Fall-In 2012 #2: Southern Counterattack

As promised, here is the report on the second game Jon and I ran at Fall-In 2012. It is an historical scenario based on a counterattack by the Israelis in the Southern Golan on the morning of October 8th. As near as I can determine the battle kicked off on the road to El-Al somewhere around Afik. It's an Israeli assault, but due to the ground scale issues of 15mm regarding the number of tanks involved we run it more like a meeting engagement. The previous night the Syrians and Israelis had attempted to night laager in the same spot and a short battle broke out with the Syrians coming out on the losing side so it's not unrealistic to think that the day opened with a meeting engagement.

The Israeli reservists of the 595th had upgraded WWII Sherman tanks, both the M50 armed with a French copy of a German WWII 75mm gun, and the M51 which used the much superior 105mm gun. Before the 205th Armored Brigade took over with their Sho't Meteor tanks at 10:00am the Sherman tank losses were numbered at 9 while the Syrians had lost 15 T-55's.

While Jon stepped out to the dealer hall and picked up some lunch I rejiggered the game board. After some lunch and the usual BS session between Jon and myself we got down to business and made sure we had the right cards and put out the miniatures. Despite the large number of tanks these games were actually less of an effort than the Beirut '82 all day session Jon and I put on at Cold Wars. It might have something to do with a lack of buildings.

The Syrians pour onto the battleground. The formation looks a tad Napoleonic though.

As the battle begins the only Israeli forces on the board are a command platoon with a truck, M3 Halftrack and Sho't Kal Centurion manned by LTC Yossi Amir. We gave Yossi a rating of Tank Ace 2 since Yossi is so damned tired and really just supposed to be in a supporting role for this mornings assault. On the first turn the Israelis bring in a Platoon of M51's and a Jeep Recon Platoon along with a couple of blinds.

The Syrians quickly spot and destroy the jeeps. Two of those jeeps have played a role in one of my Congo games.

The First Sherman Platoon of M51's is not off to a great start

The M50's enter the board and swing into action, and are surprisingly effective

Between two platoons of Shermans and Ace Yossi Amir the Israelis are definately getting their licks in. Some properly placed 120mm Mortar fire helps as well.

Flumoxed by their inability to solve the problem of penetrating Yossi Amir's Sho't Kal the Syrians take it out on the M3 Halftrack and Truck

The Syrian level of frustration begins to rise. While very effective against the Shermans they just can't crack the Sho't Kal (Centurion) equation.The by now traditional bickering and excuses begin to fly.

Having three more Sherman M51's enter does not give the Syrians any additional confidence in their chances for a win. Without being able to take out Yossi's tank he's easily wiping out 2-3 of their tanks with every activation.

Has anyone seen this guy? He left with 30 minutes left to play and missed the biggest turnaround I've ever witnessed in a game I've run. He did the wargaming equivalent to heading out to his car while his team is down and missing the greatest comeback in all of sports.

We'd been telling the Syrian all along that they'd be receiving reinforcement but they didn't seem to believe us. We pulled the destroyed tanks and replaced them with T-62's. In that way we were able to generate a rump company of 7 T-55's. This time with some encouragement they enter in a better formation.

Platoon 2 of the Sherman M51's is the first to suffer from the Syrian's new found confidence.

We've been threatening the Syrians all game by having an additional 3 Centurion tanks sitting just off board. Now they've entered for real just in time to see a battery of Katyusha rockets nail the remains of a nearby M51 platoon. The remaining Syrian player is really concerned, all game they haven't been able to take out 1 Centurion tank, now there are 4. We tell him not to give up, push forward and fire.

And then it happens. By a combination of finally concentrating their fire on the Centurion tanks instead of thinking they are invulnerable, and the biggest turnaround in the luck of the dice I've ever witnessed, a Centurion tank explodes. And then another...

The Israeli player can't roll a reasonable number of saves and the Syrian player is rolling ridiculous numbers of hits. The Syrian rump company takes some hits but continues to move forward.

The third Centurion in the platoon explodes as the crew from a bailed out M50 looks on in horror. But what of Yossi in his remaining tank? Surely he can still save the day.

The next round of fire for the Syrians results in a roll of 7 hits (out of 11 dice) and the Israeli's manage just 3 out of 14 possible, a difference of 4. The tank isn't just K.O.'d, it brews up catastrophically killing all the crew, including Yossi Amir. The crowd goes wild, Syria has won the game!!! The Israelis are completely driven from the field and will have to reconsider their entire strategy, this is a huge loss for them.

Just a great great ending to one of the best two games I've had the pleasure of running with Jon. A big thanks to him for keeping the games moving forward while I took pictures, cajoled the players and obsessed over minor details.