Middle East Campaign - Israel
Posted: Aug 02 2006
CON: Israel did not have the Tech know-how to produce F/B aircraft,and several other units that I had expected and its initial military deployment wasn’t what I expected in terms of regional threats. Inability of the AI to conduct naval and air offensive operations. Iraq did not launch missile strikes against Israel when I was certain that it had the potential.
PRO: Neighboring countries reacted as I was hoping in terms of aggression, except Iraq, and the aircraft usage, especially from Turkey and Egypt, truly set me back in my attempts to quickly seize those countries.
As expected Syria was the first to DoW and its initial assaults against my northern units were weak at best resulting in large casualties for the Syrian forces. The timing of the DoW caught me off guard as I was in the middle of reorganizing/redeploying my units to better counter the “real†threats as I seen them. Syria’s assault ended within short time and I began my push into their territory and made pretty good time/distance against 65% of the country. My first real problem was against the military base in the northwest and the Syrian capitol as my ground forces, by that time, were capable of only defensive operations and my air support was too limited to offer any breakthrough combat. The second stall and simultaneous to that in the west, was against the military base in the northeast, north of the river and west of the Iraqi border. The condition of my troops by that time had deteriorated considerably and I lacked the necessary engineer and air support to effectively push north of the river system. A major factor in my slowing progress was the lack of roads and other supply points to keep the troops supplied. Luckily for me the AI could not grasp the fact that my eastern forces were pretty depleted in terms of combat power. Had the AI been able to ascertain my forces status I would have been in big trouble. My campaign against Syria lasted until mid-2011 and eventually I took control of the Syrian territory.
During the early months of 2011 as I tore through the Syrian capitol and assaulted its eastern sectors Jordan DoW against me. Additionally Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia DoW shortly thereafter and my feelings of being victorious quickly bottomed out as I struggled to redeploy my forces. Iraq and Saudi Arabia pretty much remained out of the fight; however Iraq quickly sent troops to regain any lost territory and occasionally tried to take several Syrian oil facilities from me. Beyond that – neither jumped into the fray. Jordan on the other hand quickly went on the offense and while was it was a smaller threat it was consuming far too many resources and units that I needed elsewhere against more threatening enemies and I simply did not have the luxury of a war of attrition with them. In so much I chose to push as many forces as feasible against Jordan to end their offensive capabilities and within several months I had secured my victory and captured Jordan. Removing them from the game, while maintaining a static defense in the north and south, had taken a considerable toll on my ground forces and I was having to once again rethink my deployments and realign the necessary forces to fight the multi-front war.
Egypt’s DoW, while expected, still caught me off guard as I was so busy trying to remove Syria and Jordan. Luckily, the shabby forces that I had on my southern border turned out to be sufficient enough to at least hold the line. After several months of tit-for-tat fighting against Egyptian forces and the removal of Jordan I pushed as many forces as possible to the south. My only objective was to remove Egyptian ground forces (EGF) out of the Sinai (spelling?) and contain their remaining forces to the west side of the Suez Canal. My meager naval forces were anxious to get into the fight (or so I thought) and were ordered to clear the Egyptian naval forces (ENF) along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts of the Sinai. This turned out to be catastrophic as I had no idea what the Egyptian navy was capable of and their surface fleet and missile assets quickly destroyed all of my vessels, except for one lone submarine. This caused me to restructure my missile construction and within several months had what I thought to be sufficient anti-ship missiles to launch air raids against the Egyptian navy. This operation almost turned out disastrous as I had not considered the Egyptian Air Force (EAF) to react in such numbers, not to mention their aircraft chased my planes across the Sinai before they RTB. At the time of the first anti-ship air raid I had ground forces up to the eastern banks of the Suez Canal and up to this point had not been engaged by the EAF. My first anti-ship strike resulted in several ENF vessels being sunk but the larger vessels had been protected pretty well. Several months later I established an interested AAA defensive line along the southwest coast of the Sinai to support my next anti-ship strike along with more interceptor aircraft to assist. This time I was able to sink several larger ships and kill a few Egyptian aircraft. As of the July 2011 I am still held at the Suez Canal after three attempts of crossing the Suez and being pushed back.
Turkey’s DoW was expected as I captured Syria and their sizeable ground force worried me due to my exhausted troops and the few units that I had available to redirect if needed. After the DoW Turkeys ground forces (TGF) made an impressive offensive strike against my forces with the coastal city of Hatay being the pivot point and their line extending eastward to Al-Qamishli. Across this battle front Turkey put up a feverish assault that, to my surprise, did not break my lines. Being overjoyed, I redeployed my forces, yet again, while micro-managing the highly needed repairs on my ground forces. Luckily I had secured one military base and built another allowing my troops to repair close to the front. It took some time for my troops to complete their redeployments and the repairs to be completed but I eventually was in a position to go on the offensive against the TGF. Once again I was surprised by the AI’s use of the Turkish air forces (TAF) as they began supporting their ground units with high intensity. This caused me to refit my LACM/SRBM vehicles with the necessary missiles to destroy Turkey’s airbases and to redeploy my AAA assets to the new theater of operations. I should point out that by this point in the game my helo’s were completely maxed out on their tasking and the large number of air transport missions. Although my missile production could not keep up with my missile expenditure I was able to use these systems to affective reduce both Turkey and Egypt’s air capabilities as I continuously bombarded their airbases. My objective for Turkey was to first split the country at the city of Samson along the Black Sea coast and from there I would be able to focus most of my attention westward while slowly taking over the eastern portions of the country. This operation turned out to be poorly executed due to limited forces but I did succeed in capturing Sampson and split the country. The problem was that TGF deployed single and double APC, Mech Inf and recon units that continuously broke cut my units from supply and would bypass my forces in order to take ground. This was an AI move that pleased me as I constantly had to move troops to regain lost ground and to destroy those units that had bypassed me. As of July 2011 I am still struggling to gain control of central Turkey.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Tony
PRO: Neighboring countries reacted as I was hoping in terms of aggression, except Iraq, and the aircraft usage, especially from Turkey and Egypt, truly set me back in my attempts to quickly seize those countries.
