Friday 21 September 2018

Gnuston Heights - part 1 - All along the watchtower

An Israeli watchtower goads the Syrians by flying a big flag.
Looking west (right) with the AT ditch in the foreground.


Like many fine games, this one started rather by accident.  In late May a certain individual – let’s just call him 'Ian' – emailed me a photo of a couple of Israeli aircraft he had just completed.  Following a process neither of us can remember, a few days later we had booked  the lawn at Knuston Hall and ‘marketed’ the game to potential players


This was by some margin the biggest yet Little Cold Wars game.  We’d previously had six players and a total of three brigades back in 2015.  The er, 'plan' was to fight through the first day of the Syrian assault on Golan.
This year on 31st July nine of us gathered the lawn – a better scale model of the Golan Heights you’d struggle to find! 
The toys were the usual ‘wrong but somehow right’ mix of 1/32 figures, 1/48ish AFVs and 1/72 aircraft, mostly provided by Ian and I, though Bertrand and Russell also contributed.
Photos by me unless otherwise captioned.
 Syrian strike aircraft (MiG-17 and MiG-19) overfly the border.  The latter is in the process of falling off it's flight stand while making it look like a skillful aerobatic manoeuvre
 Israeli Mirage III fighters scramble to intercept
 The key town of Kuneitra, seen from the north

 All along the watchtower.  Part of the Israeli 'Purple Line' with two tank platoons in attendance.
And there was plenty to watch.  Syrian armour masses for the attack (this and the next two photos by Ian Drury)


 Wave after....
 ...wave of Syrian aircraft flew over the border to attack the Israeli positions...
...but some of their pilots looked overly hirstute (photo by Ian Drury)

 Even FROG missile were fired - to no effect!
While some of the Syrian AFVs  - like this SU-100 had clearly been in the area for some time, others had apparently been shipped straight from Soviet units.

13 comments:

Pete. said...

Great photos- the shots of the massed tanks are stunning.

Cheers,

Pete.

Peter Douglas said...

Great stuff and great silliness Tim! Love the shot of the massed armour, and the MIG doing the barrel roll.
Cheers
Peter

Tim Gow said...

Pete
It did look fantastic. Can’t wait to do the next one!

Tim Gow said...

Peter Douglas
Silliness? How dare you sir. As an early playtester you should remember the sober seriousness with which we approach LCW games.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

How many 1/35 scale tanks?
What madness is this ...

I am feeling the insane urge to contribute
But I only have a 1/35 scale Pz II (unmade)

Peter Douglas said...

Tim, silliness is one of the highest forms of existence!

Duc de Gobin said...

Fantastic stuff! I really did think that the MIG was doing a banking maneuvre until I read the commentary...it looks good though.
That pic of the Syrian attack is superb.
Love the 'fleg'

Tim Gow said...

Geordie
Er, none. All the tanks were 1/48 ish scale.......

Tim Gow said...

Doc de Gobin
Glad you like it. More to follow.

ian drury said...

I think we proved that it's possible to refight a historic battle, and have a convincing game, which is the acid test for any set of rules. It was also terrific fun!

Tim Gow said...

Ian Drury
Definitely one of those games which worked out much better then it’s befuddled organisers dared hope!

Archduke Piccolo said...

Impressive array of armour!

Tim Gow said...

Archduke Piccolo
It’s a bit scary how much stuff we have.