Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024
Recommendations: 13004
About the Project
Lately, I've been running war games every weekend with members of the community via web conference. Players log on and play wargames with each other in real time, regardless of location, and we usually have at least a couple spectators as well. Many times it’s been Darkstar, but we’re also running wargames in Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and now Valor & Victory.
BoW/OTT community members @brucelea, @damon, @davehawes, and @rasmus have taken the plunge, leading battalions across thousands of meters of desert, starfleets in pitched battles across the heavens, or vicious firefights in the jungles of Vietnam, all without leaving the comfort of their home.
Hard-core, old-school command-tactical wargames can now be run (complete with spectators and recordings) in real time, with BOTH PLAYERS moving pieces across THE SAME virtual game board, thus maintaining player agency, speedy and instant results (no play by e-mail), interwoven turn sequences, any questions / feedback instantly received and addressed, and with the game being virtually recorded as it goes, a ready-made battle report can actually be created as we go.
All of this without the players having to install any new software on their computer, on any platform (PC or Mac). All that's needed is to agree on a time, a handful of dice, and a bellyful of courage!
Every weekend can now be a boot camp! All without costing me thousands of dollars in airfare, too!
Related Game: PanzerBlitz
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
Valor & Victory Vietnam v. Elessar2590 (Australians v. VC)
Good morning, everyone.
Well, we were able to run Valor & Victory Vietnam game this Sunday – pitting @elessar2590 and his two platoons of “A” Co, 7th Royal Australian Regiment against Oriskany’s company of 274th NLF / VC Main Force Regiment in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, January 1968.
It was neat wargaming live with a player from Australia, playing Australian troops, in a historical Vietnam wargame. The dice gods also seemed to remember it was his birthday, judging by how those opening mortar barrages landed!
Okay we were supposed to live stream this game, but it didn’t really work out. But I did record someof the highlights, and post the video excerpts to Sitrep YouTube and Twitch channels.
Just a clip, of course. But might bring a chuckle. ?
1982 PLO in Valor & Victory
Good afternoon ~ Expanding on the idea idea of pushing Barry Doyle’s Valor & Victory system further into 1982 Lebanon, I’ve put the first swing into the opposition, namely the PLO / ALA for a “modern war” asymmetric dynamic.
A few more leaders,maybe another couple support weapons and game function counters (casualties, civilians, POWs, etc), and then we should be on to a couple of gameplay maps!
1982 IDF in Valor & Victory
So we’ve been playing around with the idea of pushing Barry Doyle’s Valor & Victory system further into the modern era. We’ve already done WW2 into Vietnam (late 1960s), i thought an interesting next step might be early 80s with Operation Peace for Galilee – the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Just starting out here. This was one night. Other factions will include Syrian Army, various irregulars (Palestinian Liberation Army / Arab Liberation Army / Hezbollah), Phalange Christian militants, maybe even French and US Marine peacekeepers if this gets pushed into 1983 and beyond.
Valley of Tears - Golan Heights, 1973 - Conclusion
So here is the wrap up for the epic game of The Arab Israeli Wars between myself and @damon .
Golan Heights, Israel v. Syria, October 7, 1973.
More Israeli reinforcements have arrived (Damon makes a roll at the beginning of each movement phase, a 1-2 on d6 indicates one of his four Centurion reserve platoons arrives from Yanosh's brigade HQ back at the Golan Customs House). He's effectively sealed off my planned northern escape route (I don't have an image ready for it, but note the burning wrecks along the north, this was the last six of his IAF air strikes blowing the spearhead clean off 81st Armored Brigade / 3rd Armored Division). Therefore, I'm turning south. and going for a new escape path clean over the north shoulder of Tel Hermonit. Believe it or not, some of these guys might actually make it off the west end of the board and behind Israeli lines. There are just so FEW Israeli units left, even knocking out three of them (note the Sagger ATGWsand T-55s of 78th Brigade have picked off another Centurion reinforcement platoon the apex of Tel Hermonit) has had a disastrous effect on Damon's line.
