Think Like An Egyptian!

       Wednesday 8th June 196odd!

        Somewhere in the Sinai

VERSUS 

Desert.

          

      Tonight’s Garvald Film Studio production was a 1960’s Middle East encounter between Israeli and Egyptian forces giving El Presidente an excuse to bring out some more of his rarely used toys mainly a s**t load of tanks.The rules were the Cold Commander 2 that El Presidente had picked up at Partisan in May as he was looking for something different.To me something different is English Civil War or Saxons not another variation of our usual go to set.

Centurions to the fore!

Followed by the AMX 100s.

Recon and Engineers.

            Our resident rule guru Bill Gilkristi also turned up and was eagerly perusing the set rules when I arrived.Tonight’s game was an encounter between Israeli and Egyptian forces sometime in the mid sixties.I took charge of the Israelis and my plan being the usual Israeli plan of charging straight into the Arabs and ending the game quickly.This mainly went to plan but the vagaries of the rules meant a few of my units tended to drag their heels.

The Egyptian’s best armour-Hiding!

Arab defenders.

Sherman’s with AMX 10 turrets.

           My units consisted of a troop of Centurions backed up by a trio of AMX 13s who were faced by some Sherman tanks with AMX10 turrets complimented by a troop of SU 122s.I liked the odds due to the difference in armour quality just as long as Comrade Bill didn’t roll to many lucky dice.My infantry brought up the rear and consisted of paras and would you believe it some Israeli conscripts in the guise of female infantry-Welcome to the Garvald Film Studios.

Side by Side.

The armoured car meets it’s match.

Egyptian infantry at sixes and sevens.

      My tanks headed straight for the jugular straight from the start with the Centurions hunting for the Shermans whilst my other armour intended to deal with the conscript Egyptian infantry.This went well apart from the command rules hindering the eventual gun battle.My AMXs poured fire down on the enemy infantry making them keep their heads down but they couldn’t quite land the knock out punch .The Centurions plodded on without any real urgency.This is when the game began to resemble Black Powder especially with the command rules.My infantry headed for Bill’s ensconced infantry but were taking a few hits from enemy mortar fire and snidey shots from the hidden Egyptian armour.My own mortar beacame a target and couldn’t get moving up to support their fellow infantry.My infantry finally arrived at the fortifications and went straight into close assault.The first attack was a disaster for the paras but the second assault saw the paras dealing vengeance on the now beleaguered Egyptian conscripts  clearing the building of any resistance.

Close assault.

The Brave Conquering Heroes.

      Bill’s only real success came when my recce unit equipped with an armoured car got a bit too near the front and came to a sticky end due to the waiting guns of the Sherman’s but at least it told me were the Sherman’s were lying in wait.My Centurions trundled on and started to draw beads on the enemy armour..Once again with the vagaries of the rules fire could only be concentrated on one target so I basically had to shower shells on the Shermans one tank at a time .A bit unreal if I may say so.

Looks a bit abstract.

That’s what they get for hugging each other.

 I wanted to tie these Sherman’s down so my AMX 10s could make their way round the side and administer the coup de grace but the isolated Egyptian infantry were doing their best to hinder me.

It’s not an El Presidente game without squads of females!

Looking to clear out the bad guys.

My paras had regrouped in the blockhouse and were getting ready to clear out the rest of the buildings but Comrade Gilkristi’s Assault Guns were doing their best to hinder me and especially concentrating on doing away with my female conscripts.Well it was their first outing.

It’s only going to go one way.

Girls with a machine gun.

      The Shermans had finally met their match and were percolating away nicely and the Centurion AVRE which was bringing up the rear finally arrived hoping to do away with the entrenched infantry  but once again the command rules were against me and it done sod all. I was now hoping to swing round and take the SUs from the rear when the final whistle blew.Obviously yet another United Nation interventions.

       A very good game which will get better the more the rules are played.        My thanks  to Colin for putting the game on and providing all the lovely toys.See You All next week for another dip into Lurkers Of The Deep.  

       This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.