Hey guys, the lads from Red River Gamers are playing Compendium: The Road to Armageddon – an Israeli Commander realizes faith can move Mountains!

First my colleague & I drew counters to see which side to we were going to play; he drew the Syrians while I drew the Israelis…

After Action Report…

Turn 1 – 2: The Stage; the Syrian commander sets up his forces to block any counterattacks attempting to retake the town of Midrakh Oz (City hexes on Board 3 (C2 and D2)) by taking the high ground with oversight into all road networks.

Instead of taking the long approach to the town and taking advantage of their longer range of their guns, the Israelis make a dash along the ridge line avoiding any LOS with the Syrians.

An Israeli Airstrike makes an attempt to punch a hole in the Syrian’s defense line causing disruption & reduction in forces.

Turn 3 – 4: Contact! The Syrians are not fooled by this approach and with undated Intel, shift their forces to meet this counterattack.

At first, the Israeli commander wanted to pull back and re-start his approach. But better heads prevailed and they continued their advance…

First Blood – although the Syrians are closing in, the Israelis draw first blood by eliminating two T-72 platoons.

Encirclement – however, the Syrians retaliate by closing in and clobbering the Israelis in the open – losses are: one Merk platoon, reducing another – thus eliminating the Headquarters’ unit.

Gridlock! The front has become stagnate with both forces pommeling at each other…

Then, the Israelis rally and start to dominate the field!

First: the Israeli F-4E shows up again, but does little to no damage this time and RTBs.

Second: with four activations in a row, the Israelis start to decimate the Syrian ranks; reducing units, exterminating tanks, and even eliminating their HQ’s platoon in the process. All the while, the Syrians have the high grounds!

Third: after regrouping from the Israelis’ onslaught, more Syrians move into fray causing a Merk & Soltam platoon to be disrupted, but both rally to the occasion and counterattack.

Turn 5 – 7: The Slugfest – both sides slug it out trying to dominate the other; disruptions, reductions, and rallies – o’ my!

With two more activations before the Syrians can rally, the Israelis’ continue to slash the Syrian 51st Armored Battalion down to two disrupted full-strength T-72 platoons and one ZSU-23-4 platoon.

Although the Israeli commander knew his Soltam had an HE capability to disrupt armor, he did not fully realize the potential it had until too late. But once it was know what it can accomplish, the Syrian’s Shilka gets in a hit disrupting it!

With little remaining, the Syrians try to break free of the death match and pull back. The Shilka, takes one final shot before attempting to pull back, but in the meantime a Merk platoon takes it out during Opportunity Fire.

Turn 8: The Path is Cleared! The Israelis get one final chance and decimate the Syrian’s remaining blocking force – now it’s a race against time.

Can the Israelis’ relieve the town of Midrakh Oz in time?

Turn 9: Liberated! The Israelis have just enough strength left to reach the town!

Lessons Learned:

1) Two Formation Markers instead of one can be the deciding factor in any Turn. Especially, if pulled back-to-back two turns in a row!

2) Determine what kind of units one has before playing and use the appropriate rules for its firepower; i.e. the Israeli Soltam is a M1064A2 (M113 variant used as a mortar carrier) armed with an Israeli 120mm Soltam mortar in place of the older 107mm mortar of the M106 series.

a. Used it as normal Range Combat rules versus using Mortars & Artillery Rules – thus changing the outcome against the Syrian T-72s early on.

b. T-72’s should have used defense bonus of the terrain they are in (Hill & Clear!), instead of rolling the Armor Saves!

i) We were using 5^6 (+1 for Hill) and later 6^6 (+1 for Hill and +1 for wreck)

ii) Should have been none because they were in the clear and later 1^5 (+1 for wreck)

http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/cv/arty/M1064.html

or

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m121.htm

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