Battle of Hak-el Tewk 1990

Last night 4 of us had a really interesting game/exercise,as described in the previous blog.
We decided that Graham,Brian and Paul would be co-commanders of the American forces and that I would "command" the Iraqi forces ie. turn over the cards and throw whatever dice were required-as it turned out nearly all of the Iraqi firing was done by "Stevie Wonder"!!!

Top photo is an American Tank,and bottom photo is an Iraqi Tank-all vehicles and figures are bought from the Pound Shop,and painted to my usual high standard(Hmmmmm!!)-Brian has informed me that the tanks are probably based on the Russian T62(of course I knew that!!!)
The whole "exercise" was to get the commanders to come up with a detailed plan of attack and write precise orders for each of their units-the discussions were great to sit and listen to-each commander having his own thoughts of how to rescue the imprisoned "General"-Eventually a compromise was reached,and the game started,with a Helicopter surveillance run over the Iraqi left flank,which discovered a mortar crew and a heavy machine gun position,which it must be said were quickly "dealt with".

This shows the flank about to be "dealt with"-I had no control over where the Iraqi troops were,so when we turned over the cards,we both had a laugh(or not !!)

The Americans decided to launch a "bombing run" with one of their planes,against my right flank,this prompted me to "reveal" the village troops,which turned out to be an A/T gun,a Tank and an infantry squad,who just happened to have a "blowpipe" unit,who then fired at the passing aircraft,and missed!!!

With the Americans massing their forces on the Iraqi left,their A/T gun opened up at effective range,and although it hit a tank,did very little damage!-the tank fired back,and destroyed the gun!!!

On the Iraqi right,a tank emerges from cover,in an attempt to draw some American troops from the left-however(!!) an air strike was ordered,and this held the tank up for a couple of moves,but fortunately the bomb missed,and eventually the tank "rumbled" forward on it's lonely,but doomed mission.

Having successfully wiped out the A/T gun and the Tank in the village,the American commanders ordered an infantry attack,which took a few casualties,but over-ran the defenders!

This shows the fight for the village,with American tanks supporting the infantry assault,but what of the Iraqi Tank,whose mission it was to draw away American troops????

Can you spot it?-well so did the Americans!!-they poured shit,shot and shell into that poor little tank,reducing it to scrap metal within one move!!!

Basically,game over,however to teach the Americans a lesson,for not having a contingency plan to cover this event,I drove the captured General away in an APC!!-they should,of course,have seen that this could happen,and attacked the Iraqi right flank,as well as the left,to close any escape route-hurrah!!
This was a wonderful exercise in communication,planning and specific order writing-we can only improve,but well done lads.
Roll on Thursday!!