Armor of the Arab-Israeli Wars - or - Mike's Visit to Yad La-Shiryon Part 2

In this second part of my article showing vehicles from Yad La-Shiryon, I'm focusing on more recent Israeli armor, starting with variants of the M48 and M60 on through the current indigenous Merkava Main Battle Tank.

In the mid to late 1960's, the Israelis were desperate to upgrade their aging tank fleet, and sought to purchase U.S. M48 tanks.  Initially the IDF received several gasoline powered vehicles from West Germany, though shipments from the United States followed.  M48 tanks in Israeli service use the designations Magach 1-3 and 5 (there is no 4).

Early Magach with the 90mm gun

During the 1967 war, roughly 150 Magach 1 and 2 tanks were deployed and fought well within the limitations of the relatively weak powerplant. After the 1967 War, the IDF began to upgrade all Magach to the M48A3 standard creating the Magach 3 - this included a new diesel engine and the British 105mm gun. Several M48's had been captured from Jordan, and these were upgraded as well. M60 tanks began to be procured as well creating the Magach 6.

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Armor of the Arab-Israeli Wars - or - Mike's Visit to Yad La-Shiryon Part 1

While the Flames of War rules for the Six Day War are a couple of years old at this point (and honestly I still have a bunch of Israelis to paint), I recently traveled to Israel on business and thanks to a generous co-worker, got a chance to visit Yad La-Shiryon (you'll likely need to get Google to translate the link), or The Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum at Latrun (as it is more officially known). The museum houses a fairly amazing collection of armored vehicles - including many you wouldn't expect to see in Israel. As someone deeply interested in the history of the multiple conflicts since the founding of the modern Israeli state, the museum was a treasure trove of unusual vehicles and really gave me a sense of perspective around the conflicts and the vehicles used. In this first part of the article, we'll look at some of the early vehicles used by the IDF from the 1940's through the 1970's.

The museum is built around a Mandate-era fortress

The first thing one realizes when visiting Israel is that it is not a large country in terms of land mass. Driving from Tel Aviv (on the Mediterranean coast) to Jerusalem (on Israel's eastern border) takes you about an hour (it's ~70km/44mi from the shore to the Old City). From North to South Israel is about the same size as Oregon (see image courtesy of MapFight below), though at least the southern third of Israel is comprised of a sparsely populated desert, the Negev.

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The Battle of Jerusalem, Paratroop Brigade 55 vs. Arab Legion

 By Eric Lauterbach

During the Cold Wars blizzard John Sulek, Allen Smith, Jim Best and James Best played a battle of Jerusalem game.  We had been wanting to do it for some time and now that John Sulek's Israeli Paratroop force was done they needed their first outing.  What better way than a historical scenario about the Battle of Jerusalem?

Essentially, his force was two companies representing the various Paratroop battalions, with attached tank support. The Jordanians had 3 companies of Infantry scattered throughout the city and a strong fortified area representing Ammunition Hill. Like in the real battle, we started with a night attack by the paras, with the objectives being to take Ammunition Hill, The Old City, and Central Jerusalem. Almost immediately the fighting went ugly on Ammunition Hill with the Paras sneaking up in the dark and firing everything they had on the outer defenses.

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AAR: Fate of Nation Israel & Jordan Pincer (2305pts) - Game 2

By Tom Burgess,

This AAR is for a reset/refight of a previous Fate of the Nation game published here on WWPD where my Israeli AMX-13 based tank company won 6-1 against my friend Charles' Jordanian Tank Company.  Charles felt like he needed his infantry deployed at the game start to form a screen so that my AMX-13 would not be able to get to the flanks and rear of his tanks so quickly. So we backed up the miniatures, redeployed and started all over again.

 We kept the board set up exactly the same and Charles chose to defend the same side. We did not even bother to reposition the objectives.

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AAR: Fate of Nation Israel & Jordan Pincer (2305pts) - Game 1

By Tom Burgess

Having done nothing but lose to the UAR T-54/55 Hordes with my Israeli AMX-13 Tank Company since the release of "Fate of a Nation," I was eager to get in some games against my friend Charles' Jordanian force for something different.

Since the Jordanian Tank Co is an "Always Defend" force we wanted to see how well that special rule worked for them.  So we randomly rolled up Pincer from the defensive missions.

