From: "Olivier Clémentin" Subject: Operation Badr review "On October 6, 1973, the people of Israel gathered to celebrate Yom Kippur, the most solemn of Jewish holidays. At five past two in the afternoon, Jerusalem time, their tranquillity was shattered by massive artillery and aerial bombardment along both Egyptian and Syrian borders. Syria's Operation Badr had begun. Across the so-called "Purple Line", a Syrian torrent, spearheaded by some 1,500 tanks and 1,000 guns, poured across the Golan Heights. Against them stood two understrangth Israeli brigades with a to tal of approximately 180 tanks and 60 guns. The Syrian intention: to drive to Haifa and cut Israel in two." Operation Badr was published in 1983 by West End Game. The designer is Perry Moore, who later designed Operation Shock Troop, covering a later part of the same conflict: the 1973 War in the Golan. Operation Badr covers the Syrian Offensive in the Golan, October 6 to 10, 1973. Units are Syrian battalions and Israeli companies and battalions (with a few platoons guarding the purple line). The Syrian player gets 3 infantry division at start plus 2 Armored divisions (I believe they are actually Iraqis) on October 7. The Israelis start with 2 understrength tank brigades, the 188th (Barak) and the 7th, which start the game scattered in the bunkers and revetments of the purple line. Each turn is 4 hours (6 hours at night) and an hex is 1.5 km across. 300 counters and one map representi ng the Golan Heights from the Purple Line to the Jordan river. The sequence of play is A. Air Unit Assignment B. Syrian Air Bombardment C. Syrian Artillery Combardment D. Syrian Combat E. Syrian Movement (Combat Units, then HQs) F. Israeli Air Bombardement G. Israeli Artillery Bombardment H. Israeli Movement I. Israeli Combat J. Israeli Second Movement The originality of the game is that each player uses a different system and a different combat table. Syrians use a Combat-Movement sequence of play and use a AR/DR combat result table (rarely inflicting any casualty on the Israelis) while the Israelis use a Movement-Combat-Movement sequence of play and use a fire table indicating the number of hits they inflict on the Arabs. Also, Israeli tanks have a defensive fire and Israeli artillery can move _and_ fire while Syrian artillery cannot do both. Finally, Israelis are unaffected at night, while Syrian units are slower. Despite these advantages, the Syrians have a chance, since they initially field 250 combat factors against 100 Israeli combat factors. Rules include fortifications (Anti-Tank ditch, Minefields, bunker, revetments, artillery positions), Special units (Syrian helicopter commandos, Syrian SAM, Syrian Tank Destroyers, Syrian T-62..), Night, FROG-7 missiles, Bridge Building, Mine Clearing... Victory points are given for eliminating enemy units (5 points for a battalion) and for geographical objectives captured by the Syrian (100 each for the Arik and Benot Yacov bridges on the Jordan river, 20 points for border villages). The Arabs win if they have 45 points. Overall, an interesting little game which looks easy to play, with plenty of offensive capabilities on both sides. It is a shame that I never had a chance to play it beyond the second game turn..