Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Updated 23 January 2018: All Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios have been converted to Middle East 2.0 standard and are included in the game. No need for a download anymore


Many of you who grew up with boardgames might recognize Alan R. Arvold from the many situations he created for Avalon Hill's PanzerBlitz, Panzer Leader and Arab-Israeli Wars games, as were made present like in Avalon Hill's AH General, Wargamer, and other magazines. Later, as tabletop boardgames were replaced with computer wargaming, Alan performed the paramount task of preserving all these games in Talonsoft's Campaign Series game titles.

I am very happy to be inform you all Alan's been continuing to preserve some genuine wargaming history in electronic format, now with CS: Middle East. Here they are:

Alan R. Arvold's Ode To Arab Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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From his design notes:

SUPPLEMENTAL DESIGN NOTES FOR ARAB-ISRAELI WARS

By Alan R. Arvold

These notes are additional notes for the conversion of the Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios from Divided Ground to Middle East. The original notes for the conversion of Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios to Divided Ground are still applicable here with a couple of exceptions, thus they will not be duplicated here.

1. Scenarios will be done in the Middle East format, especially in the scenario description. Since Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios are basically caricatures of the real battles, they will be listed for the most part as [HISB], with the few hypothetical scenarios listed as [FIC].

2. No Optional Rules will be listed nor will the statement that none of them will be used either. Players are free to use what ever optional rules they want or none of them as they please.

3. No files will be made for the adoptive AI system for any of these scenarios. If players want to make their own for these scenarios, go ahead. (Frankly I am still not familiar with this system and while it is obviously a great asset to an historical scenario, I do not feel it would be right for scenarios that are caricatures of history.)

4. The Order of Battle files will be based on the old ones from Divided Ground. Yes I know that the new Order of Battles in Middle East are more accurate, but I am not making historical scenarios with Arab-Israeli Wars, I am making caricatures. In order to keep the flavor of the times when both Arab-Israeli Wars and Divided Ground were respectively designed I am using what was known then, not now. I will use some of the new units though from Middle East that weren't in Divided Ground, which I had to provide substitutes for in the old scenarios. I will also provide substitutes for units from Divided Ground that are no longer available in Middle East (i.e. those Arab 1973 three-point armored infantry and engineer units that really represented the equivalent six-point regular rifle and engineer units). I will take advantage of the one strength transport point to two infantry points transport ratio (i.e. instead of a six-point halftrack unit carrying a six-point infantry unit in Divided Ground, a three-point halftrack unit carrying a six-point infantry unit in Middle East).

5. In keeping with rule established in Arab-Israeli Wars and continued on in Divided Ground, infantry and commando units, and any other units normally assigned to their line companies according to the standard Order of Battle, will have a Morale Level one step lower than their nation's given morale level in the scenario (i.e. Morale 7 becomes Morale 6). This does not apply to leaders, non-infantry units in weapons or support companies, or to non-infantry units attached to the line companies for the particular scenario.

6. Contrary to Matrix Games policy of not naming leaders or giving them ranks out of a fear of lawsuits, I will continue to give my leaders names and ranks. I will use historical names and ranks if possible and if it is not possible then I will use generic names from the Divided Ground leader files and ranks equal to the command level.

7. Contrary to Matrix Games policy that all Middle East maps will have their tops pointing north, I will continue to give the map tops their true direction. Matrix Games' policy seems somewhat hypocritical considering the fact that they never disabled the Compass Function on the Middle East Map Editor.

8. Some scenarios will have changes in the force structures, namely the total number of tanks each side has, compared to the number of total tanks they would have according the same scenarios in Arab-Israeli Wars. (Originally I left out the command tanks in a few the AIW scenarios I made for Divided Ground, but I eventually found that that short-changed one side or the other. Now I am correcting for that error, not only in Middle East but in Divided Ground as well.)

9. The numerical designations of the units in the orders of battle will be based on information from the times when the original games were created. In some cases I may make changes such as giving a numerical designation to a unit that previously did not have one or change a named designation of a unit to a numerical one. These will be based on various sources.

10. There will be some changes in the numbering of the scenarios. For example, Scenario #7 in Divided Ground was Kerama, a scenario that I created. This was because the real #7, Irbid, was not possible to do in Divided Ground because it was an Arab versus Arab scenario. Now in Middle East such scenarios are possible so Irbid has been restored to its rightful spot in the list. Kerama will be presented later on in the list. Also there are five scenarios occurring in Lebanon in 1982 that were published in the General Magazine #21-6 that could not be done in Divided Ground. Now they can be done in Middle East and so they will, to be listed later.
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars I

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Ode to AIW I includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-1, 2 November, 1956, Bir Gifgafa, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-2, 26 January, 1973, Rafid, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-3, 13 October, 1973, Tel Maschara, Syria
[*] AIW-4, 17 October, 1973, Botzer, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-5, 10 October, 1956, Kalkiliah, West Bank, Jordan
[*] AIW-6, 6 June, 1967, Abu Agheila, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
[*] AIW-7, 24 September, 1970, Irbid, Jordan
[*] AIW-8, 6 June, 1967, Jenin, West Bank, Jordan
[*] AIW-9, 6 June, 1967, Jenin, West Bank, Jordan
[*] AIW-10, 14 October, 1973, Ras Sudar, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-11, 7 October, 1973, El Al, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-12, 11 October, 1973, Mazrat Beit Jan, Syria


DESIGN NOTES FOR SCENARIOS IN “ODE TO ARAB-ISRAELI WARS”

(Written originally for Talonsoft's Divided Ground)

By Alan R. Arvold


The following are the design notes for the twelve scenarios presented in “Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars”. Eleven of these scenarios come from the first twelve scenarios in the game and the other is substitute scenario to replace the other scenario from the first twelve that can not be duplicated in Divided Ground. These design notes deal with the scenario set ups and possible variations to them. Other variations such as environmental conditions, morale levels, scenario length, etc., I leave to the judgment of the players.


Scenario #1 is actually Situation B-1 in AIW. This depicts the Egyptian blocking action near Bir Gifgafa during their withdrawal to the Suez Canal in the 1956 War. In AIW, the map board consisted of boards A and B, but the Suez Canal and all hexes west of it on Board A are ignored and can not be entered by units of either side. Thus I just deleted all of those hexes from the map, leaving only the part of the board that can be entered. The Egyptians enter first from the northern edge of the board and the Israelis enter second from the southern edge of the board. This action is a pure armor battle. The Egyptian force is an armored brigade comprised of two battalions of T-34/85’s and one battalion of SU-100’s. The T-34/85’s come in three tank platoons and the SU-100’s come in six vehicle batteries. The Israeli force is an armored brigade comprised of an armored battalion of three companies of Shermans and an armored battalion of two companies of AMX-13 tanks. All of the tank platoons are of the five vehicle variety. The Egyptians have the advantage of moving first and thus being able to set up in defensive positions while the Israelis have the advantage of more leaders in their set up, down to the company level. The victory conditions in the AIW version of this scenario are based on unit elimination for both sides and for Israeli exiting units off of the northern edge of the board. The Egyptians also get victory points for Israeli units remaining of the board at the end of the game. All of these were easily transferred to the Divided Ground version except for the condition of Israeli units remaining on the board. I ignored this last requirement as the scenario almost always results of mass of wrecks on both sides in the middle of the board.

There are not many variations to apply besides changing the entry hexes and the usual other things that players can do on their own. Both sides are set up on the map and there are no reinforcements.

Scenario #2 is actually Situation B-2 in AIW. It depicts a brief exchange of fire between the Israelis and the Syrians along the Purple Line in the Golan Heights prior to the 1973 War in the vicinity of Rafid. In AIW, the boards that are used are C and D. The Syrians, which set up on the eastern half of the board (east of hexline xx,10), mostly have a direct fire force, with some indirect fire from the heavy mortars. The two SU-100 units are actually replacement units for the T-34/100 unit from AIW as Divided Ground does not have this unit. The Israelis have an infantry unit inside a pillbox in the main town on the map. This represents the concrete bunker type outposts that the Israelis had looking across the Purple Line in order to keep an eye on the Syrians. This is set up in the grove just east of the main village on the board with an infantry platoon occupying it. The rest of the Israeli is set up on the western half of the board (west of hexline xx,10). This is a reduced tank battalion with two armored companies and an armored recon company. The victory conditions only require the destruction of enemy units, there are no objective hexes for either side to capture nor are any points gained by either side exiting the board.

There are really not much in the way of variations in this scenario other than each side changing their respective set ups within their halves of the board. There is a restriction of where the Israeli fort and infantry unit inside it may set up. They may only be set up in hexes 11,13; 11,12; 12,11; 13,12; 14,12; or 14,13. This is dictated by the set up instructions in the AIW version of this scenario.

Scenario #3 is actually Situation B-3 in AIW. It depicts the advance and the subsequent slaughter of the Iraqi 12th Armored Brigade at the hands of the Israeli 19th Armored Brigade near Tel Maschara. In AIW, only Board D is used. The Israelis start the game set up on the board anywhere west of hexrow 22,xx. Their force is an armored battalion of old Isherman tanks. The Iraqis enter on the east edge of the board on Turn 1. Their force is a standard three battalion tank brigade. The Iraqi mission is to exit off of the west edge of the board by the end of the game. The maximum visibility in this scenario has been reduce to ten hexes to reflect the light conditions during the time of the battle, which occurred between first light and dawn. The victory conditions require unit destruction for both sides and also give points for any Iraqi unit exited off of the road hexes on the west edge of the board.

Not much variation on this scenario. The Israelis can alter their set up as long as they remain west of hexrow 22,xx and the Iraqis can alter the entry hexes on the east edge of the board.

Scenario #4 is actually Situation B-4 in AIW. It depicts the famous advance and destruction of the Egyptian 25th Armored Brigade at the hands of the Israelis north of Botzer. In truth this scenario is actually the first phase of the battle as the Israeli 600th Armored Brigade performs a delaying action, thus giving time for two other Israeli armored brigades to flank the Egyptians and who actually were responsible for most of the 25th Armored Brigade’s destruction in the later phases of the battle. One may wonder, why should we have this scenario is there is already a more accurate scenario of this battle in Divided Ground? Well, this is a reproduction of the AIW version of the battle in Divided Ground format and it deserves to be played.

The scenario employs Board B in AIW. Both sides start the game set up on their respective sides of the board, the Israelis in the northern most five hexrows, the Egyptians in the southern most five hexrows. The Israelis consist of a weak armored brigade with two armored battalions of two companies each. However, the Israelis have a very good tank, the modified M-48. The Egyptians have a full armored brigade, with a mechanized infantry battalion in tow. The Egyptians have the T-62 tank and the BMP APC in their T.O. & E. The original victory conditions in the AIW version require unit destruction for both sides and the exiting of Egyptian units off of the north side of the board by the end of the game. These were easily transferred to Divided Ground. However, the Israelis also get points for Egyptians units still on the board at the end of the game. This was not transferable to Divided Ground, but the large size of the Egyptian force ensures that the Israeli will get the same ratio of points in unit destruction alone in Divided Ground as they would for both unit destruction and Egyptian units left on the board in AIW.

