New Blog on Arab-Israeli Wars

Started by bigjackmac, 15 June 2017, 02:05:50 PM

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bigjackmac

All,

Greetings, and welcome to another new wargaming blog, in which I'll play out various actions of the Arab-Israeli Wars, from the War for Independence to present.  We start in 1948: It's 28 March 1948 in the Palestine Mandate.  Times have been rough in recent years between the Jews and Arabs, but now, with the pending British departure from the territory, the violence has escalated.  As the Brits prepare to leave, both the Jews and the Arabs jockey for position, with former neighbors picking up weapons against each other.  To add to the volatility, Arab volunteers from the nearby Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon are arriving in the area, while the Jews are added to by refugees from war-ravaged Europe seeking asylum. 

Introduction
http://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/introduction.html

War of Independence Campaign Plan
http://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/war-of-independence-campaign-plan.html

War of Independence Roster
http://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/war-of-independence-roster.html

First Battle Report
http://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/war-for-independence-fight-1.html


The firefight is intense, with both sides taking casualties.  I've already played the second game and am working on the batrep, so stay tuned for more fun.

V/R,
Jack

d_Guy

Jack,
This is going to be another of your projects I'm going to enjoy watching. You pick great subject matter.  :-bd
Sleep with clean hands ...

bigjackmac

Thanks man, I appreciate it, and glad you're looking forward to my little wars.

V/R,
Jack

petercooman

16 June 2017, 07:13:03 AM #3 Last Edit: 16 June 2017, 07:15:18 AM by petercooman
Nice stuff!

I really should give " five Men" a try. I gave five Men in normandy lying around, nut haven't played them yet.

I made soms Japanse dom warlord games on wednesday, so once those and My USMC are painted i'll give them a spin!

I'll gave To check for stats though, don't think they are included for usmc/japan. Shouldn't Be Too hard To figure out...

Techno


Zippee

Really nice stuff,

particularly like the simple but effective terrain - the 'tracer' markers are a nice touch too, particularly for storytelling on the blog

petercooman

Quote from: petercooman on 16 June 2017, 07:13:03 AM
Nice stuff!

I really should give " five Men" a try. I have five Men in normandy lying around, but haven't played them yet.

I made some Japanse from warlord games on wednesday, so once those and My USMC are painted i'll give them a spin!

I'll have To check for stats though, don't think they are included for usmc/japan. Shouldn't Be Too hard To figure out...

Fixed all the stupid auto correct errors. That's what happens if you type English and have your autocorrect set to 'dutch'  :d

Just printed 5 men in Normandy +the rifleman's guide and heavy metal expansions. Can start reading. Any major difference with 5 men in kursk?

bigjackmac

Thanks guys, glad you like the concept and I appreciate the kind words.

Peter - Sounds great; as you've seen, I'm a huge fan of the 5Core system.  Regarding 5MIN vs 5MAK, there is a lot of overlap, but the big differentiation is in troop activation.

In 5MIN you have your guys, between a fireteam and a squad, so let's say 5-10 guys typically.  At the beginning of your turn you roll 1D6 for activation, and there are three options:
1.  All of your troops can move, but not shoot, and the enemy troops that see one of your guys moving (and are in good morale state) can move.
2.  All of your troops can shoot, but not move, and the enemy troops that see one of your guys shooting (and are in good morale state) can return fire.
3.  A 'normal' activation, which is the most likely, which means 1 out of every 3 of your figures can move and shoot/shoot and move.  The guys that didn't do anything during your activation are able to react fire to enemy troops performing a 'normal' activation during their turn.

5MAK is a bit different, where you still have the three types of activation, but you roll 1D6 per troop, and you (as the player) decide which activation dice gets assigned to which troop, and thus what each figure is allowed to do that turn.  There is still reaction fire, but it may not be taken if you activated during your turn (or plan to, if you're the second player).

I have made it a bit more deadly, and thus faster, by allowing each troop to activate during his turn AND allowing each troop to react during the enemy's turn.  It also makes tracking activations much easier.  Morale, fire combat, close combat, movement, etc..., are pretty much all the same between the two different rule sets.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you've got any other questions.

V/R,
Jack

petercooman

Ok, looks like a big difference. I saw an example of play from FMAK and noticed you rolled and a surge was 1 guy moving on 1, shooting on 6 and  normal activation on anything else. That explains it. Guess I can make that was for FMIN. Just roll 3 dice for a team of 5 and resolve like FMAk. Looks more elegant.

petercooman

Have played 2 games and am liking it so far.