My force was the same as I had in my last few Fate of a Nation AARs posted here on WWPD.net.  I am adding new kit like M51 Shermans and Recoilless Rifle Jeeps to give me more options. But for this game I had to fight with what I had for models, though the point level, 2305 pts, made me drop my air support, one Blindicide Team and the Halftrack Transports for my Infantry.

My Israeli Roster

My Israeli Tank Fore

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UAR vs the Israelis in a micro armor dust-up

By Eric "Truckstop" Lauterbach

It's part two of the John Desch micro armor battle day! After my first Fate of a Nation game in 6mm with the new rules resulting in a good kick in the pants, I decided I really need to change the list.

First, I found that the Isherman has been priced out of its performance level. So now I think that the, Magach 3 is the way to go for the Israelis. Thus, my new list is made up of two platoons of 3 Magach tanks along with the HQ and 2ic Magach, plus anti-tank gun jeeps and mortar tracks.

John's list did not change from the first game and seams to be a solid way of playing UAR: three companies of T-55s sporting stabilizers and some ZSU anti-air for good measure.

We randomly rolled a mission and dust-up was the answer the dice gave us.  We both thought it would be a good test of the Israeli army so off we went.  Having only 4 platoons hurts, but both sides had this predicament and hard choices were made. ....or not really the Magachs were all going on table! John had two full T-55 companies on table and one off with the ZSU. I of course had my soft and chewy mortar halftracks and jeeps off table. I needed every barrel possible to kill off the tank horde.

The dust up table.

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Fate of the Nation Battle Israeli Tank Company vs United Arab Republic Tank Battalion

By Eric Lauterbach

You may have noticed something looks different about the pictures of tanks in this post, well your eyes are not deceiving you we did this battle in micro armor.

John Desch has a huge micro collection some of the models dating back to when his US Army days and they used them for training. (This what the army did before computers kids)

You will notice in the pictures some of the models are not quite right, which is something you don't notice when putting the force on the table top. From normal eye to table distance you really have to look close to tell a M48 from a M60, pictures have a magnifying effect.

For micro armor we did not change any of the movement or shooting distances. The only real change we had to do was make the small village area terrain because the buildings are two small to get the granularity.

So for our first battle with the Fate of the Nation we went with a basic free-for-all so we could get a feel for how it played.  The forces were an Israeli Tank company with 2 Magach-3 in the HQ, a platoon of 3 Magach-3, a platoon of 4 Isherman, some 4 AT jeeps, and 120mm mortar section.  To face this force the Arabs had 31 T-55s all upgraded with stabilizers in three 10 tank companies and one platoon of two ZSU-57.

The Israeli force

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Fate of the Nation Israeli Forces

By Eric "Tarzan" Lauterbach

 With the newly expanded book Fate of a Nation, gone are days of loading up on IShermans to crush Jordanian and Egyptian forces without breaking a sweat. Now its going to be harder, but I love a challenge.  Smacking the opponent so hard with special rules and under-costed tanks that they never want to play again doesn't do anyone any good. Your force will be sitting in the box with no one to play.  The good news is Battlefront has adjusted the balance to what looks like a way more playable game. So what are the new challenges to the Israeli armies? Lets get into it!

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Fate of a Nation Jordanians

 By "Tarzan" Eric Lauterbach

At last!!  The New Fate of the Nation book is coming out!  My Jordanians are saved!!  I was about to dump them on eBay for a song... and not even a very good song.  I was ready to do this because, lets face it they were useless and unplayable. It was a huge exercise in frustration to play Jordanians vs the Israelis - it was not even a game. Because of this, they were banished to the bottom of the gaming closet not even fit to be a paper weight.

Now.. the new book has arrived and breathed new hope into my scrap army..can they be the "Jordanian Lions" I once hoped for?  Well they are certainly a lot better. So what were the major fixes for this army?  Death to dreaded "Taa"(Hen and Chicks) rule.  Now it is possible to move and shoot and have a decent chance of scoring a hit, which really unties your hands now you can at least dance a little vs the Israelis.  This fix was the most needed -  it is no fun when you can't shoot.

The next major change was the addition of the "Professional Traditions" rule, which is you may re-roll main gun misses when stationary at targets over 16" away. The Israeli player will now think twice about the long range duel with Jordanian armor.  Another rule that tips the balance of power back to something reasonable is "Operation Tariq" which is Jordanian armor companies always defend.  I find this to be an interesting change and certainly will add more of challenge to the Israeli armor player.

