(Mostly) Patient Assault

[jivemi]

(MOSTLY) PATIENT ASSAULT*
An AAR of Scenario 17---“South of Beirut”

SPOILER ALERT!

This scenario by Camo Workshop is an Israeli assault against PLO forces entrenched in a southern Lebanese town in 1982. The Israelis have a combined arms force of armor (6 Sh’ot Blazer tanks and 3 Heavy AAMG APC’s), engineering vehicles (4 M60 mine plows and 1 Tiran ‘Dozer), infantry (2 sapper platoons and 5 of regulars), artillery (4 290mm SP rocket launchers, 2 76mm offboard naval guns, and 4 155mm SP howitzers) and air (4 F-16 Netz jets with 20mm cannon and 4 cluster bombs along with 2 Cobra helos with 20mm cannon, TOW missiles and Hydra rockets). They’re up against a relatively ragtag “militia” force which nevertheless may have some nasty surprises in store.

What make this battle especially challenging are rather stringent victory conditions: Israeli forces must take ALL 20 185-point objectives---two of which are most distant and enclosed entirely by stone buildings---within 15 turns (or maybe 16 if time is added) AND suffer no more than 3 (three) units lost; OR if time runs out early (all PLO units being destroyed or routed) then simply suffer no more than 3 units lost. If they cannot meet these goals then PLO forces win regardless of point ratio. (Having failed in about half a dozen previous tries, this grizzled grognard can attest to what sort of challenge this is.)

So it begins. Attacks proceed along 3 main avenues of approach, which soon split up into 5 or 6 in conformance with the road network. With only 3 APC’s it’s difficult to foresee how infantry can assist much but after deciding who goes where things move along well enough. By Turn 4, 3 objectives have been taken along western, central and eastern axes after lots of area [z-] fire and arty support to suppress defenders. An early air sortie by all 4 F-16’s succeeds in destroying a tank and some infantry while providing some intel, although one jet is damaged. A platoon of T-34 tanks has taken potshots at a mine plow heading for an awkwardly placed objective in the center. They all providentially miss so it pops smoke as the two Cobras find LOS on one tank which they’ll fire at next turn.

By Turn 7, 3 more objectives (including the awkwardly placed central one) have been taken after the Cobras took out 2 tanks while a Sh’ot Blazer claimed another. One tank throws caution to the wind and races to a central objective near a trench. It Z-fires before approaching but it’s still dangerous as some enemy have RPG-7’s (which they’re not too accurate with but still…). To the southeast sappers and a tank approach another V-hex while regular infantry with a tank prepare to assault a position fronting another V-hex along the eastern road. Another tank maneuvers to get a shot at an AAMG which might impede their advance. Other units advance in center and western flank, beating down resistance with overwhelming fire superiority.

After 12 turns the enemy are mostly destroyed. They had come out from their defensive positions to attack in futile suicidal charges which invariably ended in annihilation. Their commander gone, they now have no hope of rallying. One Israeli tank has been lost after carelessly exposing its butt to a Molotov while attempting to shoot an AAMG which turned out to offer little resistance to infantry advancing up the eastern road (their escorting tank had inadvertently blundered into that trench fronting an objective on a mis-click). Meanwhile at the extreme northwestern sector one infantry squad has been dropped off by its APC to take one enclosed northern V-hex while another APC carries a squad-mate to the other. Elsewhere other units branch off to secure those few remaining.

By Turn 15 it’s all over. Every objective has been taken without further loss. There was a close call when a mine plow ran into a mined hex but there was no explosion. It stops to clear the hex while a plow coming from another direction secures the 185 points. Infantry have no problem suppressing and destroying the last AAMG, continuing on to secure two last northeastern objectives; on the way they shoot up two routing Grad launchers. Israelis win!

Btw it’s been about 2 ½ years since I last played SPWW2 or MBT. It’s gratifying to see so many viewers at the forum; IIRC there weren’t nearly that many when I left. Let’s hope this interest in these games continues. As James Johnson at SITREP Podcast says about Panzer Leader: “[These are] not… easy game[s]; [they] will punish the weak... You have to plan in broad strokes and then execute in minute detail...Just like in a military operation." Amen and happy gaming folks!

*This title is inspired by Ret LTC Paulding at Armchair General whose Combat Mission viddies are a gold mine of information, and of considerable assistance when playing Steel Panthers. At one point he counsels that patience is especially required in any assault. How true, how true. Yet it was necessary to qualify this with a "mostly" since constraints of time and vagaries of urban terrain obliged Israeli forces to sometimes go up roads entirely lined by buildings or trenches (as was the case with that "awkward" central V-hex) without waiting for infantry, trusting thick armored hide and intimidation effect of steel monsters would provide sufficient protection. Fortunately this assessment proved largely correct, as a number of close assaults were successfully repulsed.