M109 AL

This model (I can not call it a miniature) looks like a house. And as usual Mark did a great job of painting it up. Please Click to see his work.

This house has an armor rating of 0/0 in Rock the Casbah. What gives? Well it is a big box (like a Walmart) with a hull of 1.25" rolled aluminum armor. What gives? Well a M113 has between .47" and 1.5" of similar armor. And as it has a ratting of 0/0 without the TOGA armor I guess I can live with the ratting. I just don't know what Mark is going to say. I may need to put this on my short list to get from PicoArmor.

All images on this post are from Mark's blog.

Tanks for the Memories

Civil Wars are famous as come-as-you-are conflicts. You use what you can find in the local arsenal or what you are able to capture. If you are lucky to have the support of a major power, you can often get from them, what their armies do not want. These hand me downs are often too old for their reserves or militias.  Sometimes they may even not work.

This does not only apply to Lebanon, but the following list of what may be available to the different sides proves my point. I have broken these down by factions. In Myth Buster fashion, after the name I rate these vehicles as Confirmed, Plausible or Busted.

Confirmed means I have seen evidence that there were used. An example is the M113 used by Lebanese militias. There is lots of photographic evidence to prove they were used.

Plausible means I have seen evidence, but it is conflicting. The Charioteer is reported to have been used during the Civil War but I do not know if it lasted into the 1980s.

Busted is that the vehicles are reported to have been used in the conflict, but never used by anyone in the Middle East. I have seen the T10M reported to have been used by the Syrians against the IDF even though none were ever exported out of the Soviet Union. (The T10M is a great vehicle to have on a battlefield though. As I have a regiment of them in 3mm from PicoArmor.) 

IDF
Merkava I - Confirmed

Merkava II - Busted
M113 Zeldas  – Confirmed

M113 TOGAs - Confirmed
Magach - Confirmed
Shot w & wo skirts - Confirmed
NagmaShot - Plausible
M163A1 - Confirmed
M109AL - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
M-107 - Confirmed
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Confirmed
M3 Mk. B - Confirmed
M3 Mk. C - Plausible
M3 Mk. D - Plausible
M3 TCM-20 - Plausible

Syria
T-55 – Confirmed
T-62 - Confirmed
T-72 - Confirmed
BTR-50 - Confirmed

BTR-60 - Confirmed
BTR-152 - Confirmed
BMP-1 - Plausible

Zil 157 - Confirmed
Unimogs - Confirmed

Lebanese Militias
Charioteer - Plausible
Sherman - Plausible

AMX13 - Plausible
M41 - Plausible
M42 Dusters - Confirmed
AML 90 - Confirmed
V-150 Commando - Plausible
M113 - Confirmed
MUTT - Confirmed
T34/85 - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
Gun Trucks w/ZPU2 - Plausible
Gun Trucks w/ZPU4 - Plausible
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Plausible

South Lebanese Army

Sherman - Plausible

M50 – Plausible
M51 – Confirmed
M113 – Confirmed
MUTT - Confirmed
T34/85 - Confirmed
BM24 - Confirmed
M-151/MUTT - Confirmed
M3 Mk. A - Confirmed
M3 Mk. B - Plausible


This is a work in progress that will be updated often. Once done I will add in stats for Troops, Weapons & Tactics and I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! so they can be used with Rock the Casbah.

The picture of the Charioteer is from QRF. It is to cool of a tank for me not to have at least one of them. I look forward to having it for my militia.

Update Part III

Well this is my last post for the month of August and I am very pleased with the results so far. I started painting the figures for this campaign at the beginning of the month and as of tonight the IDF have a painted Nagma Shot and 115 figures. There are two PLO groups of 33 figures total including two heavy weapons and a BTR152. Even the Syrians have a commando team of 20 figures. Add in six painted buildings and it was a productive month.

Mark also has made a great deal of progress in painting his IDF (sorry Mark that I also painted them up as well) and his buildings look great. To see more here is his blog.

On the down side we have not made a lot of progress adding club members to the madness, but we have not given up on that.

We will be starting off September doing our first face-to-face game of Rock the Casbah. Battle report and pictures to follow.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Michelin Guide Anyone

In the rules supplement Rock the Casbah (RTC), there is an area called Michelin Guide Anyone. As I wanted a physical map for the campaign I header off to my local Barnes & Nobel. While there were no Lebanon maps I did find a Lonely Planet guidebook on the Middle East. It was a cute read with a nice size chapter on Lebanon with nice city maps. Their web site is also well designed.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/lebanon

I like the aerial views of the existing camps. This is a resource I am sure all sides would have loved to have had.

I ended up getting the map from my friends at Franklin Maps in King of Prussia. It is a fun store to wander through.

The map is 1:200,000 scale so it has most of the villages I need. Or at least I think so as the spellings are a little off. That is a problem I have had for as long as I have gamed this part of the world. With an interest going back to the 1916 Arab Revolt to Lebanon in 1982 every writer has his or her own take on spelling. It gives hope to this poor Catholic school speller.