"Battlefront goes for Six Days War." Topic

Battlefront sells four new vehicles for the IDF and the Six Days War. It is only the first wave of new products, there will be two more.

M3 90mm DEFA

M3 A (Sayeret)

M38A1 Jeep

Anti-tank Jeep

Outside these four vehicles, there are a rulebook.

Fate Of A Nation Design Notes

Hope you enjoy!

Amicalement
Armand

Is that not a 57mm or 6pdr in the Defa, rather than a 90mm?

Not a 57mm/6pdr. The gun sheid looks about the same but that tube is much thicker and look at that huge breechblock and muzzle brake!

Yep – the original anti-tank half track conversions (1948 I think) involved fitting them with 6 pounders. When the DEFA guns became available, they replaced the 6 pounder tubes with them, but using the old 6 pounder mountings.

IIRC, it was the Belgian-designed low-pressure 90mm Cockerill gun, mounted on the 6pdr carriage?

A Time-on-Target posting from me and Dom again… :)

Ha, yep, good timing. The DEFA's a French gun though – similar role to the Belgian Cockerill, but a couple of calibres shorter, and lower muzzle velocity.

Cheers chaps

Nice models, but can anyone explain why Battlefront went with the '67 rather than the '73? The 6 Day War is so unbalanced that no one I wargame with wants to play it.
Heck, they even think the Yom Kippur too unbalanced.

Quite possibly simple chronology – I'd not be surprised to see a '73 book follow it at some point.

The supplement is only $20 USD, so I will definitely be getting it. I don't even play FOW, but it will be a good source of inspiration as I organize and paint up my 3mm Pico Armor forces.

I think they went with '67 because technology hadn't changed things THAT much from WWII so they could use pretty much the same rules. By '73 you start having ATGMs and stuff like that.

Hmmm, wonder if that recoilless rifle jeep can be pressed into early, US service in Northern Europe?

Thoughts about if so, and in which units?

I think they went with '67 because technology hadn't changed things THAT much from WWII so they could use pretty much the same rules. By '73 you start having ATGMs and stuff like that.

I've seen a battle report between a Late-War Soviet infantry battalion and an equal points number of Air-Cav out of the Vietnam rules, and they were actually pretty well balanced.

Once you get into infantry armed with serious ATGMs, though, it's a lot harder to get the balance close.

Yep, it was a standard US vehicle (designation M38A1C.) Google says it entered service in 1952, and stayed until the early '70s.

Once you get into infantry armed with serious ATGMs, though, it's a lot harder to get the balance close

It doesn't seem to be that hard

sabresquadron.com/index.html

Has anyone had a sneaky peek at the book yet? If so how many jeeps, jeeps with recoiless rifles, and Defa Halftracks will I need ? I think you are allowed more mortars halftracks now as well?

Last year at Little Wars I ran a 1973 Golan Heights game, that pitted 10 IDF tanks vs a Syrian Tank Bn with an Inf Coy in support as well as Art and AT. The Syrian Infantry were armed with saggers, I had one sagger per platoon and one with the coy hq. They were a real problem for the IDF player but did not dominate the game. In each game played plus play tests they at least accounted for taking out at least one IDF tank in the game.

"but can anyone explain why Battlefront went with the '67 rather than the '73? The 6 Day War is so unbalanced that no one I wargame with wants to play it.

Heck, they even think the Yom Kippur too unbalanced."

this discussion has already happened a year ago when battlefront did this but you can hardly be blamed when the title of this thread is 'battlefront goes for six days war' when they "went for that" a year and a half ago!!! the thread is really just about a few new products for an existing range, so a bit sensational.

six days war was a walkover but of course battlefront make it out to be a tense affair to help sell models. yom kippur was not lopsided and in fact as the battles swayed back and forth the superpowers had to intervene to save their proxies. the soviets did at one point, then the americans stepped in big time to help the israelis…..

Apparently the book is in my LGS. Our main AIW player is not a happy bunny. Neither of his 1500 point forces are now 1500 points.

The Israeli's are much more expensive and thus less effective and the Arabs (at least the T-55s) are about 20% cheaper so his T-55 battalion does not get up as high as 1500.

Thanks Dom.

That's what I suspected, since back in the day, I recall seeing recoilless rifles all over the place. They were the new, magical weapon before wire-guided ATGMs showed up.

Apparently the book is in my LGS. Our main AIW player is not a happy bunny. Neither of his 1500 point forces are now 1500 points.

The trade off might be that maybe now he can get more folks interested in games? In inbalance from the WI "Fate of a Nation" booklet really turned off our local UAR & Jordanians from even wanting to play a game…now they seem to be choming at the bit to get back into games.

Cheers, VB

Dunno, it would have been nice if the thing was balaced to start with but I suppose expecting that from BF is asking a little too much ;) 3:)

I'd especially not expect too much in that regard from a WI free booklet. I imagine an effort like that gets less than the full playtest effort.

Given that the first free-in-WI FOW expansion booklet was admitted to being thought up while watching "We were Soldiers" and drinking a few beers, I wonder what got the staff going on '67 other than asking, "So, where else can we use most of our model range?" at a staff meeting?

Though getting a re-balance will be nice, I'd been wanting to play Jordanians when I got $$ again.

Nice vehicles for Ak47

Hmmm, wonder if that recoilless rifle jeep can be pressed into early, US service in Northern Europe?

Or, with different crew, Vietnam?

Yes, the M38A1 Jeep itself is an awfully useful model for all manner of Cold War-era armies and wars – especially in Africa, where the Belgians, as well as various other countries, mercenary groups and UN Peacekeeping forces made great use of them.