CS Middle East: High Water Mark (Saasa Ridge, Syria; 12 Oct 1973)

[Crossroads]

Still here and awaiting more hot tank-on-tank action.  O0

Me too! Hope those Syrians don't just pull back before my vanguard, I left it a tad late to get everyone moving forward 

[Crossroads]

Israeli Phase Turn #13 - Come Out And Play!

Still here and awaiting more hot tank-on-tank action.  O0

Me too! Hope those Syrians don't just pull back before my vanguard, I left it a tad late to get everyone moving forward 

Well, no such luck. Maybe next turn?

Syrian phase saw their strong artillery hitting my Recce platoon in their bunker, for a loss of a couple of steps. There was an airstrike (!) too, which took out some of my halftracks in the same hex. I don't have any AAA assets so can't do anything about that, hopefully there's not too many strikes remaining?

On the friendly phase, my artillery hits his front lines as planned, cause a couple of step losses on him as well, so we begin the turn at the exact same 303VP surplus for my Israelis.

Here's the opening gambit for this phase, which, likely, won't see much but my tankers screening out further towards Syrian positions at Saasa Ridge.

[Crossroads]

Here's the opening gambit for this phase, which, likely, won't see much but my tankers screening out further towards Syrian positions at Saasa Ridge.

And so it was, not a shot fired. What kind of war is this where no one fires their weapons! 

Well, there's no one to fire at. That is likely to change come next turn. in order to flush the Syrian tankers (finally!) out of their hideouts, I parked a couple of my tanks right in front of him. Protected by covering fire by a couple of Tank Coys with their Op Fire setting on Hard Targets (only).

I plotted two Airstrikes on the enemy vehicles at the ridge, and put most of my Artillery missions (I had all three battalions available) to counter battery missions, mostly. Looking at this map, his artillery is likely behind that ridge, not in front of it. We'll see.

Two turns remaining, but surely there's a tank battle waiting out there! Berto, come out and play! 

And that's it, turn sent back !!

[Crossroads]

Israeli Phase Turn #14 - The Tide Is High (But I'm Moving On)

Two turns remaining, but surely there's a tank battle waiting out there! Berto, come out and play! 

He's not coming out, of course he's not. Nothing wrong in playing the percentage game. Cue in a Blondie video... I am moving on, while the High Water Mark is almost here. I mean, in one turn the tide Will be high.

Here's the beginning of turn situation. Berto was seen moving some T-55 from Saasa Ridge towards Saasa proper, but apart from that, no action. Besides the heavy artillery falling everywhere, but my troops who are moving forward now with a full intention...

[Crossroads]

Israeli end of phase turn #14

Besides the heavy artillery falling everywhere, but my troops who are moving forward now with a full intention...

Too little too late of course. If only I would have been quicker clearing the Tel Shams heights...

With only one friendly turn remaining, I plotted my remaining Airstrike at his IFVs in front of me, moved a couple of halftracks to Tel Shams to have visuals on the ground, and plotted the two batteries I had available on his infantry on IPs, in hope of some late minute casualties.

As his tanks are in hiding, I need to keep my tanks in readiness, with APs available for Op fire. I did sent a few HEs in his infantry's generals positions, just to keep the tubes from rusting...

Looks more and more like a draw. Still time for a last minute clash of armor.

C'mon Syrians, nothing out here in the badlands but us few!   O:-)

[Crossroads]

Israeli Phase Turn #15 - High Water Mark, Reached

Here we go then. Sorry about the delay folks, there was the little thing of Middle East 2.0 finally coming out of Matrix warehouses, and with helping everyone to get the shrink wraps off from the downloads  :bd:

Meanwhile, back at Saasa Ridge, time to check the damage the Syrians did. And there was not much. To us, that is.

As his tanks are in hiding, I need to keep my tanks in readiness, with APs available for Op fire. I did sent a few HEs in his infantry's generals positions, just to keep the tubes from rusting...

Syrians are keeping their tanks at bay, but a few sneeky IFVs with anti-tank missiles did try to sneak upon me. With that much OpFire against them, I got a couple of them, and even they did get a couple of shots back, no friendly casualties this time around.

Friendly artillery then, doing some damage on their own, and into the final charge it is.

Except, now that I am here I need to figure out how to climb those cliffs. Not with tanks, I can't...

[Crossroads]

Except, now that I am here I need to figure out how to climb those cliffs. Not with tanks, I can't...

