Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raids

Enemy Coast Ahead (GMT, 2014) is a solitaire game designed by Jeremy White that simulates the RAF no. 617 Squadron's May 1943 raids on German dams in the Ruhr. This game held a special interest for me because as a kid, I read Paul Brickhill's book and I remember being fascinated by the technical problems of the bomb design, the raid, and marshalling together the right men and training in secret to do something that had never ever been done before.

Reading up on it now from the vantage of age, I was surprised at how ineffectual the whole thing was on the German war effort. The civilian losses and the POW deaths that resulted from the bombings are pretty appalling too. In the end, it seems the main effect of the raids was to boost British morale, which would have been much needed in those dark days. At the time, however, the raid was seen as a chance to strike a serious blow to Germany's war-making capabilities as its industries in the Ruhr industrial heartland would be rendered destroyed or inoperative for months or even years.


One interesting aspect of the game is how the reality of today's sensitivities can often clash with the historical realities of the past. Yes, I'm talking about the dog. For those of you not in the know, the men of 617 Squadron had a dog who served as their mascot. Its name was a racial slur. The dog's name is mentioned in the rules one time and the dog has a counter but the text on the counter reads "Jinx". This is because the dog died shortly before the raids and its death was kept a secret from the aircrews so they wouldn't see this as a bad omen.



If the Jinx counter is pulled prior to the raids, the news of the dog's death spreads throughout the squadron and negatively modifies die roll result selection. Although there are a few people who take the inclusion of the dog's name in the rules as objectionable, most reasonable people have understood that using this kind of terminology is an unfortunate but real part of history. Jeremy White has chimed in on this subject many times and his explanations and justifications for keeping the dog in the game are sound, sensitive, and reasonable. I think it was the right choice.

King George visits 617 Squadron at Scampton airfield just after the raid.

Moving beyond all that, the game is a real pleasure to play. There are no hexes or maps in the game. There are a series of playing aids with sequential rules that tell you what your bombers can choose to do next. Outcomes are determined by chit pulls and die rolls. There are 10 scenarios in the game, the last of which is a full campaign game that involves selecting, training, and planning the missions before carrying them out. Everything is played out on a paper mat and although that may not sound exciting, it works very well for the kind of game this is.

This is very much a game of risk management and opting for the least unpalatable option out of the many available bad ones. Some dilemmas you might encounter during the game

• Do you spend another turn circling around again for a better approach to the dam and risk being discovered and shot down by a German nightfighter? Or do you take what's given and drop an "Upkeep" from a less than optimal altitude or speed and hope for the best before heading for home? 

• Do you turn on your Aldis lights for a more exacting bomb release altitude and risk alerting the Germans to your presence? Or do you approach in the dark and reduce your accuracy? 

• How do you keep the mission secret if it appears someone is talking after having too many beers while out on the town? If you quarantine the base, you end being unable to bring in replacement aircrews or ground crews. 

Here is an extremely rough account of what the game can be like - I have intentionally skipped out on a few important details for the sake of brevity:

A typical beginner scenario mission goes through turns, each of which are broken down into phases. You start off circling the target then going to the Run phase. As your bomber gets closer to the dam, you pull chits to check your altitude and speed. Based on this, you can decide to release your "Upkeep" (codename for your dambusting bomb) or continue with the approach and release nearer to the dam, adjusting either your current speed or altitude. In some cases, you'll get shot at by flak and have to deal with balloons. Meanwhile, your gunners will have the chance to shoot at dam defenses to make your lives a bit easier.

When you decide to release, you pull a number of speed and altitude chits and check their release modifiers then add these to a 2d6 die roll. Other modifiers to the die roll are made based on crew training, bomber damage, and a host of factors. If the modified die roll result is above a certain number, your Upkeep successfully releases and damages the dam. If it's below a certain number, you either miss or end up with the bomb damaging your plane upon release. As you turn away from the dam, you have to check for German nightfighters before heading for home.

