From: Doug Murphy Subject: Across Suez Varients As many of you know, the '73 war nearly provoked intervention by the Sov. Union and USA. When defeat of the Egyptian 3rd Army appeared imminent, Russian paratroops and a/c began assembling at airfields in the southern Sov. Union and Sov. naval vessels began assembling a convoy at Sevastopol for carrying replacement equipment and a/c to the Arabs. In response, the US mobilized the 82nd airborne and various Marine and smaller units in the ETO and the Sixth Fleet, already in the East. Med, moved to counter Sov. naval units. (This is one scenario in the SPI game: Sixth Fleet). Also, US strategic forces were placed on alert. The 2nd. ed. of Across Suez contains about 15 extra Sov. and American units that can be treated as additional reinforcements, the US units controlled by the Isr. player and the Sov. by the Egyptian. Here are five different scenarios inspired by the originals put together by James Meldrum in 1995: 1) '73 War: Sov: six 2-10 103 Gds. units and the 6-12 1/10 unit appear as Turn 3 reinforcements at or adjacent to either hex 0616 or 0112 (but not both) US: six 2-8 82nd Ab units and the 3-10 1/6 MEU appear on Turn 4 at hex 1708. The US has two and the Sov. one "air strikes" that are conducted just like Egyptian arty barrages each turn against any enemy-occupied hex non-adjacent to friendly units. 2) Aggressive US deployment Same as above, but US units enter on Turn 3 and Sov units on Turn 4. 3) Gulf War: This scenario has no basis in reality except for presuming Isr. became involved on the ground in the Gulf War, and the Egyptian units represent Iraqi forces. The US has two air strikes. The Isr. player gets three US units: the MEU and two 82nd ab units OR the 6-16 RDF Abrams battalion. The Isr. bridge unit is not used. Isr. deploys first anywhere in the first hexrow on the "left" side of the map as if faces you -- to win, they must drive across the map "left-to-right" and exit six units from the "right" map edge. Egyptian turn 2 reinforcements begin on-map and all "Iraqi" forces deploy anywhere at least 5 hexes away from the "left" mapedge. 4) WW3 in the 1980s: All Sov units begin play on map as in scenario 1. All US units begin play stacked w/ or adjacent to any Isr. unit. Each side gets 1 airstrike. 5) Arab-Isr. War in '00 (w/ limited US forces and Sov forces representing "allied" Arab troops.) The Isr. player gets three 82nd ab units, one MEU and the Abrams unit. The Arab player gets one 6-12 1/10 and one 7-12 2/10 OR all six 2-10 units of the 103 Gds. Both sides get two airstrikes. US forces start in 1708 or in 1301 on turn two. Egyptian turn two units begin on-map w/in two hexes of 0401. Sov units appear in or adjacent to 0616 OR 0112 on turn two. We've tried all of these at one time or another -- the Gulf War one is the best -- a real free-for-all. Enjoy. Doug Murphy