Again, not much variation in this scenario other then the unit starting positions in each side’s set up section of the board.

Scenario #5 is actually Situation S-1 in AIW. It depicts an Israeli raid on a Jordanian police fort at the village of Kalkiliah. In AIW, the scenario employs Boards C and D. Both sides start with units on the map. The Jordanians are set up around the single village hex in the eastern half of the map. The have a regular infantry company and a reinforced militia company, which represents the police. In the AIW version of this scenario, the Jordanians are also given a fort. In the Divided Ground version I gave them a trench. The Israelis have two groups. One group is set up in the main village in the western half of the board. This consists of a paratroop battalion, minus one company, mounted in halftracks. The other group is a large paratroop company deployed in the eastern half of the map. The units of this company are deployed east and southeast of the Jordanian trench hex in two smaller groups. The Israelis also have two batteries of off-the-board artillery. Both sides have reinforcements that come in during the course of the game. The Jordanians have the remainder of the infantry battalion, of which the on-board infantry company is part of, entering the board on the eastern edge on Turn 5. The Israelis have a mixed infantry/tank unit entering the board on the western edge on Turn 11.

In the original AIW version of this scenario, there were special rules, namely that the Israeli reinforcements only came on the board if the Israelis lost three or more units. Also, its scenario length would increase from 10 to 15 turns. As I could not program these conditions into the scenario, I opted to just make the scenario 15 turns long and made the Israeli reinforcements automatic on Turn 11. The original victory conditions called for unit elimination and possession the Jordanian bunker hex. The Jordanians also received victory points for any Israeli units left on their side of the board at the end of the game. The unit elimination and bunker possession was easily transferable but the other victory condition was not, so I opted to making the village next to the bunker an objective hex too, of greater value.

There is some variation in this scenario. For the Jordanians, the bunker can be placed in any hex adjacent to the town it is next to. They can also rearrange the set up of their on-board units around the town as long as no unit is set up in the town. The Israelis can rearrange the set up of their units as long as there are no units within four hexes of the Jordanian bunker. Both sides can alter the entry hexes of their respective reinforcements.

Scenario #6 is actually Situation S-2 in AIW. This depicts the Israeli assault on the Egyptian fortified line at Abu Agheila. Now again one may wonder, why have this scenario if a more historically accurate one is available on Games Depot? Well again being a reproduction of the old AIW version of this battle and it goes to show how much information the developers back then really had compared to what we know now. This scenario is unique as it is one of the few night scenarios. Although the original AIW rules did not have instructions for night, variant rules later published in the Old Soldiers e-mag did and this was one of the scenarios designated as a night scenario by that article. Also historically, this battle did occur at night so placing it in night time conditions is only logical.

In the AIW scenario, Board B is the only board that is used. The Egyptians start the game set up on the board. The 12th Infantry Brigade occupies the fortified line, which is not very fortified by the looks of it, in three adjacent hexrows. Unfortunately, the Egyptians only get improved positions, based on the set up in the AIW version. In the western half of the map is the Egyptian artillery and armored units. I organized these units in their historical designations. The artillery howitzers I organized into two battalions of three 3-gun batteries each. There is one non-historical unit in the Egyptian set up. I placed a division headquarter on the map with a division commander. Historically the actual division headquarters was never in the Abu Agheila area, but I placed it in this scenario for game purposes to provide a unity of command and supply for the Egyptians. (One historical note, there were never any T-10’s or JS-III’s at Abu Agheila, however this was not known in 1977-78 when the game was developed and their inclusion was a result of an erroneous Israeli intelligence report.) The Israelis enter the game on Turn 1 in two groups. The first group enters on the eastern edge of the board and the second group enters on the northern edge of the board behind the Egyptian fortified line. The Israeli force consists of two armored battalions, one mechanized battalion, and two off-the-board artillery battalions. Like the Egyptians, the Israeli artillery battalions each have three 3-gun batteries. Neither side has any reinforcements during the scenario. The victory conditions are based on unit elimination, Israeli units exited off of the western edge of the board, and on Israeli units remaining on the board at the end of the game in the AIW version. The first two conditions were easily transferable to Divided Ground, the last one was not. But again, as in Scenario #4, the large size of the Egyptian force will insure that the Israelis will get the same ratio of victory points in the two respective versions.

There is a lot of room for variations. Most of these entail switching around set up hexes and points of entry. However, ten turns is a short time for the Israelis to achieve their objectives in night time conditions and players may want to lengthen the scenario two to five turns in order to give the Israelis the same relative chances as they would have in the daylight.

Scenario #7 has no equivalent scenario in Arab-Israeli Wars. Situation S-3 in AIW, Irbid, is an Arab versus Arab scenario, which is not possible to produce in Divided Ground due to the game and computer programming mechanics. So I had to replace it with a variant scenario published in an independent magazine. This variant scenario depicts the battle of Kerama, where the Israelis raided Fedayeen guerilla camps located inside Jordan. Of course the Jordanians had to respond to “the invasion” of the country with their own troops, even though they were not too fond of the Fedayeen either.

In this scenario, only Board C is used in AIW. The Arabs actually have two different forces. One is the Fedayeen, represented by Syrian militia and support units, located in improved positions near the west edge of the board. The other force is the Jordanians, which comprises of an infantry company supported by tanks, located in the main village on the board. The Israelis have a paratroop battalion deployed in various places around the board, mostly surrounding the Fedayeen unit, but one company over watching the entry point on the east side of the board to stop Jordanian reinforcements from intervening. Both sides have off-the-board artillery to the tune of two battalions (regiments in the Jordanian Army) each. The Israelis also have ten air strikes on call. Both sides have reinforcements. The Jordanians have a large force arriving on Turn 8, comprising of the rest of the infantry battalion, supported by anti-aircraft units, and the rest of the tank company of those units already on the board. In addition, another artillery battalion arrives on the board with them. The Israelis have a mixed mechanized force consisting of a tank company, a mechanized infantry company, and a self-propelled anti-tank unit, arriving on Turn 11. The victory conditions are based on unit elimination and on the possession of objective hexes. There are three Syrian objective hexes, representing the Fedayeen base, and three Jordanian objective hexes in the main village on the board, in this case representing the town of Kerama.

There is a lot of room for variation on this one. Besides the usual altering the entry points of reinforcements and changing the starting locations of the on board units, the Fedayeen camp could be moved to a different part of the board. Remember that the three objective hexes comprising the Fedayeen camp must remain adjacent to each other if you move the camp though.

Scenario #8 is actually Situation S-4 in AIW. It depicts the battle around the town of Jenin during the 1967 War. In AIW, Boards C and D are used. The Jordanians are the defenders and set upon the eastern half of the board. The defenders comprise of a battalion of the 25th Infantry Brigade, plus a company from the 12th Armored Battalion (along with its battalion headquarters) and a battery of 25 pounder artillery (deployed as two half batteries). Among the defensive positions allocated to the Jordanians in AIW are ten improved positions, one fort (which I made into a bunker), three blocks, and six 2-1 minefields. These were easy to place into a reasonable defensive line. The Israelis have an armored brigade consisting of two armored battalion (one of which arrives as reinforcements on Turn 3) and two infantry battalions. These deploy on the western half of the board, except of the reinforcing tank battalion which arrives on the northern edge of the map and is actually outflanking the Jordanian line. The Israelis have ten airstrikes (and the Jordanians have two half batteries of 40mm AA guns to defend against them). The Jordanians have the rest of the 12th Tank Battalion, another infantry company from the 25th Infantry Brigade, and the Brigade Headquarters itself arriving on the eastern edge of the board on Turn 4. It should be noted that historically, the Jordanians were using M-47 and M-48 tanks in this battle. However, AIW gives them Centurian Mk III tanks and that is what I give them in this scenario. In the original victory conditions, both sides received victory points for unit elimination. The Jordanians also received victory points for Jordanian units either on the board at the end of the game or exited off of the board before the end of the game. The unit elimination conditions were easily transferable but I substituted objective hexes for the Israelis to capture in place of the special Jordanian victory conditions.

Again there is a lot of variation in this one. The Jordanians are restricted in placing there on board starting units between hex lines xx,06 and xx,11 (inclusive). The Israelis may set up anywhere on the western half of the board west of hex line xx,14 (exclusive). The Israeli reinforcements may enter anywhere on the northern edge east of hex line xx,11. The Jordanian reinforcement may enter anywhere on the eastern edge of the board.

Scenario #9 is actually Situation S-5 in AIW. This is not a different scenario in its own right, but instead is a hypothetical variation of Situation S-4. In this scenario, an Iraqi armored brigade is added to the Jordanian reinforcements on Turn 4. The Iraqi armored brigade consists of two armored battalions, using the old style organization of 50 tank battalions. Each Iraqi tank unit has five strength points, with the command tanks left out as it is assumed that they have been used to fill in the losses that the Iraqis took from air strikes while in route to Jenin. The victory point levels were altered to reflect this increase in the Jordanian forces.

As usual there is a lot of variation in this scenario. Just follow the directions in the previous scenario section. It should be noted that these additional reinforcements turn the scenario from a desperate Jordanian defense into a dynamite confrontation between armored forces.

Scenario #10 is actually Situation S-6 in AIW. It depicts an Egyptian armored assault on the Israeli defensive line in the vicinity of Ras Sudar. In AIW, only board B is used. The Egyptians have a full armored brigade, equipped with T-55 tanks, supported by a mechanized infantry battalion. In addition, the Egyptians also have anti-aircraft units to defend against the Israeli airstrikes. All of this is under the united command of the armored brigade headquarters. This force is set up on the board in the western most ten hexrows. The Israelis have a paratroop battalion, supported by a tank battalion of TI-67 tanks, and a self-propelled 90mm anti-tank battery. There are five improved positions in the Israeli set up but they can construct more during the actual scenario. All of this is under command of the paratroop brigade headquarters located near the eastern edge of the board. This force sets up in the eastern most twelve hexrows. The Israelis also have ten airstrikes at their disposal. There are no reinforcements for either side, nor does either side have any off-the-board artillery, their only respective artillery support coming from the organic mortar units in each force. The victory conditions are pretty straight forward, based on mutual unit elimination and the number of units the Egyptians exit off of the eastern edge of the board by the end of the game.

Not much variation on this scenario, namely varying the locations of the individual units within each side’s set up zone on the board.

Scenario #11 is actually Situation S-7 in AIW. It depicts an Israeli armored assault on Syrian forward positions in the vicinity of El Al. In AIW, both Boards C and D are used but they are place end to end, not side by side, as in previous scenarios. The Syrians start the game set up on the board, on hexrow 15 or anywhere east of there. They have in their forward positions, a reduced mechanized infantry battalion (only has two line companies) and elements of the divisional anti-tank battalion. Backing them up further behind is a full armored brigade, equipped with T-55 tanks. One will note that the Syrians have Egyptian BTR-60’s in their infantry battalion. This is because Divided Ground does not have BTR-60’s in their orders of battle for the Syrians. Historically the BTR-60 was the Syrian’s primary APC in the1973 war so I must use Egyptian ones in their place, thus giving a mixed Arab force in the order of battle. The Syrian force is under control of the divisional headquarters located near the eastern edge of the board. The Syrians only have three improved positions in their starting set up, but this reflects that these are forward forces of the Syrian advance which have started to set up defensive positions when the Israelis attacked.

