New game started

It's time for another game! Elusive Victory provides a wide range of scenarios. This time it will be a short one, a harassing raid by the EAF against the newly established forward air field Refidim of the IAF: EV4 Alert Five.

The plan is simple: Hit the airfields three installations, runway, control tower and revetments, and then get back over the Suez to friendly territory. With the limited amount of available MiGs, I choose to go with 3 strike flights, 2 composed of 2 MiG-17s and 1 of 3 MiG-17s.

The picture shows the composition of the three flights on the EAF planning air field. Al-Jindi goes for the control tower with 2 MiG-17, Shararah against the revements also with 2 Frescos, and finally al-Masiri with 3 planes is tasked to bomb the runway. There are also two dummy flights around to confuse the IAF.

The flight plan is simple: Cross the Suez at Kibrit between the Great and Little Bitter Lake. The continue east to the Jiddi Pass, turn north, commence the bomb run and after turning west head back to the Suez channel between Missouri and Chinese Farm, passing by El Tasa on the way back.

The target area looks like this: A medium Flak blocks the valley just west of Rifidim. A couple of Mirage III CJ are ready on the runway and just wait for a sign of an incoming EAF raid.

It is 18:00 hours, 10th October 1967. The sky is bright and weather is excellent. The EAF raid forms west of Kibrit and heads over the water on the deck to enter enemy air space. A few minutes into the Sinai peninsular and the raid gets informed that an IAF is airborne out of Refidim. While pressing on with dash speed, the MiG-17 are still caught just where the rough

area leading to the Jiddi pass starts. An eager pair of Mirage III CJ is quick to engage the middle flight of Frescos. While the Mirage spends their guns in the engagement, the EAF flight al-Jindi does take no hits at all. But panicked the barely trained pilots decide to unload their bombs on the desert and head home.

Operation Tagar - SAMs and MiGs

In turn 14 the action focused on the duels between Egrof flights versus the ground defenses. Launched ARMs required the shutdown of a SAM batteries and a stand off attack vs Tanta Birma resulted in a meager attack success 1 for the IAF. The decimated EAF strikers have made it to the relative safety across the Suez canal and no IAF flights are in pursuit.

The next turn started with air combat. Close to Al Kubra 4 MiG-21s are following a flight of F-4s and before they get to engage another flight of F-4s joins and shoots first. As the result of the wild shootout at tree top level one F-4 is downed, with surprisingly no losses for the MiGs! East of Suez the dodging between IAF and SAM batteries continued. In a first engagement vs the new SA-6 a IAF flight had to jettison armament. Overall this was by far the best turn for the EAF!

During the next detection phase the Israeli side got once away the upper hand and has a clear picture of the EAF air activities. The second attack on Tanta-Birma took place and an attack success 2 was scored. The departing flight was then ambushed by a medium AAA and one plane was damaged. Meantime a number of MiG CAP flights have landed at bases and recover. Turn 15 ended with a successfull bomb run vs the pontoon bridge at Suez, resulting in an success rating of 3. In a major failure of communications in the Egyptian air defense network all information on IAF flights were lost. The already tense situation becomes almost unbearable by this event.



Luckily a number of flights were quickly detected again, but not so the remaining strike flights approaching Beni Suef. This is the one outstanding IAF strike, though recon missions need still be conducted for all targets. The airfield was protected by three SAM batteries, with one out of action. Two EAF flights are almost withing striking range. But first the IAF strike flights need to be detected and then any interception by IAF CAP flights has to be unsuccessfull. Then the gap to the strike aircraft has to be closed, with the laden F-4 as fast as the dashing MiG-21 on the deck not an easy task. While EAF flight L is in a good position, it is itself threatened by IAF Cap flight Shochat. Hence turn 17 will most likely see more air combat, and the hot strike phase should be over by turn 18.

Operation Tagar - Abort!

