From: Doug Murphy <dmurphy@WPPOST.DEPAUL.EDU>
Subject: Kashmir...replay of Indo-Pak Wars from S&T 174

Last evening, my opponent and I completed a game of
Indo-Pakistani Wars from the most recent S&T.  We chose the '71
scenario and I played the hapless Pak as my opponent is
inexperienced.  For atmosphere, we blasted Led Zepplin's
"Kashmir" over & over again.   We added a rule allowing the Pak
to decide to launch a pre-emptive air strike vs. IN airfields at
game beginning.  I had to decide prior to setup (write decision
down) so I wouldn't know the IN air deployment.  As it was, my
opponent chose to base his air up front rather than in the safe
Central IN holding box (in opposition to history) and I
providentially had decided to strike. Even w. the IN early
warning advantage, my air was more successful than historical,
disrupting or eliminating about half the IN air force deployed
in the west.  The game proper now began.

In West Pak, the border terrain is terrible: has to be seen on
the map to be believed: mountain & glaciers in the north, large
desert in the middle, and marshlands/delta in the south.  With
relatively few units on both sides to hold the entire border and
not the greatest of logistical networks avail to support any deep
strike, I concentrated my units in the north and advanced into
IN Kashmir toward Amritsar and Srinagar.

My opponent concentrated on crushing me in East Pak (which I
wrote off from the start).  With a preponderance of units, he
chose to advance ahistorically along a single axis toward Dacca
from the west (while holding the rest of the Bengali perimeter
w/ paramil.)  I was somewhat taken aback by this approach since
it allowed me to concentrate my vastly outpowered units against
his obvious schwerpunkt and stop him cold.

As the turns continued, he gradually pushed me back toward Dacca. 
In one surprise, he used his 2 airmobile units to hook around my
flank and force me to withdraw.  In the West, he had set up his
units along the entire border which allowed me to advance deeper
into Kashmir but let him advance almost unhindered in the middle
and the deep South toward Karachi.  In another surprise, his
marine brigade splashed ashore successfully in the Karachi delta.

Finally, by game end, he had me hemmed in Dacca in the East, I
held only the city and the delta.  I had most of IN Kashmir but
he was at the gates of Hyderabad in the south with confused
fighting in and around Karachi. As the capital was in real danger
(if the game was extended a few turns) as I was unable to shift
units southward fast enough, I asked for a ceasefire and he
accepted.    After toting up the Vps, he had barely earned a
NATIONAL victory (one step up from a stalemate) as he captured
lots of East Pak towns (but I balanced out by hanging onto Dacca
and most of Kashmir).  We figured as part of the ceasefire in
this alternative universe, we would haggle about trading Kashmir
for East Pak and move back to the start lines.  Next we'll try
it in the 1990s...which has more chrome (extended ZOCs, standoff
weapons, etc)

Doug (dmurphy@wppost.depaul.edu)