Wadi Scouts

[THH149]

Played this as H2H and had a lot of fun, played well enough to lose only one Stryker (not burning, others damaged), touch all the objectives and lose only 3 killed and 6 wounded, and took apart the whole Syrian Force. Compared to the Mission Objectives listed in the scenario - touch the objectives and spotted/destroyed the enemy (though didn't spot the minefields) - I thought I did really well.  Per the Briefing screen there were 550 VPs on offer, and for the Syrians  750 VP on offer

The briefing said about three times: "dont engage, just maintain your force and withdraw if need be"! Ok so that what the game wants me to do: preserve my force.

But, Syrians won a tactical victory, but why.... per the end summary screen, the Blue force reached just under 500 VPs and the Syrian over 1000 VP, what/how? Syrian's got more than the VPs on offer?

Of course I had to dig deeper into the scenario design, and all was not as it seemed when I put the scenario into the editor, where I found a lot of other VP allocations ...

Red Force: Enemy Casualties >10% = 500 pts, enemy condition >30% = 100 pts, enemy ammo > 30% = 100 pts, Friendly casualties < 50% = 150pts, Friendly condition < 50% = 100 pts, Friendly ammo < 50% = 100 pts, SAA  Bonus =100 pts, Destroy HQs = 50pts, Destroy Strykers up to 500 pts (up to 50 each), destroy infantry = 200 pts for total possible 1900.

Compare these to Mission Objectives displayed at briefing of the last three Destroy objectives for a possible 750 pts.

Blue Force: Enemy Casualties > 50% = 50 pts, enemy condition >50% = 50 pts, enemy ammo > 50% = 50 pts, friendly casualties < 10% = 200 pts, Friendly condition < 40% = 100 pts, friendly ammo < 40% = 50 pts, Bonus = 0, Terrain objectives 1 - 6 @25 each = 150 pts, Unit Objectives: Spot bunkers and specified infantry = 200 points, spot mines (AT, AP and IED) = 200 pts. Total available = 1050.

Compare these to Mission Objectives at briefing: objectives, spot mines, infantry and bunkers =  550 possible VPs.

If I had known what the true victory conditions were, then my strategy would've been completely different, like bothering the cross the wadi when all the Syrians and the BRDM reinforcements were destroyed.

And the Syrians likely to get the adavantage of double counting: destroying strykers is very likely to push Red Force into the >10% casualty mark (since Blue Force has only 60 men), netting 500 pts right of the bat.

I must say I don't like hidden VP when playing H2H.

How have others found this battle?

THH