If another bomber is on hand to assess the damage, you turn over your Upkeep chit and it tells you what kind of damage it does. If not, you turn over all the Upkeep markers on a particular dam at the same time when Morning Recon is performed. In either case, you roll a die for each Upkeep marker and it may add or subtract a damage point to the dam. If the dam accumulates enough damage, it is breached and the mission is a terrific success. Each scenario gives a very prosaic account of the result of the mission and how it affects your men. This is by far one of the coolest things I have seen in a game.

Eder Dam right after the May 1943 raids

If you don't like these kinds of games where the system is nakedly out there for you to sit down and work with, you probably won't like this game. It is a very procedural game with "pull this chit at this time" kind of flow to it.

However, if you can live with a very procedural game approach and let it go to work on your imagination, you'll build up a tense story in your head of what's happening as your bomber crews die in the darkness or arrive back home as heroes. I would say it would depend a lot on whether or not you are familiar with and enjoy any of the source material that the game is based on. If you're like me and you grew up with the story, you'll fall in love with it as soon as you open the box.

Gulf Strike - Scenario 1: America - Heck Yeah!

Hello down there!

It's turn 7 of my latest game of Gulf Strike scenario 1 and Iran is doing terribly. It has taken us seven horrible turns of mucking around with supply problems to get down to the capital of Saudi Arabia and do battle with the Saudi forces protecting the capital. Along the east coast, a handful of Iranian units attempt to break the back of the lonesome small group of elite defenders protecting the Al Hufuh airbase from attack. Without supply or reinforcement, it seems they won't last much longer.

On the other hand, the United States is now activated this turn and can start to get some serious units on to the table.

At the beginning of the turn, we roll for a Random Political Event and get nothing at all. So we go ahead to the Global Military Stage and the US units start showing up at the bottom of the Strategic Map.

I put a US SSN in the waters between Madagascar and the African coastline. Meanwhile, the USS Enterprise CVN-65 is placed to the east with a Marine amphibious ship with some of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children aboard. Now the US has a toehold on the way to achieving naval and air parity with the USSR in the region.

The Saudis keep their elite Mechanized Brigade northwest of the capital in reserve. I put the Iranian 11th Armored Brigade in reserve near Al Hufuh airbase just in case I need to chase down the Saudi paratroopers later in the turn. Two of my truck units dump off two brigades from the 8th infantry division just north of another brigade from the mighty 8th sitting adjacent to the Saudi 1st Mech Brigade. I really want to recombine these brigades into a single infantry division but I would have to perform a withdrawal of the brigade sitting next to the Saudis and that would result in a hit. I might do it anyways later in the turn.

One of the trucks rushes over to hex 0755 to pick up an air defense unit to transport up to the big weak link in our supply chain in 0947.

Supplies are a huge problem for the Iranians this turn. I started off with 10 supply points this turn after spending with abandon last turn. After gaining 20 supply points to reach 30, I realize that I will have to pick my fights carefully this turn and then go for a bigger push next turn with more supplies. I choose my key objectives carefully. I really want Al Hufuh this turn, so I will spend the 7 SPs needed for a hasty attack (armored division and artillery brigade) on the airbase.

I would like to push at the center of the Saudi lines near Riyadh. This is their weakest point and my strongest spot. They have an armored brigade with a strength of 3 in hasty defense and rough terrain for 10 total combat value. I have two Iranian armored divisions (strength 5 each) with an artillery brigade in hasty assault formation adjacent to them for a strength of 20 and a die roll modifier of +2.

Since the Americans have activated this turn, they get to do some stuff. The Enterprise and the Marine amphibious landing ship at the bottom of the strategic map move up towards Diego Garcia, expending both Naval Activations allotted for the First Action Stage.

We have a pair of B-52 bombers and it would be a shame not to use them this turn. They pound the Iranian base in Basra for 1 hit and an F-5 Tiger is assigned a damage point. The Iranians got off pretty light, all things considered.

