The Battle of Al-Tanf

Last night we played our third game of Epic: Moderns. On one side would be Jason's Israeli and Pooch's American forces, and on the other would be my Syrians and Andy's Iraqis. Andy had set out a beautiful table for the game, a desert textured surface with gullies running diagonally across the board. We agree that the edges of these gullies would count as difficult terrain for vehicles. On the left was a small airbase, and in the right hand corner a few buildings showed the outskirts of a town.

Since Andy and I out-activated Jason and Pooch (we had 10 activations to their 8, and they had more aircraft) we were able to see where they deployed before putting our major units down. Their blitz objective was behind the buildings in the far right corner, guarded by an Armoured Cav company. Israeli tank companies deployed to the center and left flank, a dismounted infantry company was garrisoned on an objective near the airfield, and a platoon of M551's was hiding behind a hill in the center. Andy and I put a mortar battery and both our T-72 companies in the center near our blitz objective, a platoon of scouts behind a hill on the far right, and three companies of Type 69 tanks on the left.

Center of the Arab deployment

My Command T-72 Company

Sabra company on the left flank, at the end of the airfield runway

Merkava company in the center

The first activations didn't go well for us. The armoured cav charged foward and inflicted massive damage on my Command T-72 company. Thankfully Jason failed to retain the initiative with his Merkavas or the formation would have been broken. As it was they were supressed enough to be ineffective. On the left flank our mortar's succeeded in suppressing the ATGMs in the dismounted infantry, and the Sabra company decided 3 to 1 odds was a bit much and did not advance to engage Andy's Type 69's.

My Command T-72 company taking a lot of fire!

Both sides had been holding back their aircraft, but Jason and Pooch had run out of ground activations, so it was time for the Israeli airforce to show its stuff. Strikes by Jason's AH-1's and F-16's broke my command T-72 company... but then 3 MiG-29's screamed in and downed them all in a hail of missiles.

The Israeli Air Force arrives...

... followed by the Syrian Air Force and Iraqi Air Force.

During turn 2 things started to turn in favour of the Arab forces. In the center my remaining T-72 company managed to break Jason's Merkavas, and Andy's tanks wiped out the platoon of M551's. On the right the armoured cav found itself surrounded on three sides by armoured cars, Type 69's, and mechanised infantry. It wiped out what was left of my command T-72 company, but lost two M1 Abrams to crossfire. On the left the dismounted infantry were holding their objective, but two companies of Type 69 tanks had moved up to start shelling them. In the air the Zionists were doing better - Pooch's Tomcats (which had stood down last turn) destroyed two MiG-29's for the loss of one Tomcat.

My T-72's break the Merkava company, while Andy's Type 69's destroy the M551 platoon

Iraqi MiG-29 straffing the broken Merkava company

Turn 3 posed a challenge to Jason and Pooch. They just had too few units on the ground (one unbroken Sabra tank company, the armoured cav, and the dismounted infantry) to cover all the objectives. Pooch spread his armoured cav in a line between the blitz and center objectives. My remaining T-72 company swung left and broke the Sabra company, the dismounted infantry broke one of Andy's Type 69 units, and the remaining Tomcat downed the last MiG.

T-72's doubling across to support the left flank

The battlefield at the end of the game

At the end of turn 3 we checked victory conditions. Jason and Pooch had Break the Spirit (for destroying my command T-72 company), while Andy and I had Defend the Flag and They Shall Not Pass. Victory!

Epic: Moderns is working out brilliantly. The balance in the army lists we've written seems fairly good for first guesses, and is producing fun games with lots of carnage and lots of burning tanks.