The first BTR-60s of 85th Mechanized have now escaped through the deserted ruins of El Rom. A battalion+ sized column of T-62s has now mounted Tel Hermonit, ready to follow and secure the breakthrough. Meanwhile, my 82mm mortar battery has been re-positioned after a laborious process, and now lays down smoke to blind some of the Israeli firing positions. 
Turn 10, and the game is finally winding down. Most of that column from the 81st Armored has broken clear. Some units were left behind, and now have no real chance of following off the west edge of the table with Damon redeploying three Centurion platoons in and around El Rom to seal the breach. Some of my infantry survivors, meanwhile, have also fortified themselves in Israeli IPs on the north shoulder of Tel Hermonit.
The grim score sheet. Okay, I know this game was announced at the live stream as a Syrian win (a full battalion - 45 AFVs and 50+ infantry broke through Israeli defenses here and are now probably overrunning Brigade HQ), but that's because the I didn't count the Israeli points correctly. Monday morning I reached out to Damon and told him he in fact WON this game, although only by one point. Long story short, I forgot Israeli units get TWO points per kill, not ONE. So what's happened instead here is that yes, a large Syrian battlegroup broke through and is currently driving hell-for-heather for the Jordan River and the Galilee river crossings. But ... with this corps-area breakthrough zone basically smashed behind them, and 7th Infantry and 3rd Armored more or less powerless to sustain the breakthrough or send support, the Syrians will eventually be pinned down and forced to surrender by Israeli operational reserves (probably Peled's Division). In the end, the points tell the story and define the narrative. But DAMN, this was a close one! 
The field of battle after the fight ... 225 Syrian tanks and AFVs are wrecked on the table, along with 25 Israeli Centurions. (A kill ratio of almost 10:1, exactly what we see at the Golan historically). Also, an Israeli fighter jet burns to the north. Some Syrian bridges have been thrown over the Purple Line's antitank ditch, along with wrecked armor IN the trench itself. The Israeli line remains more or less intact, but badly weakened, and again, a reinforced Syrian battalion+ DID get through. Valley of Tears - Golan Heights, 1973
So we’ve finished the game. It took 6 hours and 43 minutes. It is posted in its entirety on Twitch for those that are interested. Needless to say, an entire blow-by-blow battle report would be a little too large to post here, so I’ll post some highlights and if anyone has any questions, I will certainly answer them either here or on the new Sitrep Modern Military Gaming thread.
Full Twitch Stream:
So here is the full map again, only this time with Damon's forty tanks of 77th Armored Battalion, 7th Brigade (Lt. Colonel A. Kahalani) deployed on the Tel Hermonit and Booster Ridge, extending north of Kuneitra along the Purple Line at daybreak, 7 October 1973. For my money, this is where scaled wargaming (regardless of the medium) really shines. With enough attention paid to scale, distances, real-life numbers, etc., you can build a board and set up a force, and get an instant "feel" of just how desperate a situation really was. This is forty "Sho't Cal" Centurions (five tanks per platoon / counter = eight pieces), which sounds like a big force ... and would be a big force on a six foot 15mm table ... but then set it up on the actual battlefield that measured 6+ kilometers (250 meters per hex), and that blue line suddenly gets very very thin.
Some of Damon's Sho't Cal Centurions on Booster Ridge, overlooking what history would soon call the Valley of Tears. 
The total Syrian force. Two full brigades of Soviet-built tanks, 100 T-55s, 100 T-62s, plus support vehicles, a reinforced mech infantry battalion, engineers, Sagger antitank missiles, you name it. Historically the Syrians also had formidable artillery off-board, but this scenario out of the AIW book doesn't include it so we're leaving it out (I changed the map, that's probably enough alteration to the published scenario already). Also the Israelis have 20 air strikes ready to go, but I get 2 VP for each air strike Damon feels forced to call in. A special rule allows for one platoon of standard Sho't Centurions to enter the table (the four along the bottom) on a die roll at the beginning of each Israeli movement phase.
