"Oil Cheaper than Water": OHW Scenario 14 AAR

So, throwing together a title for a wargame covering the innumerable and unending wars in the middle east, I made a few off-the-cuff changes and took my hard copies of "Oil Cheaper Than Water" to Ken's house for a playtest. We put together some terrain and forces from what he had on hand out of his micro armor collection to do a scenario from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. With no idea how it would play but that I would rate the Arab forces as inferior to the Isreali, I made the forces:
Arabs - 4 Tanks [T55], 3 Lt. Tank [APCs], 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery [available 4+ each turn]
Isreali - 2 Tanks [Centurion], 2 Lt. Tank [APCs, Halftracks] + 2 Mech Infantry, 2 Infantry, 2 Artillery [available on 4+ each turn].
So with an 11-10 advantage, the Arab forces attacked the defenses at...?

I stupidly forgot my copy of OHW so did Scenario 14: Static Defense that we had just fought a few times so it was fresh in my memory. Some of the game tweaks were to switch the scale to 1"=100m, which reduced the Close Range to 2", and Infantry weapons to 6", while the tanks had a Range to 18" and a Long Range to 36". As Quality is very important in the modern era, along with gear, I gave a Unit shooting at an inferior Quality Target an additional die. 

Finally, I introduced a new Terrain type, "Flat" which is basically featureless terrain leaving little or nothing to hide in, and gave a bonus to the Firing Unit. The assumptive "norm" in this game is that troops are trained to disperse and hide and use terrain as best as possible, and that most battlefields have some terrain in it which would be the attacker's avenue of assault. Therefore "open table terrain" is assumed to have enough features for normal tactical usage, while "Flat" just doesn't have it.

I knew very little about this war, so went with whatever Ken remembered off the top of his head regarding gear, so we did wing it a bit.

The table - of which I forgot to take a pic, was the standard #14 except I introduced a couple of "Flat" areas, the largest of which was in front of the hill objective, and is pictured below as the brown felt to the right - units in it are fired at with a bonus Target dice.

The first several turns unfolded much like any other Scenario #14 I've played. I chose to avoid the town as I only had one Artillery Unit. I used the APCs to drop the infantry off at the central wooded area, thru which they subsequently advanced. All the armor and APCs went to the left around the wood to attack the hill. The Isreali defense shifted a few times as Ken tried to keep Units alive that had been shot up. 

Around turn 5, the big rush across the Flat Terrain Area occurred and it was full of Arab armor. Artillery availability didn't favor the defenders and altho a few of the Arab units took some serious 3-4 Hits including Permanent Hits, nearly all the force made it in for the attack on the hill, which at the time was held by one highly motivated platoon of Isreali Infantry. 

Below, Turn 7 has the Dug-in Isrealis at center, with a severely damaged T55 unit above it, two below it, while additional Infantry and APCs move in from the right - the Siege Begins!


End of 7. Besieged Isreali Infantry on hilltop, Chieftans with loaded APCs [halftracks carrying infantry] behind at top center. Chieftans being overrun at center [green dice '2'] with Arab APCs to left, T55s below right, and more Isreali halftracks to their top right towards the little hill. Arab Infantry line the groves of date and palm trees to the right [green dice '1'] and are advancing thru the "Flat" terrain at lower center. Cool explosion marker at center right!


Turn 8 below. Arabs continue assault in the hill, but progress is slowed since Isrealis are Dug-in and only two Hits have been inflicted [it would really help if the Artillery would be available...]. The two Arab Infantry lining the groves to right are being attacked on their right flank by two Isreali Infantry from the town. Overall, bottom half Arab, top Isreali, hill objective threatened but not secured by a long shot.


Turn 10 below. Arab Infantry have shifted from groves to assault the hill. Isreali APCs behind Chieftans at top shifted left to reinforce the hill, dismounting the Infantry [who should have had a Permanent Hit like the APCs - I forgot]. Arab APCs and T55s at center / right got beat up from Artillery and Chieftan shooting, but the center Chieftans are destroyed. The noose gets tighter on the hill as Arab armor shifts left and around.


Turn 12, below. One Isreali Infantry has been wiped out, as Arabs pour onto the hill. The reinforcements have Dug-in, but are taking hits from three sides. Their supporting APCs are almost destroyed, altho more APCs are coming [center]. The T55s to right survived but the Arab APCs in the center are gone. The top center Chieftans moved off-camera to behind the small hill where they are trying to rally...and failing. 

Interestingly, there are six Isreali Units on the field, and six Arab [however, the Isreali's can't use two that are guarding the town]. The attrition is almost the same, showing how well the scenario rules work.

Turn 13. The Arabs concentrated firepower and managed to overrun the last of the Infantry on the hill, as well as knocking out their APCs. The dancing can't begin, however as some APCs are arriving to contest the hill, and Chieftans are lurking behind the small hill at top right, having finally succeeded in rallying off a few Hits [was 6, now 4 I think]. Just to the right, some Isreali Infantry are straining at the end of their leash from the town, threatening the T55s nearly. Overall, it is very close and anything can happen!


Turn 15. The Chieftans emerge to claim some Arabs along with the Artillery. The Arab Infantry fire is not enough to purge the holy soil of Infidel, and altho the Isreali APCs have 6 Hits, they are still contesting the hill amidst the confusion of battle. I should have moved the bottom left Arab Infantry to the right to attack the Isreali APCs that were obviously going to get onto the hill - they didn't contribute to the fight at all the last couple of turns, and have no Hits - cowards! The rest of the Arab force is toast...burning T-55s everywhere!


Whew! Another close game. We both made some tactical errors, and both made some rules errors [but not many] and had to feel our way with the vehicle weaponry. Still, a good first time out for these rules.

Ken's major points of feedback were:
- the 3-base Units are fiddly. That's a bit true, and the minis could certainly be put on larger bases [say 4x2"] or just tape three together at the bottom. I'm basically using 3-base units b/c that's what my FoW WWII stuff is based for, and I won't be re-basing them! Also, there may be some value in the shape of units with multiple bases, I haven't plumbed those depths yet, that may be an advanced rule type of thing.
- Related to above, it makes LoS complext at short Ranges as there's no requirement to choose which base edges are providing the LoS for the shot. This would definitely be easier if the Units were on one base.
- he found the use of two mechanics for combat hard to remember. Some things give or take away a die, and other things raise / lower the Target Number. There's a limit to what can be done with using one 6-sided die for combat, and I like the subtleties of the Permanent Hit system and its dependence on at least 3 Fire Dice. No solution for this at present, as I think switching to 2d6 and a modifier table won't be much easier.
- ATGMs [not used today] need a minimum range [which I changed and made them same as Mortars].

My major points:
- Units may need a classification for their weapon type and Target type - I tried a "hard / soft" classification in the past, may need to revisit that.
- Suicide Units. Badly damaged Units can exploit the Priority rules by moving into Close Range and forcing a defender to shoot at them. This may not be realistic, depending on the forces. For the Middle East, it may be OK ['cause those folks is crazy!]. A simple fix would be to say that Units with 4+ Hits cannot enter Close Range. Also the Initiative test should penalize for destroyed Units, which would make suicide charges even more dubious.
- I'm still not satisfied with the front/Rear definition as it doesn't work well when opposing Units are very close together sometimes. I will switch it to being the front 180 off the middle base and see if that helps resolve the problem.
- I will also introduce an "Air" category so that helicopters and planes can be introduced easily - all part of the fun!

Overall, these worked fine, with the main problems being unfamiliarity with the historical period and the gear involved, as well as a couple of little rough spots that need to be considered and smoothed over.