroads]

IDF End of Turn #16

Here's the situation at Jenin at this stage. Both Victory Location's have fallen, so that's 300 VPs in the bag. Given the amount of casualties I've taken that's not quite the coup it could have been. Imperative I catch the retreating Jordanians in the open ground! Having said that, they held on remarkably until the night fall before calling it a day there. Well fought!

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Lots of firefights that took place in the dark. My right flank is slowly turning on the retreating Jordanians. Given the main road there they can retreat in haste, and as the road curves away from my advancing troops there's little chance I can cut them off here.

OK, lesse what the Strength Dialog and Victory status tell us at this stage...

[Crossroads]

IDF End of Turn #16

OK, lesse what the Strength Dialog and Victory status tell us at this stage...

So here we are then.

Strength report:

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That's three Pattons traded to two Shermans. Victory point wise not perhaps much to celebrate, but purely from tank-vs-tank action point of view not too bad! I call it a happy turn all right  :)

Victory status:

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Added another 150VPs to my tally, but having started at +15 I am not at +160, a loss of 5VPs this turn. But who's counting! 

Over to Berto!

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #17 (Night)

Tough one, this!

Added another 150VPs to my tally, but having started at +15 I am not at +160, a loss of 5VPs this turn. But who's counting! 

Over to Berto!

A very much an uphill battle to Israelis, terrain included. Here's a little snippet of the constant pain my brave troops are encountering. Recall the Jordanians left a Patton troop on my LOS. Time to get rid of them, next! 

During the Jordanian turn, they fired at my tanks, knocking out a Sherman M51 in the process. The muzzle fires indicate they are visible in the night from a distance too.

So first, let us move a supporting M51 troop to cover the area in case they retreat one hex as I fire at them. Would not want them to disappear into night!

I don't like the shadow effect for visible hexes, so instead I have opted to highlight the visible hexes with a highlight color instead:

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Next I fire at them, no effect with the first round, but beneath them, they've got another Patton troop covering the first one. It properly Op Fires on my tanks, causing one of my platoons to retreat.

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I fire again at them, and manage to knock out one tank. Yes! The remaining tank retreats one hex.

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And of course there had to be one more Patton troop in the area, it now Op Fires on the hex I fired from (Visibility is 2, but you can fire at enemy gun flashes).

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Enough of night battle without seeing anything! Or atleast a proper reorg, I am all over the place here...

Bang, another M51 knocked out 

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #17 - And so it goes!

It is the same story in and around Jenin. I tentatively move one infantry platoon towards a visible enemy platoon, having fired at it with my HMG to properly soften them up first. It is the one without gun flashes on it below, and the only one that was visible at the time.

Sure enough, as I move forward there's two accompanying platoons that open up on my forward platoon (the ones fith gun flashes now visible below).

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Ouch!

So it is the same story at Jenin. Time to reorganize and to wait a bit. There is the Jordanian counter attack coming at some stage I am sure (with fresh reinforcements), I better be consent at securing the bunker and pillbox positions here, and to wait for them instead.

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Jenin, waiting for the next turn, with artillery plotted.

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #17 - the 45th Bde Flanking Move

Berto's placed Jeep units all over the lower edge of the map. I am now running into them in the middle of the darkness. Just to keep the situation fluid here, I begin to move my infantry into two columns, for now heading towards the Crossroads. The idea behind being the eventual Jordanian reinforcements hopefully heading this way, instead of making directly towards Jenin.

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[Crossroads]

IDF End of Turn #17 - Getting Worse Before It Gets Even More Worse

A solid loss of 30VPs this turn. The terrain is a nightmare to attack against a determined delaying action.

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Having said that, the flanking move is finally ready to start swinging towards west, from their eastern map edge. Too little too late, probably, but here goes!

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I still should have a good few rounds remaining before the Jordanian reinforcements arrive, better gain as much ground as I can before it is my turn to practice that art of delaying actions. Over to Berto!

[Crossroads]

IDF End of Turn #18

Hello again, good folks of Grogheads! My apologies, been hit with a couple curve balls by Real Life so haven't quite been able to keep this DAR up. Here goes another turn, finally! 

Not much, it is night until turn 25, so plenty of time to move a bit on the flank, and to prepare for the eventual counter attach at Jenin. Which won't come quite yet, I don't believe.

So while not much happening otherwise, here's a screenshot using the latest 1.02 UPDATE Open Beta version, just out the other day. Some tweaks to menubar icons, for instance:

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Here's the Strength and Victory Dialogs. Clawed back a whopping +7 Victory Points this turn. Yay!

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[Crossroads]

Hmm, I've knocked two Pattons since last time I posted the Strength Dialog, against a loss of three Sherman M51s. Need to claw back a bit there too 

[Sir Slash]

No problem Crossroads. Enjoying the read.

