Turkey’s Lightening Shield Operation
PLEASE READ POST #22 for final gameplay notes, hints, and maps. The scenario files are located on post #23 in the zip file titled: Lightening Shield Operation Full Battle. The scenario loads to slot 274. Please check full thread for battle results from other players! Enjoy.
Abdullah and his family are Syrian Turkmen as are nearly three quarters of Syria’s 22 million people. The Syrian Turkmen families are Syrian citizens of Turkish descent whose forefathers settled in Syrian provinces bordering Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire centuries ago.
"Their tanks surround the Sunni villages and fire on them, and then the soldiers come into the villages, harass the people and beat the men and sexually assault the women," he said. "They take any man over the age of 12 with them." Abdullah broken and in tears told his story to aid workers in a camp just across the border, not 5km from his farming village of Kafar Houm.
Upon hearing this report and other similar stories, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the prime minister of Turkey immediately ordered General Erdal Ceylanoglu, commander of the Turkish Army to dispatch sufficient forces to secure the welfare and evacuation of civilians in the village of Kafar Houm that sits on the Turkish border. General Ceylanglu turned to the 2nd Army headquartered in Malatya to execute “Lightening Shield.”
Following the experience gained in the Yildirim-2011 exercise, the 2nd Army tasked the mission to elements of VI Corps, namely: the 5th Armored Brigade, 39th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and an Airborne Inf Co from the 2nd Airborne Battalion. The VI Corps planners put the Airborne Inf Co in a blocking position at the Eastern edge of the village along the rolling hills to delay Syrian units until the remaining elements enter the battle space. Once the remaining elements engage in the battle, trucks will follow to provide evac of civilians to safe camps in Turkey.
Although, for political reasons, Prime Minister Erdogan vetoed Army’s plan to use fighter planes and attack helicopters, the Army felt confident that VI Corp’s plan will meet the objectives of Lightening Shield while not provoking Syria to further escalate the issue in order to prosecute a wider engagement.
Gameplay:
A Turkish delay vs Syrian advance with force balance of 1:3 respectively.
Although victory flags are not important - they are used to aid the AI in the control of Syrian units - highlighted buildings must be protected as well as civilians. I have increased the costs of civilian units and certain marked buildings to 999 therefore it is paramount that civilian units are trucked out of harm’s way. In this scenario, the buildings are objectives by placing buildings on top of ordinance units and increasing the costs of each ordinance unit dramatically.
While we cannot design unit dismounts we mirrored real world tactics by placing dismounted units ahead of their vehicles and decreasing the speed of the vehicles below that of the infantry units. At some point in the game, follow-up Syrian armored vehicles and tanks will enter the fray with their speeds unthrottled.
The scenario should only be played from the Turkish side.
Marked buildings: The Agricultural College, the Administrative Courts, the Central Mosque, the Roman Catholic Church, and the District Hospital must not suffer damage, nor, should any of the civilians.
Failure to secure the welfare and evac of the civilians will result in a humiliating defeat.
*Scenario files are nearly complete. Action depicting the Airborne Inf Co is in active gameplay testing. The scenario map showing Kafar Houm village with victory flags, building objectives and location of civilians is included as part of this abstract.
Turkey is Northwest (left) on this map. Syrian units enter from the East (right).
Your comments are appreciated.
B-2Abn deployed at PL Big Poppa (image not showing on page 3 post #21)
Turkey's Lightening Shield Operation
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