DT Variant - Bekaa Blues - Concept (Pt 1)

With so many projects on the go my gaming is a bit haphazard.  After spending last night at my best mate's house where we played Spearpoint 1943 and MNB GW I ended up coming back to the idea of the Bekaa Valley variant for Downtown (sparked off by a discussion over my recent Vallejo paint additions from Minibits.

I had been involved in some discussion on 1983 era games with Dan Cyr a while ago however I think I had overdone the airplanes things and needed a break.  As a result it hasn't gone anywhere.

So...back to 1981 when the IAF first began planning a SEAD missions against Syrian positions in the Bekaa valley.  The mission was orginally called MOLE 3 which was the number of SAM batteries it was designed to counter. As the number of SAM Batteries increased so the name continued to change according to popular press.  It eventually became MOLE CRICKET 19.  A little ahead of ourselves here as in 1981 the orginal planning was called off due to bad weather.

For a gamer it means that I could base a couple of scenarios in 1981 to gauge the ideas needed etc before committing to the Large operation. 

Table size in all things is the limiter for most gamers.  I am no different and as a result of needing to keep the footprint down I have decided to drop to a 1 1/2" hex size.  This reduces the foot print no end.  To start with I want to try and keep the action in a 3' x 4' area (90cm x 120cm) which is my dining table.  This gives an airspace box of 96km x 128km (or 24 x 32 hexes).  If I turn it through 90 degrees it means that Damascus can be included and the southern edge becomes the Israel - Lebanon border..

So far so good.  Down to forces.  My Israeli airforce will need some additions for this as they are most 1973 or earlier.  My spares box yielded four F-15 Fighters, 3 Kfirs and 6 F-16 Falcons.  I have enought MiG-21 and MiG-23 from the IrAF that can be pressed into service while I am playing around.  Ground Targets can include PLO and Syrian Regular units which means that I can add the odd SA-7/14 as well as ZSU-23-4 from the Elusive Victory ruleset.  The SA-6 and SA-8 Batteries will need some new stats to be developed.  Also need to do some research on CSAR capability.