CONFLICT GAMES latest release, BAR-LEV, is undoubtedly their most involved and complex game yet. Unlike their other games it uses a unique, but lengthy phasing system to portray all the intricacies of modern combat with a complete meshing of both air and ground forces.

However, most of the people who play it for the first few times become convinced that the game is strongly "pro-Arab." The funny thing is that ALL the playtesters feel that the game has an Israeli bias, the only point of disagreement is the extent of that bias. The reason for this contradiction was not really apparant at first, and not until the more experienced playtesters had a chance to watch a number of new players have a go were they able to solve the contradiction.

While the vast number of "observed" games did go to the Arabs, in each case the watching playtesters laid the reason for the Israeli defeat on the improper handling of the Israeli air force. Where the Israeli players were unimaginative or clumsy in their handling of the air power the Arabs won.

But, when the Israeli air force was handled with cunning, innovation and finesse, the back of the Arabs usually would be broken beyond repair. It was a matter of carefull, and percise dissection of the strength and weaknesses of modern air power.

So, the purpose of this article is to explore the correct overall air strategy and its proper tactical implementation in the context of the Air Module of BAR-LEV, with particular emphasis on the "do's" and "don'ts" of the Israeli Air Force. And, when we talk about air power, we will also mean everything associated with it such as the various heliborne options and SAM missles.

How Airpower Works

Now, for the benefit of those that do not have BAR-LEV let me roughly outline how airpower works in it. Each country has an air force broken down into "Factors" by plane types. As an example, the Israeli air force is composed of 8 factors each of Phantoms, Skyhawks, and Mirages. Each factor roughly approximates 18 planes. On each turn each player simultaneously allocates his planes to a number of missions in either air superiority or ground attack. You also may fly interdiction that can slow up ground movement. Both sides have Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs), though the Arabs have quite a few more, both in numbers and types.

Since allocation is done simultaneously a bad call can have your ground attack aircraft being caught on the deck by enemy air superiority-loaded planes. SA11s can cause planes both to be shot down or abort their missions. And the Israelis have Shrike anti-radar missles that can reduce the potency of the SAMs. Also, shot down "air factors" can be refitted at varying rates of efficiency depending on plane type and the relative effectiveness of the ground crews. The Arabs have by far the largest total air force with a combined total of roughly 49 mixed air factors while the Israeli's have 24. But the Israeli planes are generally more potent and refit faster. Furthermore, the Israeli player can mass his air force aqainst one or the other Arab while the Arabs are split.

If he really wants to the Israeli player can render the Syrian air force impotent in three days or the Egyptian one likewise in about nine. However, it would be an exceptionally dull Arab player that constantly would engage in such senseless "dogfights", and it may well be a very unwise thing for the Israeli player to even try!

In other words, while it might sound very nifty to "destroy" the Syrian air capability in three days, the effect of leaving the Israeli ground forces in Sinai without air cover for three consecutive days would definitely not be neat, the Egyptian air force may lack the "coolness" of the Israelis, but let it run amuck for three days unmolested on the Suez Front and it may very well be the instrument that destroys the Israeli army.

So, in terms of Air Strateny the Israeli Player must realize all the implications of the two-front war he is fighting. And every decision he makes must consider both the effect it will have on the front in question and its repurcussions on the other front as well. Hence, his air campaign must always carefully achieve a balance of air nower such that neither the Egyptian or the Syrian can achieve anything too deadly with their air forces.

First Turns

For the first few turns the Israeli should content himself with "checking" the opponent's air power rather than attempting to destroy it. It should be a period of conservatism. At this stage of the game the Israeli miqht simply fly all the Phantoms and Skyhawks on air superiorty to Egypt while the Mirages go to Syria.

In general, Egypt probably should net at least 2/3 of the air power commitment. You could do that as outlined above, or simply fly ALL the air force to Egypt twice as many turns as you fly ALL the air force to Syria. This second method has a greater chance of doing relevant harm to the Arabs, but you must time it carefully so that you are not "second guessed" and have the Egyptian air force really pouncing while all the planes go to Syria.

Then as the game progresses, one front or the other will stabilize. This will usually be the Egyptian front, as soon the Israeli will pull into a defensive perimeter with a hard artillery core and the Egyptians will have to carefully set-up their attack so it won't be a complete debacle. That would be a good time to send every thing to Syria. This often catches the Syrian off-guard since previously we had been sending 2/3 of the Israeli warplanes to Egypt. If you have received the Shrike anti-radar missles by then use them and you may very well catch the Syrians going for a deep penetration ground strike against you. With luck, if that occurred, the Syrian air force could be ruined in one turn.

There are other nasty things that could be done too, but that is best covered under the "tactical tricks". Simply select the nasty of your choice.

