Flatpack - Seven Days to the River Rhine - Lebanon’82, and Yom Kippur ‘73

[flatpack]

Today we played through our first game of 7dttrr.
Based on the invasion of Lebanon 1982.
We had a small force of Israeli troops, up against a small force of Syrian troops.
Figures were skytrex action 200 10mm figures.
The command allocation made us really think. Should I use it here or there ? Should I hold some back, just in case ? Nice system.

Plan was for the Syrians to keep control of the two villages.


Syrian T62’s pass thro the first village, heading towards the second village and the oncoming  Israeli troops.


Israeli tanks hold their positions and take out the Syrian tanks as they approach.


Not the best day for Syrian tankers. 2 out of 3 down.


Syrians take out an Israeli Isherman.


Israeli M113 APC’s head to the hills, whilst the tanks hold off the Syrians.


Israeli armour advances on the Syrians who have moved their APC’s towards the second village and de-bussed.


It’s all over.
The Syrian infantry HAVE taken the second village, but how long are they likely to hold it, with no armour support, their transport being shot to pieces, and  Israeli armour fast outflanking them. An Israeli victory is called.


Good fun.
Some good mechanisms.
Didn’t take too long to pick up.
Made players want to buy different armies to paint and use…gulp.

I can see one of our number trying these rules out for the Iran Iraq war in the coming months 

Many thanks to has.been for umpiring.

[Digits]

Looks fun fellas!

[SJWi]

Nice looking game. What size forces did you use, and did you adjust anything as using 1/200?   

[has.been]

Nice looking game.

All Flatpack's work

What size forces did you use,

Israel = 4 tanks (Sherman M51)/ 3 APCs (M113 Nagmash)carrying an Inf
             section each /1Command APC (M3 half Track)
  Syria =3 tanks (T62)/ 3 APC (BTR-60PB) carrying an inf. section each/ I Command APC.

and did you adjust anything as using 1/200?

No. We left the movement
ranges in inches & there is (almost) no firing ranges.


My pictures
566 = Israeli armour happilly bowling along the road.
557 = The nearest village to them is marked on the maps as '2'
558 = Meanwhile Syrian armour (faster) speeds through the other village ('1')
571 = 'KABOOM !!!'  First blood to the IDF
572 = This also gives the nearest tank a morale point.
573 = Syrians return fire & blow up an Isherman, again...KABOOM!
574 = Syrians advance both the remaining tanks & also advance their APCs

[has.been]

575 = Another Syrian tank is hit.
576 = The one remaining Syrian tank, makes use of the hill to hide its advance from the IDF
577/8  = BTR60s make a death or glory dash to Village '2' & some absolute rubbish Israeli
              shooting lets them !
579 = They are almost there when one Sherman M51 manages to get a shot in...'FOOM!'
          (not as potent as a 'Kaboom' which lets some VERY shaken Syrian Inf debus from
          the burning wreck.
580 = In the distance you can see the Tank 'Wot dun de damage'
581 = Syrian Inf dig in at Village '2'

[has.been]

582 = Last of the Syrian T62s goes the same way as the others.
583 = The overall situation. Not looking good for Syria
584 = The an APC gets hit.
585 = It is almost over, so Bob races his commander forward from his safety at the rear,
          'For the victory news-reels' 
586 = With the Syrian inf. in a desperate situation, we call it a victory for the Israeli troops.
          Camera-men take pictures of the destruction wrought on the Syrians.

A nice simple set of rule. Acid test question, 'Would you play them again?' = a resounding...
YES from all three of us.

[Marine0846]

Very nice looking game.
I liked the photos that look like pics taken from a plane.
Then I saw the second set of photos, really cool .
I am impressed.
Thanks for sharing.

[SJWi]

Has.been, thanks for the answers. I game SDTTRR in 15mm. I love the rules but find a  6 x 4' table can look quite crowded in that scale. However I must remain focussed. I have European 1980s "moderns" in 15mm for SDTTRR, 6mm for PSC's NORTHAG ( and soon CENTAG) and 3mm for "Cold War Commander". That said I don't have Arab-Israeli yet and those Red 3 Miniatures do look very nice....

[flatpack]

. That said I don't have Arab-Israeli yet and those Red 3 Miniatures do look very nice....

I agree that Red 3 do a lovely range of vehicles, but just to clarify, all the miniatures used in this game are Skytrex Action 200.

[SJWi]

Flat pack , got it. I have the Skytrex Action 200 Vietnem range bought nearly 30 years ago. Some are lovely models, others much cruder. Shame they don't mix with more recent 10mm ranges. For Arab-Israeli I might look at Pendraken or Red 3 despite them being far more expensive.

[flatpack]

Flat pack , got it. I have the Skytrex Action 200 Vietnem range bought nearly 30 years ago. Some are lovely models, others much cruder. Shame they don't mix with more recent 10mm ranges. For Arab-Israeli I might look at Pendraken or Red 3 despite them being far more expensive.

Completely agree.
One of our gang is now talking of getting some Jordanian kit to use.
I’m saying go for Pendragon or Red3.
Yes they’ll be larger, but they’ll have more detail, be fun/easier to paint, and across a battlefield they won’t be combined with my skytrex figures, just fighting against them.

[SJWi]

This post may have inspired me to seriously look at 10mmMiddle East. The Yom Kippur war might be too much of  Turkey Shoot but is well documented. I think the "Peace in Galilee" 1982 campaign offers  more variety plus early Merkavas. Less detail avaliable and slightly more morally dubious IMHO....

[Daeothar]

Glad to hear that 7DttR is a fun set of rules. I really wanted to like Team Yankee, but after just one game, the lining up of units on both sides and then having at eachother really disappointed me. Too bad I had previously already invested in the basics of two armies

This gives me good hope my 15mm Dutch and Russians can be used with enjoyable rules after all...

Great looking table and units btw

[SJWi]

Daeothar, I've been saved from gaming 1982 in 10mm due to no-one producing decent Israeli kit. I have 15mm Dutch and Russkies and they play well in SDttRR. Starting again today I would use use 10mm but there is still more kit available in 15mm. Go for it. The secret is lots of terrain to break lines-of-sight and force people to manoeuvre.

[flatpack]

So yesterday we played our second ever game of 7dttrr.

This scenario was from the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

The Syrians had attacked the Israelis in the Golan Heights.
The Israelis had driven off that Syrian attack, and then gone on the attack themselves, entering Syria.
Arab nations were not happy with this, so sent expeditionary forces to counter the Israeli attack.

This battle sees Israeli forces, outstretching themselves.
As they try to enter a Syrian town, they encounter Jordanian and Iraqi forces, who are counter attacking.

The battlefield.


Israeli forces on the attack.


Iraqi forces join battle.
Top right of picture.


Jordanian forces join battle.
Outflanking the Israelis on the road.


Israeli lead units take a pounding.


The Israeli reserves now arrive.
Sherman’s will do a job…


Sherman’s do a job, taking out Jordanian armour.


Israeli APC’s bring their infantry forward into the olive groves.


More Israeli reserve armour commits to battle.


The battle rages, with Jordanian troops holding the left flank, and Iraqi forces holding the right.
I think it’s time for the Israeli to retire with a blooded nose.


Game concluded at this point.
7dttrr rules worked well again.
The method of using the blue and red tokens that you see on the table, made it a game of “cost management”.
When I say “cost management” I’m talking about when you should spend your tokens ?
Spend them all early and go on the attack, or hold some in reserve to counter any attacks on yourselves ?

Enjoyable couple of hours.