The First Action Stage Assault Segment comes around and the Iranians decline to put air support up to help their troops. Not only would the air strikes themselves drain supplies but the Saudis have poured all their own air into Intercept mode so going this route would entail clearing the air of Saudi fighters beforehand.

As promised, the Iranian 4th and 5th Armored Divisions deliver a beating against the Saudi 2nd Armored Brigade. Facing total annihilation, the brigade takes one hit and shakes off the other with a one-hex retreat south into 0660. Iranian 5th Armored pursues into 0659 and prepares a coup de grace in the next Action Stage. The road to Riyadh is now cleared for the 4th Armored Division.

The Battle for Riyadh - Saudi 2nd Arm. retreats. The road lay open to Riyadh.

In a classic case of overkill, the Iranians attack Al Hufuh airbase with an armored division and an artillery brigade. Rolling on the 3-1 column with a +2 die roll modifier against a reduced elite brigade of Saudi paratroopers, the die roll comes up 8 modified to 10. Wow! It isn't even close. 4 hits get assigned to the Saudis.

The elite paratroopers are eliminated with the first hit. Three hits left to assign. The air defense unit in the Saudi base hex takes them and is eliminated. The base itself is just barely hanging on. A truck unit in the same hex. It doesn't matter - support units can't combine their defense strengths so things are looking real bad for the Saudis here soon, especially with an Iranian armored brigade just to the north sitting in reserve mode.

Things look dire for the Saudis. The way to Riyadh is open and one of their airbases is just about to fall. However, in this assault segment, the Americans can try to do something. They gather three detachments from the 5th Special Forces Group and drop them into hex 0947, where the Iranians have foolishly left a supply depot unguarded!

We roll for the raid on the depot and get an "8", modified to 13 for attacking a Supply Depot on its own. The result is 3 hits and the depot is utterly destroyed. Unfortunately, this was the main node for the Iranian army down in Saudi Arabia so the whole invasion force is now out of supply! Oh man.

Let's file all this under lessons learned:

1.) Have redundant supply paths for your units if possible so that if one depot is taken out, at least some of your guys will remain in supply and functioning.

2.) Don't leave supply depots alone in a hex. Ever. Always have a unit with them, even if it's a lowly infantry brigade.

3.) I probably could have avoided this headache from the start by putting an airbase in 1046 instead of in Kuwait City. Then put a supply depot there with an infantry brigade and air defense (and an F-14 Tomcat) to firm it up a bit. Suddenly you have a pretty defensible supply depot serving as your main supply mode from Basra down into northern Saudi Arabia.

In the Second Action Stage, the Iranians get 3 NMPs while the US/Gulf Council gets zero.

In the Movement Phase, the Iranian player can pretty much only look helplessly on the map and try to figure out how to rebuild the whole affair from scratch next turn. The first order of business is trying to secure an airfield where a supply depot can be safely stored and used as a relay to help the Iranian army down south in Saudi Arabia. The C-130 in Tehran is loaded up with Iranian Spec. Forces troops from the 55th Brigade and they are unloaded in hex 1046 in Kuwait. We'll use a CH-47 to transport the airbase from Khark Island next turn into 1046 and get a supply depot set up there as quickly as possible.

During the End Stage, 20 hits total are assigned to the out of supply Iranian army sitting down in Saudi Arabia. Initiative will go over to the US player next turn. Wow. This is pretty embarassing but it's the kind of experience you never forget that starts to teach you how to play the game properly. Ignore the importance of supply at your own peril and watch your enemy have a field day.

Iran purchases a supply depot and places it in Tehran for transport next turn. The Saudis lose 4 supply points to Yemeni guerillas operating on the border. What a mess!

