Souq el Gharb (Lebanon 1983) - 15mm Wargame
Arab-Israeli Wars - 1956 Sinai War
Just a quick battle report for a Weekend Web Wargame between myself and community member @Damon. Using Avalon Hill’s The Arab Israeli Wars, we tried a home-built scenario depicting the opening day of Israel’s ground offensive of the 1956 Sinai War.
Using web conferencing and shared desktop, we were able to play across the ocean in real time, with each player moving their own pieces and always seeing the same board.
The Arab Israeli Wars is a command-tactical level game, where each piece is not an individual but a unit. This allows wargames of the proper scale, ranges, timescales, and “tactical geometries” – without playing on a golf course or a tennis court. 😀
Some very quick background, showing the overall thrusts of the largest Israeli series of offensives at the outset of the 1956 War. The main assualt launched by 10th Brigade is breaking down to the north. The "supporting flank attack" of 4th Brigade is having more success in the south. So now high command has thrown in the 7th Armored Brigade to support, and the 4th Brigade's assault is now the main attack!
Here is the whole map, with elements of the Egyptian 6th Brigade / 3rd Division set up in defense of the roads leading from border outboast of Jebel Sabah, through Kussiema, then around to the flank and rear of the main Egyptian positions in this area like Abu Agheila and Um Katef. This battle at Kussiema is important because the it will allow flanking attacks on Abu Agheila and Um Katef. These main positions must be broken and these roads to the west opened in order for Israeli ground forces to reach paratroopers already dropped at Mitla Pass. SO THERE ARE FIVE OBJECTIVE HEXES marked with yellow "target" icons. Damon's Israelis are tasked to take at least four of them (thus opening at least one of the two roads off the west end of the board) by the end of Turn 10.
The game begins. Damon comes on from the northeast, immediately assaulting my Egyptian National Guard border boards (with Czech 107mm recoilless rifles) at the border outboast at Jebel Sabha. My counterfire knocks out one platoon of Isreali armored infantry, but that's it. Already the Isrealis have a foothold in the town. No worries, I certainly didn't expect this town to hold, this is a "speed bump" before Damon reaches my actual positions. 
Further south, the M1 and M50 Shermans of 7th Armored are trundling toward my Archer tank destroyers of the 78th AT Artillery Battery.
After a couple of turns, actually at least one more turn that I though, Jebel Sabha has fallen and the Isrealis have regrouped for a continued push southwest toward the outskirts of Kussiema. Here, I have 17 pounder AT guns, Egyptian Army infantry (no more National Border Guards), 25 pounder artillery, more Czech 107s, minefields, blocks, improved positions, etc. It's not a terribly big position (and Damon has three batteries of off-board 155mm howitzers which which he can play "finger of God" on the table), but again, for the Egyptians in 1956, it's all about playing for time. 
The 7th Armored hesitates for a bit before the 17 pounders of my Archer tank destroyers, deployed hull-down on the reverse slope of that desert ridge. However, a hail of 155mm HE comes down, knocks out two of the Archers platoons, and finally 30 Shermans sally forth to engage the Archers. A third platoon is quickly pinned, and the fourth runs for its like back to eastern Kussiema. Next turn the Shermans will handily mop up this platoon of Archers, leaving fifteen of them well and truly REKKED on the ridge, without the loss of a single Israeli tank. Combined arms, baby! 
The 7th Armoured begins to apply pressure from the southeast, while 4th Infantry (reinforced with a MG platoon, engineers, and some of the 7th Armored's tanks) comes down from the northeast against 6th Brigade's main line of resistance.
Contact is made and, man, things get messy fast. The Israelis are killing Egyptian infantry platoons well enough, but I have additional security and engineer units stacked up in secondary positions that can take their place, assuming I don't lose the whole objective hex AT ONCE so Damon has a chance to occupy it. I'm losing men fast, but perhaps more importantly, Damon is losing TIME.
Casualties continue to mount on both sides, probably at a 3:1 ratio between the Egyptians and Israelis. But I'm out of reserves here, and this second objective hex is about to fall. And on top of all that, this position has also been outflanked on both wings by Israeli tanks.
The end of Turn 09, and pretty much the final state of the game. The game is an Egyptian victory, with only two of the required four objective hexes even assaulted, let alone taken. So that’s the game. To be honest, I’m going to re-run this solitaire to see if I gave the Israelis enough time. I have a sneaking suspicion the game length should be increased to 12 turns. But even with 12 turns Damon would have not been able to take a third objective hex, much less fourth.
I probably won’t put up a FULL battle report for this solitaire game, but maybe an update.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested in joining in these web weekend wargames, we have people from three continents participating in a regular basis! Just drop me a PM and we’ll add you to the web conference!
This was another fun game, definitely need to up my pace and aggression with these time limited games and accept a few more casualties for a faster advance.
I’m enjoying the learning curve with this game.
No worries at all, man. To be completely honest, and for anyone else reading these comments, @damon has definitely jumped straight into the deep end of the pool here regarding command tactical war games. At least among the three game systems of the PanzerBlitz line, this is the most complex, and he’s picking by far the more demanding faction. Sure, the Israelis get all the awesome tanks, but they also always have the “burden of victory”, they’re almost always on the attack, they’re up against insane numerical disadvantages, and tight time schedules. The game is very unforgiving for them, because… Read more »