Jordanian Goodies Painted Up!

While it has taken me some time, I've finally finished most of my Jordanian Infantry miniatures to go along with the pdf I put up a few months back. I've finished with the HQ platoon, two infantry platoons, a mortar platoon, a 17 pdr platoon, half of a 25 pdr platoon and a M48 tank platoon. The miniatures are all by Battlefront with slight modifications in some instances. The Jordanian uniforms and vehicle paint schemes are relatively simple but I found that I really like how everything has turned out so far!

First are may M48 Patton tanks from the 40th Armored Brigade. As I mentioned in a previous post I modified the command cupola of these tanks to make them like their historical Jordanian counterparts.

Now add in my favorites! Jordanian Recoilless Anti Tank Jeeps!
The little guys started out as British Airborne Jeeps that I cut out the back of and added the 106mm Recoilless Rifle from the BF plastic M113 box (that box set has been very helpful in converting a Jordanian force). I just love how they turned out.

Following the AT jeeps are more conventional Jordanian Anti Tank assets. The old British 17-pounder.

Also more WWII British surplus, 25 pdr Artillery!

Then my Infantry! One platoon is BF's Meshah Meykaneykeyh Platoon and the other is a WWII Commonwealth platoon I slightly modified. Both turned out great but I would love to see a Jordanian platoon with M1 Garands and Carbines.

Next up I will be filling out the 25 pdr platoon and adding another M48 platoon, then maybe an Anti aircraft platoon. Thanks for reading such a long post!

Fate of a Nation Batrep, Ishermania!

I have been feeling guilty about all my M51 Ishermans just sitting around, not killing enemy tanks. So I was happy to get them on the table for some fun 105mm action!

My opponent was Dustin with Egyptian armor in a free for all.

We settled on 1750 points so we could get a ton of tanks on the board.
My Israeli list was this;

P'lugah Tan'kim Tank Company	Israeli AIW
Tank Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
P'lugah Tan'kim HQ  p.3	1	M51 Isherman	100
Combat Platoons
Tan'kim Platoon  p.4	4	M51 Isherman	365
Tan'kim Platoon  p.4	4	M51 Isherman	365
Tan'kim Platoon  p.4	4	M51 Isherman	365
Tan'kim Platoon  p.4	2	Magach 2	310
Support Platoons
Ch'ir Mamochan (Motorised) Platoon  p.6	1 5 6 1 1 1	Cmd FN FAL team M3 A half-track FN FAL team FN MAG LMG team Light Mortar team Blindicide team	250
Company Points:			1755

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Fate of a Nation booklet

And Dustin's force was;

Kuteybh Debabh Tank Battalion	UAR AIW
Tank Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Kuteybh Debabh HQ  p.13	1	T-54 or T-55 with Stabiliser and Searchlight	65
Combat Platoons
Debabh (Tank) Company  p.14	10	T-54 or T-55 with Stabiliser and Searchlight	545
Debabh (Tank) Company  p.14	5	T-54 or T-55 with Stabiliser and Searchlight	335
Debabh (Tank) Company  p.14	6	IS-3M	280
Weapons Platoon
Debabh Air Defence Company  p.15	2	ZSU-57-2	95
Support Platoons
Meshah Meykaneykeyh (Mechanised) Company  p.16	1 6 1 2	Cmd AK47 Assault Rifle team AK47 Assault Rifle team Blindicide team B-10 82mm recoilless gun	130
Scout Company  p.17	1 6	BTR-50PK PT-76	150
Self-propelled Anti-tank Company  p.19	5	SU-100M	145
Company Points:			1745

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Fate of a Nation booklet

 Yes, I know I was five points over... I'm horrible like that, but we played anyway.

I deployed two M51 platoons on the left one on the right with infantry and M48's in the center.

Facing 8 Ishermans. All Dustin's tanks.

Hiding from the SU-100's for now.

That is a terrifying firing line!

Forward!

An abyssal turn of shooting for the Ishermans sees only one T-54 dead.

M51's on the right shift, leaving the infantry to hold off the SU-100's

It is up close and personal now!

Hunting for recon.

At this range Egyptian armor starts to burn.

Hiding in the trees?

The PT-76's managed to penetrate the M51's armor twice... but failed firepower.

The surviving T-54's are now stationary.

They knock out a entire platoon of M51s! And the IS-3's nab a Patton.

But retribution is severe.

One of the last IS-3's knocks out one last Sherman.

Before being silenced.

The SU-100's moved over too late with the AA, but had taken out two Shermans on the right.

The recon had lived a charmed life and got right on top of the remaining Shermans before being knocked out.

Dustin had lost 4 of 7 platoons and also his commander so his force broke.

It was a fun quick game, with the outcome really in doubt the whole time, despite all the knocked out Egyptian tanks. I lost 7 out of 13 M51 Ishermans and 1 of my 2 Pattons.

Jordanian M48 Pattons modified (FOW)

Here are the first Jordanian tanks to go along with my infantry, pictures of the infantry coming soon.

Jordanian M48 Pattons

Two Jordanian M48 Patton tanks!

I did some small modifications to my 15mm Flames of War Jordanian tanks, the main one being the cupola. As you can see in the below picture, the Jordanian M48 Patton's during the Six Day War had the large cupola with the .50 removed and replaced with a more common hatch and .50 cal  anti-aircraft mount. This can be a very easy mod for you miniatures!

You can see the commanders .50 cal on the top hatch.

A still from a 1967 newsreel.

For my M48's, I installed one of the extra commanders cupola from my Battlefront plastic M113's.
Luckily my M113's for Vietnam were ACAVs and did not use the basic commanders cupola. I then used some old sherman hatches to close things up.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they are with my phone.

