DAR vs Berto -- The Crossroads (West Bank, 5 June 1967)

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #22

It seems both sides are catching breath, and maneuvering into new positions. The Jordanian troops retreated from the remaining bunker south of Jenin without a fight, so that was good news. There's actually one pesky bunker next to Jenin railway station, moving in towards it come next turn.

Meanwhile, the front is stretching out to several clicks of width, as seen from this tactical view of the lower right quadrant of the map, where most of the battles are taking place:




More details of turn #22 available at my Grogdeads thread:

[*] During Action Report at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #23

The Jordanian reinforcements are arriving into the scene, and their Pattons had a field day blasting my Halftrack transports to smithereens. Point tally is way down, but no quarter from me. Towards the Crossroads it is!



More details of turn #23 available at my Grogdeads thread:

[*] The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #24

IDF Shermans hit back with a vengeance, leaving six Jordanian Pattons burning in the field. Payback time, albeit too little too late. Feels good, yet [:'(]



More details of turn #24 available at my Grogdeads thread:

[*] The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #25

The thing everyone's following is the tank kill ratio, right! Right? A full dozen burning Pattons during the past two turns swing the advantage slightly to IDF side, 34-35. For now. Back to Berto, I am sure he will have something to say about this!



This was the final Night turn for me, so into the remaining 20 Day turns it is, soon.

More details of turn #25 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #26

Dawn's breaking, finally! A game of most dangerous cat and mouse is developing around Qabatiya. I have now turned the Strength Point kill ratio to IDF advantage as well. IDF's been delivered a most bloodied nose here, but you'd never believe it listening to my propaganda only right [8D]

Some early versions of new 1.03 2D graphics on display here as well...



More details of turn #26 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #27

Advancing out of Jenin for the first time! I had a lot of direct fire in close support, including a full strength Sherman Coy, so after the friendly artillery barrage and their involvement I was able to walk in to unmanned Jordanese Improved Positions. Having had my Combat Engineers laying out a protective smoke screen, time to call arty for more misery towards the defending Jordanians.

Some early versions of new 1.03 2D graphics on display here as before.



More details of turn #27 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #28

Trying to build a bit of a Hammer and Anvil moment here. Would be nice if I could pull that off! That's a big if. But I am ignoring the VP Objectives at the moment, completely. See if that is something he has not prepared for.



More details of turn #28 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #29

That's quite a counter attack they've got going on! Pattons left right and middle, including the detachment advancing towards Kafr Dan. Will be a challenge to hold the momentum here, instead of being pushed to just reacting to events.



More details of turn #29 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #30

Rather vicious turn for the Jordanians, they took bit of a beating already when advancing towards my troops, spending a lot of Action Points in this difficult terrain, to be properly Op Fired in return. Boy do I know how that feels!. After replay and friendly artillery, the Shermans-vs-Pattons score stands at 35-vs-49, so one friendly loss with four Pattons knocked out.

During my turn, proddind forward with my infantry, I manage to knock out a few more, seven in fact, vs a loss of one more Sherman. Not too bad, but the thing is they just keep coming at you! I did manage to pull out my two SP2 Sherman troops out of the pocket, way down in south, and I have a feeling I will need those badly and soon.

For the first time the VP losses stand at my favor too, although just barely. Breaking into Minor Loss sector, if briefly, too!



More details of turn #30 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #31

More cat and mouse in this turn. Berto knocked out one of my Shermans, while I got lucky and scored a Disable on one of his Pattons. I try to unnerve my opponents by placing light caliber indirect fire on their stationary tanks, there's IIRC a 4% chance of scoring a shrapnel to a tank leader, or jamming a turret, or what not.

My impatience cost me 10VP by having one of my 2SP M3 Twin-AA halftracks fed to an ambushing enemy tank, while Berto's quite good turn otherwise as well means I am back to Major Loss at 288 VP.

However I am well positioned to cut of his daring pincer heading Northeast, so my next target is to isolate and destroy that one, then perhaps just consolidate my forces to Jenin. We'll see.

Over to Berto!