The next turn you probably could throw the might of your planes back to Egypt since the Syrian will be quite a bit less daring with the remnants of his air force. As the game progresses, the Israeli commander will usually have to decide which front he wants a "draw' on, and which front he wishes to go for the complete win. It is not necessary to get a complete win on both fronts to win the game. Once you have decided that, your air force should concentrate on destroying that particular Arab's air force. The Syrian usually is the more likely candidate for this but the Egyptian will know this and may get overly extended and set himself up as the better candidate. This could also be the case if the Syrians got a good gaggle of Jordanian re-inforcements. Keep the Arab guessing for as long as possible as to which one will be the Israeli choice for the coup de main.

Whenever possible destroy a SAM. If the Arab leaves one ungarrisoned try to get the needed 50% turn air superiority for a heliborne operation and hit it with a low level Huey raid. In Syria, the long-ranging 175mm Israeli guns make an excellent SAM sniping weapon. And with each SAM the Arabs lose their overall protection against the Israeli air force strongly diminishes.

Eventually, the Arab that you have selected for the final win will try to pull back under his SAM unbrella or into his prepared fortifications. Then start making the ground attacks, and concentrate on neutralizing rather than killing. At this stage it might he better to have many Arab units lose their ZOC and movement than have a few killed outright. In a way, think of the Israeli air force not so much as a "Killing" tool but rather as a "softening" tool which prepares the victim for the Israeli artillery.

The result of a correctly conceived and prudently executed Israeli air campaign is one Arab air force destroyed and the other at half-strength while the Israeli's are maybe at 60 to 75% of the start strength. If that has occurred the probability that Israel has won on the ground would also be very good and while she would have taken heavy casualties she would have won the war.

OK, let us backtrack for a minute and look at the real campaign. Almost all the Israeli accomplishments were achieved by one major thing. And that was "teamwork."

In terms of modern war it means the close blending of all the elements of air and ground units to achieve a single decisive result. This is a matter of tactical finesse. Too often, in BAR-LEV games, the Isreali player runs his ground army and his air force seemingly in a vacuum, each one fighting its own private war. In a nutshell the Israeli player must learn how to manipulate aircraft, airmobile, artillery, armor and infantry in a highly integrated team. If he is able to do this the name takes on a Pro-Israeli bias, if he does not then I would bet on the Arabs.

So, qith the ground work of the correct strategy already laid let us turn to the question of its tactical implementation.

For ease of reference, we will present these tactical tricks each as its own "rule implementation" as they will serve both to clarify the rules and show how they can be used.

HOW TO GROUND ATTACK

The Israeli Player never seems to have enough planes to do what he really wants so he must learn the most "cost effective" method of using them. In making a ground attack on a unit the most "cost effective" method is to place one each of a Phantom, a Skyhawk, and a Mirage on the unit. This will give both a better chance of neutralization and a better chance of a kill than just three plane factors of one type. In many repects, it is a wave attack.

NEUTRALIZE EVERYBODY

In this attack, a larae number of ground units are hit with one or two air factors hoping to net a large share of neutralized units rather than a few kills. This is a particularly pesty trick to do to the Syrian since, due to his stacking restrictions, he will not be able to even have one unit Pass through a neutralized unit. The net effect is that the Syrian might very well have to cancel his offensive plans that turn, which will give the Israeli ground troops a much needed "breather" on the Golan Heiahts.

Also, since artillery fire is done AFTER airplane attacks a neutralized Arab unit would probably have a good chance of being killed by the Israeli artillery since another "neutralized" would result in death.

INTERDICT OR BOUNCE?

Very often, Particularly in Egypt, the Israeli Air Force will be flying all air superiority and the Arab will do all ground attack, under his SAM umbrella. This can be particularly galling to the Israeli as he would like to bounce the Arab low-flying ground attacks but he would probably be aborted or worse if there are too may SAMs covering. This might be a good time to interdict instead, perhaps right in front of your own units.

Such a strike may be out of SAM range and the net result would be that the Egyptian could not effectively close on you, and hence you would be given a needed breather from the usually constant Egyptian wave assaults.

Now, if the SAMs have been Shriked or the Arab ground units are not covered by SAMs, interdiction against the ground units may very well be more beneficial than shooting down some more Arab air factors. Once again, consider how the ground combat is going, if the Israelis on that front are being hard pressed it most certainly could be the better move.

