BatRep: 2-Kill Over The Canal (Check Your 6! Jet Age)

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Needing a break from DW for a bit, we decided to face off in Check Your 6! Jet Age.  Once more, we decided to do a mission from the Star and Pyramid campaign book.

The Date: 10 July, 1970, 09:30

Location: West of the Suez Canal, Egypt

Situation: Russians have decided to help Egypt by deploying a SA-3 Surface to Air Missile System (SAM) to help defend the Suez.  The new missiles have caused problems for the Israelis and they have launched a mission to take out one of the SAM sites.

Mission takes place between Surface and Low CABs (Combat Air Bands), giving both players a total of 12 TALs (Tactical Altitude Levels) to maneuver within. 

The Israelis launch 4 A4H Skyhawks, fully loaded with (medium) bombs and 2 Mirage IIICJ Fighters with Drop tanks and 2 AIM9B Infrared Missiles (IRM) each.  Israeli Aircraft deployed to the west of the Suez Canal at Low Cab, TALs 1 & 2 (equivalent of 7 & 8 TALs above ground).

The Egyptians had the SAM SA-3 battery, which deployed hidden, also had a Light AA battery and a Medium AA Battery to deploy, not hidden.  The Egyptians also got to deploy 2 cloud formations (10 hexes each).  Finally, on patrol were 2 MiG 21MF fighters, each with 4 AA2 IRM.

Egyptians rolled Special Mission Rule “Tactical Training” and deployed hidden (I actually plotted their moves off the table).  Israelis rolled “Israeli Intelligence Operations” and discovered the location of the SAM site!  It was no longer hidden and the enemy knew exactly where to go and bomb it!  Ouch!

Mission - Israeli Forces:
Get more Victory Points than the Egyptians by destroying the SAM site and/or Fighters!

Mission – Egyptians:
Have More Victory Points than the Israelis!  Start with 10VP if the SAM site is intact at the end of the game.  As well as normal Kill points for Aircraft, Egyptians get, 1 VP for every Israeli Aircraft still in Zone A, B, C or D at the end of Turn 15!

Start of the Battle

The Battle:

Turn 1:

Things started slowly with the Israelis moving straight forward.  The AA and aircraft failed to spot each other.  This was because everyone was beyond the visual range for this game.  In spite of the Radar, the SAM was unable to detect any Israeli Aircraft.  The MiGs, hidden at CAB Surface, TAL1, moved forward towards the Israelis and the Suez on the southern half of the map.

Turn 2:

MiGs (still hidden) continued to move forward.  The Israelis started to turn to port (left) as they reached the Suez.  Mirages dropped their drop tanks in preparation for Air Combat Maneuvers.

In the Discovery Phase, the Mirages spot the Medium AA battery, but the battery failed to spot the Mirages.  The A4s failed to spot anything (they were out of range), while the SAM finally spotted the Israelis over the Suez.

The Egyptian’s SAM got a Missile Lock-on one of the A4s over the Suez.  Not enough to fire, but it would be able to next turn.

Turn 3:

MiGs continued straight forward at low level.  The A4s started a dive to the Surface CAB level, TAL 5 and turned towards the SAM site.  The Mirages continued towards the A4s, not turning, not dropping into the lower CAB.

In the Discovery Phase, the MiGs are finally Spotted by the Mirages and placed on the table – almost Head-to-Head with a flight of A4s!  The A4s spot the Light AA Battery.

Finally, the SAM launched 2 SA-3 missiles at one of the A4s, and while 1 missile malfunctioned, the other detonated with a Proximity Blast to the Israeli Aircraft.  

The A4 managed to avoid Major damage, but suffered a Lucky Hit (he rolled Double 6’s on his Robustness Save)!  Rolling on the Lucky Hit Table, the A4 suffered “Elevator Damage”, forcing the plane to do a Steep Dive next turn (fortunately he had the height to avoid crashing).  The A4 also suffered damage to the Afterburner (not that the A4 had one) and was not able to perform Special Maneuvers or Extreme (tight) Turns for the rest of the game.  Fortunately, the A4’s Wingman was not behind the damaged plane as it could have suffered damage from debris falling from the damaged aircraft!

