Link to images:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.214991091926800.502…  22 pictures

 

The Players:

and I, the 4 most normal, most ordinary, regular and rather cool wargamers in Austin got together while all of you were watching football.

We broke out Yom Kippur. Laid that bad boy out…Oh I mean we laid THEM out. Yes 2 copies.

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We then played thru and watched the action unfold. Two very different styles, of play for each team. One IDF player was very aggressive the other more cautious. Each Egyptian player went out hard, Game B had the Egyptians attacking across a broad front whilst Game A focused his efforts mostly around the dunes near Lateral Road.

This is one engrossing game, and we look forward to the potential to link it to the Golan Heights at some point. There is a lot of replay value from my one play as far as I can see, due to the Ceasefire roll, the random nature of some reserves and the variations in attack choices for each side. The game is so much fun in that it allows both sides to be on the offense, and maneuver almost simultaneously. I do not however believe the Egyptian side can achieve a major victory, but would like to play a few more times to see.

This was my first play of the SCS system so not a smooth exercise but very fun and challenging.

Hopefully Brady and Peter will add some comments here from thier game experience. The link has pictures for both games by turn (almost in exact order…) Allow me to share what happened in game A:

Firstly Egypt placed units sub optimally, as a mis read of how arty works.. go figure. But we did use our air, barrages and Airborne aggressively Turn 1.

My goal was to try and follow the designer suggestions a little and see if we could not capture some points of interest. Then allow ourselves to be pushed back the Suez over time.
Capturing was initially easy. Hiding VPs locations them is another thing.

So a deep airmobile Inf. strike caught a lone HQ at one VP location in between the sand dunes along the Lateral road. C&C was affected for a turn.

All of my forces bar a small handful then pushed into the rough terrain around the Chinese Farm and along artillery road clearing and killing quiet a few infantry and mech units.

I inadvertently placed a bridge at the marshs…doah.

By turn four reserves had been released and a bloody battle developed for control of the dunes.

I was however losing the war of attrition.

The IDF were able to roll up with heavy air and saturation stacks (24) of Arty sitting 2-4 hexes back, DG and reduced my forces then attack nearly every time at 7:1-9:1. The ability for the IDF to stack 6 steps (6 tank counters) all with 5-6 attack and 4 on defense was too much for the hapless Egyptians.

Finally I got my arty well forward, and started checker boarding defense as I slowly fell back from the dunes. All Egypt had was 2 IDF flagged locations (Chinese Farm and Zrakor), lots of tanks over the canal, but the pace of losses was picking up. Then the bridge placed near Suez (city) fell, now we were one the back foot for sure.

Egypt scored 2 VPs for Ceasefire #1. but the back was broken for their forces. A desperate attack on the IDF arty yield little and exposed the arty to over runs during exploitation and attacks, as IDF tanks wove their way thru my zocs artfully.

I think if I played again, I would mob the Artillery road rough terrain, get a tank unit across, hope for a Ceasefire and keep a small force near Suez (town) for a last turn or two run at a VP location in the more open terrain. The Egyptians really have no business attacking deep, and need to put up a stiff doubled defense, with close support from Arty and let the IDF beat on the them for 8 turns. Attempting to prevent any crossings by the IDF as well.