In the south IAF flight 100, tasked with SEAD, comes within range of the SAMs protecting Beni Suef. After getting a good lock, a salvo from a SA-2 battery is launched, but with no effect. Over the center the IAF CAP consisting of Nesher engages an already mauled flight of MiG-17 and shoots down a crippled plane. Yet another air combat between Mirage III CJ and MiG-21F-13 occurs close to the Little Bitter Lake. While the combat itself was inconclusive, the aggressive maneuvering of the MiG pilots convinced the Mirage jocks to head for home. This has been by far the most favorite air combat for the EAF in this game, an abort of four Israeli CAP planes for no own losses. In the North-West at Tanta-Birma the IAF Egrof flights are busy with the local ground defenses. Some ARMs are launched and as a result a Fire Can at the airfield goes off the air. However, in the admin phase a Fire Can at the Canal and a SAM close to Tanta-Birma go online again.

The overall game situation after turn 13 is as follows:

1. The IAF raid on Tanta-Birma (suspected target) is about to commence. Already a flight is approaching the airfield and more are trailing.
2. The shot up EAF raid on the Baluza airstrip is heading for home and basically out of the game.
3. The second EAF raid on El Tasa is also heading home in bad shape.
4. An IAF raid that might target Suez is forming up over the hills 20km east of Suez.
5. The IAF raid on Beni Suef (suspected target) is still on the way to target, with the SEAD flight approaching the airfield.
   
6. The initial CAP flights that got a beating in air to air combat with the IAF have landed or are about to land and a second wave is starting or getting ready.
   

Operation Tagar - Disaster

In the center the strike on El Tasa continues. Shararah, a flight of 4 MiG-17, drops their bomb load on the Hawk battery, but fails to hit. Of course, having a crippled and damaged plane in the flight did not help. The Su-7 that failed to hit the battery earlier where engaged by a flight of four Neshers and shot to pieces - 3 of 4 Fitters went down in flames for a damaged Nesher. With favorable morale results, the Nesher will most likely continue to press another attack on Shararah. Fortunately the remaining Fitter will be able to dash away at speed six. With the current results in aerial combat the EAF CAP flight J flies southwards to check on another strike. To compensate for the sustained losses I ready two new EAF CAP flights at Cairo West and Inshas. In the southern part the remaining EAF flight is detected, while all attempts on the IAF there went unsuccessful. The image depicts the situation at start of turn 11.
Ben Nun, which recovered from disorder in the admin phase, moved to intercept the interceptors and succeded once more. With two shots the F-4s scored two kills on the MiG-21F-13s. After three air-to-air combats in this part four MiG-21s were shot down and two more damaged for basically no Israeli losses. The last line of defense there will no be the SAM batteries around Beni Suef, as this is most likely to be the target.

The incoming strike at the coast is now engaged by SAMs. With the remaining Armed Escort and Egrof flight the score remains even. One SAM shut down it's radar after an ARM launch and no damage has been dealt out. While a number of missiles were shot at the aggressors, no hits were scored.
Meanwhile the last IAF strike is assembled and seems to be on the way to Suez. Little opposition for this strike has been scratched together. The CAP flight departing from covering El Tasa is available. For ground defense, a Fire Can was shutdown after ARM launch and needs to recover first.

Turn 13 is starting and the EAF is in a bad shape. Of the two strikes versus Israelian installations, only one was hit with a success rating of 3. The losses are already enormous:

Flight	Task	Aircraft	Killed	Crippled	Damaged
el-Malt	Bombing	2	2 (AAA,Hawk)	-	-
Shararah	Bombing	4	-	1 (Hawk)	1 (Hawk)
Hafiz	Bombing	4	-	-	-
Zaki	Bombing	1	3 (A2A)	-	-
Mikhail	CAP	4	-	-	1 (A2A)
Shuwakri	CAP	3	1 (A2A)	-	1 (A2A)
Kamal	CAP	2	2 (A2A)	-	-
al-Hamid	CAP	2	2 (A2A)	-	1 (A2A)

For the IAF it looks like a great day: only two damaged planes for 10 kills and a number of aborted and disordered EAF flights. Will turn 13 bring more carnage to my EAF forces or will the IAF start to suffer likewise?

Operation Tagar - Dogfight

Today was another rough day for the EAF. al-Hammid, a CAP flight of four MiG-21, popped up to medium altitude to engage a strike package, but was caught while doing so by the IAF CAP Shochat. After a short and fierce fight two MiG-21 went down and one is damaged. Hopefully al-Hammid can make a safe trip home. Of the three MiG-21 flights waiting for the Israelian strike only one remains intact. It managed to fly between the strikers, which are now devoid of CAP.

