Let's Play Persian Incursion: Turn 19

The game comes to a dramatic and some might say appropriate conclusion.

Iran was running out of political options, with only the Chinese showing any real hint of support for it. The discovery of an Iranian mole in the Israeli foreign ministry caused a loss of information on the success of terrorist attacks in that country and there were increasing protests in Tehran... even the Iranian public was getting sick of this.

Israel played Protests in Tehran and moved the Iranian domestic track to +1; this ultimately would not make a difference in the final roll.

A speech by the Iranian President on Turkish television failed to persuade that government to withhold support for the planned Israeli strike through its airspace. With a total of four airstrikes, two Israeli and two American, about to go down, the situation looked pretty bleak for Iran. With 95 planes operational, they put everything they really could on alert and hoped for the best.

I rolled a 6 for the US airstrike, allowing me to generate up to three. I got a F-22 and Rhino strike.

The first one was all that was needed. Twelve F-22s swooped in, with nothing more than a token I-Hawk shot against them (that completely missed) and took out the remaining facilities at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility with twelve bombs.

As the smoke rose on the ruins of the Iranian nuclear programme, the leader of the nuclear programme had a 'car accident' and Tehran decided that it was time to throw in the towel.

Israel had won this war.

The modifier on the attack roll was up to +7 and Israel got a 8. This equalled 15, one above the 14 required for an Israeli victory.

After ten months, this game has now come to a conclusion. I'm going to write up my thoughts on the scenario in another post that will wrap this 'Let's Play' up.

The Dark Goeth to Britain

Fresh of the unprecedented (for Phoenix at any rate) success of The Dark Cometh, RavenSkycatcher has launched a spinoff to his popular sim, set in the UK.

TDC: CANIS UK focusses on the British branch of the secret organisation, set in the ancient and historic city of York.

Have a look!

Let's Play Persian Incursion: Turn 18

US Navy EA-18G Growler

 

As night falls on the sixth day, Israel prepares to throw the metaphorical kitchen sink at Iran. In the meantime, the Americans just settle for the taps.

 

For the US carrier in the Indian Ocean supporting the Israeli attacks against the Iranian nuclear programme, it was time to go all out with the next strike. As the Rhinos and Growlers headed for the secondary facilities of the Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan, they were entirely geared for strike operations. The SAM and fighter suppression would be dealt with by the Suter attack, while the EA-18Gs would distract the attention of the three remaining Pantsyr vehicles.

 

The Suter attack worked a trick; it took out all the SAM batteries in the area of the target and prevented a Sector III intercept; with no aircraft available in Sector II to do anything, the approach to the target was uninterrupted. With the HARM missiles not destroying any SA-22s, but certainly making them use their missiles, there were 14 Tor-M1 shots available to stop 48 incoming guided bombs. They tried to focus one shot on a weapon heading for each target (well twelve of them, the thirteenth was not targeted), but it wasn’t enough. After this strike, the only facility still intact was the one designated C13, with C7 the only of the twelve not destroyed.

 

The only fighter response on the way out were two Tomcats, who were unable to shoot at their maximum range due to the jamming from the Growlers. Four Hornets shot- they sent one back to base and one into the mountains sans pilot.

 

Realising that Isfahan was likely gone in the near future, Iran ordered the rebasing of the SAM vehicles there to Natanz, to defend the partly damaged site there.

 

A slight error – this probably should have gone next turn. I decided that the vehicles would not be in place and ready at Natanz until Turn 20. This was the biggest mistake Iran made in the game; it took ten SAM launchers off the table for the next turn… with the strikes planned for the 19^th turn.

 

The international community was now starting to get sick of the situation with Iran’s belligerence against people who hadn’t actually attacked in the beginning and the condemnation was starting to manifest itself in Tehran, with demos against the regime that the security forces had a hard time dealing with.

 

Israel played Widespread Condemnation, a seven Political Points card that allows it to roll seven dice on the Iranian domestic track. In the right contexts, that can win it a game. Here it just moved Iran to +1; there were only two successful rolls.

 

Iran now tried for the final time to close the Straits of Hormuz; it succeeded in doing so, but at the cost of infuriating the Chinese, who now decided that perhaps they’d backed the wrong horse as it kept kicking them.

 

Israel now ordered two air strikes. The first would be with its F-15I squadron, with fourteen of nineteen strikers going after the heavily protected main reactor with the improved EGBU-28C bunker busters delivered from the USA. That would go via the south route.

 

119 Squadron would hit Arak’s reactor from the North, with ten of the F-16s carrying SEAD loadouts to deal with the SAMs there. They would be facing an Iranian force going for one last push in the maintenance field; if they could hold Israel for one more day…

 

Newsletter #10 is out

The extra-long summer issue of The Burning Question is now out. Take a look!

The Matrix sim is recruiting!

I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future, I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin...

The Matrix is now online. Obsidian and her crew have just jacked-in and are on their way to meet The Oracle. Father McAfee, a bluepill, is on his way to perform an exorcism. Room for more crewmen still, whether you've just jacked-in with the others or we can squeeze you in another way - contact Robert Longtin for more information and to express your interest!

The crew currently has a hacker - captain, a martial artist - swordsman, a programmer - engineer, and a "blind" exorcist. The crew lacks a medic, a scout, a dedicated mechanic (the programmer - engineer doubles as a mechanic), a driver/pilot, and could use more people with fighting skills (shooting/melee) and other positions. The crew doesn't presently have many programs (for the operator to give a crewman in the Matrix to grant them a new skillset on the fly), so a crewman programmer interested in contributing to the crew's set of programs would be very desirable as well. We're quite open to your ideas, whether you want to mash-up the roles that need filling or create new ones not mentioned, the Matrix is, after all, a world of unlimited possibilities.

...A world without rules and controls, without borders and boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

Interested? Don't wait! Contact Robert Longtin for more information now via the forum.

The Dark Cometh smashes its own record

RavenSkycatcher's sim, The Dark Cometh, last month clocked a SSR of 238.5, which is the second all-time Phoenix record it has set in two months.

When I calculated the figure, I was astonished... it's clear that we have a seriously good sim here.

James Bond: The World Is Not Enough

This was the first Bond film I watched in a cinema – in New Jersey in fact on a holiday in 1999 and one that I’ve now seen four times. There is the distinct possibility that familiarity might breed contempt here… it also allowed me to focus on other aspects.

 

This is a Bond film with a great deal more acting i.e. talky scenes than Tomorrow Never Dies, with M getting a lot of screen time and a major part in a plot partly inspired by Colonel Sun, the Kingsley Amis Bond novel written after Fleming died. Brosnan and Dench excel in all their scenes, with Robbie Coltrane turning in a fine second and last performance as Valentin Zukovsky, while Desmond Llewellyn gets a touching farewell.. The action in this, while not quite as good as the last film, is again great and David Arnold’s score fits it perfectly. The script contains a good deal of humour common with the Brosnan era and there’s an overall good story.

 

I seem to remember this movie being longer than it was; it feels pretty short in all. For a ‘acting’ based film, you need to have good actors. Denise Richards is rightly criticised here (she gets good lines, but delivers them appallingly), but Sophie Marceau isn’t much better and this isn’t one of Robert Carlyle’s best films either. There are some minor script errors here and there, along with a misunderstanding of what a “meltdown” actually is (hint: it’s not a full nuclear explosion, it’s more like Chernobyl). The less said about John Cleese, the better.

 

Conclusion

 

While I have a personal liking for this one, its problems do start to show up on re-watch.

 

7/10