"Israeli-what to wargame?" Topic

Hi all,

I am new here.

I am interested in wargaming one of the IDF's campaigns, however I am not sure which particular 'era' to start with.

I am tempted by the Independence Era (and subsequent engagements) and also by the 60's including 6 Day War.
Any suggestions? also looking for good ideas on suppliers and scales. I had thought of using Peter Pig's AK47 Republic, and also Flames of War (adapt the rules some)

Interested to hear what everyone thinks!

Dessert Fox

I game '82 Peace for Galilee operations with AK47. In 15mm, you have a great range of figures for the period (Peter Pig, QRF, etc.) Works well, I'd like to use the rules for the '48 as well.

FWIW, I have always been most drawn to the War of Independence. Palmach, Haganah, Irgun and the Trans Jordan legion. And the kit? Chevy LRGD trucks, armored lorries, Hotchkiss tanks, Spitfires…oh yeah, baby.

'82 Peace for Galilee operations with AK47. In 15mm

You can also get these in 28mm from Mongrel.
I'm collecting figures for the 48 war but what I'd like to do is the 67 and 73 wars but no one makes anything even close in figures.

1973, if you want things to be a bit more even, especially at the start of the war.

Six Day War. The WHOLE war. On one table (with 6mm models):

link

Any tips for paintig modern IDF forces..using Peter Pig figures..

As anleiher suggests, there's a lot of useful and interesting WWII kit that can cross over to the War of Independence. Most "battles" are relatively small, with interesting terrain.

AK-47 Republic could work, and even Flames of War. But take a look for inspiration at Steven Thomas's pages on using Crossfire:

link
link
link

Another system that would work really well is the Lardies' "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum", which could work as is (with a little research to develop the troop types) for the War of Independence, or which also has the supplement "Rock the Casbah" for later conflicts in Lebanon:

link

Allen

I'm doing 73 in microarmor and also in 15mm. The Peter Pig models are spectacular.

Don't overlook the air battles.

They can be quite interesting.

Spearhead? in 6mm

I would do the War of Independance using your favorite low level WWII rules.

Suez 56 with units at company level.

67 with Battalion size units and do the whole war from the Suez to the Golan Heights.

"67 with Battalion size units and do the whole war from the Suez to the Golan Heights."

Yeah, that's what I said:

link

Nice Mike. I was working on modifing KISS Rommel to use before getting sidetrack on something else. I had been working on using battalions to give the commanders enough units to move around. Of course if you do battalions you need a larger table area. I was starting off on 56 to see if it worked before trying the whole thing in 67.

I also wanted to show the difference in some of the armor, AMXs were really at a disadvantage against some of the newer soviet tanks and had to be rescued a few times by Centurians. On the plus side the AMXs could race across the desert while the Centurians plodded along behind them. But they may be too much to do for a battalion level game.

My 67 game (linked above) uses brigades not battalions. We did the whole war in Sinai with battalions using Megablitz.

67 or 73 are both interesting and you can use a lot of the same kit, if yoy want something grand tactical but reasonably realistic then Modern Spearhead or Fistful of TOWs is probably the way to go.

The operational games were interesting but the replay value is low, only done the 67 campaign three times (interestingly the IDF lost all three times, which shows that I've failed to model something right, Dupuy would argue that I've not done the operational suprise bit right despite getting the unit CEV ratios right).

So many choices, with the IDF. The 'Independence' era is particularly rich. Get hold of some WW2 partisan figures and you are ready to bomb the King David Hotel, kill off-duty servicemen or fight the 'battle' of Deir Yassein all over again. Any WW2 skirmish set should suffice.

For the 1982 Operations, you really want a set of rules that covers engineer support, then you can utilise bulldozers in clearing Palestinians from sections of Beirut.

The contemporary period also offers a lot of options. Again low level ops are the key. Ideally you need a modern set that allows the use of cluster munitions, white phosphorous and sniper teams. Ambulances should be easy to find as die cast models, you just paint out the red cross and substitute a crescent. Where you would find a suitable range of Palestinian women and school children in your chosen scale I'm not sure but with the help of some greenstuff I'm sure it's quite possible. The sniper games offer the prospect of multi player role playing games, with one player assuming the role of the IDF Media spokesperson. Extra points could be awarded by the GM for the best South African accent.

For larger scale engagements you probably are better off looking at 1967 or 1973.

I'm surprised no one's suggested the aspects of a naval conflict!

Back in 1980, Yaquinto Publications of Dallas, TX produced a game called Fast Attack Boats, based on naval operations during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. It was released as a part of their unique "Album Games" series, using a standard cardboard double-sided album jacket containing everything the gamer(s) needed to play. Today, PT Dockyard produces a range of 1/700 scale fast attack craft that includes Israeli watercraft, as well as the Soviet gunboats that the Arab states used. It may be worth looking into if you're looking for something different to game.

Good luck with your research, DessertFox!