USING HELIBORNE TRANSPORT

This is very seldom done, mainly because it is lacking of glamor, but if everything else goes right, it may be the one thing that saves the Israeli Defense Force. This is best done with the Chinook helicopters as they carry twice as much as the Hueys. Its sole purpose is to speed up the arrival of Israeli troops to a severly threatened front. You always make sure that as many of the 4 Chinook helicopter counters are based in the Mobilization Box as possible so that they can fly mobilizing units to the Front Transit Boxes. In a pinch, if all Chinooks were based in the Mobilization Box, they could air transport eight "4-4" infantry counters to a front that turn. That means that 32 combat factors would be arriving one turn earlier than they normally would have. That can save a front, and a war.

HELIBORNE ASSAULT AUTO-KILLS

This is based on the. fact that a neutralized unit would have little or no defense from a sudden airmobile assault from the sky. And taking a close look at the HELIBORNE ASSAULT RULES we see that when you land on top of a unit the battle keeps fighting until one side or the other if both is wiped out. BUT, a neutralized unit CAN'T fire so a "1-to-2" heliborne assault will guarantee the death of a neutralized unit. Doing this in conjunction with the "Neutralize everybody" trick will often fry the Syrian's mind! Don't forget that following a successful helicopter raid, the Hueys can simply fly away.

SHRIKE AND SNIPE

Once the Israelis not the anti-radar Shrike missles the potency of the Arab SAMs will drastically go down, but very often the Israeli olaver will not fly a Shrike mission unless he wants to ground attack. But another good time to "Shrike" is when the Israeli planes are flying Air Superiority, as that gives a good chance at penetrating any SAM cover and getting through to the Arab ground attacking planes with the "double" roll for the bounce.

We talked quite a bit about the air helping the ground, but also realize that the reverse is equally true! The only thing that keeps the Arab air force going for as long as it does is their SAM's, so these should become prime artillery targets. A beautiful cannon for this are the long 175mm guns. They are particularly potent in Israel since the Syrian only has four front-line SAM units and the guns can shoot ten hexes. Remember, the sooner the SAMs go, the more effective will be the Israeli Air Force. So, snipe on the SAMs whenever possible!

DON'T FORGET TRE ARAB AIR PEOPLE

Now, before you get all elated after seeing all the nifty things the Israeli air force can do, remember that the Arabs can pull some of the same tricks. Particularly, in the early game it might very well the Arabs who are interdicting and being subtle with their ground attacks.

One of the horse mistakes is letting the Egyptian make an effective paratroop attack before you are ready for it. Also, if the entire Israeli air force went to Syria there is a very good chance that the Egyptian would have enounh on air superiority that he could completely interdict all the roads leading to the front and the Israeli could get no re-inforcements on the board that turn. So, if you do take all the Israeli Planes to Syria put at least one hawk, on the road where you wish to bring in your re-inforcements and that should insure that your people will he able to at least get on the board.

ABOUT FORT HEBRON

One of the most nasty heliborne tricks the Israeli player can do is grab Fort Hebron away from the Syrian. Very often the Syrian will not garrison it, or garrison it very lightly and a direct heliborne assault will have an excellent chance of taking it. The beauty of taking it is that as long as the Israeli holds it the best the Syrian can net is a draw, no matter what he does to the Israeli elsewhere!

OVERVIEW

There are still other things that you can do with the Israeli Air Force, but most of them are simply combining the various tricks we have already outlined. The Egyptian can he frustrated just like the Syrian, but instead of grabbing Fort Hebron, you grab Port Said, or Suez, or simply land back in the Bar-Lev line. The possibilities are endless.

However, just being aware of these things will still not help unless you also have a good sense of timing. As an example, don't fly a lot of ground attacks until you are fairly certain that he will not be able to really match you in air superiority combat. The ideal eventual situation is that both Arab Air Forces would he so checked-up that if any one turn the whole Israeli Air Force would fly on air superiority to that front they would have the 50% Air Superiority necessary to execute heliborne operations. And then by stationing two factors of Hueys on each front you can cause both the Arabs a bleeding ulcer as they contemplate the thought that on any turn you could execute heliborne operations at will. It only takes a few nifty helicopter raids to make the Arab very paranoid about the whole thing and over-react.

Above all, try not to be predictable. In the early stages of the game splitting the air force to both fronts will probably have better results by concentrating it on one front or the other.

Finally, do he careful with where you place your HAWK AA missles. If you have a big arty stack place at least one directly on it. You would also want to be able to get on the board, so one directly on your favorite road entrance is a very nood idea. Your little HAWKS are not as good as the Arab SAMs, but if you lose them you most certainly will have a much more difficult time of it.

BAR-LEV is a very intricate game and the possibilities for mistakes are almost boundless. The possibilities and problems of the ground combat areas involved and intricate as the air war itself. So, if you are constantlv being munched by the Arabs, look first at your handling of the air force and remember, very often it is not so much what you do with the warplanes, but where and when you do it.

Bar Lev: Official Rules Changes, Clarifications, and Errata