Battlefront Open Day: Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears

Battlefront Open Day:  Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears

Battlefront Open Day:
Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears
with Tim Harris
The Valley of Tears (Hebrew: עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא, Emek HaBakha) is the name given to an area in the Golan Heights after it became the site of a major battle in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, known as the Valley (or Vale) of Tears Battle, which was fought between 6 and 9 October. Although massively outnumbered, the Israeli forces managed to hold their positions and on the fourth day of the battle the Syrians withdrew, just as the Israeli defences were almost at the point of collapse.

Gareth and I felt that this would be a great demonstration table theme for the fast-approaching Open Day at Cleve Lodge on June 30th especially as we are also launching in June, so with that said we decided on which side we’d do, given that Gareth is a much quicker painter than me, it was decided that he’d best be the Syrians leaving the plucky and outnumbered Israelis for me.

We felt that we would reflect this battle by mainly having tanks on the table, as it would be easy for people to take control of separate tank platoons or fast planes on the day.

Although from what we can find out the Israeli 7th Brigade was wholly a Sho’t equipped Brigade, we decided it would be a shame not to show off the Magach 6 option on the new plastic M60 complete with gun mounted 0.50 cal and urdan cupola, it is also the tank for the upcoming Israeli Magach 6 Tank Company box set. The T-54 are again new plastics and come from the Syrian T-54 Tank company boxset that will be released once the book is on sale.

For the Syrians Gareth went with a T-54 Tank Division and was broken down into the following;

T-54 Tank Battalion
T-54 Tank Battalion HQ

T-54 HQ (x 1)

T-54 Tank Company 1
T-54 (x 9) 
T-54 Tank Company 2
T-54 (x 9)
Formation Support
T-62 Tank Battalion
T-62 (x 5)
ZSU-57-2 AA Company

ZSU-57 (x 4)

MIG-17 Fresco Fighter Flight
MIG-17 Fresco (x 6) 

For the Israelis Tim went with two tank formations. A Magach 6 Company and a Sho’t Company consisting of the following;

Magach 6 Tank Company
Magach 6 Tank Company HQ

Magach 6 HQ (x 2)

Magach 6 Platoon 1
Magach 6 (x 2) 
Magach 6 Platoon 2
Magach 6 (x 2)
Sho't Tank Company
Sho't Tank Company HQ

Sho't (x 1)

Sho't Tank Platoon 1
Sho't (x 2) 
Sho't Tank Platoon 2
Sho't (x 2)
Formation Support
Skyhawk Fighter Flight
Skyhawk (x 2)

The Israelis are heavily outnumbered, but it’ll be interesting to see how they fair in the game. Given that back in 1973 The Valley of Tears was a victory for them. The Syrians lost 500 plus vehicles with 260-300 of them being Tanks, The Israelis lost between 60-80 tanks.

See below for images of Gareth and I preparing.

Stay tuned for more updates in subsequent announcements!
~Tim

Battlefront Open Day:  Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears Battlefront Open Day:  Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears
Battlefront Open Day:  Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears Battlefront Open Day:  Emek HaBakha, The Valley of Tears


Last Updated On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 by Chris at Battlefront