As expected Syria was the first to DoW and its initial assaults against my northern units were weak at best resulting in large casualties for the Syrian forces. The timing of the DoW caught me off guard as I was in the middle of reorganizing/redeploying my units to better counter the “real†threats as I seen them. Syria’s assault ended within short time and I began my push into their territory and made pretty good time/distance against 65% of the country. My first real problem was against the military base in the northwest and the Syrian capitol as my ground forces, by that time, were capable of only defensive operations and my air support was too limited to offer any breakthrough combat. The second stall and simultaneous to that in the west, was against the military base in the northeast, north of the river and west of the Iraqi border. The condition of my troops by that time had deteriorated considerably and I lacked the necessary engineer and air support to effectively push north of the river system. A major factor in my slowing progress was the lack of roads and other supply points to keep the troops supplied. Luckily for me the AI could not grasp the fact that my eastern forces were pretty depleted in terms of combat power. Had the AI been able to ascertain my forces status I would have been in big trouble. My campaign against Syria lasted until mid-2011 and eventually I took control of the Syrian territory.
During the early months of 2011 as I tore through the Syrian capitol and assaulted its eastern sectors Jordan DoW against me. Additionally Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia DoW shortly thereafter and my feelings of being victorious quickly bottomed out as I struggled to redeploy my forces. Iraq and Saudi Arabia pretty much remained out of the fight; however Iraq quickly sent troops to regain any lost territory and occasionally tried to take several Syrian oil facilities from me. Beyond that – neither jumped into the fray. Jordan on the other hand quickly went on the offense and while was it was a smaller threat it was consuming far too many resources and units that I needed elsewhere against more threatening enemies and I simply did not have the luxury of a war of attrition with them. In so much I chose to push as many forces as feasible against Jordan to end their offensive capabilities and within several months I had secured my victory and captured Jordan. Removing them from the game, while maintaining a static defense in the north and south, had taken a considerable toll on my ground forces and I was having to once again rethink my deployments and realign the necessary forces to fight the multi-front war.
Egypt’s DoW, while expected, still caught me off guard as I was so busy trying to remove Syria and Jordan. Luckily, the shabby forces that I had on my southern border turned out to be sufficient enough to at least hold the line. After several months of tit-for-tat fighting against Egyptian forces and the removal of Jordan I pushed as many forces as possible to the south. My only objective was to remove Egyptian ground forces (EGF) out of the Sinai (spelling?) and contain their remaining forces to the west side of the Suez Canal. My meager naval forces were anxious to get into the fight (or so I thought) and were ordered to clear the Egyptian naval forces (ENF) along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts of the Sinai. This turned out to be catastrophic as I had no idea what the Egyptian navy was capable of and their surface fleet and missile assets quickly destroyed all of my vessels, except for one lone submarine. This caused me to restructure my missile construction and within several months had what I thought to be sufficient anti-ship missiles to launch air raids against the Egyptian navy. This operation almost turned out disastrous as I had not considered the Egyptian Air Force (EAF) to react in such numbers, not to mention their aircraft chased my planes across the Sinai before they RTB. At the time of the first anti-ship air raid I had ground forces up to the eastern banks of the Suez Canal and up to this point had not been engaged by the EAF. My first anti-ship strike resulted in several ENF vessels being sunk but the larger vessels had been protected pretty well. Several months later I established an interested AAA defensive line along the southwest coast of the Sinai to support my next anti-ship strike along with more interceptor aircraft to assist. This time I was able to sink several larger ships and kill a few Egyptian aircraft. As of the July 2011 I am still held at the Suez Canal after three attempts of crossing the Suez and being pushed back.
Turkey’s DoW was expected as I captured Syria and their sizeable ground force worried me due to my exhausted troops and the few units that I had available to redirect if needed. After the DoW Turkeys ground forces (TGF) made an impressive offensive strike against my forces with the coastal city of Hatay being the pivot point and their line extending eastward to Al-Qamishli. Across this battle front Turkey put up a feverish assault that, to my surprise, did not break my lines. Being overjoyed, I redeployed my forces, yet again, while micro-managing the highly needed repairs on my ground forces. Luckily I had secured one military base and built another allowing my troops to repair close to the front. It took some time for my troops to complete their redeployments and the repairs to be completed but I eventually was in a position to go on the offensive against the TGF. Once again I was surprised by the AI’s use of the Turkish air forces (TAF) as they began supporting their ground units with high intensity. This caused me to refit my LACM/SRBM vehicles with the necessary missiles to destroy Turkey’s airbases and to redeploy my AAA assets to the new theater of operations. I should point out that by this point in the game my helo’s were completely maxed out on their tasking and the large number of air transport missions. Although my missile production could not keep up with my missile expenditure I was able to use these systems to affective reduce both Turkey and Egypt’s air capabilities as I continuously bombarded their airbases. My objective for Turkey was to first split the country at the city of Samson along the Black Sea coast and from there I would be able to focus most of my attention westward while slowly taking over the eastern portions of the country. This operation turned out to be poorly executed due to limited forces but I did succeed in capturing Sampson and split the country. The problem was that TGF deployed single and double APC, Mech Inf and recon units that continuously broke cut my units from supply and would bypass my forces in order to take ground. This was an AI move that pleased me as I constantly had to move troops to regain lost ground and to destroy those units that had bypassed me. As of July 2011 I am still struggling to gain control of central Turkey.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Tony