[Mobhack]

I have not played this campaign, but have played as Egypt vs Israel in a 73 generated campaign.

1) Even with t-62 (best tank) the Israeli advantages in training and equipment make advancing on them suicidal. Problem with T-62 (and T-55) is the limited number of anti-tank rounds carried, especially if against Israelis since they are armour-heavy. So make your shots count. If you have the full game, set filtering to avoid tin cans (like M113) as they aren't worth a 115mm HEAT as and until you have solved the enemy tank problem.

ATGM units should definitely be set to minimum front armour of 10+ so valuable missiles do not get wasted on APC and scout vehicles. Foot sagger teams are good as they are cheaper to buy, but only have 4 shots - unless you have ammo supply. I like to have those with a BRDM scout car hidden nearby to taxi them bacck to an ammo unit. BRDM with sagger have a decent supply of missiles - and are fast. Pace those on ridge-lines they can duck back behind if spotted (and survive being shot at!). With missile troops, I usually no not manually fire those but let them overwatch and opfire on enemy movers or firers. You want your saggers back 1-2 KM from the enemy so they are less likely to be spotted. But opfire filtering is key - they are too valuable to have popping off at tin cans. If a sagger unit manages to kill 2 MBT in a battle (or do several * of damage ) its well worth the points.

If playing with Soviet kit in the 60s and 70s, I have a few ammo resupply vehicles up front, but out of LOS so that I can occasionally rotate depleted tanks through them for a top-up. 2 sections of 2 at least. Only works in games where you have time to do so of course, but every little helps. Also - if you have some tanks up on a ridge line, the ammo carrier can park in the next hex, but behind the slope. And naturally - any on-map mortars etc are precious as you want to be dropping HE on your approach area constantly (choose one target spot initially and adjust from it rather than plotting new missions, as your delay will be a bit long, except if your gunners have gained experience over 5+ battles or so), so assign some resupply to your gun line.

2) You really need to be within 1KM to stand a chance of hitting, duels at longer ranges favour Israel. And you also want to be stationary before firing. So - choose ambush positions behind a hill, or behind other cover or smoke if he is coming forwards to you, camp out near a taken V-hex. The AI will always "lemming" towards V-hexes, once it has decided to counter-attack so forting up near one cluster is probably best.

If attacking then smash up the point you are going to break into with arty - the HE will cause dust, some smoke in the mix as well if required. Don't move (except maybe with scout cars to spot firers) until the arty is pounding the ground. Advance dismounted infantry for several turns ahead of the stationary over-watching tanks perhaps in the initial 5-10 moves - they may see things, and are far less likely to be spotted than moving tanks.

Bottom line is that you are a close-quarters force whereas Israel is a long range engager. So you have to close down the battlefield in some manner so as to negate his long range advantage. use of terrain, smoke and arty obscuration from HE fire all helps. Also - you really want to use the line of approach (if there is one!) that means any advance is LOS blocked (e.g. if there is a nice little valley to proceed down, or a town or trees).

3) If it is night and the Israeli does not have pattons, you have a massive advantage in that you have IR searchlights - so use it!. Centurions and Shermans tend not to have night fighting gear, only the pattons do... (but your missile troops tend not to, either, bummer!).

4) If you can get dismounted infantry in amongst his tanks - especially RPG-7 teams - go for it. Use of foot infantry for a patient Arab player (if scenario time allows!) can be very rewarding.

5) As with all Soviet vs Western forces, your stuff is best used in concentration. So organise yourself into one task force, all within 1 KM or so in order to have massive mutual support. You cannot afford to have a company team going for Objective 1, another aiming at #2 and another at #3. Stick all 3 together as a battalion lump or "phalanx" and go for 1 objective and plan to camp out there while attriting AI lemmings, and only sweep up #2 and #3 after the attrition battle on #1.

(Of course, while your armoured "battalion blob" is dealing with objective #1, you can always sneak up on #2 and #3 with leg companies and RPG teams since leg is cheap.)

6) The BMP is very useful toy especially if it is night - it has an ATGM and IR night fighting. Its 73mm gun can kill tanks, and will deal with tin cans (switch the missile off first to avoid expending valuable rounds on junk targets).

If delaying or defending in daylight then this unit is nice if you stand still in overwatch and set filtering on. It has 4 saggers which may well manage to kill off or neutralise with ** damage ~2 advancing MBT. It also cheaper than a T-62. Plus it carries a squad to help defend the objective.

If advancing or attacking, then put these in overwatch (filtered for MBT armour!) and dont fire or move them. Meanwhile - advance some expendable scout cars ahead of any marching infantry for a few turns. Scout cars can be cheap little jeeps as well as BRDM tin cans. Any firing enemy MBT may well get a sagger surprise!

I think in a 73 core then I might go for a BMP mech bn (maybe with an attached platoon of T62 per coy) rather than tank-heavy...