My thanks to (L-R above) Peter M, Darren and Ed for indulging me in a game of Fate of A Nation in God's Own scale of 12mm last night. I designed a scenario for a massive game that would nevertheless be playable in an evening. The closing stages of the October War provided a scenario:
The October War is a week old. Things have gone well for the Egyptians - sheltered by the Soviet SAM umbrella, armed with SAGGER ATGW and achieving surprise, they have retaken the Suez Canal with skill and daring. However, their Syrian allies are in rout up north on the Golan Heights - with a UN ceasefire imminent, Damascus is about to fall. Against all military advice, Egyptian armour is ordered to advance out of the SAM umbrella and capture the western exits of the Sinai Passes...
Darren and Ed played the Israelis, and, having spotted the sneaky second defile to the north of the main road, deployed wisely their initially limited resources to cover all approaches...
The Egyptians were represented by Peter M and I (although I take full responsibility for the resulting debacle!) With a vague idea of an anvil attack, we came on in the same old way...
From the outset the elderly M-51 'Ishermans' were surprisingly effective with their French 105mm guns firing HEAT rounds:
And they quickly set about whittling us down. At this point we weren't too worried, plenty more in the second and third waves!
Out on our left flank (on the right above) Peter sent his recon BRDMs on a deep probe whilst awaiting his Sagger teams which were coming up out of the traffic jam...
On our right I was trading shots with the Shermans with my lead T-62s, whilst bringing up the T-54s to join the firefight as quickly as possible.
The Israeli immediate reserves weren't particularly immediate - but when they did come on, they made their impact felt right away - the lead platoon of Sho'ts arrived on table and promptly brewed a couple of T-62s way down the highway...
Whilst we were starting to whittle down the Ishermans, it wouldn't be long until an entire company of Shot's would each be putting two 105mm steel darts down range. We wouldn't be able to shift those paratroopers sitting on the first objective with tanks alone...
The Motor Rifles were starting to arrive on scene and heading for a jump off point just short of the objective, when...
The Israelis registered their arty on precisely that point,
and a Skyhawk strike wiped out our Air Defence...
Inevitably, just as our motor rifles were in a position to debus and assault...
A devastating double blow: a second airstrike KO'd our APCs, forcing the infantry to debus, then savaged and pinned them with their arty!
At this point, with our infantry combat ineffective, and the ceasefire due at any moment, we called it a day. Despite tardy reinforcements, the Israeli team had deployed intelligently and used their limited assets wisely. An interesting and challenging scenario, if I do say so myself!
Outstanding AAR, Sparker. You wouldn't, by chance, have the scenario written down would you? I'd like to put it on for my gaming group in the people's glorious 6mm scale.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! No not really its all in the two maps and text above - I've begun to realise folk don't read my scenarios so I keep it really short these days! But the limited background I have is from the Osprey Campaign The Yom Kippur War 1973 (2) pp.61-65. Specifically Point 7. from 'The Egyptian Offensive' graphic on page 63 about Egyptioan 3rd Armoured Brigade attacking toward the Mitla pass vs Ugda Magen.
DeleteFair enough you've done most of the heavy lifting already for the scenario. I'm assuming the Egyptians must capture all 3 x objectives for a win?
DeleteFabulous looking game and as you say, benefitting from the 12mm. It strikes me as the sort of game that would make a good demo table at a con.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm most kind! I'd love too but our main convention is a subset of the local Plastic Modeller's group so we tend to go as big a scale as we can manage to encourage cross over!
ReplyDeleteIt looks a great game. But, God's Own Scale is, and may it always be, 6mm!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! 6mil makes absolute sense in terms of approaching a sensible ground scale, and yes, there are some superb AFV minis around. But I just can't get on with the infantry figures - I reckon 12mil is the smallest scale where infantry figures can be recognised...
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