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GenCon Rerun! Throck's Favorite Reviews

What's Hapening!! GEN CON! That's what!

By Throckmorton

We're at GenCon! How cool is that?

We're taking it easy, gaming and being awesome. Heck, maybe we'll even see some of you today.

Well, in the spirit of not being here, we've decided to post up a bunch of our favorite re-runs this week (see image, left). We're bringing back some posts that we've done in the past that really stuck with us, or... something.

And guess what? Today's my turn. As a primarily hobbying type of fellow I picked out three of my favorite reviews from the last year to share again with you, our dear readers.

First up I thought I'd take a saunter over to the Six Day war with my Review of the M-51 Isherman. One of the first times I really tried to use chipping and weathering powders.

Head on over to the review and check it out!

Next, I take us back in time to early war with a review of the Russian T-28, where I tried color modding (though not with an airbrush) for the first time and had fun with streaking. But not that kind of streaking.

And finally, I'll go back a whole year to my first article at WWPD. The review and build of the PSC Cromwells. Where I have fun with green stuff, chunky weathering and do a bit of a tutorial on how to get those decals looking great.

Have a great week everybody!

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Run Away! Anatomy of a UAR Victory

By Iron Tom

Ron, Tony, Greg and Tom of the BattleVault Gamers got together to play a Flames of War game using the Arab-Israeli “Fate of a Nation” book.  Ron and Tony played the Israelis while Greg and Tom played the United Arab Republic (UAR) Forces.  Both forces were just over 2000 points and we rolled up Fighting Withdrawal as a mission with Greg and Tom’s UAR force defending.

The Battlefield:

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Battle for the West Bank Isreali Vs Jordanian AAR

By Eric Lauterbach

Here we have another battle between Eric and John Sulek's Fate of the Nation Forces for Flames of War's new Arab Israeli line.  This time we decide to do 1700 points and the Mission is Hold the Line.  The Israelis will be defending this time so this should be different from our previous battles where the Jordanians just hide from long range tank shots.   It will be good to have the whole force of Jordanians on the table together. 

John's Israeli tank  force is only 5 platoons, pretty rough in a half on half off scenario like Hold the Line. 

Army lists courtesy of  EasyArmy.com

Here's my Jordanian Confident Trained Patton list. 

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Review: Battlefront T-55 or T-54 Platoon (AARBX02)

Battlefront box AARBX02 T-55 or T-54 Platoon!

The good old T-55/54 series, the most produced tank in history.  I was glad to get a chance to look over Battlefronts version of the T-55.  A big question I have always had is what is the difference between the two tanks and visually its almost nil.  Most of the changes between the models occur inside the vehicle with the only difference being that early T-54s have a slight bump on the turret.


Plus, the Soviets upgraded all their tanks after 7000 km of use, so old T-54s would be brought up to date with newer T-55 performance. So really call them which ever you want but T-55 is probably easier and more accurate.  The T-55 is a descendant of the T-34 with its robust design and easy maintenance, its no wonder the Egyptians loved this tank.

So lets get into this box!

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John Sulek's Isreali Tank Force

By John Sulek and Eric Lauterbach

There is nothing cooler than when my friend John Sulek dives into a army, he leaves no stone un-turned.

Well once again he has done it again with his Israeli force for the Flames of War Arab Israeli War supplement Fate of a Nation. After admiring these guys during our battles I thought it would be good to show the WWPD community John's complete force so far.

John realized, like many Israeli players, that a force based on Battlefront's  M51 Isherman is the way to go.  The combination of really good gun, great 2+ Firepower, and points cost is the best value in the Israeli tank arsenal.  The light armor of the Isherman does not really hurt it with its ability to Stormtroop along with the Arab's being hamstrung by hen and chicks.  So lets take a look at his force at 1500 points.

The HQ tank complete with maps.

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Battle Report Israelis vs. Jordanians Counterattack

By Eric Lauterbach

On a snowy day, John Sulek and I were able to get a couple of games in playing 1700 points of Fate of the Nation Jordanians and Israelis.  Today we rolled the random mission Counter attack.  I was Jordanian and John was Israeli. He won the roll off and got to be the attacker.