Turn one, and first blood is drawn! Under a massive pall of sand and dust, almost 300 Syrian AFVs roll toward the Purple Line (cease-fire line between Syria and Israeli-occupied Golan Heights). But at the range of 12 hexes (3000 meters), Damon's Sho't Cals have already opened fire and scored the first kills, as the Syrian armor pushes through the antitank ditch dug along the 1967 cease-fire line.
Turn Two - Syrian advance continues, lead tank brigades are now fully across the Purple Line, advancing 750 meters before being struck again. Damon has no shortage of targets here, obviously, he has LOS on nearly everything thanks to his elevated positions on the Tel Hermonit hill. So he has to carefully choose his targets. He's picking off APCs still loaded with infantry for double points, as well as mine clearing PT-54 tanks and MTU-12 bridgelayers. 
Speaking of killing bridgelayers, the first Israeli fighter-bomber streaks in to take out my poor brirdgelayers attached to 81st Armoured. Awww! He's just a bridgelayer! They barely have guns! And didn't even shoot at anyone! He just wants to build his little bridges! :(
Things get more serious to the north. Okay, by now Damon has clued in to my intentions. The way the overall map is laid out, there really is only ONE VIABLE PATH for me to make an operational-scale breakout (the point of the Syrian victory conditions). I can't swing to the south because the Bental Reservoir blocks my path. I can't go up the center because he'll collapse both wings on me and butcher me in a crossfire (PRO TIP - in breakthrough games NEVER EVER go up the center). That leaves only the north, which Damon now realizes ad commits another four IAF fighter bombers to blunt. This time I put up counterfire (a heavy decision as this counts as opportunity fire, any Syrian unit that uses it will be unable to fire or move NEXT turn). But it turns out to be worth it, I actually shoot down one F4 Phantom! BA-BOOM! 
A wide-angle view of the situation at the end of Turn 4. Originally feinting to the center, 78th Armored Brigade now pivots and faces northward to join the 81st in a single titanic shove of Soviet-built steel. There are still over 150 Syrian tanks rushing up, and the range has now closed to within 1000 meters in some places (4 hexes).
Increasingly frantic to keep the Syrians at bay, Damon keeps calling in air strikes. Great, but remember I get 2 VP for each air strike he calls in. That's just that much LESS air support going to other sectors that probably need it more, like the tragic 188th "Barak Brigade" - historically fighting a battle perhaps even more desperate to the south.
At last, the Syrians open fire. With lead Syrian elements of 85th Mechanized and 81st Armored just 750 meters from the edge of the table (upper left), Israeli reserves and Damon's redeployed tanks off of Booster Ridge to the south are arriving just in time to seal this possible breach. Seriously, JUST in time, I was within inches of winning the game right here. In his haste, though, Damon moved one platoon of Sho't Cals in the open atop t he north shoulder of Tel Hermonit ridge, and T-62s of 81st Armored blew them to kingdom come. A massive frontal fusillade also opens fire on another of Kahalani's platoons on the top of the ridge, including a hail of dreaded AT-3 "Sagger" guided antitank missiles from that infantry battery hidden in Al Qila. I get on the 7:1 odds column on the Combat Results Table, the deadliest there is, but remember that Damon gets a +2 for hull down shielding and a +2 for Improved Positions (historically, tank firing ramps). This means a total +4 defense bonus on my d6 roll. That a very serious modifier, but I get lucky with a "2" and just barely kill that platoon. That's TWO tank platoons down, a full quarter of Damon's initial force. The first crack has appeared, and I've got my crowbar pushing in deeper every turn . . . 
