Another Egyptian Air Mobile attempt

Jul 21 2015

Turn 1

End of Turn 1

The Egyptians set down just out of reach of the guns.

Turn 2

The Israelis cannot fire on Egyptian helicopter in the air at the current range of 8 hexes, so they swing to the north and charge.

Israelis make a run along the north side

The Egyptians have half lost the battle given the Israelis are already half way across the playing area. They will need to bottle it up really tight.

Egyptians reposition

The green marker die indicate helicopters unloading infantry and Sagger units. The blue marker die indicates a helicopter unit which moved during the turn. Three of the helicopters are now within range of tank fire.

The Israelis are now in a bit of a bind. If they make a run for it, they might make it, but they'll but subject to opportunity fire from both helicopters and Saggers. On the other hand, if they stay and fight, they will be able to destroy the Egyptians within range, but risk getting stuck as the clock winds down.

At this point, I need to unlimber the rule book and check out how opportunity fire works. I've tried to set up the Saggers and helicopters to exploit it, we'll see what happens.

First, opportunity fire as defined in Standard Rules part II section E (SR-II, E). This is two columns of dense text.

Opportunity fire can be applied to units which are loading and unloading.

Let's see if a couple of the Israeli units can knock out some helicopters or Saggers. Spreading out the Egyptian counter stacks:

Egyptians reposition

The Egyptian helicopters landed in B-K8 (T1), B-H7 (T2) and B-J4 (T3) in Turn 1, and were out of range during that turn while in the air. Armor on air max range is 7 hexes, these landing zones were just out of range. However, the Israelis moved up during their Turn 2 movement, such that they're in range of the Egyptians to conduct opportunity fire while the Egyptians are unloading (SR-II, E.3h). This is because unloading requires all movement points for both carrier and passengers, which satisfies the 1/4 movement necessary for activating a target for opportunity fire.

So what's the best course of action for the Israelis here? They get first fire with opportunity fire, but it will invert them through their next movement phase, possibly exposing them to return fire.

Here's what's going down:

Israeli 6414 will opfire on hex BJ4 targeting Sagger unit 1621. With weapon type A range 6 hexes against target NA, attack strength quartered from 25 to 6, so 3:1 odds with defending having Hull Down advantage (BR-VII, F.2b). Roll 3 + 2 for 5 yields Dispersed. 6414 is inverted.
Israeli 6415 will opfire on BH7 targeting Sagger unit 1622. Roll 4 for DD, no Hull Down. 6415 is inverted.

Ok, both Saggers are dispersed for now. Every little bit helps.

Turn 3

Going into Turn 3, I'm now wondering what the difference between doing the opportunity fire from the Israelis last turn and the fire phase for this turn. In this case, there is no difference.

Israelis choose not to do any firing in favor of movement, specifically, overrunning the stack in BK8.

However, the Sagger unit makes an opportunity fire attack on 6417, succeeding in dispersing it.

The infantry units are going to make a 1:2 attack on 6418 which is one of the overrunning Israelis. If this succeeds in dispersing, it might drop the odds to allow for a dispersal rather than a sure elimination. Roll 3 for combined 12:15 for 1:2, no effect. The overrun scores 5 for 1 Sagger, 2 infantry and 1 MI8 destroyed.

All Israeli units are either dispersed or inverted. Egyptian phase.

Air phase:

9122 and 9123 will conduct air strikes against Israeli tanks next turn. They will be able to stay out of range. The advanced air rules do not require specifying a target or target hex in advance.
DOWN markers removed, 9122 and 9123 fly out of range of Israelis, go DOWN in hex BD2.

Since the remaining Saggers are either dispersed or unloading, and nothing else is in range, Egyptians roll for Morale: 1621 passes, 1622 fails and remains dispersed. This will be costly.

Here's the situation at the end of Turn 3:

End of Turn 3

Score: Israelis 5, Egyptians 0.

Turn 4

Israeli Turn 4

The Israelis have no air in this situation, so it's on to the fire phase.

No indirect attacks, so it's time for direct fire.

6414 and 6416 on to Sagger 1621. The odds are 50/4:2 which is 6:1, but the Sagger also gets +2 on the die roll for Hull Down. Roll 5 + 2 = 7 which is dispersed. Lucky!
6415 on to Sagger 1622 which is already dispersed, at 3:1 with no DRM, roll 2 which is a kill.
6418 fire on Sagger 1624 at 3:1 with no DRM, roll 3, DD.

That's a lot of firing for the Israelis, but they've essentially defanged the Egyptian Sagger units.

Israeli movement, Egyptian infantry make opportunity fire on 6413, 1:1 roll 2 Dispersed.

Egyptian Turn 4

Egyptian air phase, 9121 fires on dispersed 6413 at 2:1, roll 6 - 1 = 5 which means 6413 stays dispersed. Would have liked to kill it.

The other two birds attack 6417 at 4:1, roll 2 for X.

No direct fire, Saggers are out of commission.

Morale check: Sagger 1624 fails, 1621 passes.

Egyptian moving infantry to attempt to draw the Israeli into CAT range.

Score: Israeli 6, Egyptian 4.

Turn 5

Israeli Turn 5

Straight to direct fire.

6418 fires on Sagger 1624 at 2:1 roll 3 - 1 for 2 which DD, a kill since the target is already dispersed.
6416 and 6414 on to Sagger 1621 at 4:1 roll 1 + 2 (Hull Down) for 3, which is X.

And that's it for the Saggers. They got off one shot at 2:1 for a dispersal. Now all the Israeli tanks need to do is drive around the infantry and off the board. No need to get within CAT range, ever.

Israeli movement: 2 tanks at the edge hex, Egyptians cannot catch them.

Egyptian Turn 5

Fire phase: 5 Egyptian infantry fire on 6415 at 2:1, roll 3 for DD.

Move remaining units west.

Turn 6

Israeli

No firing, all movement to get off the board in time.

Egyptians take opfire at 1:1 roll 5 for no effect.

Egyptian

Movement and CAT for Egyptians: 6x3 is 18:15, 1:1 roll 6 - 4. Dang. The Egyptians just do not get a break today.

Turn 7

Israeli just moves to get off the board, Egyptians take opfires: 1:1 roll 4, no effect, another Israeli off the board. Another, roll 4, no effect. Dang.

Egyptians concede, Israeli score 8 kills + 20 (5 tanks) for 8. Egyptian score 4 for one Israeli tank kill.

AAR

Game completed August 2, 2015.

First fire really matters in this game, and not just a single lucky shot, it's being able to take several shots before the opponent can fire. The Israelis have done this both games.

In this game as in the last, the Israelis have also had some nice dice. For example, always passing morale checks. The Egyptians wish they could say the same.

I'm finding it hard to find the balance in this scenario.

For the next game, I'm going to use the airstrikes to pound on the tanks from out of range of the anti-air fire to knock out hopefully 2 tanks. The Saggers will advance on foot from the edge of the board to attempt to acquire crossfire setups. The infantry will land in areas 1 hex out of LOS such that they're next advance is into a hull down position behind a dune crest. Will be interesting to see if this can be done. I think the Egyptians really should be able to destroy 2 tanks no matter what.

Questions

What kind of target is a helicopter when it's on the ground and unloading? The rules seem to read that unloading helicopters are given a DOWN marker, and that the helicopter is still an F target but with no Hull Down benefit per the Sighting Effect Chart.
What happens with LOS when a unit is "shielded" by another unit? Specifically, the rules seem to allow a direct fire attack through another unit either friendly or enemy. I don't like this, it doesn't make sense to me. I'm going to play it as written for this game, even though it's going to really hurt the Egyptians.

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.