Campaign Series Middle East - 2.30 UPDATE

[Jason Petho]

And just like that, we wrapped up the Sharon's Quagmire scenario at about turn 40 (the scenario goes to 60) as I had successfully captured all of the objectives and destroyed all the Egyptian forces. I will replay this scenario after it is scripted to see how that changes things. After we started and finished Operation Bin Nun Bet, the assault on Latrun during the 1948 War of Independence. It's an Israeli attack against a fortified Jordanian Arab Legion position. And that is what it was. Holy, what a blast trying to get into that!

[Jason Petho]

Campaign Series Middle East: We are giving this scenario a run through before I script it, mainly to figure out timing and see how I can make the Egyptians a "fun" opponent. I asked some questions during the sessions about event points and historical actions. Let me know what you think, I'm really curious what you'd like to see. The first part of the scenario is all about maneuver and the decision processes behind it. It's a good way to get the brain ready for the violence ahead!

[Jason Petho]

We have nearly overrun the first obstacle along the main route of advance. That turned out to be a little more difficult than I anticipated. In the far north, my Sho't Meteor's are definitely winning the day. The biggest threats so far seem to be the anti-tank guns and recoilless rifles, but the tanks are doing a number on them providing clear attacks for my infantry. Down south, I'm not so lucky as the infantry brigade is advancing without armour support and suffering casualties. The day is cruising along pretty well with some interesting action and lessons throughout!

[Jason Petho]

The advance continues deeper into the desert. The center had stalled a bit while we had a traffic jam dealing with some rogue Egyptians and the attack in the south, well, that was taking losses all over the place. I finally have a handle on that now though, the approaches to the southern town are nearly secured. There was some oddities with the Legacy AI, as we know, but it is interesting to see what it does in the current situation and gives me more ideas for when I script this scenario. Darkness is coming soon and that will change, well, everything.

[Jason Petho]

Night has fallen. I am still suffering casualties, but with the night, they will subside a bit. I had an interesting fight as I pushed Task Force Nir onto the main highway to El Arish, combat that turned out far more difficult than I would have though. Everything has slowed down as night impacts movement for vehicles. Our first parachutists have landed in the Egyptian rear! This will be interesting indeed. But, before we did all that, I went over some information about Iranian Order of Battles that I have been working on. Is this type of information interesting?

[Jason Petho]

It amazes me how a simple move can change the whole dynamic of a plan. Mistakes happen and I'm not infallible. This session is a good sample of that, although I am making some good progress through the various battles. It's quite interesting how the scenario has turned into five different key fights. Some are going better than others, but I'm definitely behind in the timeline. Even though the AI isn't scripted, it's turning out to be a challenging scenario indeed.

[Jason Petho]

We went over what I have been working on behind the scenes lately. Exciting times indeed. Then we proceeded to continue the attacks throughout the Umm Katef area. The southern attack on Umm Katef itself is going very well. The northern assault is a massive cluster firetruck. I ran into another T-34 company in the north, buy my Meteors ae making short work of them. The deep south is a curious battle, but it feels I'm finally making progress this turn. The fighting is raging all over the map, it's quite fun!

[Jason Petho]

We are making good progress, although it is turning out to be quite the challenge. The Egyptians are being far more stubborn than I figured they would be without being scripted. My attack in the north has bogged down as they keep throwing tanks and infantry at my attack force. I've managed to break through Umm Katef and into a mass of artillery batteries in the rear. That is causing my break through force some high anxiety. Down in the south, much the same. I've taken the town and am now suffering casualties taking out the heavy weapon positions. Ahh, lessons learned!

[Jason Petho]

My poor infantry. We are in the rear taking out artillery, but alas, it is all protected by recoilless rifles and anti-aircraft guns. These are having a brutal affect on the infantry as the fighting is up close and personal as I attempt to take out the positions. I will keep these little things in mind when I script the scenario to reflect how adverse to infantry casualties the Israeli's were during the conflict. On the bright side, the main Umm Katef line has almost fallen though! That's exciting news!

[Jason Petho]

We managed to finish the end of the scenario, but before we did that I showed off some new MOD's by MAUSMAN. Thank you MAUSMAN for your efforts! The combat was short and fierce with quite a bit of action. I didn't quite secure all of the positions but the vast majority. The Legacy AI did alright, but certainly not awesome, I can see some great coding potential here for scripting. There was also ideas tossed around about one large scenario for the northern Sinai as A WEEK IN or a Head to Head scenario. What do you think?