Preparing for LIVE WEB game, Golan Heights 1973 (6:00 PM GMT)
We’re preparing for another live web game of The Arab-Israeli Wars. This time it will be a “historically improved” rendition of what is probably the most epic single tank battle since the end of World War II, Lt. Col. Avidgor Kahalani’s 77th Tank Battalion at the “Valley of Tears” – Golan Heights, October 1973.
Outnumbered in places by up to 15:1, these 40 American-engined Centurions (Sho’t Cal) faced off against a combined total of 230+ Syrian T-55s and T-62s, plus perhaps 100+ more infantry carriers (BTR-50s and 60s).
We’ll see if Damon can hold the “Heights of Courage” (title of Kahalani’s book) against my Syrian onslaught.
So far, I’ve spent most of the day trying to piece together an accurate map of the battlefield, “translating” it into TAIW system, and getting the scenario ready for tomorrow’s game.
If anyone’s interested in stopping by and checking this out live as it is played, ping me a PM and I’ll send you a link.
Tinkering with New Counters - 1967 and 73 Arab-Israeli Wars - West Bank and Golan Heights
Just tinkering with new counters in Photoshop - updated with new graphics and research for Avalon Hill's "The Arab Israeli Wars"Meanwhile, the new Episode of the Ops Center is now live on On TableTop, YouTube, and Facebook!
Give it a watch, comment, or like if you enjoy the video!
And remember to ask questions if you’re curious about anything, we’ll try to feature a response in the next episode!
1967 Six Day War - Battle at Bir Lahfan
So with Episode 01 of the Ops Center up …
… going over the 1956 Arab-Israeli Sinai War, we’re now moving into the 1967 “Six Day” War. Again it was myself and Damon at a table of Avalon Hill’s The Arab Israeli Wars, with Damon playing the Israelis and myself playing the Egyptians.
The big difference here between this and previous TAIW games is that for once, the Israelis are on the defensive. Damon’s Centurions, TCM-20s, and infantry will try to hold a Sinai crossroads and the high ground flanking it against superior numbers of one of Egypt’s better tank and mechanized brigades.
Furthermore, the battle takes place (initially) at night, where the Egyptians actually have a slight advantage in Soviet IR sights. If they can hold out until morning, however, the Israeli Air force (IAF) arrives in force, undertaking more tactical strike missions on the second day of the way now that the strikes against Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian air forces and C3 networks have been completed.
The battle on the table was the Battle of Bir Lahfan, fought primarily in the wee hours of the morning of June 6, 1967. Sneaking between heavily entrenched Egyptian fortification complexes, leading elements of Yoffe’s 31st Division have now taken the Sinai crossroads at Bir Lahfan. They are thus astride Egyptian communication and transport routes between fortified areas of Rafah to the north, and Abu Agheila to the south. As Egyptian reinforcements try to respond to either threatened sector (under attack from Tal’s Division and Sharon’s Division, respectively), they will now run into 200th Armored Brigade. They Egyptians organize a night attack by the 2nd Armored Brigade (T-55s), plus mechanized infantry if the 18th Mechanized Brigade (BTR-60 troop carriers) in hideous numbers. The attack will come around 0300-0400 hours on the morning of 6 June. The Israeli battalion here has called in air strikes, but they will not arrive until the run comes up. Also, heavy reinforcements are approaching from the north (7th Armored Brigade, Tal’s Division) from the Jeradi Pass and the coastal town of El Arish. But they won’t arrive until noon. For most of this game on the table, the lead battalion (Lt. Col. Abraham Bar-Am) of 200th Brigade (Col Aluf Mishne Shadmi) will be on their own. GREEN RECTANGLE shows the scaled and measured size of our700-hex AIW table (with I” hexes = 1:10,000 scale, 250 meters / hex). 