The Israeli force consists of two armored battalions, each supported by a mechanized infantry company, and an additional weapons company with one of the armored battalions. The Israelis have Isherman tanks in one of their battalions and Sho’t tanks (the improved Centurion) in the other battalion. The infantry and support forces may seem larger than what the AIW version of this scenario would indicate but then these additional units are the “hidden” units mentioned in the main design note article for this series. These would include the light machine gun and mortar platoons in the line companies and the heavy machinegun platoon in the weapons company. All of these are under control of a brigade size task force headquarter as this is a mixed force consisting of units from two different armored brigades. This entire force enters along the west edge of the board on Turn 1.

Neither side has any off-the-board artillery or airstrikes and must rely on their own respective organic mortar units for indirect fire support. The victory conditions reflect the standard mutual unit elimination requirements and the Israeli unit exiting requirements off the east edge of the board by the end of the game. However the original victory conditions in AIW also gave points to the Israelis for any of their units on the eastern half of the board at the end of the game. I substituted a series of objective hexes, centered in each of the three towns on the board for the Israelis to capture by the end of the game.

There is a lot of room for variation in this scenario, especially in the Syrian set up, considering the big area that they have to set up in. The Israelis are more limited, given the small edge that they enter on.

Scenario #12 is actually Situation S-8 in AIW. It depicts the Israeli armored assault on the Syrian positions near Mazrat Beit Jan. Now again, since there is a historically accurate scenario on this battle in the Games Depot, why have the scenario included in this series. Well again, because it is part of AIW and it is interesting to see the differences in the order of battle between both versions, comparing what was know in 1977, and in the early 21st Century. In AIW, just Board D is used. Both sides start the game set up on the board and in such close proximity, the action will pick up almost immediately.

The Syrians have a reduced infantry brigade, consisting of two reduced battalions plus the usual supporting units. There is also an enlarged battalion of T-34/85 tanks as well as two batteries of SU-100 tank destroyers attached to the brigade. In the AIW scenario the T-34/85’s have no movement factor as they represent dug-in tanks in the defensive line. In the Divided Ground version I merely fixed them in place, which means that if they are fired upon they will be able to later move around. In the original version of this scenario, the Syrians have eight improved positions and two forts. I gave them eight improved positions in their starting set up and for the forts I gave them two bunkers. The Syrians have a good deal of artillery, with a MRL battalion and a 122mm battery on the board, and off the board are three more batteries of 122mm and two batteries of 152mm. The Syrian force sets ups on hexrow 22,xx and anywhere east of there.

The Israelis have an armored brigade that is set up on hexrow 09,xx or anywhere west of there. The brigade has two armored battalions, each with 30 Sho’t tanks, a heavy mortar battalion, but only a company of mechanized infantry, plus a scout unit. Their artillery is pitifully weak, only one battery of off-the-board 155mm howitzers. But their main strength is in their tanks, with guns which will out range most of the Syrian anti-tank weapons, thus allowing them to destroy them at a distance. Neither side has any airstrikes or reinforcements.

The victory conditions call for the usual unit destruction on both sides and for the Israelis exiting units off of the east edge of the board by the end of the game. While the original version also called for the Syrians getting victory points for Israeli units left of the board at the end of the game, I ignored that as it can not be duplicated in Divided Ground

Giving that both sides set up on the board, the only variation possible is different starting locations.


Conclusion

This marks the end of this article for the first set of the scenarios in this series. The second set will soon follow. Until then, enjoy them.

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars II

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Ode to AIW II includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-13, 8 October, 1973, El Firdan, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-14, 8 October, 1973, El Firdan, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-15, 7 October, 1973, Kuneitra, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-16, 12 June, 1982, Marjayou, Lebanon
[*] AIW-17, 15 October, 1973, Chinese Farm, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-18, 6 October, 1973, Shovach Yonim, Egypt
[*] AIW-19, 6 October, 1973, Lituf, Egypt
[*] AIW-20, 6 October, 1973, East of Bir Gifgafa, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-21, 5 June, 1967, Rafa, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-22, 16 October, 1973, Deversoir, Egypt
[*] AIW-23, 18 October, 1973, Fayid, Egypt
[*] AIW-24, 23 March, 1975, Tasa, Sinai Peninsula


DESIGN NOTES FOR SCENARIOS IN “ODE TO ARAB-ISRAELI WARS II”

(Written originally for Talonsoft's Divided Ground)

By Alan R. Arvold


Due to the success of the “Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars” I felt that it was time to complete the conversion of the rest of the scenarios that came in the game to the standards of Divided Ground. These scenarios are converted to the same standards as the ones of the previous Part 1. Variables such as environmental conditions, morale, changing the orders of battle for one or both sides I leave to the discretion of the individual players.

There is an error in one of the scenarios in “Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars”. In Scenario #3 (Situation B-3 in the Arab-Israeli Wars), the date of the battle should be 13 October 1973, not 11 October 1973. I leave it to individual players to make that correction.


Scenario #13 is actually Situation S-9 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. This scenario depicts the Israeli armored assault on the Egyptian forces defending their established bridgehead across the Suez Canal near El Firdan. The mapboard uses Boards A and B from AIW, set up in a rectangular fashion. The defenders comprise of an Egyptian infantry brigade, reinforced with some armor, engineers, and artillery. All of the Egyptian assets start set up on the board. They have no off-the-board artillery or airstrikes to speak of. The Egyptians have ten improved positions, three of which are placed east of the canal along the Egyptian front lines, and the other seven which set up adjacent to the west side of the canal. The improved positions on the west side of the canal have the hex that they are in raised to a Level 1 height. This is to represent the combat positions that the Egyptian historically built on top of the adjacent sand embankments on the west side of the canal, thus allowing them to see and fire over the lower embankment along the east side of the Canal. The Egyptians have two heavy duty pontoon bridges across the Canal. The Egyptian units on the east side of the Canal can not be set up further than six hexes away from it. This leaves a lot of units out in the open although the infantry units can attempt to construct improved positions once the game begins.

The Israelis enter on the east side of the board on Turn 1. Their forces consist of an armored brigade with two armored battalions and an armored scout company. There are no reinforcements beyond what arrives at the beginning. They have one battery of off-the-board artillery for their entire indirect fire support in the scenario. While they have a strong force with which to smash through the front line, the Egyptians have a wide variety to anti-tank weapons, both close and long range, with which to attrite the Israelis down as they move towards the Canal.

The victory conditions are based on units eliminated for both sides and on the Israeli capture of one or both pontoon bridges. In the original scenario the Israelis had to destroy the bridges, but since this would not give them many victory points in Divided Ground, I substituted their capture instead, with an appropriate number of victory point for each bridge.

There is much variation in the set up for the Egyptians, provided that they keep in mind that set up limitations on the east side of the Canal and the fact that the pontoon bridges must be set up at least twelve hexes apart on the Canal (just as it is in AIW). The Israelis can change the entry hexes along the east side of the board.

Scenario #14 is actually Situation S-10 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. This is actually a hypothetical variation of the previous scenario. In it the Israelis are reinforced by a mechanized infantry battalion (in exchange for a reduced scout company), a self-propelled mortar battalion and two more batteries of off-the-board artillery. All of these arrive on Turn 1. This makes the Israelis into a more proper combined arms force and thus gives them a better chance of achieving their objectives. The Egyptian force is not changed, but still remains a potent force and will certainly make the Israelis pay dearly for their victory, if they get it. There are no changes in the set up. I have adjusted the victory point levels to account for the increased Israeli force.

This scenario has the same variations as the previous one so there is nothing more to add to it.

Scenario #15 is actually Situation S-11 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the famous Syrian armored assault against the Israeli positions in the valley that would become known in history as the Valley of Tears, near Kuneitra. Now one would wonder, why create a scenario for this if Divided Ground already has a scenario for the Valley of Tears, not to mention that there is a set of scenarios for each engagement in the Valley of Tears in the Games Depot on the Wargamer website. Well because it is in the game and deserves mention, at least as AIW depicted it.

The mapboard uses Boards C and D from AIW, set up in a rectangular fashion. The Israelis start the game set up on the western half of the board. Their force consists of an armored brigade with one armored battalion set up on the board and another armored battalion that may arrive as reinforcements during the course of the game (33% chance per turn). The Israelis also have an infantry platoon with a Cobra AT missile unit in the initial set up as well. There is no artillery in the Israeli order of battle, however they do have twenty airstrikes. They have a large assortment of defensive positions. There are twelve improved positions and one fort in the original scenario. I placed the improved positions (which represent tank firing ramps) in two lines, one in front and one in the rear. The fort I made into a pillbox and placed in the front line. The infantry and Cobra unit are placed in the pillbox as this represents on the reinforced concrete observation posts that the Israelis had along the frontier with Syria. The Israelis also have plenty of obstacles to the tune of twelve trench counters (in this case representing an anti-tank ditch) and six 2-1 minefield counters in AIW. The minefields I converted to Level 2 Minefields and for the anti-tank ditch I merely chose twelve hexes and ran the anti-tank ditch along their hexsides, two or three to a hex.

The Syrians enter on the eastern edge of the board on Turn 1. Their force consists of two armored brigades and a mechanized infantry battalion. One armored brigade is equipped with T-62 tanks, the other with T-55 tanks. The mechanized infantry battalion uses the BTR-60 as its main APC. The Syrians do not have the BTR-60 in their T.O. & E. in Divided Ground, so I had to use Egyptian ones for them. There is very little artillery in the Syrian force, only the mortars in the mechanized infantry battalion, and no airstrikes.

The victory conditions call for the usual unit elimination for both sides. In addition, the Syrians receive victory points for capturing Israeli owned objectives on their side of the board and for exiting friendly units off of the exit hex on the west side of the board. With only twelve turns, the Syrians have only a short time to accomplish their objectives.

There is a lot of variety possible in this scenario. The Israelis can vary their set up fo a great degree, providing they stay on their side of the board. The Syrians have very the entry points for their units.

Scenario #16 is actually Situation S-12 in Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts an Israeli armored assault into Lebanon against various Arab factions in the region. This scenario is unique in that when it was created back in 1977, it portrayed a hypothetical Israeli advance into Lebanon “sometime in the future”. Yet this very scenario came to pass in 1982 when the Israelis did invade Lebanon. Not only did it occur as the game predicted, but the battle occurred in almost the same fashion and set up as the scenario depicted. This scenario is also unique in that there are three different Arab factions involved in the battle; the Lebanese Army, the Palestine Liberation Army, and the Syrian Army.

The mapboard uses Boards C and D from AIW, set up in an oblong fashion. The Arabs have two factions set up on the board initially. The Lebanese, using the Jordanian units (with a couple of Syrian mortars), set up in between hexrows 21,xx and 31,xx. They have six improved positions with which to set up their forces in and around. The Palestine Liberation Army, using Iraqi units, sets up anywhere north of hexrow 33,xx. They have five improved positions, one fort (which I made into a trench), and six 2-1 minefields (which I made into Level 2 minefields). I used militia units to represent the Palestinian infantry except where commandos were called for. The Syrians enter on the northern edge of the board on Turn 1. They have an armored brigade, supported by a mechanized infantry battalion. The Arabs have various small artillery units in their on-board and reinforcing units, but have a powerful off-the-board artillery force of four batteries. While this force will take heavy casualties during the scenario, it is more than sufficient to contain the Israelis if used right.