I now have US, Jordanian and two different kinds of Israeli M48's.

The M113 Cupola fit perfectly on the M48.

The fender decals from BF were to big and needed cut down...

40th Armoured Brigade.

Overall this was a very quick and easy modification to the Battlefront M48 using extra cupolas from the Battlefront plastic M113 box.

Jordanian Infantry List for Six Day War (FOW)

A Jordanian M48 Patton. Note: Jordanian M48s did not have the .50 cal cupola.

Alright, I have finished the minor edits to the Jordanian Infantry Lists for Flames of War, Arab-Israeli Wars, Six Day War, 1967. I've added 40mm Bofors to the infantry companies, fortifications and an additional M42 Duster to the Mechanized Infantry's AA platoon.

As with my prior lists, this is completely unofficial and just for fun.

So just to cover the high points;

• I have taken the Taa'a rule out for Jordanian vehicles and increased their points. I don't know if this will have a dramatic effect on a tank company list but as support in an infantry company the extra mobility should help them, with the enemy worrying with AT guns, artillery and infantry.

Jordanian 106mm jeeps damaged six and knocked out two Israeli Sherman during the attack on Government House. But lost all three jeeps in return.

• The Recoilless Rifle jeeps in the AT platoon just have a 5+ save not a 3+, so that means they are vulnerable to... well anything really. But their life expectancy after firing was low historically unless they shot and ran, that is why they have the Tip and Run rule. They can be very effective but must be used carefully.

• The recon platoons came about after scouring all information about the Six Day War I could find, they may not be entirely accurate but I feel much better about their composition that I did previously.

• The Infantry companies are a conglomeration of Jordanian Infantry Brigades defending Jerusalem and those defending north of the city. The forces in the city lacked most support platoons but had plenty of additional infantry anti tank weapons. While others outside the city were often supported by tanks from the Independent Armored Battalions. I encourage the use of M47 Pattons to support Infantry list and M48 Pattons to support Mechanized Infantry lists. The Centurions are in there as well but their Battalion, the 10th, simply abandoned their tanks an ran without engaging the Israelis on the last day of the conflict.

• Two things are not in the list that I'm still considering. There are no 6 pdr AT guns and no separate machine gun platoons. If you have any information about whether or not these were used in the Six Day War please let me know.

But that is enough from me. Click HERE to download the pdf for Jordanian Infantry for FOW.

Please let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Upcoming Jordanian Infantry Lists (FOW)

I have been away for a while, and I would love to say that I have a great deal of new content to add from that time... false. My gaming continues to fall to record low levels. However I've been doing a good bit of painting, so maybe there is a silver lining. 

But more importantly I have been researching and reading up on the Six Day War recently. I hungrily read through all sources I could find before releasing my AIW lists last year, but since then have found much more out about the combatants. This has prompted me to put together lists for the forces left out of Fate of a Nation, namely the infantry. Israeli infantry was certainly what I wanted to do the most but someone else really needed some love...

Jordanian support inbound!

 
The Jordanian armored list in Fate of a Nation is really not capable of taking on any of the other lists in the book in any competitive way. But instead of re-working it I have created a pdf list for Jordanian Infantry and Jordanian Mechanized Infantry with all the necessary support. While I have found a ton more information there are still some hypotheticals since information on Jordanian company level equipment and organization is proving elusive. Just like the lists I released last year I really want feedback on what works and what doesn't and if you would share with me any info you may have about the lists please do, I don't mind being wrong.

So hopefully later this week I will have the Jordanian Infantry pdf up on the blog, which will be followed by Israel, Egypt and Syria. I am currently finishing up the fortification and then I will load it up. So then play games, tweek the lists, and adapt them however you want to your local gaming groups, because if you have WWII British you should have 80% of the miniatures you need to start playing. Or be like me and start them from scratch, I'm currently painting up three platoons of Jordanian infantry!

Notice the Charioteer Tank in the background, they didn't use them in 67'.

Stay tuned! Next up will be the pdf list for Jordanian Infantry in 1967.

Mid War Desert Pincer (FOW)

Flames of War has seriously dropped off in Auburn this year.
I'm having trouble putting my finger on the exact reason, but I think most everybody has real life stuff coming up. I've been dating someone who doesn't really get the whole "toy soldiers" thing... and my arch nemesis Rob has a new grand baby, Mathew's heading off to college and Matt is flying all over the place. So we have hit a historic low for Flames of War games in the shop since we started playing FOW way back in 2004. It's kinda made me sad...

But that being said we did get a Mid War desert battle in a few weeks ago! Joel and Mathew brought out their British and I put down the Afrika Korp. Early on I thought it would be a tough match up with my force containing Panzer III with the short 5cm and Panzer IV's with the short 7.5cm gun, while Mathews force was later with Shermans and Crusader III's. However with the mission being pincer and me being the attacker, I was able to move up aggressively and funnel his reinforcements, taking on each piecemeal.

The 21st Panzer Division rushing to escape encirclement.

Two Platoons of Shermans and the HQ forming the initial British force.

Such a hodgepodge of different tanks.

But with a few Mark IV "Specials"

A frightening sight in North Africa.

Using the buildings to protect their flanks.

The RAF shows up to bail a Mark IV.

A Crusader III platoon comes on from the left flank.

As does the second.

I had moved up my 5cm AT guns to prevent his reserves from coming in on my right.

Neither side wanted to get in a melee in the village.

The Germans finally pushed hard for the objective, taking out a Sherman platoon.

We used the Mark IV shorts and then the AT guns to hold off the reinforcements.

Mathew was then forced to bring on his last reserve platoon on the right to try to contest, they whiffed their shots.

The AT guns knocked them out and moved to support the center.

And that is how it ended. The 21st had cleared an escape route through British lines!