Gulf Strike: Scenario 1 - Battle for Riyadh

In the first five turns of Gulf Strike's first scenario, I've led the Iranian military on a bumbling mess of a military adventure through Kuwait and down into Saudi Arabia. As the major powers gear up to join the war, I've got to admit that the Iranians have probably already lost it. Lack of planning has led to supply shortages and almost no air cover for my advancing troops. It's only because the Gulf Council states are poorly-armed that I have been able to get this far. This turn we see if things can come together again for Iran as it tries to take on the Saudi military for control of Riyadh.

F-1 Mirage of Qatar's Air Force

Turn 6:

We start off the turn with no political events. The Global Military Phase begins and the US military uses a C-5 to transport in an airbase, 5th Special Forces Group, and the RDF HQ. The Americans also get 3 x F-4 Phantom units.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with all this new stuff. If I put the airbase up in Oman, it's very vulnerable to Soviet air strikes from their surrounding bases in the region. Seems like I should be putting this base in Somalia with the other US airbase I placed there in turn 3. Since that base already has a pair of F-15s on Intercept, I can just have the three F-4 Phantoms on Offensive mode. I can use these guys as offense to hit at the Soviet navy surface ships if they get near the coast of Africa. They can also hit out at any foolish attempts by the Soviet player to plunk down a base or two in Yemen.

Time to update our Supply Points:

Iran: 53
Saudi Arabia: 43
Qatar: 19
Bahrain: 5
UAE: 32
Oman: 43
US: 100

As the Iranian player, I absolutely positively need to do the following this turn:

1. Get a supply depot down into Saudi Arabia to support my left flank.
2. Capture an airfield so I can get an airbase down there and get some attack choppers in range of enemy units
3. Break the back of the Saudi defense around Riyadh.

So let's go through this step-by-step then shall we?

Objective One: Get a supply depot down into Saudi Arabia. 1354 seems like the best spot for this. The weakest link in my supply chain right now is the 18 or a 20 MP distance between the supply depot in 0947 and the one down south in 0755. It is literally two interdiction missions away from cutting off the entire Iranian army sitting in Saudi Arabia (hitting 0754 and 0753 would do it).

By the way, this is what I find to be the biggest challenge of Gulf Strike. The easy part is the fighting. The most difficult part is establishing supply lines that are long enough to keep your forces on the offense but short enough so they aren't vulnerable. Trying to protect your supply lines without adequate air basing is a fool's errand.

If I had a second supply source sitting in 1354, I would be able to push my units near the coast down towards the Saudi airbase at Al Hufuh. I would also have a backup supply source just in case I lose the supply depot at 0755. I would even be able to maintain some sort of offensive with the majority of my units near Riyadh.

18 MPs from the supply depot near the Kuwait border, a supply depot in 1354 would have decent range (in blue).

Now as luck would have it, there's a CH-47 all fueled up in Ahvaz with a supply depot loaded on. The only problem is that it's bound to get detected on the way down by Saudi AWACS aircraft and if it's intercepted, I could lose the plane and the depot, which would be a very serious setback for the Iranians. You may say that I should just send an escort with it and you would be right -- except that I've got no planes on Offensive mode assigned to that base.

So it looks like I'll need to clear the air of Saudi interceptors or AWACS before I can send my bird down. Here we go:

The Iranians send down an F-4 Phantom from Basra. Miraculously, it gets within six hexes of the Saudi AWACS before it is detected. The F-15 from Riyadh scrambles and intercepts, scoring one hit on the Phantom, which RTBs.

Al Hufuh scrambles an F-15 with 2 hits to intercept a second F-4 unit from Basra. This time, no one scores a hit.

Now the Saudis have a single plane left in Riyadh on Offensive mode. It's a measly little Lightning (anti-air strength of 3) so it probably couldn't even manage a shootdown of a CH-47. But there is no sense taking chances.

I send an F-5 down from Kuwait and the Lightning gets sent up to attack the incoming enemy plane. Wow, the Lightning scores 2 hits on the Iranian F-5 and takes no hits in return! The F-5 unit is destroyed.