Turn 4:

The MiGs flew straight forward, climbed to TAL2, still below the A4s going the opposite direction.  The damaged A4 dropped to TAL2, below the Radar Horizon, so the SAM site lost Lock-on with the damaged plane.  The rest of the A4s dove to TAL3 and increased speed to 5.  The Mirages dropped to Surface CAB, TAL5 and increased speed to 7.

The SAM got a Lock-on on another A4, but was unable to fire this turn.  No one else had a shot.

Turn 5:

The MiGs do a Split-S and are in good position to launch their AA2 Atol Missiles – Except you can’t launch these missiles after performing Extreme Turns or Special Maneuvers (DRAT)!  The A4s continued forward and the Mirages continued to head towards the A4s, side-slipping and dropping more altitude.

In the Discovery Phase, the SAM site discovered the A4s were too close to launch, so proceeded to get Radar Lock on a Mirage.

Finally, 2 A4’s did a strafing attack on the Light AA battery, which fired back.  Sadly, the AA Battery failed to hit the A4s, though the A4s succeeded in destroying the Light AA Battery.

Light AA Battery Destroyed!

Turn 6:

The A4s continued forward, towards the SAM site while the MiGs hit the Afterburners for an extra 2 spaces movement to close in on the A4s while the Mirages performed an Immelmann Turn to lose speed and gain some altitude.

One MiG launched a missile at an A4, but the missile malfunctioned and spiraled away, uselessly.  The Other MiG launched a missile at the A4 with Elevator Damage and caused Airframe damage with another Proximity Blast. 

MiGs damage a Skyhawk!

The SAM Site lost its target as the Mirage, turning towards the MiGs, also turned towards the SAMSite, increasing the minimum distance required for the SAM to activate.  As long as all the aircraft were facing the SAMs, the Minimum Range was increased to 30 Hexes – all aircraft were now well within this range.  The SAM site would not have another opportunity to shoot unless one of the Aircraft turned sideways or away from the SAMs.

Turn 7:

The MiGs used Afterburners once more, increasing their speed an extra hex/turn as well as moving an additional Hex this turn – still in good position for a Missile shot on the A4s.  The Mirages dropped in behind the MiGs.

The one MiG fired at another A4, but the missile malfunctioned once again!  The other MiG was unable to fire as a cloud blocked its Line-Of-Sight (you cannot fire IRMs through clouds).  The Mirages, found themselves too close to fire missiles and too great a height difference to shoot their guns at the MiGs.  They would attempt to remedy that next turn.

Turn 8:

The A4s were in 2 dual-plane formations.  One formation moved forward and prepared to strafe the SAM Site.  The other formation (with the damaged A4) moved forward beside the other formation.  The MiGs continued to tail the A4s and prepared to launch another volley of missiles while the Mirages prepared to launch against the MiGs.

The A4’s failed to damage the SAM site with their strafe attack while both MiGs launched missiles at the other formation.  Once missile malfunctioned and fell to the ground without the motor firing, the other spiraled directly into the tail pipe of an Undamaged A4, obliterating the plane!  No parachutes were spotted, the pilot killed in the massive explosion of the fully loaded bomber.

Splash 1 A4!

Before the MiGs could celebrate their accomplishment, a missile from the Mirages blew apart one of the MiGs!  Having diverted his attention to the attack on the A4s, the Mirages got into perfect firing position against the MiGs!  No parachute was seen leaving the MiG – another Kill!

Splash 1 MiG 21!

Turn 9:

Well, the inevitable happened.  The 2 A4s that strafed the SAM Site last turn over-flew the SAM Site and dropped their bombs.  The first bomb attack failed to damage the SAMs, but the second plane’s attack succeeded where the first had failed – Target Destroyed!  The Israelis had accomplished their mission!

SAM Site Destroyed!

