Author |
Blackcloud6
|
Method |
Solo |
Victor |
State of Israel |
Play Date |
2022-06-27 |
Language |
English |
Scenario |
SwIs018
|
7
Elements of the Egyptian 4th Tank Division are moving west to escape a closing trap by Israeli forces. The Israeli 77th Tank Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade moves to block the Egyptian escape attempt.
The Egyptian move a T-55 force quickly across the board to guard the exit point while another sets up to control the center of the map. The Israelis move in quickly taking the critical dunes in the center which will allow them to overwatch the track the Egyptians need to take to escape quickly.
In the north, Israeli M51s encounter the T-55 guard force and get hammered by the T-55s, but in the center the Israeli excellent gunnery proves decisive and the Egyptian armored force trying to control the center is defeated. The Egyptians try to move overland to the escape point, but the Israelis are too fast and move to block. Grimly, the Egyptian infantry dismount in a forlorn hope and take on the Israeli armor directly.
At this point, with two turns to go, the point count was way high in favor of the Israelis, so I called the game. Even if the infantry attack was successful against the Israeli tanks, the Egyptians would not get enough points. This has the potential to be a great scenario, due to the need to maneuver across three boards but suffers from a few flaws. First, and crucially, there is ambiguity on the tracks and dunes concentration that is not made clear in the scenario instructions. Also, making all the towns have dunes considerably slows down the Egyptians especially those in wheeled vehicles. Both allow the Israelis to be able to block the main track early on when in the real battle the Israelis c couldn’t get their act together to dos. Second, the initial Israeli force should only be allowed to set up on the track on Board 66 within 5 hexes of the north edge. As written, they can set up right next to Board 64 and enter that map to get to the center and control it. Third, the Israelis should not get two points for each Egyptian tank step destroyed. Without efficiency they are not worth as much as Israeli tanks. This would balance the scenario some.
This scenario could be great if not for its flaws. I would have rated it a five otherwise it got knocked down to three.
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