Introduction

The forces were divided as follows. Dan had the German left (west) flank with the four PzIVs of 8/12 SS, and the twelve PzIVs of 5/12 SS coming in from reserve, plus the westernmost 88 to command against Eric's advancing first squadron of 2 F&F Y with 16 Shermans and a motor platoon.  Tony had the German right (east) flank and center with four platoons of 15/25 SS with four attached ATGs in the bocage on his right between Colleville and Mouen, the independent HQs security platoon in the red brick manor house forward of Coleville, the easternmost 88 and the two 20mm AA guns near


Grainville in the center, and the four Tigers coming in from delayed reserve on the east edge, to face Steve's Cromwell squadron of 2 N Yeo and his Sherman and Stuart squadron of 23 H.  All the Germans on or south of the railway line were concealed by blinds, and a number of dummy blinds filled out the German positions in the bocage.  Dan and Tony shared the command of the 12 SS Pio platoon in Cheux, with Dan rolling for attacks by Eric, and Tony rolling for attacks by Steve.  The players on both teams also shared their off board artillery assets as needed.  Even though this only gave Dan 17 models to push in the early turns, the battle on his side of the table against Eric's forces was a free swinging affair, with a lot of fire to resolve.  Tony played the more numerous SS infantry in a more static manner, keeping his troops under blinds and out of sight as long as possible, and Steve always plays fast and decisively, thus the two halves of the table stayed in sync with each other throughout the game.

By Tom Burgess

I am truly fortunate to part of a great group of gamers who can come together to play huge scenarios like the Rafah Junction game. In the past we have run a large Kursk battle and a large Hannut  battle as well as several campaigns where we have been able to employ Flames of War as our common rule set.

With the release of the new “Fate of a Nation” Arab-Israeli War book from Battlefront, we thought it might be fun to get out all of our Six Day war forces and run a “Tanksgiving” mega battle. However scheduling precluded us from being able to run a mega game until  a few weeks after Thanksgiving. The good news was this delay allowed our group member Greg to design a scenario for a big multi-player battle that would allow us to use our full current Six Day War collections (and then some) in a mostly historical situation with relatively representative orders of battle.

Greg settled on the Jun 5th 1967 Battle for Rafah Junction where the Israeli 7th and 60th Armored Brigades had to breach the defenses of the United Arab Republic’s 7th Infantry Division near Rafah Junction and then withstand a counter attack by the UAR’s 4th Armored Division and after defeating that, drive on to El Arish.

Greg not only designed the scenario, he also hosted the game in excellent game room using his 6’ x 10’ desert terrain board. To that our group brought 8 players, over 20,000pts total of forces, and over 200 tank models!

The game board looking west from the Israeli deployment areas (inside the blue markers) .

One of the great aspects of Flames of War is how the game can be used for different types of play that are each enjoyable and present different challenges for the players.  FoW tournaments are a huge success at conventions and local gaming stores.  There is also one on one play where two opponents play a game at their home or at their gaming store. And finally, there is using the game to re-create a historical battle, which this article will highlight.

In my 2 ½ years of playing Flames of War I have observed two types of players; you have the gamers who are addicted to the thrill of gaming and play many different types of games and then you have the historical gamer who uses a game or rules system to see what they would do if allowed to refight a battle from the past.  Many gamers can identify themselves as being part of both groups at different times, and while playing, the rationale for gaming is immaterial to their success or failure on the table. However I always like at tournaments how players will explain why they chose a particular period or army to play; it shows some connection to the history that the little soldiers on the base represent. 

Operation Spark Scenario by Mike Bersiks

DOWNLOAD .PDF HERE