The Israelis enter on the southern edge of the board on Turn 1. They have an armored brigade consisting of two armored battalions, two mechanized infantry battalions, a mortar battalion, and a scout company. They have three batteries of off-the-board artillery and five airstrikes. This is a very powerful force and is quite capable of smashing the Lebanese and Palestinians but will probably be deadlocked with the Syrians by the time they meet up with them. Still they can eek out a victory if used right.

The victory conditions call of mutual unit elimination, a series of objective hexes for the Israelis to capture (which they can do quite easily) and for exiting Israeli units off of the northern edge of the board at the two exit hexes (depends on how their battle with the Syrians goes), and they have only 15 turns to do it in.

About the only variation possible is with the Palestinians as they have a rather large area to set up in. The Lebanese are pretty restricted on where they can set up, given their small set up area, and because of the narrowness of the board, both the Syrians and the Israelis really do not have a lot of logical choices of which hexes to enter in on other than the ones they are entering on now.

Scenario #17 is actually Situation S-13 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the Israeli assault to reach the Suez Canal through the Egyptian 16th Infantry Brigade on the night of 15-16 October 1973. Now one would ask, why have this scenario included if there is already a Chinese Farm scenario (“The Most Terrible Night”) in the Games Depot more accurately depicting the same battle? Well that is a huge scenario, with a game length of 90 turns. This scaled down version actually comes in the Arab-Israeli Wars game and is only 20 turns long and thus is more preferable for those players who do not have a lot of time to play the big one.

As was noted in the previous paragraph, this battle occurs at night and is thus a night scenario. The scenario mapboard uses Boards A and B from AIW, set up in a rectangular fashion. At the southern end of the Canal there is a widening of it to include two shallow water hexes. This is not in the original boards but something I created. Its purpose is to allow a place on the Canal for the Israeli pontoon ferries to operate from in the game as they need the shallow water for loading and unloading purposes. These shallow water hexes will be also be on the mapboards for scenarios #22 and #23 as these actions occur in the same area as #17.

The Egyptians start the game with a reinforced infantry brigade deployed on the board within twelve hexes of the Canal, north of Hexrow 27,xx. On the Canal itself there are three heavy duty pontoon bridges deployed in three of the seven “cuts” in the canal where opposite sides of the sand embankment are removed. Each “cut” is at least three hexes from the others and each bridge has two “cuts” in between them and the next bridge. This is in accordance with the original scenario’s set up instructions. There are also ten improved positions and three forts in the original set up. Five improved positions I have set up on the west bank of the Canal in Level 1 hexes, again to represent the firing positions that the Egyptians had set up on the west sand embankment. The other five improved positions and the three forts I have placed east of the Canal. The three forts must be placed within hexes of each other. I have made these forts into trench hexes in Divided Ground as they are to represent the plowed fields around the “Chinese Farm” that was in the area. The Egyptians receive armored reinforcements on starting on Turn 10 along the northern edge east of the Canal. They have plenty of artillery, with one howitzer and plenty of mortar units set on the board, three batteries of off-the-board artillery, and two batteries of MRLs coming in with the reinforcements in the latter part of the game. All in all, they have a strong force with which to defend their bridgehead.

The Israelis have a weak division consisting of two weak armored brigades. (As this scenario represents the opening hours of the Battle of Chinese Farm, there is obviously more reinforcements coming in for both sides later on, after the scenario is over.) One armored brigade, consisting of an armored battalion, a mortar battalion, and an engineer platoon, enter on the east edge of the board on Turn 1. The engineer unit represents the Pontoon Bridge unit. One will notice that the Gilowa ferry unit is not in the scenario, even though there is one in the original scenario in AIW. This is because in Divided Ground, the Gilawa can not travel over ground, nor can it be towed or carried by another unit. Rather than having it enter the board and just lie around in its entry hex for the duration of the game, I just left it out and increased the point values of the entry points to “cuts” which have no bridges in them as compensation. The other armored brigade enters in the southern edge of the board, east of the Canal, on Turn 1. This force consists of an armored battalion, a paratroop brigade mounted in halftracks, and the divisional headquarters with General Sharon. The Israelis have two batteries of off-the-board artillery plus four units of mortars, so they have a fair amount of artillery support. They have no reinforcements during the game. Still it is quite a formidable force.

The victory conditions are based on units eliminated for both sides and on objective hexes captured by the Israelis. All of the objective hexes are either in or adjacent to the Suez Canal. The objective hexes in the Canal are of course the pontoon bridges, the ones adjacent to the Canal are the entry points that the Israeli Gilowa ferry would need to operate from (in real life, not in the game mechanics).

There is plenty of variation in the set up and entry hexes for both sides, despite the size of the set up areas and entry sides. Just remember the set up restrictions listed above.

Scenario #18 is actually Situation A-1 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the initial Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal on 6 October, 1973 in the vicinity of Sovach Yonim. In Games Depot, there is a scenario of this by the same name. It is merely another approach to depicting this crossing and is not an exact copy of the AIW version of this scenario. The mapboard uses Boards A and B from AIW, set up in a rectangular fashion. One will note that on the Suez Canal, the sand berms are missing on every other hexside of the Canal on both sides. This does not mean that the sand embankments were incomplete in this area. It is simply a means of allowing the Egyptians to carry their assault boats to and from the Canal when they cross it. The game mechanics do not allow the boats to be carried over the sand dune hexsides and I had to remove them to accomplish this.

The Egyptian force has a full infantry brigade, reinforced by engineers and commandos. They start the game deployed on the west side of the Canal. In the original scenario, the Egyptians were given 24 assault boat units. I increased that number to 58 in order to accommodate the additional support, leader, and headquarter units in Divided Ground that are presumed to be part of the regular infantry units in AIW. The Egyptians have five batteries of off-the-board artillery, plus their numerous on board mortar units, but hey have no airstrikes. They have six improved positions which are placed adjacent to the Canal to provide for those elevated firing positions on top of the embankment. Although this is basically an infantry assault, the 20 Turns in the scenario give the Egyptians plenty of time to achieve their objectives.

The Israeli force consists of tank heavy combined arms battalion (two tank, one mech infantry companies), and two garrison platoons of the Bar Lev Line. They have two forts, which I made into bunkers for Divided Ground, and four improved positions (which represent firing ramps for the tanks). All of these are placed adjacent to the east embankment of the Canal. There are also six 2-1 minefields in the original scenario which I easily converted to Level 2 minefields in this scenario. Other than the mortar unit in the mechanized infantry company, the Israelis have no artillery assets nor do they have any airstrikes. With their tiny force, they must defend the length of the Canal on the board.

In the original victory conditions, both sides got victory points for enemy unit elimination. The Egyptians got points for friendly units on the east side of the Canal and for each infantry bridge that they built across the Canal. Since the last conditions do not exist in Divided Ground I had to substitute. The Egyptians now have to capture objectives on the east side of the Canal. These include road junctions in the interior, the bunkers, and the two town hexes on the east side.

Not much variation on this one. Given their mission, the Israelis must stay close the Canal and the Egyptians must place their crossing units so they are not seen by the Israelis before the cross the Canal, the gaps in the embankments allowing the Israelis to see far into the west side of the canal.

Scenario #19 is actually Situation A-2 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the Israeli attack on the Egyptians while they are still crossing the Canal and forming their bridgeheads near Lituf. The scenario mapboard uses only one board from AIW, that being Board A. The Israelis set up on the east bank of the Canal. At the start they only have one rifle platoon, acting as a Bar Lev garrison, in a fort that is adjacent to the Canal. In this scenario I made the fort into a bunker as befitting the Bar Lev fortifications. The Israelis also have an improved position, also adjacent to the Canal, representing a firing ramp for the Israeli tanks, which is placed at least four hexes away from the bunker. There is an Israeli armored battalion that enters along the east edge of the board on Turn 1. The Israelis have no artillery or airstrikes in this scenario. In other words, these guys are “on their own”.

The Egyptians have the usual infantry brigade, with an additional armored battalion in
support. They have two batteries of off-the-board artillery plus the mortars in the brigade, but have no airstrikes. They have seven “cuts” in the Canal and two heavy duty pontoon bridges (which must be at least ten hexes apart). They have six improved positions which are deployed on the west bank adjacent to the Canal, where as usual they represent the firing positions on top of the embankment. About 60% of the Egyptian force deploys on the west bank of the Canal. The other 40% deploys on the east bank in two bridgeheads, each one centered around one pontoon bridge. These bridges are rather small, as the furthest distance that an Egyptian unit can be placed away from the Canal is four hexes, and they must be at least three hexes away from the nearest Israeli unit or position. There are no reinforcements for the Egyptians, not that they need any in this scenario.

The victory conditions are based on unit elimination and on the capture of objective hexes. The Egyptians must capture the Israeli bunker and the Israelis must capture one or both Egyptian pontoon bridges. The ten turn game length does not give either side much time to achieve their objectives.

There is not much variation on this one, given the small deployment areas. The Israelis can alter the entry hexes of their tank battalion in order to put maximum pressure on one bridgehead.

Scenario #20 is actually Situation A-3 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts an ambush of Israeli armored units on their way to front by Egyptian commandos in the vicinity of Bir Gigafa. This is an interesting scenario as it deals with helicopter operations. The mapboard uses only one board from AIW, that being Board B. Neither side starts set up on the board. The Israelis enter first on the east edge on Turn 1. They have a full armored battalion in their force and that’s it. No infantry, no artillery, and no airstrikes on call. They must traverse the length of the board and exit off of the western edge before the end of the game. Given what they will be facing, ten turns is probably not enough to do this.

The Egyptians enter on the west edge of the board on Turn 1. They have a commando battalion complete with a full company of Sagger teams. All of this is carried on board on M-8 Hip Helicopter gunships. In the original scenario the Hip helicopters are supposed to be armed with anti-tank missiles, with a twelve hex range (they were supposedly carrying Swatter ATGMs). Unfortunately, that is not possible in Divided Ground as the Hips are permanently armed with HE missiles with a maximum range of four hexes. This gives the Egyptians great direct fire HE potential against targets that can best stand up to them and also makes them most vulnerable to their return fire. The Egyptians have no other units or assets. The Egyptians must come on board and set up a hasty ambush as they have little time before the Israeli tanks are on their doorstep. But they have more than sufficient firepower to do the job.

The victory conditions are based on unit elimination for both sides and for the Israelis exiting units off of the western edge of the board. Since it unlikely that any Israeli unit will make it to the western edge, they will have to make up their victory points by killing off Egyptian units. There is no variation in this scenario due to the fact that nobody starts the game on the board.

