A Fight in Lebanon, Part II Opening Moves

     We re-join the game as the IDF blinds come onto the table (for those not familiar with Two Fat Lardies rules; units are represented on the game table by "blinds" -a sort of generic marker- until an enemy unit identifies them by use of the spotting rules, this helps avoid the "thousand-meter tall general " situation that plagues many rules). For the PLO players this is often the worst part, not knowing if it is a Jeep or a Merkava until you force the blind to reveal, often with disastrous results for the unit forcing the reveal . For the IDF it is worse, you know you are a sitting duck but can doing nothing about it but move forward, scanning every window, hoping to spot enemy activity.........

IDF and PLO blinds play hide-and-seek around the Hospital complex

while a large force rumbles up the main highway into town

clearly the IDF have gone with the direct approach

 with five units moving straight toward the center of town

some frantic spotting by hidden PLO units reveal the bad news, 

a Merkava in the lead with a Vulcan mini-gun armed M-163 in attendance, other IDF units escape detection and move into the parking structure and the Hospital administrative building

meanwhile the UAV scrutinized the PLO blind at the barricade and found it to be a rumor, 

the PLO players learned to hate that little plane by the end of the day

the IDF armor advances while the as-yet unidentified blinds move further into the buildings

the view from the PLO end of the table, things are going OK so far

 the IDF are heading straight at the tank-proof barricade with their tanks

just as the IDF blind gained the rooftop the PLO got some fire-support from its mortar teams,

 firing on a pre-registered spot in the intersection this fire did little to slow the IDF advance

the Nagmashot (that giant Centurion-conversion APC right under the shelling) 

advanced through the fire without giving it a thought

and the drone droned on, spotting blind after blind

like those PLO guys on the third floor of the high-rise,

 being the only known target they rapidly received the attentions of every available IDF unit

like the M163 Vulcan

I REALLY started to hate the drone, not because it was so terribly effective,

but largely because there was NOTHING we could do about it, and nowhere to hide

even clear across the table the PLO were being spotted,

they were reduced to furtive dashes between buildings

the Merkava advanced, ignoring the PLO above 

while the M163 paused and gave them a blast of mini-gun fire

"taking a hit for the team" got new meaning that day,

 but the PLO troops gamely stood their ground to return fire

this turned into a deadly-earnest, but horribly lopsided,

 firefight between the M163 and the PLO RPG team 

until a lucky RPG hit forced the M163 to retire

meanwhile the still unidentified IDF unit had cleared the Admin Building 

and prepared to move next-door

the Merkava's arrogance was punished by a storm of RPG fire 

which damaged it and wounded a crew member

the PLO team that forced the M163 to hide behind the Admin Building gets their first look at the Killdozer  (right next to the orange "Engaged" markers) which had been forced to reveal from blinds by their proximity

what dangers await here?

 the Nagmashot contemplates a dash through the Old Town

     Things were getting serious now. The PLO had managed to reveal most of the IDF blinds at small cost to themselves. The problem was this; what did they have that could slow down the IDF advance? From the Israeli point of view their advance had been slowed and they had not yet located the main body of the enemy forces.

      Stay tuned for the next installment; Part III:   Engagement!