Dusting Off A Classic

Snap-shot: Mansourah

Egyptian MiGs attempt to intercept Israelis

7 October 1973, 0745hrs

Over Mansourah Airfield, Egypt

Our group had previously played through 18 of the 27 missions included in the Star and Pyramid campaign book for the Check Your 6! Jet Age rules.  It has been well over a year since the last time we played any of the missions.  As a testament to how easy the rules are, we got 6 players through this game without problem.

The Forces:

Egyptian Air Force:
6 MiG-21MFs with 1 Veteran pilot, 1 Skilled pilot and 4 Green pilots
3 Light AAA
1 SA-3B Battery

Israel Air Force:
2 F-4Es (cover flight) with 1 Veteran pilot and 1 Skilled pilot
2 F-4Es (bomb flight) with 2 Skilled pilots
4 A-4N with 1 Veteran pilot and 3 Skilled pilots

The Israeli orders were simple, the 2 F-4s loaded out as bombers were to hit the runway, while the A-4s bombed the airbase facilities and command center adjacent to the runway.  This left 2 F-4s to cover the bombing run, entering a few turns into the game.

The Egyptians mission was also straightforward: keep the runway from being bombed, while destroying as many Israelis as possible.

The opening few turns were largely uneventful, the A-4s maneuvered toward the center of the board to line up on the command center.  Having learned from previous missions, the Israelis sent two A-4s high (to eventually dive onto the target), and two stayed low.  This would keep them separate target groups should the MiGs get around on their tail.

The F-4s of the bomb flight quickly locked on the approaching MiGs at long range.  A couple strategic launches of their Sparrow missiles caused two of the approaching MiGs to have to make extreme turns to avoid being hit.  These launches were instrumental in breaking up and delaying the Egyptian formation.

The Egyptians closed at a furious pace, but having large stocks of infrared missiles, they needed to get to the rear to really start shooting.

In the next turn, two more MiG-21s approached from sunward.  At the same time, the cover F-4s dropped into the battle.

One of the MiGs who previously turned it's tail toward the action to avoid the radar homing Sparrow, now found itself the opportune target of two F-4s Sidewinder missiles.  The Bomb Flights IR missile hit home a moment before the Cover Flight's did the same.  The MiG-21 was destroyed, but to probably everyone's surprise, a white puff of a parachute was spotted drifting downward, signaling that the pilot had successfully ejected.

Missiles away!

The next couple turns saw the action pile in  on itself at the center of the table.  While closing to the center, the Cover Flight downed a MiG with a Sidewinder.  The target's wingman was flying too close and ended up getting showered with debris, causing some airframe damage.

The A-4s flew the gauntlet of a constant, if ineffective, stream of light AAA to land 3 out of 4 bomb loads on the command center.  On their approach they also took some cannon fire from the MiG-21s, but they were able to shake it off without serious damage.

The Egyptian pilots managed to get a couple MiGs in position behind the bulk of the Israeli formation.  They let loose with a shrewdly calculated barrage of Atoll missiles, targeting the F-4s going in for the bombing run.  The lead F-4 spotted the launch and dumped it's bomb load early to perform an emergency evasion.  With a plethora of IR signatures (friend and foe) the missiles locked on to everything in sight.  The evasive maneuver proved fruitful for the lead F-4 with the missile sailing wide.  The second Bomb Flight F-4 was struck at the Atoll's minimum range, destroying the aircraft and killing it's crew.  One of the errant IR missiles managed to find it's way to the A-4s, striking one plane as it came out of it's bombing run.  The A-4 managed to shrug off the hit, but suffered the "lucky" hit damage for rolling doubles.  The damage was to it's engine (half speed), destroyed all it's radar equipment, but made the pilot heroic (increased skill to Veteran) for the rest of the game.

The Aftermath

The final turns were sadly not photographed. They included the unfortunate circumstances where the Egyptian AAA mistook a MiG for an enemy and fired on it.  The previously damaged MiG, who took the debris from his wingman exploding, was unable to pull out of his extreme turn and slammed into the desert.  There were a couple additional dogfights which saw an A-4 take airframe damage but stay aloft. The Cover Flight downed another MiG, with the pilot ejecting in time.  The engine damaged A-4 was sent on a strafing mission on the SA-3B SAM battery.  This was successful and provided a less strenuous exit for the Israelis.  There were a couple brief attempts to give chase, but both sides opted to bug out.  The Israelis had to be in their exit quadrant and the Egyptians decided against risking their best pilots.

Going Home

Results:
Egyptian Air Force:
4x MiG-21MF lost
1x Green Crew killed

Israeli Air Force:
1x F-4E lost
1x Skilled Crew killed
2x A-4N damaged

In the end, the Israelis managed to pull out a win, scoring 14 victory points to the Egyptian 12. Coming in big for the Israelis were the A-4s which generated a lot of points hitting the command center.  None of that would have been possible without the steady and oppressive air cover generated by both the Bomb and Cover F-4s.  Even with a full bomb loadout the F-4s still carry almost as much raw air-to-air firepower as the MiGs do.

To the Egyptians credit, they stayed on their mission, preventing any bombs from hitting the runway and downed an F-4 before calling it quits and saving their most valuable assets: their experienced pilots.  Even more so, 3/4 of the Egyptians "green" pilots safely ejected, retaining their combat experience, and will live to fight another day.  This isn't reflected in the Victory Points generated by the campaign, but in reality probably should be.