Scenario #21 is actually Situation A-4 in Arab-Israeli Wars. The scenario depicts the series of running battles that the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade fought as it plowed its way through the Egyptian 7th Infantry Division on 5 June 1967. This is a unique scenario. It has three battles that were miles apart from each other and also occurred several hours apart. The mapboard in the original scenario is also unique in that there are three different mapboards, each placed in the oblong position, and each separated by a space. Units which exit off of one board on a turn, enter on the next western most board on the following turn. This would be impossible to do in Divided Ground so I combined the three boards into one long one. To do this I made interconnecting six hexrow patches of ground to connect each mapboard to the next. Each connecting patch has just enough terrain to block line-of-sight/fire from one board to another. The three boards used in AIW are Boards A, B, and C. In Board A, only the area south of the Canal is used, the Canal and all hexes north of it are assumed to be the sea. With this in mind I created a coastline on Board A and then extended up both ground patches until it exits off of the map.

The Egyptians have a rather large force, elements of four different brigades plus some divisional battalions. On the eastern third of the mapboard they have two infantry battalions, one medium tank battalion, one heavy tank battalion, one tank destroyer battalion, and two artillery battalions. There are two brigade headquarters located with them, one being the artillery brigade headquarter and the other being an infantry brigade headquarters. The original scenario in AIW gave the Egyptians one artillery battalion with 18 howitzers. Because the Egyptians were historically using 12 gun artillery battalions at the time, I broke this down into two artillery battalion, each with three 3-howitzer batteries, with the total still coming out to 18 howitzers. And since there now two battalions, this required a brigade headquarters to supply them. For the defensive positions, this group was given six improved positions and three forts (which I made into trenches). For defensive obstacles they were given three blocks, three 2-1 minefields, and three 3-1 minefields (which I converted to Level 2 and Level 3 minefields respectively). All of this is set up between Hexows 77,xx and 100,xx exclusive.

On the middle third of the mapboard the Egyptians have a medium tank battalion supported by a motorized National Guard company. In the original scenario in AIW they were represented by commando units but here in Divided Ground I made them into militia units as that is about what the Egyptian National Guard units were worth in their combat abilities. This force was given three improved positions and three 1-1 minefields (which I converted to Level 1 minefields). These are set up between Hexrows 47,xx and 64,xx exclusive.

On the western third of the mapboard the Egyptians have an infantry battalion and an anti-tank battalion. There is also a brigade and a divisional headquarters located with them. This force was given three improved positions, three forts (which I made into trenches), six blocks, and six 1-1 minefields (which I converted into Level 1 minefields). These are set up between Hexrows 07,xx and 24,xx exclusive.

In accordance with the special instructions in the original scenario, all Egyptian units on the board are fixed in place, with no release turn, so they may only be released for movement when they are fired on by Israeli units. The Egyptians have no off-the-board artillery nor do they have airstrkes. They have no reinforcements. Still this is one powerful force for the Israelis to fore their way through.

The Israeli force is an armored brigade (the mighty 7th) consisting of two armored battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion, a self-propelled mortar battalion, two self-propelled artillery battalions, and an engineer company. One of the armored battalions deserves some explanation. In the original scenario there was a battalion of Patturion tanks. Now the Patturion in AIW is the Sho’t in Divided Ground, which did not exist in 1967. So I replaced them with what the Israelis historically had in their place, the old M-48A2’s. The self-propelled artillery also deserves some explanation. In the original scenario, the Israelis had three batteries of off-the-board artillery. However this was supposed to cover all three separate mapboards. Since there are no Israeli artillery units that can possibly cover the entire lengthwise distance of the mapboard, I had to make these into on-board artillery units. Again, like with the Egyptians, the three batteries equaled 18 artillery pieces. But the Israelis were using 12 howitzer battalions at the time. So I again made these into two battalions with three 3-gun batteries each, for a total of 18 howitzers. The Israelis enter on the eastern edge of the board on Turn 1. They have no other off-the-board artillery nor do they have any airstrikes. They do not have any reinforcements, beyond those that enter on Turn 1. The Israelis have a powerful force but have a very constrained time frame in which to achieve their objectives.

The victory conditions are based on unit elimination for both sides, and for the Israelis, capture of objective hexes and the exiting of units off of the western edge of the board. There are plenty of objective hexes to capture, each town hex and each hex with a road intersection is an objective hex. However, the victory levels are pretty high and the Israelis will be hard pressed to meet them.

There is a lot of variation in the set up of the Egyptians, provided that each board force is set up within their respective set up areas. Given the narrowness of the board, the Israelis do not have a lot of choices of where they can enter from.

Scenario #22 is actually Situation A-5 in Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the battle for the Israeli bridgehead across the Suez Canal on both sides of the Canal in the vicinity of Deversoir. It occurs in the morning hours of 16 October 1973 when it was just the Israeli 143rd Armored Division doing all the fighting. (By early afternoon the Israeli 162nd Armored Division would joining in the ruckus.) It is the natural follow on to Scenario #17 (Chinese Farm). The mapboard contains all four boards from AIW, arranged in a rectangular fashion, with boards arranged in the following order from east to west, D, B, A, and C. Like in Chinese Farm, there is widening of the Suez Canal on the southern edge of the map with shallow water in two of the three hexes to allow the use the Israeli Gilowa ferry.

The Egyptians again have a rather large force in this scenario, although it is spread across the board in four groups. The first group is set up west of the Canal, at least four hexes away from it. It contains some artillery units and a commando company. The second group is set up west of the Canal within three hexes of it and north of Hexrow 20,xx. It contains an infantry battalion, backed up by engineer, armor, and tank destroyer assets. One will note the MTU-1 unit in the engineer assets. In the original scenario in AIW this was replaced by the bridge. However the GSP Ferry unit in AIW has no equivalent in Divided Ground so I replaced it with the MTU-1 unit. Also this group has three batteries of SU-100 when in the original scenario it should two batteries of SU-100 and one battery of T-34/100 TDs. However the T-34/100 does not exist in Divided Ground, so I replaced it with SU-100s. This group also contains the only bridge across the Canal as well as three more “cuts” across it. In defense it has one Level 1, two Level 2, and one Level 3 minefields which are used to block the crossing of the Canal by Israeli forces at the four above mentioned ways across. (In the original AIW scenario, the Egyptians were given three 1-1 and three 2-1 minefields, but because of an advanced rule that allows a player to exchange minefield counters prior to set up for more weaker ones or fewer stronger ones I changed the set up slightly.) The third group is set up between Hexlines xx,10 and xx,20, north of Hexrow 16,xx. It contains an infantry battalion backed substantial armor assets and the brigade headquarters for the infantry battalions. For defense it has five improved positions, two blocks, and five Level 1 minefields. The fourth group is set up any where in between Hexlines xx,10 and xx,20, although I prefer to set them up south of Hexrow 15,xx. It contains an infantry battalion, backed by some tank destroyer and other anti-tank assets. For defense it has three improve positions, three forts (which I made into trenches), six Level 1, two Level 2, and two Level 3 minefields. (Again the original scenario had three 2-1 and three 3-1 minefields, but I again traded many of the bigger ones down to get more smaller ones.) The minefields and blocks were placed to form a barrier along the main road in the center of the board, with a few placed at road intersections behind it. The Egyptians have five batteries of off-the-board artillery but no airstrikes. They have three sets of reinforcements, the first one coming in the northern edge of the board east of the Canal on Turn 7, the second coming in along the western edge of the board on Turn 10, and the third coming in on the southern edge west of the Canal on Turn 12.

The Israelis also have a large force on the board, again like the Egyptians, divided up into four groups. The first group is set up west of the Canal, within three hexes of it. It contains a reduced paratroop battalion. Although they can be deployed anywhere within these restrictions, I choose to place them around the bridgehead in order to defend it. The second group is set up east of the Canal, within seven hexes of it, and south of Hexrow 23,xx. It contains two brigades, one armored and one paratroop, though both are rather weak (from the fighting from the previous night). They also have an engineer company, along with the Gilowa ferry unit, the division headquarters and General Sharon. In the original scenario the Israelis were assigned two “cuts” in the Canal. I gave them one “cut” and used the southern end of the Canal where the ferry operates at as the other “cut”. The third group is set up in the hills north of Hexrow 16,xx and east of Hexline xx,11. It contains an armored brigade with two reduced armored battalions, a reduced mechanized infantry battalion, and a mortar battalion. The fourth group is set up in the hills south of Hexrow 15,xx and east of Hexline xx,11. It contains an armored battalion, a reduced mechanized infantry battalion, and a mortar battalion. In the original scenario in AIW, this group also had a bridge counter which it had to tow to the Canal. However, this can not be duplicated in Divided Ground so the bridge is left off the list. The Israelis have three batteries of off-the-board artillery and fourteen airstrikes, but no reinforcements at all in the game. Still it has a sufficient force to achieve its objectives in 20 turns.

The victory conditions are based on unit elimination for both sides, and the capture of objectives by the Israelis. Note that the Israelis start the game with two objectives already in their possession. Most of the objectives are the “cuts” and will require an amphibious unit to swim through the hex in order to claim it. However, both sides have these types of units in the orders of battle.

There is certainly a lot of variation in the set up of the units on the board, provided that they stay within their deployment areas. The set up seen in this scenario was based on a set up for Situation A-5 that was published in the General Magazine years ago. While it is certainly a good one, it is not the only one.

Scenario #23 is actually Situation A-6 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. It depicts the breakout from the Israeli bridgehead across the Canal and the advance down to the town of Fayid. It occurs on the morning of 18 October 1973 after the Israelis spent the previous day defending against Egyptian counterattacks and clearing out Egyptian positions around their bridgehead. It is a natural follow on to Scenario #22. Like in the previous scenario, this scenario uses all four mapboards in AIW. Three of them are arranged in a rectangular fashion which are placed in the following order from east to west; Board B, A, and C. then Board D is placed on the southern edge of Board C in an oblong fashion. Thus the mapboard has a strange shape. I arranged the mapboard in Divided Ground in a large rectangular fashion. I could have blackened out the unused sections of the map but decided that this would not look too pleasing. Instead I put a fictional representation of Bitter Lake with a shoreline that goes off the northern edge of the board. Not only is this more pleasing to the eye, it also contains terrain that will not possibly be used in the course of the scenario. (Yes both sides have amphibious units in the scenario but given the slowness of amphibious movement, it is unlikely that either side will use it.) At the southern end of the Canal is the shallow water point where the Gilowa ferry can operate, just like in the last scenario.

