The historical scenario seems to be heavily biased toward an Israeli victory; not only the Israeli player starts on a winning situation (+2 VP) but the initial Egyptian superiority of forces will be gone by Turn 3 due to arrival of Israeli reinforcements and his unavoidable achievement of air superiority.
I would say that just focusing on holding the Chinese Farm and Zrakor - the two Israeli VP hexes on the east side of the Canal - should be enough to obtain Victory - or at least pull out a Draw if things turn really bad - by carrying out opportunistic attacks on other locations.
Crossing the Suez Canal will release the Egyptian GHQ and also the Exploitation Reserve if this last force is still on hold so it should be delayed until the very end when the additional VPs due to the crossing itself or the control of additional VP hexes could make a difference.
Of course if the Egyptian Exploitation Reserve is released before the Israeli crossing of the Canal the ground forces will be more balanced but balance has never been good for attackers.
Let's look at the Israeli setup; it's first line of defense is composed by the Bar Lev fortifications along the Suez Canal (see Fig 1) whose location is pre-defined in the scenario. The problem with those units is their lack of ZoC which reduces them to a minor nuisance for the Egyptian player; he can safely engage a minimum number of Bar Lev forts to secure crossings and then ignore the rest.
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| Fig 1 - Bar Lev Fortification Line |
Just behind the Bar Lev line lays the area where I expect the most critical fighting to take place: the Chinese Farm and Zrakor.
The Chinese Farm is defended by a Static unit; another Static and Mend Recon Bn are close to provide support if needed but the plan is to reinforce the place with Reshef Arm Bde (A) currently at Tasa.
A similar situation happens around Zrakor which is hold by Pinchas Inf Bde (A); supported by Pinchas Inf Bde (B) and with Reshef Arm Bde (B) expected to arrive as soon as possible from hex 40.14.
Additionally a couple of Static units has been deployed on Hamutal Hill to prevent easy movement and supply of Egyptian forces during initial turns.
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| Fig 2 - The Chinese Farm and Zrakor |
On the northern section of the map (see Fig 3) the Alush Inf Bde should be enough to hold Churchill - an Egyptian VP hex - during the initial phase while the Amir Arm Bde will reinforce Zrakor and the crossroad left empty by Reshef Amd Bde (B)
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| Fig 3 - The Northern Area |
Finally on the South (see Fig 4) I will move most of my forces toward Lateral Road mainly to block or delay an improbable Egyptian raid toward the eastern VP hexes; what I decide to do with the arty units will depend on how the situation develops during the initial move.
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| Fig 4 - The Southern Area |
A point worth noticing before we finish the IDF setup is the location of the SAM unit (see Fig 5) which I set up the the furthest to the North as possible - within 5 hexes from 22.04 - but even there not the Chinese Farm nor Zrakor are under its range leaving the Egyptian Air units free to operate over them.
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| Fig 5 - IDF SAM Coverage |
OK, it's been a large post but it's finally over! Next time Egyptian Set Up