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #19

No problem Crossroads. Enjoying the read.

Thanks! So here goes again.

This very much continues to be an uphill battle (pun intended) for my brave troopers. Often, I can navigate only one hex forward even then risking having enough Action Points to return fire if (when!) encountering hostiles there. I am hoping I could maneuver more safely during the Night turns, with reduced visibility and fire effectiveness. Yet, I manage to lose four Shermans this turn.

Here's a typical night skirmish that is playing out all around the map. I advance, the Jordanian units are there in ambush positions, they fire, they retreat.

With the low visibility it is yet possible to fire at gun flashes. This particular little skirmish saw me losing one tank to an ambushing Patton troop, then my return fire causing them a retreat.

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Onward and forward it is, regardless. Next objectives are almost on sight here!

Over to Berto  :)

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #20 (of 45)

Getting closer to the half way mark!

All-out action continues without a break in the fighting, as mr Al Rashid's basement falls to my victorious troops!  :D

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There's two bunkers remaining, I hope I can take them out before the Jordanian reinforcements get here...

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Lots of little skirmishes on my right flank, where the Ambush Valley (see what I did here) continues to be a tough preposition for my advancing forces.

Here's the Strength Report at the end of turn #20:

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That's a loss of five Shermans against two Pattons since last strength report. Finally, the Pattons were taken out by my infantry, which finally is getting deployed into the ground after having spent the whole game in their APCs, negotiating the very difficult terrain I chose for my flanking move.

[Crossroads]

Too bad this forum doesn't seem to have Spoiler Tags, to hide the screenshots for a faster page load?

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #21 (of 45); [Night] - Jenin Proper

And so the struggle continues throughout the night of June 5. Let us look at some details, this time.

The overall feeling I have at this stage is that my strategy has been that of a huge blunder. While the 9th Infantry Bde is performing reasonably well in the bitter streetfighting on the fortified Jenin, the 45th Mech Bde has so far achieved nothing, having ventured into a terrain most unsuited for even their tracked vehicles. That can't be helped anymore, they are too far out there so just need to stay the course and see what's happening.

Before that, let us have a look at the Jenin sector.

My two imminent objectives there remain the two fortified hexes of bunkers, immediately south of the town.

First, the one to the southwest. Again, artillery achieves nothing there, so time to bring the close support fire of my tanks into play there (there's been some reactionary Opportunity Fire taking place during the opponent turn, hence the gun flashes in the area). First the AMX tank platoon:

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Then, the Sherman M-51 Coy I had available to 9th Bde:

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As the smoke clears from the barrage, the results are found to be ineffective.  >:(

Yet, the Coy tasked with reducing the opposition fixes their bayonets, prepares the hand granades, and charges on:

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Inconclusive. It could have ended a disaster for my attacking troops as well, but since it didn't it remains my assumption the bunker is not manned with fresh, strong troops, but with reduced platoons instead.

Next, the bunker in the southeast. Here, I don't have much close support available, but as the artillery left one of the defending platoons disrupted, and as I have Combat Engineers with me, I order another assault.

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Success!

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Then, new troops in to man the trenchline left empty by the assaulting troops...

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Next, as the Jordanian troops were forced to retreat into open, I fire at them with all available units from a hill nearby. Revenge time!

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Kills and retreats. That's more like it!

Overall, very happy about for the turn #21 in Jenin so far!

:)

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #21 (of 45); [Night] - Hills outside Jenin

Jordanian forces have had a field day performing an immaculate fighting retreat as my forces have negotiated the difficult terrain while approaching the hostile forces there. I'll put an end to this, at least for a while now.

First, I am hopeful the Armd infantry next to an exposed Jordanian Patton troop could cause some damage there:

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Not so, it turns out, as firing values are reduces during a night turn.

So be it, I call an order for taking one step back, and to form a defensive line in the area:

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Let them come to me, next 

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[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #21 (of 45); [Night] - Hill 361

Hill 361 occupies an area between my forces at Jenin, and those in the vanguard of the hapless 45th Mech Bde, still pretty much occupied in negotiating the terrain there.

Here, with the impetus of advancing on me, the story remains the same: bump into the enemy, take fire, do something to counter if possible (and often it is not, as Action Points were used for movement).

Another Jordanese Patton troop encountered:

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With my M51s close by, I fire back, only causing a retreat though  :(

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With road clear, time to send the next recon-by-death mission forward, with one of the reduced M3 halftrack platoons available:

True enough, an armored car recon element encountered, and destroyed (next).

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... with a cost of another Patton troop then firing at them. My brave recon troop leaves their flaming halftracks there, and returns on foot to the friendly lines...

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Wreck marks their abandoned vehicles now