Here's a look at the 2D mapboard, with Units OFF (red marker) and Unit List sidebar OFF (orange marker). Seems there's a chokepoint there, doesn't it. By this time I had cleared it with a few well aimed HE shells, but to storm up to plateau behind them, that's another story completely...

[Crossroads]

Seems there's a chokepoint there, doesn't it. By this time I had cleared it with a few well aimed HE shells, but to storm up to plateau behind them, that's another story completely...

Before that, let us check the victory status. I believe I gave more than I got during the Syrian phase, and so it proves: some 15VPs more added to the tally, but some way to go for a Minor Victory..

[Crossroads]

Before that, let us check the victory status. I believe I gave more than I got during the Syrian phase, and so it proves: some 15VPs more added to the tally, but some way to go for a Minor Victory..

And let us record the Strength Report here as well, before the final Syrian phase. What don't quite fit the window there are 2 (2VP) Battalion HQs and 1 (3VP) Commanders taken out of play.

[Crossroads]

Seems there's a chokepoint there, doesn't it. By this time I had cleared it with a few well aimed HE shells, but to storm up to plateau behind them, that's another story completely...

And without detailing the move and fire, fire and move sequences, here we stand. High Water Mark, Reached.

There's that one tank troop that got a bit too excited and got to the plateau, but they don't have the action points to fire anymore, and will not survive the Syrian response. All other tank troops are there, again about half of them having shelled the little opposition they see, the other half saving their APs for the final Syrian phase.

The little detail in that screenshot that's changed since Middle East 2.0 is a quite neat Unit Base mod being worked by one of the long time modders. He's granted his permission for those to be included in the next update. Quite neat, aren't they. Eye candy, gotta love it, there's never enough of it is there 

[Crossroads]

There's that one tank troop that got a bit too excited and got to the plateau, but they don't have the action points to fire anymore, and will not survive the Syrian response. All other tank troops are there, again about half of them having shelled the little opposition they see, the other half saving their APs for the final Syrian phase.

Before ending the friendly phase, I will set the Opportunity Fire on all tanks to allow for shelling soft skinned vehicles as well. I am not sure, but there might be some ATGM or Recoilless Rifle armed  jeeps on their stock, for instance, so better be prepared for those as well.

I won't be bothering with infantry anymore though. That said, I am sure that's a sign all ATGM teams out there were waiting, and will hit that cliff edge come Syrian turn...

[Crossroads]

Israeli End of Phase Turn #15

Here we stand, then. The IDF mechanised formation (well, mostly tanks which made it so difficult) were able to advance some 5 clicks towards Saasa Ridge from their Jump-Off Point, but that's as far as they got.

Victory level at this stage, prior to final Syrian phase, stands at 367VPs. So close, I can almost feel the Minor Victory, but it is not going to be. If anything, it will go down, although Berto does play his percentage game quite well so maybe he will stay in his upper plateau, not risking a peek down. He must know there's a plenty of damage saved on my tankers, from this turn's OpFire losses.

So the question really is: Syrians, will they give battle, or will they not. We will find out.

[Crossroads]

Victory level at this stage, prior to final Syrian phase, stands at 367VPs. So close, I can almost feel the Minor Victory, but it is not going to be.

There's one more turn PBEM file coming back from Berto, where I can watch the replay of his final turn, and then have all the remaining units available on map. I will do the proper autopsy at that time. Certainly, those turns I burned mopping up Tel Shams pocket came back to haunt me at these final turns. A couple of more turns, and maybe I could have pushed to the Saasa plateau after all...

[Crossroads]

End-Of-Play - High Water Mark

So the question really is: Syrians, will they give battle, or will they not. We will find out.

And here it is, final Syrian phase for Turn #15 back at me. Syrians did not come for the battle, but why would they? Instead, they certainly were quite prepared to let the battle come them.

What tanks they had - and there were less as a whole than what I expected there to be - were neatly positioned to protect the Damascus highway and Saasa proper, too:

[Crossroads]

What tanks they had - and there were less as a whole than what I expected there to be - were neatly positioned to protect the Damascus highway and Saasa proper, too:

Certainly enough to give Israelis proper grief, though! Without screening infantry, without specialised Recon troops, my tankers would had quite a task at their hands climbing that enbankment, vulnerable to cross-fire from many directions.

Here's the overall situation at north, at end-of-play. Berto's kept his APCs on map, but dispersed them to lessen the impact of any shelling there. As for the counter-battery missions I took, I now see his artillery was mostly Off-Board Artillery like mine as well, not suspect to my harassment fire. That explains a lot.