Seeking revenge, the last MiG launched another missile at the A4s, but once again, the inferior quality control failed the pilot and the missile failed to track.  The Egyptian Pilot’s disappointment was brief as the Israelis’ quality control was better and a missile from the Mirages caught up and destroyed the last MiG!

Another MiG Destroyed!

Turns 10-15:

With the Egyptians’ planes gone and the SAM destroyed, there really was nothing to do except see if the Israeli planes could get across the table before their time was up.

The damaged A4 could not turn fast enough to avoid flying off the table (its damage prevented extreme turns and it was traveling just a bit too fast to make the turn it was required to avoid flying off an “unfriendly” table edge).  We rolled and per the rules, the plane crashed and the crew was captured – counting as a “Kill”.  That made it 2 “Kills” each.  

The Mirages made it off the table with plenty of time (nice to be a super-sonic fighter), but the remaining A4s made it off the required table section by the skin of their teeth.  No extra points for Egypt that way.

Victory Points:

Israel:
2 X MiG 21s @ 2 VP each = 4VP 
(We were both shocked at this one, but the campaign book was quite specific)
1 Skilled Pilot shot down =  2VP
Destroyed the SAM Site = 10VP

16VPs Total!

Egypt:
2 X A4 @ 5VP each = 10VP
1 Skilled Pilot shot down = 1VP

11VPs total!

Israeli Victory!

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WOW!  A Nail Biter!

When we first started the game, I offered Graham his choice of sides and he picked the Israeli side because he Liked F4 Phantoms!  I forgot to mention to him this mission didn’t use any.  ;)

After his initial disappointment, he thought I was cheating again when I told him the SAM site was hidden and then rolled that the MiGs were hidden as well.  He stopped complaining when he rolled that the SAM site was no longer hidden…

Overall, I think this was a very interesting mission.  It was the first time we used Ground Support and targets with these rules and it wasn’t as bad a learning experience as I thought it might be.  We hit a few rough patches, but mostly that was due to us having forgotten the rules or doing things out-of-sequence, but I think we got it all worked out by turn 6.

I did learn a few things, mostly by reviewing my mistakes.  First mistake was the deployment of the Medium and Light AA Batteries.  I tried to “bluff” the location of the SAM site by placing one in each of C & D sections of the map, but the limited ranges and the placements meant that the light AA only got to shoot as it was being attacked and the Medium was so far out of the way, it never got off a shot!  I probably should have placed the batteries in a line, East-to-West and closer to the SAM site so that the AA “might” have been able to protect the SAM better.

Mistake 2: I didn’t read the capabilities and, more importantly, the LIMITATIONS of the SA-3 SAM.  Due to the closing speed, the SAM needs more distance (and time) to lock-on and attack (30 hexes).  The table was only 45 hexes long.  I couldn’t shoot at anything approaching the SAM site once the planes crossed the Suez.  Side Arc is 15 Hexes minimum.  If I had noted that, I could have tried to Lock-on to a Mirage in turn 4 and launched in turn 5, possibly destroying a Mirage and maybe saving a MiG for another turn.  NAHHH!  This is me we’re talking about!

Mistake 3: In Turn 7, I kept the MiGs after the A4s when the SAM Site’s fate was pretty much sealed already.  I should have had 1 MiG Break-off his attack run and try to attack/disrupt the Mirage attack run.  Doing that, the other MiG MAY have lasted longer to destroy another A4 or more while the Mirages could (hopefully) be kept too busy to Interfere.  It was a gamble, but I at least wouldn’t have been doing a “blind sacrifice” to save an already doomed target.

On the Israeli side, I only see one “mistake” and that was the handling of the damaged A4.  If it had turned a turn earlier or reduced its speed, it wouldn’t have flown off the wrong table edge and allowed the pilot to be captured.  A bad oversight as it gave me more points.  Actually, as the plane was damaged, it would have had to make a safe landing roll (and failed) and the crew would have had to try and survive (and failed a 2^nd roll) using the same dice rolls.  Graham rolled pretty badly on both.  I think that pilot was doomed, anyway.

Still, it was a good game and I look forward to another mission sometime soon!  I hope you enjoyed this!