Hated the bail result though. I played on a2x2 so any bail result usually sends someone straight off. So I switched that to:

Bailed when in cover, same as flinching but add d3 turns of not activating.

Bailed when in the open: As normal.


Ihad a guy in good cover (a tench) bail, and he went out of the trench and in plain sight to be shot down. Makes more sense to me if he cowers in the trench   ;D

bigjackmac

Peter,

Two games, eh?  Well, don't just tell me about it, where's the pics!!?? ;)

Regarding the bail result, I agree.  I'll say this again, and I know a lot of folks don't like to hear it: part of what makes 5Core so great (in my humble opinion) is that it's eminently modifiable.  I know there are lots of folks that believe you play a set of rules as written, and if you don't like something about the rules, the author is all screwed up ;)  But these rules, I'm constantly changing things around to meet my exact needs for a certain era or setting, and you just can't break them.

For me, the heart of the system that ports to everything is the command roll(s), the combat system of 1s and 6s, and the Kill/Shock results.  The implementation of the finer details within each of those is simply flavor, to be tailored to what you're looking for. 

So, good luck with the rules, I hope you enjoy them (I've played more than 200 fights using them, can't get enough of them), and please post your batreps.

V/R,
Jack

petercooman

Yeah they seem pretty solid in the core, so i will have to do my best to break them  ;D

No pictures because i tried them out with unpainted models, and i don't take pictures if it's not all painted. (well i normally don't game if they aren't painted, but i was just eager to try them out)

bigjackmac

Peter,

Good luck breaking them! ;)

And I gotcha on the pics, just really enjoy reading your stuff.  So hurry up and get your dudes painted! ;)

V/R,
Jack

bigjackmac

All,

It is 0415 on 30 March 1948, and the Jordanians have returned to the northern edge village of Mar Gush.  Two days ago they approached further east and were treated rather roughly by Baruch Eitan's 1st Platoon.  The Company commander, Captain Avi Peled, had been switching out the platoons on watch at the roadblock east of the village, on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Road.  As of 0415, 3rd Platoon was manning the roadblock, 1st Platoon was manning outposts in a 360 degree perimeter around the village, and 2nd Platoon was located in the center of the village, acting as a quick reaction force, able to move against threats at all points of the compass.  At 0405, member of 1st Platoon manning the outpost to the northeast, across the shallow (fictional) Nelani River, came in to report movement to Avi, the Company commander, and he immediately summoned the 2nd Platoon commander, Lt Danny Tzur.  Danny was a 29-year old, American born Jew was drafted into the US Army in May 1942.  In boot camp he was recognized as having leadership potential and so upon the completion of boot camp he was sent to Officer Candidate School, minting a new 2nd Lieutenant in time to drop into France on 6 June 1944.  Danny served as a platoon commander, company executive officer, company commander, and battalion operations officer throughout the campaigns in Normandy, Holland, and Belgium, returning to civilian life in mid-1946.  Back home in Toledo, it was his parents that first pointed out the plight of the Jews in Palestine, and with a steadily deteriorating situation in 1947, Danny crossed the ocean and arrived in Tel Aviv just after the New Year, 1948.

Avi quickly explained the situation and what needed to happen; Danny immediately gathered his men and began moving towards the enemy.  Avi stated: "Danny, I'm not sure what exactly is out there, so I'm coming with." 


Overview, north is up, looking at the north edge of the village of Mar Gush.  At top right is a portion of the Nelani River, at center right is a citrus orchard, at center left is what is now known as Cemetery Hill (and it will be referred to as such here).  Spread from left to right across the bottom of the photo are various homes and shops of the villagers of Mar Gush.

At top left (northwest) and top right (northeast) you can see Jordanian Army elements approaching Mar Gush from the north.  At bottom left (southwest) you have Danny leading half of 2nd Platoon forward towards Cemetery Hill, and at bottom right (southeast) you have Avi leading the other half towards The Orchard.


Bodies are stacking up atop Cemetery Hill, as Ephraim (bottom left), a former Palmach commando returned home to defend his village, turns his Sten on several Jordanians (top right) moving across the fields into The Orchard.  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/war-for-independence-fight-2-part-1.html

And this is such a long fight that I've decided to split the batrep into two parts.  Sorry, but we'll pick up again soon, the situation very much in doubt, things not going overly well for either side, the Jews about to make another push on the far right, skirting The Orchard.  Coming right up, so stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner