Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - Arab Israeli 1982 - Play testing ideas

Spent half an our or so over lunch time musing about aspects of the initial scenario which is based on an ambush of the leading platoon of a battalion on the coastal road.

The game scenario needs to follow the standard AA/FOF asymmetric sequences as that gives me a simpler situation and troops already in contact.

I can start either with the PLO having already initiated the contact and the effects already applied to one or more vehicles or play this out from the moment contact begins.  If I go with the second option there are a lot of options for either player which may or may not completely change how the game plays...Imagine all the RPG shots hitting and catastrophic effects result...a very short game; the other way around means that the PLO miss with everything and the Israeli's dismount and clear the ambush site in very short order.  For me this is too much chaos to handle so I am going to go with the assumption that an initial round of fire has occurred from the PLO, an Israeli Vehicle has been disabled and a situation which includes casualty treatment, evactuation and clearing the Ambush site has to be handled.  This also means that the PLO force doesn't have to be very lucky with its dice rolls in the the first place.

With the idea that the IDF force is fixed in place this means that I might be able to play this on a 2' x 2' board.  Terrain pieces probably need to be stone walls, ditches, possibly a culvert section of road citrus trees, bushes and vines.  If I put the ambush site towards one site then the PLO can be given the job of holding up the IDF and then retreating while the IDF have to clear the site.  I can make a scenario situation up that off the short side of the board is a ravine which is impassable.  This would also allow me to keep the IDF vehicles from freely manouvering.

Something like this.

PLO can be in Ambush for the first turn and then act as elusive afterward which will offset the IDF numbers and quality a little bit.

Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - 1982 Arab Israeli - Israeli Infantry Organisation

Israeli Platoon Structure would follow the line of

Platoon HQ
1 x Platoon Commander w/Galil
1 x Platoon Sergeant w/Galil
1 x Radio Operator w/Galil
3 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x DMR
1 x 52mm Mortar
1 x Dragon ATGW

3 x Sections each comprising:

Section Command:
1 x APC Driver
1 x APC Gunner (MAG Gunner while section is mounted, moves to become Track commander when section dismounts)

1 x Section Commander w/Galil

 Fireteam 1:
2 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x Grenadier w/Galil & 40mm GL

Fireteam 2:
2 x Riflemen w/Galil
1 x FN MAG gunner

Fireteam 3:
2 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x Rifleman w/RPG & Galil

In addition as a lot of images show the M113 carrying two FN MAGs I might allow a second FN MAG to be dismounted but needing at TQ test to bring it off the vehicle

Attachments from the Asset cards would provide the additional support to either the platoon directly or supporting forces such as:
Shot
Magach (M48 and M60 variants)
Merkava
M163
M125
M150
M113 Carrying HMG Section of 2 .50 Cal HMG
M109A2 in a direct fire role or needing to be escorted
Engineers
UAV support

More to follow as I think this through

Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - 1982 Arab Israeli - Initial thoughts

Getting the Israeli armour painted has continued well so I couldn't resist getting the toys out on the table.  Question is what rule set...I have AA/FOF, TW&T and a host of others. In the end I wanted something quick which didn't take a lot of setting up, or thought so went back to Ambush Alley/Force on Force.  Not everyone's' cup of tea but I like them, well at least I like Ambush Alley.....

So how to play out my 1982 games using these rules as a base?  I like to tinker with things and actually do enjoy putting some thought to my games.

The size of the game needs to cover my desire to have mechanised forces on the table as well as capture the closeness of the fighting in a mix of both rural and urban environments.  I had gone a way to setting up a basic platoon force (allowing for either an Armoured Platoon or Mech Infantry) with various attachments. AA/FOF has this ability as well as also creating random events and effects which could be tailored specifically.  So keeping the platoon as the basic force element would work and creating some asset and fog of war cards would then follow and would reflect what I actually have in my collection.  Table size would be variable and go from the small 2' x 2' close range engagements up to larger games on a 4' x 3' and everything in between.

So the rough force structures would be as follows:

Sayeret
TQ D10
Morale D10
High Confidence

Paratroops/Golani
TQ D8
Morale D10
High Confidence

Regular Troops
TQ D8
Morale D8
High Confidence

Reservists
TQ D8
Morale D8
Confident

PLO/Syrian
TQ D6 - D8
Morale D6 - D8
Low Confidence - Confident

Modern - M2A2 ODS Next Stages

The remaining two M2A2 ODS that I bought, have now been given a basecoat of the Tamiya XF-59.  I have added the rear Id Panels (sorry bored you enough with those now) as well as the covers for the gunner's sight.

Early shot showing the the styrene panels.  They are way overscale but good enough for me to game with

Base coat added and on this one (which will be callsign 112) I have taken the last panel off as well.

 Compared to the first one from the rear

And from the front with the revised sight which is only 3 pieces of styrene

Need to decide on how the antenna's will be added yet (but I can do that at a later stage) and as I have two M1A1 to do as well the next highlight coats will be added when I do all the models together.  Then on to markings and stowage and basing

Already lost interest in these ;) and thinking of going back to the MiG Killer project

Modern - M2A2 ODS

The Zvezda Bradley is in 15mm is a cracking kit, with lots of detail as opposed to its poorer M1A1 cousin.  I have put the first one of three together as a tester and I am quite happy with it.  It like all my other models needs some baggage items, Combat ID panels and radio antennas and of course basing

Modern - OIF Combat ID panels

Combat ID panels were pretty common during OIF and they appear in most of the photos on the hull and turret sides.  As I had used a vietnam era kit they obviously didn't come of the sprue so I tried building them from 1.5mm styrene strip.  I made two at a time and cut the frame once I had trimmed and fitted each of the slats and then a simple job of glueing them in place.  Now I know they don't look too out of place I will make up the ones for the USMC M1A1s as well as some more for the 4 other US Army Vehicles I need for the Force on Force scenarios

Modern - M113A3 Base Coat

Still haven't found the "Desert Sand" that I like.  This is painted using Tamiya XF-59 which gives a tan brown sort of finish which will do until I find something better.  Dry brushing with VJ Iraqi Sand to lighten and dusty it up to be done and I will do that when I get around to adding the baggae and extra pieces to this

Modern - M113A3

Following on from the M1064A3 proxy I used some of the lessons identified to work on the first of the M113A3s I was going to need.

I cleaned up the back of the BF M113 by carving off the light clusters and jerry cans and then carefully trimmed the track guard to make a vertical surface.  I also cut and sanded the track guard out to make it look as it it was part of the fuel tank on the inside face as will.

I then made up a template for the sides of the fuel tank and then cut out sufficient pieces for two vehicles, the idea being that if this worked out okay I could crack on and duplicate the pieces for the third model using the second template.  I still worked on fitting the pieces together on the model rather than building the tanks and then fitting.  I am not skillful enough to get that bit right yet but might try it out on the last two models to see if speeds up the process.

The idea of the vertical surface was that it would give me a reference point for the bottom of the fuel tank and would then allow me to sand the shape to give a better representation.

The tank filler caps were added as was a second antenna mount and blanking plates on the top.  I am still thinking about the rear light fittings that are needed. but as these are gaming models I might do that as a last thought.  Smoke dischargers also need to be considered as well as spare track pads and other little details.

Again the Road to Baghdad book identifies that the ACAV kits are fitted to all the M113A3s needed which again is useful.  What it does mean however is that I have now run out of BF M113 kits as one was used a while ago for my Israeli 1982 project so will need to order another pack in the future to finish off the BandAid (probably).

The PSC Sdkfz 251 kit provided the jerry cans again as I can't find the box with all my white metal jerry cans. 

Will still need to find or make some stowage and Combat ID panels for these and then look at decals.  As I can make my own and they will be in black it should be straight forward but need to do some research first to find out what is actually needed.

Model has been given a black undercoat and I might get chance this afternoon to give it a coat of Tamiya XF-59 which is the colour I have decided to go with for the US Army vehicles

Modern - M1064A3

Now that I have completed the USMC forces for Road to Baghdad, I began looking at the US Army forces needed.  A couple of bradley's, slack handful of M113s including a Bandaid and a M1064A3 Mortar carrier.

As I only need one I tried out some ideas using the BF M113 kits that I purchased.  The book says that it has the ACAV kit for the commander which was in the kit already, so I made up the external fuel tanks using plasticard, trimmed down the covers over the road wheels by 1mm or so and made a couple of bits of baggage out of green stuff and finally pinched some jerrycans from the PSC Sdkfz 251 kit (I think thats where they came from).

Good enough to game with and I have some better ideas about what to do for the M113s which will all need to be the same.  Aftermarket potential on these kits is great but needs someone with the skills.

Modern - DOTR - Eight Souls On Board - Background and setting up.

After looking around the model shop I picked up a couple of MH-60 Blackhawks in 1/100th scale from Italeri.  Diecast lower fuselage and plastic body and uppers.  This meant it was relatively straightforward to carve out the windows and doors to turn two of these models into MH-60 for a Blackhawk down based scenario.

The DOTR book from Ambush Alley Games has a range of scenarios and I fancied trying out my new models on the Super Six One rescue mission which in the book is title "Eight Souls On Board", which is a reference to the crew of Super 61.

I didn't replicate the actual crash but made a generic objective or terrain piece up using one the helicopters.

I did some reading and couldn't quite match the scenario as written with events recorded and depicted in the film "Blackhawk Down".  Film events I could ignore as you have to put up with a lot of hollywood, however there were still some things that I fancied tinkering with.

Super Six Eight is the CSAR helicopter.  The scenario has 15 guys in the Helo fast roping in.  As far as I can tell this is a bit overboard as in reality the ground element arrived at about the same time.  The narrative of the battle (plus the film :) ) indicates a smaller CSAR team based around the two PJs and the CCT with some Delta support (not sure it needs five) and a Ranger security element.  Add to this Lt DiTomasso's team plus a Little bird which dropped to pick up Sgt Busch and it is a lot and would probably overwhelm the defenders (unless the VPs are amended)

So I have changed the scenario (which my opponent doesn't know yet and he won't read this until later :)  )

I am changing it to have:

• Super Six One on the table with Sgt Busch defending.
• CSAR Bird will be 2 x PJ, 1 x CCT, 4 x Delta Operators and a Single Ranger team without the M60 addition to Fast Rope in as the game progresses. I don't fancy letting everyone disembark in one turn.  In real life Super Six Eight is also hit by RPG fire as it dropped off its team, so I fancy dropping that in on my opponent as well ;)
• Ranger 1 will be a Ranger fire team from one edge of the board which will be Lt DiTomasso's team plus a M60.
• Ranger 2 will be a second Ranger fire team from the same edge but not closer than 12" or something along those lines to the other unit.  This team will arrive after Ranger 1 but not too sure how long after.

For the CSAR team I didn't have any "correct" figures so used a couple of USMC with headswaps as stand ins.  They will do as a first attempt :)

Simple swap using a WW2 Fallschirmjager helmet from Peter Pig Range 8.  I then used a small drill to make an indentation in the top of the helmets (on visible on the PJs)

And then added goggles and knee pads using greenstuff.  Painted them in "Coffee Stain" or DCU camo and painted the web gear and boots in VJ Black Grey.

The USMC Medic set is pressed into service as the medics.  I haven't done the CCT yet though

Last up is to base Super Six Eight as a fast rope bird.

Need to make the base a little bit bigger as it doesn't take much to make it tip over.

Terrain is my standard AA terrain set 

Modern Combat - Op Certain Death

This is the article I submitted for the Ambush Alley Games "Raid" Contest back in 2009.  I has been updated by Donogh on his excellent blog Land War in Asia.  Osprey kindly sent me a selection of their new Raid Series publications as a result which was excellent.

OPERATION CERTAIN DEATH
On 10 September 2000 a UK Special Forces operation rescued 6 captured British Soldiers and their Sierra Leone Army advisor from the West Side Boys (WSB) milita in Sierra Leone, in what was nicknamed ìOperation Certain Deathî by those tasked with its undertaking. The Soldiers had been a party of 11 British soldiers along with their 3 WMIK Landrovers that been captured by the WSB on 25 September 2000, their comrades having been released earlier in exchange for a Satellite phone (used by the SF to pin point the hostages location).

The events and timelines have been condensed slightly in order to bring this onto the AA table. This scenario covers the actions of the combined SAS/SBS rescue team in the Northern Village of Geberi Bana.

300m away, across the Rokel Creek, were two other villages where units from 1st Battalion Parachute Battalion were engaged after landing from 2 other Chinooks from 7 Squadron. Here were the bulk of the West Side Boys militia and also where the 3 captured WMIK Landrovers and their mounted .50 Cal HMGs had been taken.

MISSION BRIEF
At 0640 as part of force of 3 Chinook and 2 Lynx helicopters, A Special Forces Chinook arrives at the LZ and the combined rescue team fast rope down into the village to begin the rescue mission of 7 Hostages held by the West Side Boys. The extraction helicopter would return in 20 minutes to the LZ to evacuate the party to the safety of the waiting rescue ship.



REGULAR MISSION OBJECTIVEThe regular plays the part of the SF element formed from joint SAS and SBS personnel on Op Barras charged with 3 Missions

Rescue the 7 Hostages and evacuate them to the LZ
Capture or Kill the West Side Boy Leader Foday Kallay
Recover or destroy any of 3 lost Heavy Weapons taken from the WMIKs

All SF troops must be at the LZ by the end of Turn 8 when the Helo arrives.

They enter from the West Board edge having been recently deployed by Chinook. (OPTIONAL RULE 1 and OPTIONAL RULE 3)

The rescue team comprises:

12 SF Troopers. They may draw weapons from the following:
0-5 Minimi Light SW
0-3 GPMG Medium SW
0-1 Sniper Rifle

These may be organised as required by the Regular player but must be grouped into "correct" teams to receive any special team bonuses.

They are NOT equipped with Body Armour.
Troop Quality D12, Morale D10.

To rescue the hostages an SF figure must move into base contact. 1 SF Figure is required to escort 4 Hostages. While escorting the SF unit counts as having dependants as normal.
Regular player cannot abandon casualties or dependants in this scenario.
Regular forces cannot enter buildings unless cleared or by an assault.


INSURGENT MISSION OBJECTIVE
The insurgent player controls the West Side Militia elements inside Geberi Bana, and has the following missions:

Keep the hostages secure
Defeat the rescue force

Starting Forces are located at the following points

1 Insurgent Security Patrol. 1 x Leader, 4 x Insurgents w/small arms
2 Insurgent Security Patrol. 1 x Leader 4 x Insurgents w/small arms
3 Insurgent Security Patrol. 1 x Leader 4 x Insurgents w/small arms
4 3 x Leaders
5 5 x Insurgents w/small arms, 1 w/LSW, 1 w/RPG
6 5 x Insurgents w/small arms, 1 w/LSW, 1 w/RPG
W West Side Boy leader Foday Kallay
H Building Containing Hostages

Units 5 and 6 are roused by the arrival of the British from a Drug and Alcohol induced sleep and MUST pass a TQ check to be able to attempt to activate in the remaining moves phase. If joined by a leader they add +2 to the roll.

Foday Kallay may not move from the target building but may be protected by one insurgent unit.

INSURGENT REINFORCEMENTS

The Insurgency level is 3 for this scenario and 5 hotspots are deployed as normal. They cannot be located within 6" of the hostage location

2 1D6+2 Insurgents w/small arms, 1 RPG, 1 MSW and Leader
3 1D6+2 Insurgents w/small arms and Leader and roll again
4 1D6+1 Insurgents w/small arms and Leader OPTIONAL RULE 2
5 1D6 Insurgents w/small arms
6 1D6 Insurgents w/small arms, 1 LSW
7 1D6+2 Insurgent w/small arms, 1 LSW
8 1D6 Insurgents w/small arms, 1 RPG
9 1D6 Insurgents w/small arms OPTIONAL RULE 2
10 1D6+1 Insurgents w/small arms, 1 RPG and Leader
11 2D6 Insurgents w/small arms and leader
12 1D6 Insurgents w/small arms and .50 Cal (HSW) taken from one of the captured WMIKs w/2 crew. This unit must enter from the Southern Map edge and the insurgent does NOT have to roll for the entry hotspot

All WSB units are troop quality D6 and Morale D10

SCENARIO SPECIAL RULES
The South edge of the board is Rokal Creek. Troops must make a TQ check for each 3" of movement they wish to make while inside it's boundary. Troops engaged while in it receive +2 FP dice modifier rather than the normal +1 for being in the open.

FOG OF WAR
Draw 1 FOW Card at the beginning of the game. Other FOW cards are drawn as a result of reaction tests as normal

Regular Victory Points
No SF Casualties/POW - 5 Pts
Each hostage rescued - 1 Pt
Foday Kallay Captured - 3 Pts

Insurgent Victory Points
Each SF Wounded/Killed - 1 Pt
Each hostage retained - 2 Pts
Any SF POW - 3 Pts

OPTIONAL RULES
Option 1 Use the Fast Rope special rules from DOTR for entering the UK element on table. The marker may be placed at any point as long as it more that 6" from a WSB unit.
Option 2 Use the Drug effect rule for theses WSB units. They do not have to take a Quality check to interrupt if without a leader and do not suffer from shrinkage
Option 3 Allow one UK elements (3-4 man team with up to 1 Minimi from the force total) to enter from the South Table edge. Reports mention an SBS team emerging from the creek at the same time that the main assault force struck.

HISTORICAL OUTCOME
The UK element split into three elements; one securing the LZ, one rescuing the hostages the other capturing the West Side Boy leader. This was all achieved in 20 minutes and at 0700 hrs the assault force was extracted, sadly with the loss of Tpr Tinnion who died from wounds received during the ingress.

Modern Gaming - US Forces - Dog Team

I wanted something a little different for my US Forces for Ambush Alley and Force and Force, so I tried out the idea of a Dog Team.  Both models are PP and "just" needed to be posed.  The dog lead was added from a piece of thread painted black and then highlighted with GW chainmail.