Valley Of Tears 1985 Version 1.00

[dox44]

well from Syrian side things haven't gone as smoothly. i didn't expect them too either. i sent half to the top and half to the bottom of map.
the bottom half for the most part were off the map by turn 4. i have 484 exit points on bottom and then i shifted most of the top secondary
armor to the bottom. they are about halfway there.

the top is another story. i finally punched through at the top on turn 7 but i'm redirecting them to the bottom of the map also...along the road that starts in Buq'ata.

i've got a minor defeat right now. i'm on turn 8.

a good scenario and thanks for building it...

[BeirutDude]

Casebier,

Thanks for the report. I have completely reworked this scenario with two (Side "A" (IDF Human) an Side "B" (Syrian Human)/H2H) scenarios. The Syrian Human has more minefields and blocks to go through and crossing the Anti-Tank Ditch requires you to use the AVLBs. In the case of the Syrian Computer-A/I version I found I got the most satisfying results by placing medium bridges (AVLBs already deployed) and using the V.P. Hexes as way points for the A/I to travel along. This will bring most of the Syrian armor into the Valley of Tears. Also I am working on bringing the file names for this and other scenarios I am working on into a common nomenclature. I'm calling my 1985 scenarios "Duel For The Golan 85 - ScenarioName" Thus the Map and OOB for the Valley Of tears 1985 Scenario have been redone. The two other scenarios I have to date are an IDF nighttime highway clearing operations (retaking the bridges over the Jordan River in the Hula Valley seized by the Syrian 554th Commando Regt's airmoble attack the previous day) and a Pyrrhic airmobile raid by elements of the 554th Commando Regt on the IDF 36th Udga Headquarters near Kafr Nafakh.

One other point, when I design scenarios I try to do them as I see/think they will happen (fictional) or they did happen (historical). Some designers are interested in the game aspect and I tend to be more interested in the study of military history/applications. I hope that makes some kind of sense and didn't insult anyone (I seem to be good at doing that). [:(] [:D]

[BeirutDude]

I want to expand a little bit on that last point I made. When designing a scenario personally I like to make the marginal victory conditions as close to the historical result as possible. So for example, if I design a Bastogne scenario marginal victory conditions would be if the Germans surrounded Bastogne. A major victory would have the Germans actually taking the city and clearing the supply route to the west. Now I think that one's pretty straightforward and most of us would agree. Now what we do victory conditions for Custer's last stand be? Now we have a situation it's not so cut and dry. We could have a thread arguing for weeks as to what would've constituted victory for Custer!

Now let's move that into a hypothetical situation like a Middle East war in 1985! Really what changes in the valley of tears between 1973 and 1985? The terrain is largely the same but the defenses are probably a bit better, equipment has been upgraded but it is upgraded on both sides (I assume the IDF upgrades are better), and finally the basic soldiers are pretty much the same and with the same national qualities as in the previous conflict. So what can we reasonably expect replay of the valley of tears? In my assumption the Syrians probably do breakthrough in this scenario simply because there is only one battalion of Israeli tanks. Expect the Syrians to take grievous losses so when I designed it I designed it with the idea that the further west the Syrians are able to get higher the victory point values for the hexes and they can garner victory points by exiting off the map which is their ultimate goal. So the Syrians take most of the victory point hexes they achieve a marginal victory to go on to a major victory they need to exit off of the map.

Now I have real problems trying to balance the airmobile raid on the Israeli headquarters because that's more like Custer's last stand! [:D]

And let me also add speech to text sucks!!!

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Beachinnole

All,

Being a scenario designer at heart and having designed a few scenarios for the old game I had to test the new engine out. So I am working on scenarios based on a hypothetical WW-III scenario I did for another company's game series. In this case WW-III has broken out in Europe (on June 10th, 1985) and Soviets were looking for a Mid-east diversion. Bolstered by a few Soviet Tac-Nukes the Syrians launched an assault into the Golan a week after the European war began. In this Scenario the Syrian 1st Armored Division, 4th Tank Brigade and supporting forces are assaulting the IDF 36th Udga's 77th Armored Battalion (7th Armored Brigade) near Tel Hermonit and Tel Booster (In the Valley Of Tears). Can the Syrians pull off the breakthrough that alluded them 12 years earlier?

Assuming you haven't changed the default path unzip this file in C:\Matrix Games\Campaign Series Middle East\scenarios. There is no scenario image file (yet).

Enjoy and I am sure I will be tweaking, just a first effort. Criticism and comments solicited.

Al "Beachinnole" Sandrik

Al, I have been recently enjoying these scenarios again, great stuff!

I recently bumped into Victory Games' Flashpoint Golan board game from early 1990s. It is on Bn Regt Bde level, but again, with a quite similar background story as what you did here.


Image from BGG

I will need to play it a bit first as a board game, but having said that would be nice to be able to pay tribute to the board game by somehow depicting a version of some of the game scenarios, this time at Platoon scale with CS Middle East [:)]

Everyone, if you haven't tried out them yet, Al's scenarios are now stock content with game, look for his name as a Sort by in Main Menu, or alternatively, Sort By Scenario Date, and look for those 1985 battles. Again, great stuff [:)]