The Egyptians start the game off with two forces set up on the board. The first group is set up west of the Canal, at least three hexes away from the nearest Israeli unit. It consists of a reduced infantry battalion and various engineering assets. These include five “cuts” in the Canal, an MTU-1 (which replaces the GSP Ferry unit in AIW), and a pontoon bridge. For defense this group has an improved position, two blocks, and two 2-1 minefields. I converted the two 2-1 minefields to one 3-1 minefield and then converted that into a Level 3 minefield in Divided Ground. The second group is located east of the Canal at least three hexes from the nearest Israeli unit. It consists of two reduced infantry battalions (along with the brigade headquarters) and a reduced armored brigade. For defense it has been given four improved positions, two forts (which I converted into trenches), and two blocks. The Egyptians have four groups of reinforcements, the first arriving on the western edge of the board on Turn 1. The second group arrives along the northern edge of the board, between Hexlines xx,00 and xx,10, on Turn 5. The third group arrives along the northern edge of the board, between Hexlines xx,20 and xx,30, on Turn 9. The last group arrives along the southern edge of board, between Hexlines xx,20 and xx,30, on Turn 12. All of these groups are mixed mechanized groups although the last group contains a squadron of Mi-8 helicopters. In AIW these helicopters carry bombs and are a one time attack weapon. In Divided Ground I made these into the standard rocket firing helicopters. One will note a discrepancy in the Egyptian 1st Armored Brigade, in this scenario it is equipped with T-55a tanks, while in the previous scenario it is equipped with T-62 tanks. Well even though these are follow-on scenarios, each is designed to be a stand alone type and so any discrepancies are ignored. The Egyptians have no artillery except the mortars in their various groups, plus an artillery battery that arrives with their first group of reinforcements. They do have ten airstrikes though.

The Israelis have three groups set up on the board. The first groups sets up west of the Canal, within three hexes of it and south of Hexrow 22,xx. It consists of an under-strength armored brigade of two reduced armored battalions and a reduced mechanized infantry battalion, plus a paratroop battalion, part of which is mounted on halftracks, and part of which is dismounted. The second group is set up east of the Canal, south of Hexrow 22,xx. It consists of two armored battalions, a paratroop company, an engineer company (with the Gilowa ferry), two brigade headquarters, and a division headquarters. It also has two “cuts”, in which one is located a pontoon bridge, and the other is at the southern end of the Canal where the ferry is. For defense this group has three improved positions and four 1-1 minefields (which I converted to Level 1 minefields). The third group is set up south of Hexrow 09.xx and east of Hexline xx,10. It consists of a reduced armored battalion, a reduced paratroop battalion, a mechanized infantry company, a reduced armored scout company, a brigade headquarters, and a division headquarters. For defense it has four improved positions and four 1-1 minefields (again converted to Level 1 minefields). Other than their organic mortars, the Israelis have no artillery to speak of, although they do have fifteen airstrikes. Still the Israelis have a formidable force and can easily achieve their objectives in order to win in 20 turns.

The victory conditions are based on unit elimination for both sides, capture of objective hexes by the Israelis, and the exiting of Israeli units off of the southern edge of the board. Note that the Israelis start the game with one objective hex already in their possession. There are a lot of common objective hexes in this scenario and the last one, given that they are in the same area, while others have been eliminated as they were no longer relevant in the current scenario.

There is a lot of variation in this scenario, given that most groups have rather large set up areas. The current set up was again based on a set up for Situation A-6 that was published in the General Magazine years ago. Another good set up, but there is always room for improvement.

Scenario #24 is actually Situation A-7 in the Arab-Israeli Wars. This is a hypothetical meeting engagement in the Sinai Peninsula near el Tasa. As this was a future scenario, I set it as happening in 1975. (The Egyptians would still be supplied by the Soviets at this time although this would soon be ending. As for happening in near el Tasa at this time, this is fictional as Israel still held the area at this time.) The scenario uses only one board in AIW, that being Board B, set up in an oblong fashion. It is fifteen turns long, more than enough time for either side to achieve their objectives.

The Egyptians start the game with one group set up on the board. It is placed west of Hexrow 05,xx. It consists of an armored battalion, supported by a mechanized infantry company and other assets, and a brigade headquarters. A second group, consisting of three Mi-8 Hip helicopter units, arrives on the western edge of the board on Turn 2. In the original scenario in AIW, the helicopters are supposed to be carrying anti-tank missiles (probably Swatter ATGMs). Unfortunately that is not possible in Divided Ground so I just give them Hip gunships with the HE rockets, which is what comes in the game. The Egyptians have no artillery or airstrikes.

The Israelis also start the game with one group set up on the board. It is placed east of Hexrow 26,xx. It consists of an armored company, two armored scout companies, two mortar platoons, an armored engineer platoon, two TOW sections (on Jeeps), and a battalion headquarters. The TOWs in the original scenario were mounted on M113 APCs, however that unit is not available in Divided Ground. So I substituted the TOWs mounted on Jeeps for them. A second group, consisting of three Huey helicopter units carrying dismounted TOW sections, arrives on the eastern edge of the board on Turn 2. Again the original scenario required Cobra gunships, armed with TOW missiles. Unfortunately, these are not available in Divided Ground so I had to substitute. Granted, it is a poor substitute, but it is better than nothing. The Israelis have no other artillery assets nor do they have any airstrikes.

The victory conditions are rather simple, unit elimination and exiting off of the opposite side of the board for both sides. Not much variation on this one, given the small set up areas on a small board.


Conclusion

This marks the end for this series of scenarios for Divided Ground. I hope that all players of the game find them enjoyable.

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars III

Ode to AIW III includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-25, 30 October, 1956, Mitla Pass, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-26, 31 October, 1956, Mitla Pass, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-27, 31 October, 1956, Abu Aghiela, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-28, 1 November, 1956, Rafah, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-29, 3 November, 1956, Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip

DESIGN NOTES FOR ODE TO ARAB-ISRAELI WARS III, IV, AND V

By Alan R. Arvold

Back in the mid-Eighties, I created these scenarios for the board game Arab-Israeli Wars. However I did not submit them to Avalon Hill for publication in the General magazine until 1991. Avalon Hill rejected them and their reason was that they considered the game to be dead and not worth supporting anymore. Thus they languished in my files until 2004 when I submitted them to Old Soldiers magazine, who subsequently published from 2004 to 2006. At that time I was busy converting Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, and Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios to Talonsoft's East Front, West Front, and Divided Ground computer games and posting them the Games Depot website. For Divided Ground I just did the 24 scenarios that came in the Arab-Israeli Wars game (well 23 actually, Scenario #7, Irbid, could not be done in Divided Ground so I substituted the battle of Kerama for it). While I considered doing the further ones that I made for the game, I ultimately decided against it as I was creating real historical scenarios for Divided Ground and felt that players would rather want them than caricatures of them.

However, by 2014 I changed my mind and started converting these scenarios to Divided Ground. Unfortunately Games Depot had ceased taking in new submissions by then so these scenarios languished in my computer. My luck turned in 2015 when “Battle Kat” from the The Blitz Club contacted me, looking for my old scenarios on the now defunct Games Depot. He offered to post my scenarios on both the The Blitz Club and Matrix Games websites. Thus they are preserved for those players who still desire them. With the advent of the new game Middle East, the call for me to convert my Divided Ground scenarios to Middle East arrive and so I have done so.

These notes are both the Divided Ground and Middle East versions of these scenarios. One quick note on unit numerical designations in the orders of battle files. Those that were known back in the Eighties when these scenarios were originally created are listed. Those that were not known are given the generic 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. designations within their next higher organization. Those artillery and mortar units whose designations are not known are given the numerical designations of the higher unit that they are organic to or no designation if they are an attached unit.


Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars III

These five scenarios (#25-29) are from the 1956 War. These are rather simple scenarios as far as they go.

Scenario #25 – Basically the Egyptians are attacking the Israelis in order to contest control of the eastern entrance to Mitla Pass. The Egyptians want it to keep the Israelis from coming through the pass, the Israelis got it in order to stop the Egyptian from going further east into the Sinai to engage oncoming Israeli units. Nothing special about this scenario.

Scenario #26 – After the Egyptians were rebuffed at the eastern entrance, they pulled back further into Mitla Pass and set up in series of caves that flanked both sides of the pass at a particular choke point. The Israelis tried to punch their way through but the initial force got caught in crossfire and was trapped, requiring the follow-up force to come rescue them. I made the lower western corner of the board impassable to create this choke point. In the Middle East version I do have Caves set up at the choke point for the Egyptians to set up in, but in the Divided Ground version I had to use Pillboxes to simulate the Caves as that game did not have that type of fortification.

Scenario #27 – This is a recreation of the battle of Abu Aghiela in 1956. I took the Board B used in Scenario #6 and added another Board B to the west of it to get the approximate length of the entire battlefield. I kind of compressed the time length of the battle, with the Israelis either on board at the beginning or coming in on Turn 1 in order to give them a chance to win. Historically they attacked three times over a 12 hour period with a different portion of the starting forces each time and were repulsed each time. The Israelis only took the position after the Egyptians withdrew when ordered to by higher headquarters.

Scenario #28 – This is a recreation of the battle of Rafah in 1956. It was a night battle, hence nighttime conditions in the scenario. The Egyptians treated the battle as a delaying action but some of their units held their positions too long and were destroyed before they could pull out. This included an entire company of hybrid Sherman tanks with AMX-13 turrets. The Israelis recovered and repaired them and placed them in their own forces.

Scenario #29 – This is the recreation of the battle of Khan Yunis in 1956. Nothing really special about this scenario. Historically the Israelis had a tough fight but took the town after a several hour battle that featured house to house fighting.
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars IV

Ode to AIW IV includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-30, 6 June, 1967, Bir Lahfen, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-31, 6 June, 1967, Abu Aghiela, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-32, 7 June, 1967, Bir Gigafa, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-33, 7 June, 1967, Mitla Pass, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-34, 8 June, 1967, Bir Gigaffa, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-35, 8 June, 1967, Nakhl, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-36, 6 June, 1967, Kabatiya, West Bank
[*] AIW-37, 7 June, 1967, Nablus, West Bank
[*] AIW-38, 9 June, 1967, Qala, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-39, 9 June, 1967, Tel Faher, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-40, 21 March, 1968, Kerama, Jordan


Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars IV

These ten scenarios (#30-39) are from the 1967 War. Somewhat more complex than those of the 56 War.

Scenario #30 – This is a recreation of the battle of Bir Lahfen. Historically the battle was three phases. Phase one occurred on 5 June 1967 when the the Israeli “Shandi” Armored Brigade arrived on the site while it was still daylight and captured a radar station on top of hill. While there was minor skirmishing with the local Egyptian defenders no major fighting occurred. The second phase occurred during the night when the Egyptian 4th Armored Division attacked from the south. The attack was stopped after the Egyptians lost about ten tanks and they pulled back to reorganized. The third phase occurred in the morning of the 6th when the Egyptian 4th Armored attacked again and the local defenders joined in. However the Israelis received reinforcements from the east and the north and after destroying the local defenders, drove back the 4th Armored. I compressed the battle into a night engagement because it was here that the Egyptians historically had the best chance to win. While the Israeli force is strong, he gets no reinforcements beyond what comes on the start of the game. Other than that, nothing special about this scenario.

Scenario #31 – This is a redo of Scenario #6, the battle of Abu Aghiela in 1967. First, it was a night battle, hence the night conditions. Second I expanded the board by adding the desert portion of Board A on top of the two Board B's from Scenario #27. Three, I included all the forces that were historically there on both sides and excluded those that were not (sorry Egyptian players, no T-10 tanks in this one). Fourth I placed all the different groups on both sides in their relative starting positions to each other. Still the battle is very compressed as the actual ground was far bigger than I was able to portray in AIW. Fifth, I fixed all the Egyptian units in place to reflect the real-life Egyptian commander's indecisiveness in the actual battle (he would not order units to move until they were attacked). This allowed the Israelis to defeat each group in detail without interference from other groups. All in all this has made this scenario a better representation of Abu Aghiela in AIW.