The EAF strikes continued and one flight of Su-7 dropped their bombs at the Hawk Battery at El Tara. Unfortunately the AAA barrage was to dense and no hits were scored at the site. The hopes now lie on another flight that will engage the ground target later this turn.

Operation Tagar illustrated

This image illustrates the disengaging EAF flight intermixed with the IAF strike. The combat took place between Ben-Nun, a flight of 4 F-4 Phantom fighters on Armed Escrot, and Mikhail, a flight of 4 MiG-21. With a damaged lead aircraft the EAF flight is trying to get to Wadi Al Jandali, a base northwest from the area shown. While the disordered flight may recover and continue operation, it is more likely that it will land.


The overall area where the combat took place shows two more MiG flights and he incoming strike. Flight 100 will most likely be tasked with SEAD and 102 with Armed Escort. The main force consists of 104 an 105 and their escort 103. The detection phase of turn 8 will show if EAF flights F and H will have a chance to engage the raid or will be taken by an IAF surprise strike as happened to Mikhail in turn 7.

In this image the egyptian strikes are shown. To the right two flights are on the way to El Tasa. A HAWK battery is placed there and the shaded red area shows their effective engagement range. Flight B is fully acquired by the battery and will get shot at during the next turns.
To the left el-Malt and Hafiz, two flights of MiG-17, are outbound after bombing the airstrip at Baluza. Their close escort flight Adoub has been surprised by the AAA at Budapest.

Operation Tagar

The scenario takes place during the Yom Kippur or Ramadan War in 1973 and gives an impression on actions during the second day of the conflict.

Both sides have to attack and defend simultaneously. The IAF is about to strike two air bases and one frontline target while the EAF flies two raids versus installations in the Sinai. I play the Egyptian side in this scenario. After the setup and planning of the stationary air defenses, consisting of SAMs, AAA and radar directed AAA (Fire Cans), I plan the strikes and setup my CAP flights ready at airbases spread over eastern Egypt.

The game commences and from intelligence sources I am aware that the IAF will come from three different areas. Prepared with this knowledge I am able to start four flights of CAP to intercept the raiders. Also the strikes versus the runway at Baluza Airfield and another classified target are assembled.

First contact is made by the CAP flight from Tanta-Birma that intercepts some flights over the Med. One MiG explodes when Israeli Phantoms launch their Sparrows from beyond visual range. This causes quite a bit of confusion and before my pilots can turn and run off, they are engaged once more by the aggressive IAF flight. Fortunately only one MiG is damaged and the remaining aircraft fly back towards homebase, slightly shaken.

In the southern part three flights of MiG wait for six incoming IAF flights. Hidden in the rugged desert terrain, they stay undetected. But once the IAF is in range, the Israelis again seize the initiative and one flight has a badly damaged airplane with no scratch on the Phantoms paintwork.

The outgoing strikes are harrassed by HAWK batteries that cover primary targets in the Sinai. The flight of el-Malt suffers heavy losses: One MiG-17 is shot down before crossing the Suez canal by a HAWK missile and another one by a heavy Flak barrage protecting the airfield. Nevertheless the second flight of the strike manages to score multiple hits on the runway. Though at this moment it is still unclear how much damage is done. This has to be uncovered by a recon flight later in the game. Once the target has been bombed, the departing strike is surprised by a AAA barrage on the coastline. Fortunately the gunners were also surprised and no hits were scored. The second strike is still en route to the target, with one flight dodging incoming missiles from the HAWK batter at El-Tasa.

Elusive Victory

This blog is about after action reports on Elusive Victory, an upcoming game from GMT. My name is Torsten and I do the Vassal module for Elusive Victory.

The game is about the air war between Israel and the Arab Nations from 1967 to 1973. The area covered is the Sinai , Suez Canal and the Nile valley. The air raids that took place in this timespan are heart of the game. In different scenarios players can take either side and either conduct air strikes or organize air defenses . The more complex scenarios allow player to defend and attack at once.