Bar-Am’s Battalion, Shadmi’s Brigade, Yoffe’s Division (reinforced by mechanized infantry in halftracks and some TCM-20 SPAA systems and an M3 mortar carrier) set up and ready to face the Egyptians coming out of the southwest. Roads lead southwest to Jebel Libni (where the next big battle is fought by this unit historically enter this afternoon and into the night, reinforced by elements of 7th Brigade), northwest to the coastal rail junction of El Arish, northeast to the crucial Jeradi Pass (Egyptian 7th Infantry Division), and southeast to the huge Egyptian fortification complex of Abu Agheila and Um Katef (2nd Egyptian Infantry Division, where Sharon’s Division is currently engaged in a furious battle).
The Egyptians make their rush. One thing you can’t away from the T-55s are their speed and, in this case, their numbers. In all I have 15 counters (75 tanks), plus 15 SU-100s and 50 BTR-60s carrying 450 Egyptian infantry plus headquarters section. But the “Shot” Centurions (L7 105mm guns) in reverse slope hull down positions along that ridge open fire, in some cases at ranges of 3000 meters (12 hexes, almost two miles) and score the first kills. FULL DISCLOSURE – I’m not 100% sure I got the Egyptian force correct, 18th Mech Brigade was part of 3rd Infantry Division – but we know from eyewitnesses those were T-55 tanks, and that’s probably from 4th Armoured Division further back. There were several battles between sunset of 5 June and then toward the advance on Jebel Libni 24 hours later. I think I might have gotten two of these attacks merged together.
Egyptian infantry is blatantly sacrificed, trying to pin down the Israeli Centurions in the center and south while I use the cover of Bir Lahfan to swing tanks around the north. I’ve had SOME success in killing Centurions on the high ground, but it’s taking fire phases of 60 tanks and 15 tank destroyers to MAYBE kill one platoon of 5 Centurions. But of course, I outnumber the Israelis by a tremendous margin. And one or two lost Centurion platoons could easily destabilize the whole 200th Brigade line. Welcome to the Arab-Israeli Wars. 
The swing around the north does kind of work, but again, Egyptian losses are simply ghastly. I shift weight to the other foot, instead shoving straight up the slope, using the SHAPE of that slope to blind some Israeli gunners. But chugging up that slope is slow going, and we’re on Turn 5 now … which means the sun has come up and Israeli gunners can now see as clearly as I could with IR sights. More Centurions are burning, however, along with some Israeli halftracks and TCM-20 SPAA mounts (also on WW2 surplus halftracks).
Turn 06, the sun is now FULLY up and the IAF makes its appearance. Again, apologies, these should be Mystere class fighter bombers, not Mirage IIIs. Massive Egyptian opportunity fire phase as a veritable wall of ground fire comes up against these jets. But only one is driven off (jets are extremely hard to shoot down or drive off with just AKs and HMGs, please remember the SIZE of this Egyptian force and remember these jets are using unguided rockets, which mean they have to get very close). The seven remaining Mystere fighter bombers release ordinance and blow ten T-55s (two counters) clean off that ridge. But even now, Israeli losses are mounting. 
Giving up on the southern and central ridges, the Israeli Centurions condense their defense on the crossroads of Bir Lahfan itself. In so doing, they more or less smash my northern arm. That’s the bad news. The good news is that my remaining T-55s, SU-100s, and even BTR-60s now have the high ground and the Israelis are no longer getting +2 DRM on all my fire coming at them because of hull-down shielding. In fact, I’M getting the +2 DRM for my SU-100s, which Damon keeps dispersing but never quite killing. Meanwhile, I’m dying fast everywhere else, but still inflicting casualties. One thing’s for sure, Damon’s paying a much steeper butcher’s bill for this defense than Bar-Am’s Battalion did historically.
Relocated Centurions (30 of them in three counters, plus 10 TCM-20s and a couple hundred infantry) deliver the coup de grace against the T-55s and SU-100s.
The Egyptians survivors start pulling back to the wadi along the Jebel Libni Road, as I call the game. Congrats to Damon on a rugged, measured, and flexible defense! 
