Scenario Proposal Thread

[MarkSheppard]

From time to time, while reading books, I notice really good Ideas for scenario design, and I make note of them, and then usually forget them later. This thread is sort of a "post-it" note to myself about these ideas, and also what I hope will become a useful resource to post ideas for scenarios by those of us who see a good idea, but don't have the time or expertise to turn them into scenario, so that others can do it.

Okay, first up by me is:

The Yemen War.

A civil-war which lasted from 1962 to 1970. It's also referred to as the North Yemen Civil War. Basically the Royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen were supported by Saudi Arabia, while the Republican Factions of the Yemen Arab Republic were supported by Egypt and the Soviet Union.

In many ways, Vietnam could creditably be called "America's Yemen." This was a big war that tied up quite a lot of Egypt's elite troops for quite a while, becoming a very important factor in Middle East calculations, since the best Egyptian troops were fighting in this dirty little war, impacting Egyptian fighting prowess. A Very brutal and nasty war all in all.

Egyptian involvement can be broken down as:

October 1962: A bit less than 5,000 troops
December 1962: 15,000 Regular troops
Late 1963: 36,000 Regular Troops
Late 1964: 50,000 Regular Troops
Late 1965 55,000 Regular Troops (High water mark of Egyptian committment), divided up into: 13 infantry regiments of one artillery division, one tank division and several Special Forces as well as paratroop regiments.

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Mount Hermon - Syria's Eben Emael
October 1973

Mount Hermon was a 9,232 foot mountain which was used by the Israelis as a giant electronic warfare outpost, from which they could read, track and jam Syrian Communications at Will.

To get rid of it, the Syrians staged a spectacular operation reminiscent of Eben Emael in 1940.

After a 50 minute artillery barriage of the mountain outpost, four Mi-8s carrying Syrian Commandoes from the 82n Parachute Regiment Landed. Despite it's importance, the Mount was lightly defended by the Israelis, with only a few troops and lots of noncombatant technicians. There were no heavy weapons and only a few LMGs available. The main battle lasted for about an hour, upon which the Syrians gained possession of the mountaintop, and the Israelis withdrew into the bunkers below, and it turned into a stalingrad-like battle within the bunkers, room by room, hallway by hallway.

The battle ended with the Syrians in control of the place, and holding vital Israeli codes as well as leaving them in charge of all the highly sensitive electronic gear, which was promptly shipped off to the Soviet Union.