However, the way is now clear for the CH-47 to make it down to its destination hex with exactly two MPs to spare. It's just enough to unload the supply depot. The one drawback to this is that the helo must stay there until next turn.

The 11th Armored Brigade captures the airfield at 1758. The base at An Nas Riyan is packed up and moved south by transport truck.  The 1st Armored Division goes into Reconstitution formation. I'm hoping to freshen it up by the time I roll east towards the UAE.

Around Riyadh, the 4th and 5th Armored Divisions go for an attack on 2nd Saudi Armored Brigade. It's probably overkill but hey, it should punch a nice hole right in the middle of the Saudi lines. I shift a couple of infantry brigades over on the right flank just to protect my supply lines in case the Saudis use their Mechanized Guards Brigade to do anything sneaky.

End of First Action Stage Initiative Player Movement Segment

Iranian supply lines are still vulnerable at this point but nowhere near as badly as last turn. Having the Al Hufuh airbase in my ZOC means that neither of the two F-5s stationed there can launch. However, Riyadh airbase has a single F-5 unit and Qatar has a Mirage on Offense mode that could ruin my day by conducting deep strike interdiction missions near Kuwait to put large sections of my army out of supply. I throw several F-4s at Riyadh and manage one very successful mission that ends up destroying the airbase (it already had a single hit from last turn).

Just for the heck of it, I try for the Qatari airbase and end up scoring a hit but the rest of air missions return without having had any luck. Oh well. I'll take it.

That bit of excess with the Qataris has cost me my close air support.

In the assault phase, the Saudi 2nd Armored Brigade takes 1 hit but doesn't opt to retreat because this would leave the door wide open to Riyadh.

Over near Al Hufuh, the paratroopers at the base are out of supply, halving their combat strength to 1. Luckily, they are defending in a town so their strength is doubled to 2. The Iranian armored division would normally be attacking at 6 to 1 (combat strength six doubled to twelve due to hasty assault). However, these are elite paratroopers that we are facing so we're looking at the 3 to 1 column instead. The Iranians score a single hit and, like their brethren to the west, the Saudis refuse to budge an inch backwards so they bravely suffer the combat hit.

In the Second Action Stage, the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division is brought out of reserve by the Iranian player. It marches directly south and goes to Hasty Assault formation to attack the Saudi 4th Mechanized Brigade. Both units take a hit in the ensuing combat.

The rest of the turn continues without much fanfare. The Qataris and UAE send their Mirage jets to try and hit my supply depot at 0947. The Qatari jet manages a nice bombing run, scoring two hits but the UAE Mirage fails to score any hits. It is probably time for the Iranians to get an air defense unit back up there.

The Saudis move their truck unit to the Supply Depot in 0964 but it will probably be too late to do much to help Al Hufuh next turn. The Saudis get nailed for another 4 Supply Points loss in the End Turn Stage because of the border conflict with the Yemenis. The elite Saudi paratroopers protecting Al Hufuh are out of supply, suffer a hit and are flipped to their reduced side.

Lessons learned:

• For goodness sake, have an escort aircraft ready to fly when you need to send a C-130 anywhere.

• Put an air defense unit on any supply depots in vulnerable terrain such as clear hexes. That's a good place for the Iranian F-14 too, incidentally.

• Using the Iranian air force in the early turns to destroy Qatar or UAE or Saudi Air Force instead of sending them on close air support would have made my job here much much easier. 

• It may have been worth it to put a unit out of supply intentionally just to capture an airbase and get some air units down there to protect my ground units and supply lines.

Next turn is turn 7 and the Americans activate. Hoo boy!