Scenario #32 – This scenario recreates an example of the Israeli pursuit of the retreating Egyptian forces across the Sinai Peninsula. Historically the Israelis would race cross-country ahead of the Egyptian road-bound vehicle columns and set up blocking and ambush positions to catch Egyptians when they came up on the road. In the original board game version I had the Egyptians moving along the road at a fixed rate, but that is not possible in either Divided Ground or Middle East. So I gave the Israelis a four turn head start before the first Egyptian units appears to give them time to get ahead and set up their positions. Nothing else special about this scenario.

Scenario #33 – Ah, the battle of Mitla Pass. This recreates the engagement where a small Israeli blocking force held up a large group of Egyptian units in front of the eastern entrance to Mitla Pass while follow up Israeli forces attacked the Egyptians from the rear. Another night engagement, hence night conditions. The large number of vehicle wrecks among the Egyptians are those vehicles that were knocked out in the fighting the day before. The Egyptian force has the units from four different divisions with no over-all leader or headquarters, is demoralized (hence the Morale Level of 4), and trying to exit off the west edge of the board at Hex 16, 30. Historically the Israeli blocking force was able to keep the Egyptians off balance with telling hits on their headquarters units, thus they could never organized a proper breakthrough attempt but by dawn of the next day had run out of ammunition and would have been overrun if the Egyptians had even made an attempt to attack, if had not been for the Israeli rear force attacking at dawn, mopping up the entire Egyptian force by noon.

Scenario #34 – This is a recreation of the battle between the T-55's of the Egyptian 1st Armored Brigade and the AMX-13's of the Israeli 19th Armored Battalion. Still yet another night engagement, hence the night conditions. Nothing else special about this scenario.

Scenario #35 – This is a recreation of the battle of Nahkl, where Gen Sharon destroyed Egyptian 6th Mechanized Division. Actually only half of the division was destroyed as the other half had already passed through Nahkl before Sharon arrived and set up his positions. Nothing special about this scenario.

Scenario #36 – This is a recreation of the battle of Kabatiya where the Israelis try to rescue a trapped reconnaissance battalion that is surrounded by the Jordanians. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Israelis made several attempts on the break through during the 6th of June but were rebuffed each time. Finally at about sunset, after massive air strikes were made against the Jordanians, the Israelis broke through and rescued the battalion.
Scenario #37 – This is recreation of the battle of Nablus, the last major tank battle on the West Bank during the war. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Israelis won.

Scenario #38 – This is a recreation of the battle of Qala in the Golan Heights. One problem that this and the next scenario have is the use of Board D to represent the Golan Heights. Actually Board D does a good job of this when the battles occur in the Heights. But it does a rotten job in portraying the western edge of the Golan Heights. The hills are just too low to simulate the great elevations that the Israeli had to go up to get to the top. Well, one just has to make due with what one has. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Israelis took heavy casualties trying to take Qala and finally did when a neighboring unit made a flank attack on the town.

Scenario #39 – This is a recreation of the battle of Tel Faher. Again nothing special about this scenario other than the previous comment about Board D. Historically the Israelis took heavy casualties getting to the top of the western edge of the Golan Heights but once they were on top, things got easier as the Syrians were withdrawing.

Scenario #40 - I designed that scenario at the same time as the others for Arab-Israeli Wars back in the Eighties. As the battle happened in 1968 it fitted in nicely with the other 67 War scenarios. When I started converting Arab-Israeli Wars to Divided Ground I found that I could not do Scenario S-3, Irbid, as it was an Arab vs Arab scenario. Thus Kerama was a perfect substitute for it. Now that in Middle East I can do Arab vs Arab scenarios, I was able to do Irbid and put it back in its rightful place in the scenario listings. Kerama then went back to its rightful place, between the 67 War and 73 War scenarios.

Kerama is a simple scenario where the Israelis are conducting what amounts to a raid against the PLO forces and holding off the Jordanians who are obviously defending their own territory. Historically the Israelis did do great damage to the PLO forcing them to disperse. The Jordanians did counterattack the Israelis but waited until the Israelis had accomplished their mission and were beginning to withdraw. (The Jordanians wanted to get rid of the PLO too but preferred that the Israelis do it so as not to lower their standing in the Arab community.) The Jordanians did knock out a few Israeli tanks and the Israelis let them keep the wrecks so they could show to the rest of the Arab world that they were doing their part in the continuing aggression against Israel. Ironically the PLO regained their strength within a year and the Jordanians ended up in 1970 going after them and destroying all their forces within Jordan, which in turn set up the battle of Irbid as the Syrians were backing the PLO and had to come to their rescue. Thus Kerama and Irbid are somewhat linked in a way.
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars V

Ode to AIW V includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-41, 6 October, 1973, Tel Faris, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-42, 7 October, 1973, Nafehk, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-43, 9 October, 1973, Tel el Mekhafi, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-44, 10 October, 1973, Hushniyah, Golan Heights
[*] AIW-45, 16 October, 1973, Um Butne, Syria
[*] AIW-46, 6 October, 1973, Giddi Pass, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-47, 9 October, 1973, Ras Sudar, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-48, 14 October, 1973, Hamutal Hill, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-49, 14 October, 1973, Giddi Pass, sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-50, 14 October, 1973, Wadi Mobouk, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-51, 17 October, 1973, Botzer, Sinai Peninsula
[*] AIW-52, 20 October, 1973, Ismailia, Egypt
[*] AIW-53, 21 October, 1973, Asor Road, Egypt
[*] AIW-54, 21 October, 1973, Missouri Hill Mass, Sinai Peninsula


Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars V

These fourteen scenarios are from the 1973 War. Note that the scenario numbering differs here between Divided Ground and Middle East. The scenarios range from simple to complex.

Scenario #41 – This is the recreation of the Syrian attack on the Israeli positions at Tel Faris on 6 October, 1973. As it was a night battle, night conditions are in effect. Nothing special about this scenario except for the anti-tank ditch that goes across the width of the board and the minefields covering the crossing points. Syrians are going to have to be real careful with the Dozer tank and (in Middle East) the MTU-1 units as they will be the number one targets for Israeli gunners. Historically the Syrians did pierce the anti-tank ditch and overran the Israeli positions during the night.

Scenario #42 – This is recreation of the meeting engagement between the Syrian 1st Armored Division and the Israeli 79th Armored Brigade near Nafehk in the Golan Heights. Nothing special about this one, both sides enter the board from their respective sides and battle it out. Historically it was an Israeli victory.

Scenario #43 – This is the recreation of the final Syrian attack against the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade on the morning of 9 October 1973 near Tel el Mekhafi. The wrecks that litter the main road are Syrian tanks that were knocked out in previous attacks. Nothing else special about this scenario. Historically the Syrians almost did break through before being stop by last minute Israeli reinforcements, only to ordered to withdraw from the Golan Heights due to reverses further south.

Scenario #44 – This is the recreation of the battle of Hushniyah, where the Israelis attempted a double envelopment of the Syrian 1st Armored Division. One of the bigger scenarios in the batch. Nothing special about it. Historically the Israelis managed to destroy part of the 1st Armored, but enough got away for the Syrians to rebuild with.

Scenario #45 – This is the recreation of the battle of Um Butne where a combined Arab force consisting the Jordanian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Saudi Arabian unit attempted an attack on the Israeli 19th Armored Brigade. Nothing special about this scenario except the number of different Arab nationalities involved. Historically when the attack was supposed to begin, the Iraqis were not ready, so the rest of the Arab allies went forward. About an hour into the battle, the Iraqis finally moved forward, only to be met by the rest of the Arab allies who were withdrawing in defeat. Seeing the Jordanian Centurion tanks and mistaking them for Israeli ones, the Iraqis opened fire on the rest of the Arab allies, precipitating a short but intense armored battle among the Arabs until higher command put a stop to it.

Scenario #46 – This is the recreation of the meeting engagement at Giddi Pass on October 6, 1973 between units of the Egyptian 130th Amphibious Brigade and the Israeli 401st Armored Brigade. Nothing special about this scenario. Both sides enter the map from their respective edges. Historically the Egyptians were defeated and retreated back to the Suez bridgehead. The 130th attacked three different passes that day and none of them were successful. If that is not bad enough, the 130th took over 50% casualties that day and when it reorganized its remnants, only had the strength of two week battalions.

Scenario #47 – This is the recreation of the probing attack by units of the Egyptian 19th Infantry Division against the Israeli 35th Paratroop Brigade on 9 October, 1973. Nothing out the ordinary about this scenario. These attacks by the Egyptians were common during the first week of the war in the Sinai as they sought to expand their bridgeheads across the Suez Canal. This scenario is an example of them.

Scenario #48 – This is a recreation of the Egyptian armored attack on Hamutal Hill on 14 October, 1973. One of the bigger armored battle scenarios in the set. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Egyptians did well at first against the Israelis but reinforcements tip the balance in the Israelis favor and the Egyptians were driven back with moderate casualties.

Scenario #49 – This is the recreation of the Egyptian attack by the 25th Armored Brigade against the Israeli 164th Armored Brigade on 14 October, 1973. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Egyptians were defeated and the 25th had to retreat back to the Canal bridgeheads. What's worse is that it had 33% of it vehicles knocked out in the battle and these losses would come back to haunt the 25th in its fateful attack three days later.

Scenario #50 – This is a recreation of the Egyptian 3rd Armored Brigade's attack on the Israeli 401st Armored Brigade near Wadi Mobouk. This was the most successful of the Egyptian attacks of the 14th of October in terms of how far it penetrated into the Israeli rear before it was stopped. Nothing special about this scenario.

Scenario #51 – This is a redo of Scenario #4 (Botzer). First, I expanded the board by adding the desert portion of Board A to the west side of the map. Second, I expanded the Israeli forces to include all battalions that participated in the battle. Third, I revised the order of battle for the Egyptians to reflect the real organization of the 25th Armored in that battle. Fourth I revised the points and times of entry for the forces of both sides to reflect how it really went down. Due to its losses from the attack on the 14th of October, the 25th Armored had all of its surviving tanks put into its first two tank battalions. For the third tank battalion, a battalion from the 35th Armored Brigade was attached. The 35th was a new T-62 unit that was training up but was not ready for combat yet, hence it was not initially put into the war. Thus this battalion has a lower Morale level than the rest of the Egyptians. Also the 25th's mechanized infantry battalion was at half strength (again, due to losses on the 14th), so one of the weak reconstituted battalions from the 130th Amphibious Brigade was combined with it to make a slightly oversized unit. In the end it did not matter, the 25th Armored was destroyed in the battle with 90% casualties.

Scenario #52 - This is the recreation of the Israeli attack on the Egyptian 182nd Parachute Brigade in an attempt to take the city of Ismailia. The 182nd was an elite unit in the Egyptian Army and that, plus its historical performance in the battle, gives it units a Morale Level of 7, same as the Israeli units. Historically the 182nd, though forced back at times, held the Israelis and the city of Ismailia was never captured during the rest of the war.