More details of turn #31 available at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #32

Hmm, never a good sign to receive the hostile PBEM file with comments "Ah that's much better" [X(]

So it was, lost my rearguard Shermans to prowling Pattons, who are all over at me it seems. Do they ever run out of them!

My plan to bring the shattered remnants of my Mech Bde towards North, while encircling the Jordanian pincer are still on. Sort of. With safety so close they can literally sense it, they are both advancing towrds the enemy pocket, while running the risk of being pocketed themselves. Which will it be?!

Details of my turn #32 can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[:)]

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #33

Disaster time!

See those three halftrack troops there, a click southwest from Hill 361. That's my Bn HQs providing support to my Mech Bde combat troops. I was carefully maneuvering them out of harms way, ensuring there's no hostiles in any hexes they have a LOS to. Well there were no SPOTTED hostiles anywhere. The prowling Patton troop or three could not believe their luck having the soft skinned vehicles parked in their gunsights... Up in smoke. What a disaster, the whole Mech Bde will probably spend rest of the battle in Low Combat Efficiency, cut out from their Battalion Nets and communication.

So yeah, went down to -16VP towards the Minor Loss threshold, my target for this game after the disastreous decision to have my Mech Bde cross the mountains in an effort to mimic Hannibal and his Elephants. The last 10 turns or so have been great fun though, and so it was I was able to claw back the Minor Loss deficit towards a +33VP surplus. The turn did leave me with several Shermans in plain LOS though. They will be toast.

Meanwhile, here's how it's looking like at the moment:




Oh, the ever so important Sherman-vs-Patton kill ratio: 48 burning Shermans vs 73 flaming Pattons [X(]

Details of my turn can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[:)]

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #34

Lost the three Shermans left vulnerable east of Jenin, while my Mech Bde slowly starts to close on enemy eastern pincer, which in turn is escaping towards eastern map edge. The little dance of death continues, with losses to both sides. Details of my turn can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #35

Not much of the plan remains, it is every man for himself, towards the safety of Jenin!



Details of my turn can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #36

Very difficult to claw back the point difference the further the battle has gone, I only got to 285 this time around, so back to Major Loss category we are.

With his late success again, I am really hoping he decides to go for the city of Jenin, with those two objectives there. Go Berto, sound those bungles!



Details of my turn can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto at Grogheads

[Crossroads]

That's some WReck markers, by the way! [&o]

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #37

Feels a bit silly to post the same comments and screenshots here as well, so I will just point to my Grogheads thread from now on [:)]

So here goes! Details of IDF turn #37 can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto DAR at the Grogheads.

I found out I can hide the screenshots under Spoiler tags there to speed up page load times with browsers, so did that too.

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #38

I am now out from the cold, consolidating in an around Jenin. Not much happening, see if I can lure Berto out from his hideouts where I can hurt him...

Details of IDF turn #38 can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto DAR at the Grogheads.

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #39

Not much taking place anymore, at least as far I can tell, hunkering down in the bunkers of Jenin. Jordanian artillery continues to be a pain, while I have basically run out of things to shoot at. Yet, here I am, holding Jenin, hoping the bored Jordanians decide to invade during one of the remaining turns

Down to 236VP, quite the loss. But I am still holding Jenin. Have I told you about that yet? And the killed-tanks ratio, looking good there too!

Gotta keep the good news flowing, otherwise they remove me from my command for sure... [:'(]

Details of IDF turn #38 can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto DAR at the Grogheads.

[Crossroads]

IDF Turn #40 - This is it?

Having watched the replay, pretty much all the Jordanian forces have retreated from my LOS. I am not planning any major action with my depleted forces either, so I sent my turn to Berto asking if he's willing to suffer the humiliating loss of Jenin (no mention about his Major Win here, of course not [8D] ), in which case we can call it the quits.

Would be fun if he'd attack Jenin though, not much to defend it with, especially my armored force is down to nine runners, not much against the hordes of Jordanian steel out there!

We will find out soon enough, back over to Berto!

Details of IDF turn #40 can be found at The Crossroads DAR vs Berto DAR at the Grogheads.