Gulf Strike - Scenario 1: Operation Sharp Stick

The first four turns of Gulf Strike scenario 1 were marked by poor planning, bad luck, and lots of hard lessons learned. Using the few remaining brain cells in my head, I had barely managed to get the Iranian army close enough to within striking distance of Riyadh. Turn 5 would be the time for the Iranian Air Force to serve as a beacon of light - the mighty protector of the army as it trundled down the peninsula fueled by dreams of fanatics. This would be the turn for:

At this point, my guys were already looking worn out just from the effort required to travel south in any semblance of organized fashion and within reach of my supply depots. Thankfully, the Gulf Council states were generous enough not to pound the heck out of the Saudi highways with interdiction missions so the supply chain managed to stay intact.  On the other hand, the Iranians were unable to pull off any dazzling air victories of note. Even the navy was having trouble hitting enemy ships.

Turn 5:

We roll a "10" at the start of the turn and we get a random political event. A "4" is rolled on the table. "Democratic Yemen guerrillas become active on the Saudi border." Oh no! That is absolutely the worst thing that could happen for the Saudis right now.

The fallout of this is that the Saudis need to send a brigade assault unit to the border for the remainder of the game turn or they lose 4 supply points per turn that they don't do it.

Looking over my options, I don't think the Saudis could send any of the defenders from around Riyadh. They are stretched thin enough as it is. I could send the elite paratroopers based at Al Hufuh airbase and try to transport the remains of the airbase towards Riyadh. However, I would be leaving the road completely open to UAE and Qatar by doing so. I think I need those paratroopers to be a speed bump so I'll leave them there. With 42 SP for the Saudis this turn, I'll probably be okay with losing the 4 extra SP for a turn or two.

Al Hufuh paratroops guard the east coast area

Supply Points are added and we get:

• Iran: 52
• Saudi Arabia: 42
• Qatar: 17
• Bahrain: 5
• UAE: 29
• Oman: 38
• USA: 88

During the Unit Assignment Stage, it all comes crashing down on me. I should have foreseen the problem with Iranian air not being able to effectively arrive over Saudi targets so far south.  All of those ground combats will be out of range of everything except my F-4 Phantoms. I should have been shuffling my bases around earlier in anticipation of all this. I can see three airfields where I could have plunked down an airbase and kept my AH-1s sitting there ready to help out in the coming battle. I should also be hitting the hell out of the Saudi airbases because those F-15s are really nasty when they want to intercept my air cover.

I can get a couple of armored and mech divisions in movement to contact formation to near a couple of Saudi ground units this turn. I just can't support them in any way whatsoever. I'll have to spend turn 5 shuffling guys as best as I can to get them prepared to fight at their full capability next turn. My divisions trundling along on the east coast highway can pretty much steamroll over whatever they want and they should be able to capture the airfield near Al Kubar this turn, which should help.

Or maybe not. As it turns out, lack of airbases is not my only problem. I simply don't have the supply range available to push my units that far down the coast. Not only that but I have failed to purchase a supply depot that could be transported down into Saudi Arabia and connected into the network. It looks like my sweeping vision for Iranian supremacy of the Middle East is turning into a great big joke. I'm can almost hear those guys over at the Pentagon laughing.  I send my C-130 up to Ahvaz where I'll spend 4 SP at the end of the turn creating a supply depot. In the meantime, I've tried to sort out the airbase range problem by sending up a truck from Kuwait City to An Nas Riyan. Next turn, it will be loaded up and sent down south.

The 1st Armored Division on the coast will have to move to 1755, switch to MC and prepare to take Al Kubar next turn after plunking down a Supply Depot in 1452. Having an airbase there would be very helpful in taking on Qatar, Bahrain, and UAE after Riyadh falls. The only problem is that the airbase would be right on the coast and the navies of three countries are within easy access of bombarding it.

By the middle of the First Action Stage Initiative Movement Phase, I have moved my divisions quickly down towards their jumping off points for the coming attack next turn. The only problem is that my left flank on the Saudi coast is stretching its supply lines to the maximum 20 MPs and this will no doubt become a liability, a prime target for the enemy airplanes.