Ugh.... this not good - defending if you are a tank company - its either two platoons of tanks or strip away the M113 and add the Artillery platoon and I still get one tank platoon.  Seamed like the better option. I could really be overwhelmed and killed before I get much on the table even if the objectives do not go hot until turn six. 







The Lists:

John's Israeli Tank Company.

Courtesy of Easy Army

My Jordanian Tank Company

The Table:

The West Bank is green and populated - its not the desert the Sinai is.

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Quick Review: T-34/85M (AARBX03)

AARBX03 T-34/85M!

The venerable T-34's last major upgrade, the T-34/85M, was used by the Egyptians and many other Soviet Bloc nations.  The changes were not a new production run, but a refurbishing program to existing models prolonging  the life of the vehicle.  The T-34/85M had a new radio, road wheels the same as the T-54, night driving equipment added, plus improved fuel and drivetrain components.  Much like the Soviet improving their T-34 model, Battlefront has done so as well.  This latest and greatest box set (AARBX03) really shows some improvement over the old versions back from the day.

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Review: Battlefront M42 Duster (AJO161)

by Eric Lauterbach

AJO161 Jordanian M42 Duster

The Battlefront Jordanian M42 Duster AJO161  is an essential piece of kit for anyone building a Jordanian army. Developed and produced in the 50s by the US Army as a mobile AAA platform it was soon found in many countries around the world. The US Army had almost phased the vehicle out by 1963 but the Vietnam War revived the Duster and several battalions were reactivated. As a low level AAA platform the Duster served well in the Jordanian Army as well since most of their Air Force was wiped out in the first day. I had purchased a couple of Dusters for my US forces in Vietnam pack VUS161 and had not put them together yet so the Jordanian was my first go at it.

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WWPD game day Fate Of The Nation battle!

By Eric Lauterbach

For the last battle of the day at WWPD game day last December we decided on a Fate of the Nation battle from Flames of War with what we could scrap up.   So far it had been pretty good day at Game Vault. Lots of fun, and this looked like a perfect way to cap it off.  Myself and Chris Jacques took the Jordanians and John Desch and John Sulek played Sulek's Israelis in a 1750 point team game.  We randomly rolled the mission and came up with Hasty Attack.  After the roll off it turned out the Jordanians would be defending with the Israelis attacking.    

My Jordanian Company Commander and his quick get away car! Looks at watch...uuhhh I got a meeting back at Division let me know how it turns out.

The Lists:

Eric and Chris' defending Jordanians:

Lists provided by Easy Army. 

Jon and John's attacking Israelis.

One objective in the town guarded by the Jordanian Mech platoon. The other you can see a piece of it on the bottom hill

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Review: Battlefront M113 (AJOBX01)

By Eric Lauterbach



When I was told I got to review the Jordanian M113 box AJOBX01 I said YEAH!!!  I had purchased two of the US Vietnam era boxes (VUSBX07) already and had not put them together so this was my chance to dig into M113.  First let me say wow, the sprues as they come out of the box are overwhelming. It's target overload.  Since the Jordanian box is the same box as the US M113 with all the variants you get a ton of extra pieces if you are only doing the plain Jordanian version.

So my first step, and I highly recommend you do the same, is to go find the battlefront assembly guide and study the pieces you need.  I did and I still messed up some hatches. This was my first all plastic Battlefront tank model and I was impressed with the quality, but I did add extra crew that you do not get in the box set.  Hey, these are for my personal army and I want them to be cool. 

In both the US and Arab boxes the two sprues pictured above allow you to build one vehicle.

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Review: Battlefront Mosque (BB178) and Mosque Walls (BB179)

Mosque (BB178) and Mosque Walls (BB179) set up togther.

By Tom Burgess

With my local club members very excited about pushing their Flames of War gaming into the Arab-Israeli Wars, I was keen to expand my desert terrain collection with the addition of Battlefront’s new Mosque (BB178) and Mosque Walls (BB179).

As I am a “Bottom Line Up Front” kind of guy let me start off by saying that I am extremely pleased by the Mosque model and accompanying walls. This was a bit of a relief for me because as a “Premium Properties” subscriber I was worried that some of the issues that have been affecting those releases might manifest in the mosque model. Thankfully, that is not the case.

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