Scenario #53 – This is the recreation of the meeting engagement at Asor Road in Egypt. Both sides enter on their respective sides of the map. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Egyptians stopped the Israeli spearheads from continuing down towards Suez City, but only temporarily. As more Israeli reinforcements came up, they flanked to Egyptians to the east, forcing them to withdraw.

Scenario #54 – This is the recreation of the Israeli attack on the Missouri hill mass in the Sinai towards the end of the war. Nothing special about this scenario. Historically the Israelis captured the southern half of the hill mass but could take the other half before the war ended.

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars VI

Ode to AIW VI includes the following situations:

[*] AIW-55, 6 June, 1982, El Bas, Lebanon
[*] AIW-56, 7 June, 1982, Nabatiye, Lebanon
[*] AIW-57, 8 June, 1982, Jezzin, Lebanon
[*] AIW-58, 11 June, 1982, Sultan Yakoub, Lebanon
[*] AIW-59, 8 August, 1982, Shouf Mountains, Lebanon
[*] AIW-60, 22 August, 1982, Shouf Mountains, Lebanon


DESIGN NOTES FOR ODE TO ARAB-ISRAELI WARS VI

By Alan R. Arvold


Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars VI are the scenarios for the board game Arab-Israeli Wars, about the 1982 invasion of Lebanon that were published in the General Magazine Vol. 21, #6. There were five scenarios, but the last scenario had two parts, effectively making two sub-scenarios. Unfortunately these scenarios could not be converted to Divided Ground due to the fact that two of the scenarios had Arabs fighting Arabs and another scenario had modern units which were not in the game. So I ignored them for many years. However, the recent release of the game Middle East (Divided Ground's successor) changed the situation. Arabs could now fight Arabs and that game had modern units that were used in the Lebanon invasion. Thus I created six scenarios (AIW 55-60) for Middle East only.

The map boards are the standard ones from Arab-Israeli Wars game. Thus the design notes for the maps from my previous AIW scenario sets apply here as well. The scenarios are short, mostly eight to ten turns long. The units are those available for 1982 which means that there will be some which will be seen for the first time in this series.


The Scenarios


Situation #55 – This scenario recreates the Israeli assault on a refugee camp at El Bas in search of a PLO militia battalion hiding among the inhabitants therein. The Israelis have a weak mechanized infantry battalion supported by a couple of tank companies, plus five air strikes. In the original scenario the refugee camp was simulated by negative point modifier for Israeli airstrikes if they were used, representing the risk of hitting and killing civilians in the camp. However, all that the Arabs had on the board was his units which the Israelis could attack at will with his on board units without worry about hitting civilians. For the Middle East version I decided to add twenty civilian units (representing refugees) to the Arab order of battle, set up in the same area as the PLO militia unit. The PLO militia battalion was represented by Rifle units, I changes these to PLO Militia units, plus some minimal support machine gun and and RPG-7 units. The Israelis still get their air strikes (F-15's instead of Phantoms and Skyhawks for a change), but now all Israeli units run the risk of killing civilians and earning negative victory points. I was tempted to change the Israeli halftracks to M113s but decided against this as I feel the original author of the scenario deliberately gave the Israelis halftracks in order to give Arabs an better chance in destroying them, given their weakened anti-tank capabilities. Victory Points are based solely on killing units for both sides.

Situation #56 - This scenario recreates the Israeli attack on the famed (?) PLA Yarmuk Brigade near the town of Nabatiye, Lebanon. As usual I had to convert the Arab units to equivalent PLO units using the Pro-Eastern unit set. The Rifle units became PLO Militia, the Commando became PLO Terror units, the BTR-152s became Militia Cars, the machine gun units became Irregular Machine Gun units, the Mortars became Militia Mortars, and the 82mm Recoilless Rifles became RPG-7 Teams. This is what I did to the Yarmuk Brigade for the most part back in Scenario #16 (Marjayou). The big difference between the two versions is that the Yarmuk Brigade has a worse Morale Level in this scenario than in the former one. Nor only that, the leaders in the Yarmuk Brigade are the executive officers in their units as their commanders have fled. On the Israeli side I was able to use some of the more modern equipment available to them in 1982. The infantry now has M113 APCs with that special armor, the self propelled mortars now have M113 based vehicles, not the old halftracks. This scenario serves as an example of how giving a terrorist organization an army type organization (the PLA?) does not make them equal to regular army troop in straight up combat. Victory points are based on capturing town hexes, killing enemy units, and exiting Israeli units off the north side of the board.

Scenario #57 – This scenario recreates the Israeli attack on Jezzin (or Jezzine) Lebanon, which is being defended by elements of the Syrian 1st Armored Division. The conversion of units on both was pretty straight forward, the Israelis again get some of the more modern equipment for their infantry and mortars, and the Syrians get some more modern renditions of their own units. There were two strange things about the Syrian order of battle. One was the mechanized infantry battalion with two vehicle types for its infantry. I suppose this is a mixed unit made up of remnants of two different units that were destroyed in a previous battle. The other strange thing was the tank battalion with forty tanks instead of thirty. Now the Syrians in 1982 were primarily using forty tank battalions in all their units, so it is historical. But the original designer gave the battalion nine tank units, not the eight that forty tanks would require. How am I going the fit the remaining five tank into the battalion? The answer was to use some of the specialty tanks that the battalion has. For this I gave them a three tank dozer-tank platoon and a two tank flame-tank platoon. Okay so you get only 42 T-62's instead of 45. I am sure that the Russians made dozer-tank versions of the their T-62's and T-72's, but the Syrians only bought the cheaper T-55 versions and I got to use what they have. Victory points are based on killing units and capturing the three hex town on the board, which is supposed to represent Jezzin.

Scenario #58 – This scenario recreates the big battle between the Israelis and the Syrian elite 3rd Armored Division near Sultan Yakoub, Lebanon. Here we see the meeting between the Israeli Merkava tank and the Syrian T-72. Not only that, the Syrians also got ATGM firing Gazelle helicopters. Again, both sides get the more modern equipment during the conversion of units. Again the Arabs have those forty tank battalions with forty-five tanks, so I dealt with this problem the same way as I did in the previous scenario. Players may wonder why the T-72 is only marginally superior to the T-62 in the game. Well it should be remembered that these are the export versions of the T-72 without the extra frills like explosive armor panels to counter ATGM's, laser range-finders, and ballistic firing computers, all which would bring the T-72 closer to the Merkava in abilities. (The Syrians couldn't afford the extra frills.) Victory points are based on killing enemy units and exiting Israeli units off of the northern edge of the board.

Scenario #59 – This scenario recreates the Lebanese Army's attempt to take back the Shouf Mountains east of Beirut and the Druze's defense of them. The Lebanese have a weak combined arms battalion with two weak mechanized infantry companies and one weak tank company. They also have two heavy mortar units. The tanks in the original scenario were Centurions but the Lebanese never had these tanks so I substituted the M48 tanks which would be the closest equivalent. The Lebanese also had a five truck unit convoy that they were suppose to exit off the east side of the board. Historically these were supply trucks taking supplies to loyal towns in the Druze region. I decided that simple trucks would not be enough for this convoy. I made the truck units into Supply Trucks, each worth 10 points per strength point. Thus these trucks are worth a lot of points to both sides. For the Druze I used the Pro-Eastern units to represent them. Basically they are just an ordinary militia battalion. Their only strength is that they have a superior Morale Level to that of the Lebanese. Victory points are based on killing enemy units and exiting Lebanese units (all units, not just the Supply Trucks) off of the eastern edge of the board.

Scenario #60 – This scenario recreates the Druze attempt to eliminate the Lebanese Army's foothold that they had in the Shouf Mountains. Both sides have the same units as in the previous scenario with two exceptions. The Lebanese do not have the supply convoy and the Druze have a Syrian artillery battalion consisting of two 122mm howitzer batteries and one 122mm mobile rocket battery. Nothing else has changed compared to the previous scenario except that the Druze are the attackers in this one. Victory points are based on killing enemy units and possession of the single town hex on the board.


Conclusion

This brings to a conclusion the Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios that were created for Divided Ground/Middle East. I hope that players find satisfaction in them as most of them are fast playing and are easier to finish in a reasonable amount than those found in the games, especially Middle East.
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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With 1.02 UPDATE now out, don't forget to check these magnificent AIW scenarios by Alan! [:)]
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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The opening post has now been updated with a download link for a complete Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars scenario pack of 60 scenarios. For convenience, the download contains the whole cumulative scenario pack.

[*] Remove the Ode To AIW Mod from you Active Mods with JSGME, if necessary
[*] Download,
[*] Unzip
[*] Drop the unzipped folder to your Mods folder
[*] Enjoy!

My humble thanks to Alan for his incredible effort in preserving some classics in this manner! [&o]

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Do remember to check his Design notes too! When deployed, they can be found under the game's Manual folder:

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Updated with design notes for Scenario #40: Kerama [:)]
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Scenario #40 - I designed that scenario at the same time as the others for Arab-Israeli Wars back in the Eighties. As the battle happened in 1968 it fitted in nicely with the other 67 War scenarios. When I started converting Arab-Israeli Wars to Divided Ground I found that I could not do Scenario S-3, Irbid, as it was an Arab vs Arab scenario. Thus Kerama was a perfect substitute for it. Now that in Middle East I can do Arab vs Arab scenarios, I was able to do Irbid and put it back in its rightful place in the scenario listings. Kerama then went back to its rightful place, between the 67 War and 73 War scenarios.

Kerama is a simple scenario where the Israelis are conducting what amounts to a raid against the PLO forces and holding off the Jordanians who are obviously defending their own territory. Historically the Israelis did do great damage to the PLO forcing them to disperse. The Jordanians did counterattack the Israelis but waited until the Israelis had accomplished their mission and were beginning to withdraw. (The Jordanians wanted to get rid of the PLO too but preferred that the Israelis do it so as not to lower their standing in the Arab community.) The Jordanians did knock out a few Israeli tanks and the Israelis let them keep the wrecks so they could show to the rest of the Arab world that they were doing their part in the continuing aggression against Israel. Ironically the PLO regained their strength within a year and the Jordanians ended up in 1970 going after them and destroying all their forces within Jordan, which in turn set up the battle of Irbid as the Syrians were backing the PLO and had to come to their rescue. Thus Kerama and Irbid are somewhat linked in a way.

My IDF desperately hold their ground against a determined Jordanian counter attack. Turn 9 / (20)


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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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ORIGINAL: Crossroads

My IDF desperately hold their ground against a determined Jordanian counter attack. Turn 9 / (20)

All clear! But not without casualties. I scored 1039 points, falling just short of the 1100 points required for a Major Victory. Close!

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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This MoD look's so Cool,ive had to go and Purchase CS:ME^^
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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ORIGINAL: IckieStickie

This MoD look's so Cool,ive had to go and Purchase CS:ME^^
agreed[&o]
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Awesome, yes, thank you very much for the support!! Enjoy![&o]
Mike Amos

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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Heh your welcome guys,it don't only LOOK cool,it actually IS,i can confirm this![:D]
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Ode to AIW III revision from Alan. Please see the Opening Post for a download link.
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RE: Alan R. Arvold's Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario Pack

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Thankyou
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