Here's a look at the supply situation after moving Iranian ground forces in the First Action Stage. The distance from supply depot to target units is marked. Note how thinly stretched the Iranian units are near the coast. Any more than 20 MP from a supply depot and my units are out of supply. Simply interdicting 0955 and 0855, for example, will take two Iranian combat units (11th Armored Brigade in 1557 and 1st Armored Division in 1755) out of the supply network. Interdicting 0856 on top of this will put the 2nd Iranian Armored Division in 1457 out of supply as well.

Since the Gulf Council states have four aircraft on Offensive standby that could launch interdiction missions, this threat is very real and cannot be ignored. Three of these aircraft are Saudi F-5s (two at Al Hufuh and one at Riyadh airbase) and one UAE Mirage.

In order to keep my ground units safe and in supply, I'll need to conduct air operations this turn with the goal of grounding as many enemy strike aircraft as possible.

To that end, the Iranians begin Operation Sharp Stick. The Iranian air force will launch planes in an attempt to:

1) lure out the Saudi interceptors (clears the way for interdiction missions in objective 2)
2) use interdiction to knock Al Hufuh out of supply (halves the number of enemy strike aircraft that can fly this turn)
3) destroy Riyadh airbase (doing so would remove another interdiction mission that the GC could fly and thereby secure my supply lines)

Supply network from depot to Al Hufuh airbase

I decide to send out a pair of fighters on Air Superiority missions from the airbase at Basra.They head straight south and are almost immediately detected by the Saudi AWACS after takeoff. An F-15 from Al Hufuh is scrambled to intercept. There is a short but remarkable air battle over 0554 where the F-15 takes two hits while the Iranian F-5 and F-4 are unscathed.

Another air mission is sent out on air superiority to lure the Saudi planes at Riyadh. This time another F-4 from Basra gets to within 6 operational hexes of the Saudi AWACS plane before it is detected. An F-15 from Riyadh intercepts. Neither plane manages a hit in the ensuing air melee. The Saudis still have a Lightning on Intercept at Riyadh.

I spend 4 SP to conduct two interdiction missions on the highway between Al Hufuh airbase and its supply depot. Neither of the F-5s on Offensive mode at the airbase may launch their missions. I need to take care of one more enemy plane to keep my guys secure from enemy interdiction missions. I decide to try and hit Riyadh airbase with my 3 remaining Phantoms. One flight leaves from Bushehr airbase and is intercepted by a Lightning, which fails to score any hits. The Phantom arrives over Riyadh airbase but the bombing mission fails. The second bombing mission from Ganeveh also fails to hits the base.  The third run scores a hit and damages the F-5 fighter in Offensive mode based in Riyadh. It won't be enough.

During the First Reaction Segment, the Saudis tuck in the 4th Mech Infantry Brigade so it will have the advantage of defending in rough terrain instead of desert terrain. The Gulf Council states launch their air against the Iranian supply lines. 0855 and 0955 are interdicted, knocking the 1st Iranian Armored Division and 11th Armored Brigade out of supply.

The end of the turn sees the Iranian 4th Armored Division use its Reserve movement to sweep southwest to link up with an infantry brigade in 0558. The Iranian right flank near Riyadh should now be powerful enough to take on the Saudi Mechanized Guards Brigade or the Saudi 2nd Armored Brigade in 0659. Despite the Iranian setbacks this turn, the Saudis are in real trouble right now and facing a very dangerous situation.

A look at the situation near Riyadh. Saudi Mech Guards in 0358. Saudi 2nd Mech Brig in 0659 and 4th Mech Brig in 0761.

The end of the turn rolls around and the Iranian division and brigade both suffer a hit from being out of supply. The Saudis lose four supply points for their failure to squelch the border violence with Yemen. We now look ahead to turn 6 where the Iranians will have hopefully learned enough lessons to be able to bring its force to bear on the Saudis. Meanwhile, the Americans gear up to intervene in the conflict. Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, a Soviet cruiser trails an American carrier group...