Middle East Campaign - Israel

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tonystowe
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Middle East Campaign - Israel

Post by tonystowe »

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
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

A very diffcult scenario especially for Israel or one of the smaller region. I know. Play it alot. Only one pointer i can give and that is to get lots of Merkava 4 or 5's depending on which u can build now. I have held my border with Syria with just 26 battalions of these and took the Sinai with only 13 battalions. U could have tried to traded with Turkey for the F-16C which would have given u a F/B and traded for a frigate too. But its ur game. Play it like u want. :lol: Have fun. next time try playing as Quatar (bad spelling I think.) because with that region u'll have lots of fun. No good unit techs, no way to really get any good unit techs with research. Only through trade if ur lucky, and limit manpower. And of course hard to make money. But good AAR and have fun in the Mid East.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

I am really enjoying this scenario thus far and shortly after posting Turkish guerilla units began popping up all over the place. This event triggered the Turkish ground forces (TGF) to push forward and surprisingly overran my forward troops. Within one month the TGF had recovered 75% of the ground that I had taken from them and was pushing into Syrian territory.

I was completely taken by surprise by these events and could not regain the initiative. I had full strength units at the FLOT (Forward Line of Troops - for those that don't know) and the TGF simply cut the supply lines to my FLOT and then killed them as they starved. The guerrilla units remained in the cities and I simply couldn't root them out!!

Thanks for the info and I was already considering Yemen, Qatar or Oman for my next game.
tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

Well, that game is now over with Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia taking the initiative and kicking my ass! Good game though and I learned a lot.

I am finding that my diplomacy sucks as I can never seem to attain the level of relations that I would like with anyone.

I am now replaying Israel and again Syria declared war and in five months I destroyed Syria's offensive capabilities, destroyed all military/economic facilities from the border up to Tripoli, Syria (approximately a 135km radius). I have now pulled my troops back to the original border and attempting to give the territory back to Syria - who will not take the land. I am offering a cease fire and they continually reject. The other countries CB against me continues to rise at an average rate of 5% each month and repeatedly refuse my offers - which are close to obsurd at this point. At any rate, I am fulfilling my goals and pulling back and the AI continues to reject my offers.

Tony
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

You're Israel attempting to trade with Arab countries, of course they won't deal with you...

The game models a world where all the countries have become extra suspicious and less willing to deal diplomatically. The Mideast is a diplomatic nightmare in the real world, I doubt any amount of money in the Mid East scenario would convince Syria to back off. Also, the AI does not do land trades, it has no way of assigning a value to the land to know if it is a good deal or not (even free land could be a bad deal if it puts it in conflict with another region).
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tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

Balthagor wrote:You're Israel attempting to trade with Arab countries, of course they won't deal with you...
I was mocking the Arab/Jew issue just a little - I never expected any diplomatic results with them. :-?
Balthagor wrote:the AI does not do land trades, it has no way of assigning a value to the land to know if it is a good deal or not (even free land could be a bad deal if it puts it in conflict with another region).
It would be good if the AI would at least recognize what land "was" his so that such trades could be possible. As for putting a "value" onto a hex, is it possible to attritubes based on resource value possible? And if possible, is it further possible for the AI to "look" at the land trade offer and see make a determination on whether the trade is good or bad?
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

These are all things being considered for future versions of the game, no idea yet in what direction we will take it. I believe there is already a discussion elsewhere about the value of land for trades, but resource is always hard since the cost per unit and therefore daily production value in dollars is different for each player.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

In that scenario I have became ruthless. Had to. Any enemy unit about destroyed better get back to base before I get to them. Most of the time I chase them down with light infantry. U'll end up fighting most of the time and if ur lucky u'll get a breather between the wars. To get a breather u have to be fast with winning wars. Like with Sryia 2 weeks max. As for being a diplomat. Forget it unless ur lucky enough to get tech trades. But still ur game do what u want. And advice for Qatar if u play them. Build entrenchments all along ur border.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

After a while I gave up on the diplomatic attempts and am now looking to destroy them. I am taking my time with Syria and Egypt as I want to push slowly into those areas to discourage guerilla activity, however I eliminated Jordan in one month - which is probably too long for you.

Tony
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

:lol: Nah not too long. I end up sometimes fighting in the scenario very slowly if I'm at war with more than one region at a time. Something I do aganist Egypt is perform sea invasions. Most of the time its at 2 points. One is at Egypt's sea base and the other is around the town south of Sinia. That helps me get around having to cross the canal. Also its expenisve but I train desert rats ( i call them that). I use the DR's in every region except Turkey and Iran.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
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Post by Khorne »

I like to destroy my enemy in gigantic master plans and fast paced strokes by destroying the enemy ability to fight back. I like to start by putting paratroops on planes and massing troops and artillary on the border makeing carefull use of highground to give my artillary the maximum vantage point for attack. Then i like to pause the game and coordinate massive air raids just over the border and i have it so that the paratroops land in citys just behind the border and when they land they drive the enemy out of the citys leaving in the open to artillary. Then i declare war while in pause mode do a last minute check and then unpause and whatch things unfold :D I did this to portugal once and took them out in just 12 days of war.This tactic works very well on small and medium sized nations but when i comes to big countrys like russia i just resort to slugging it out for about 6 years before i win.
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tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

Khorne,

I also take the time to develop a strategic plan for the destruction of my enemies. I prefer to choke them until they surrender, however the countries surrounding Israel simply will not surrender. Jordan for instance, I had surrounded its capitol with enough troops to completely cut it off from the world while I took control of the rest of Jordan. My troops simply cut them down as they tried to break away until finally I tired of the game and destroyed them.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

That sounds like what I do sometimes. Push to the capital, surround it, take over the rest of the region then assault the capital. I have one time surrounded a capital and then I dropped over 20 battalions of airborne elite right on top of the capital. After that I have always wondered what it would have looked like in real life. Course now I prefer the Great Flood tactic. I have had so many units moving on time my game nearly froze. All of the units moving at once like a flood. Anything that gets in their way gets mowed down like their nothing.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

:lol: Well Tony. U'll love this. Playing the same scenario as u are as Israel too and I have up to now killed over 10M Iraqi Civilians and 400K soldiers. F/B's and Jericho ICBM's. Already went through 6K missiles and still got stock flying everywhere. :D I said I was brutal in this scenario.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
tonystowe
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Post by tonystowe »

Truly amazing isn't Berg? If Israel were to militarily act as we have on this scenario for real I wonder just how far they would go?

In my current Israel game I have eliminated Jordan and Syria and am once again at a stale mate with Egypt along the Suez Canal. Turkey is proving more difficult as my intent to use minimal force in the north was a huge failure on my part.

I am contemplating restarting the scenario and try several tactics. First, I am going to assign all of my forces as to NOT take ground and use my forces to simply destroy the military/economic base of those countries who attack me. I wonder if this will work? My plan is to continue to destroy the belligerent's ability to conduct war without expanding my borders.

Tony

edit: I meant to add that I use the Jericho and F/B extensively as well as increase my maintenance in order to keep the aircraft in service. What I am trying to figure out is the magical number of Jericho's needed to destroy the bases and launch that, plus 10% for any AA incidents.
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