The Yehudia Stopline, Golan Heights, 1973
14th May 2026, 11 Comments
Modern Wars, Rapid Fire Reloaded! Able Archer , 10mm
I rarely get my Arab-Israeli kit out, and since the conflict in Gaza flared up, I felt it inappropriate to game anything involving a middle-eastern war. Still, Chris wanted to give the period a go, and so we ran this, more as an exercise in rules- learning than anything else. I hadn’t used Able Archer – the Cold War version of Rapid Fire Reloaded! yet, so scruples or not, we decided to go for it. In this, I played the beleaguered Israelis, and Chris led the Syrians. 
The game was set on Sunday 7 October 1973 – Day 2 of the Yom Kippur War, when the 5th and 9th Syrian Divisions had broken through Barak’s 188th Armd. Brigade defending the Southern Golan, and, backed by tanks form the 1st Syrian Armoured Div., were heading towards the bridges over the River Jordan leading into Israeli Galilee. This particular armoured battlegroup of the 5th Division were now just six miles from or the critical Arik Bridge.
A company of Barak’s Centurion Sh’ot tanks and a jeep recon coy. were left holding the last ‘Stop Line’ before the bridge, just to the east of the settlement of Yehudia, using ‘Concealed Markers (above). Lumbering up from the bridge though, were Israeli reserves – elements of Ran’s 17th Bde., spearheaded by two companies of Isherman tanks. Barreling towards them, though, were two Syrian tank battalions, plus mechanised infantry.
First blood went to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Chris’ Syrians led with their recon elements, and in the southern wadi an Israeli jeep crew armed with a 106mm recoilless rifle brewed up a PT-76 light tank. At this point I must thank Tim King, of the Able Archer Facebook group, who kindly figured out all the stats I needed for the game. This though, meant revealing the firing Israeli units hidden by the ‘Concealed Markers’. – which invited retribution! 
The firers included a Centurion on the hill to the north, when it blew up a T-55, and another at the little knoll midway between the hill and the wadi, which managed to miss the leading T-55 in an ever-growing column of Syrian tanks heading down the main road. One whole Syrian tank battalion of seven tanks (one model tank represents five real ones) fired – and missed – the Centurion on the knoll, while the other did the same with the one on the hill! 
Chris’ die-rolling would improved dramatically, but not before the 47th Tank bttn. facing the hill all missed the Centurion up there for the second time! In his defence though, a hull-down tank on a rocky hill isn’t the easiest of targets. However, Chris’ second puny recon PT-76 had worked around the base of the hill, and fired a flank shot. For once Chris rolled a six to hit, and a second one to kill…and the mighty Israeli Sh’ot tank was finally knocked out!
After that the 46th Tank bttn. facing the knoll rolled forward from the road, and headed for the knoll. Although moving, Chris’ T-55’s had a basic form of stabilised guns, so moving and firing was possible, albeit the Syrians suffered a negative modifier for doing it. So, this second Centurion eventually went down in a hail of 100mm shells, and only managed to damage two enemy tanks before being destroyed. 
Things weren’t looking too good at the Yehudia stop line, but at that moment the first of Col. Ran’s 17th Reserve Bde. began to appear on the western table edge, with the leading M-51 Ishermans taking up position behind stone walls to the south-west of the settlement. The second company headed for the wadi to the south-east, while a company of infantry decamped in Yehudia settlement itself. It looked like they’d arrived in the nick of time! 
By now the two Syrian tank brigades had formed what looked like a large armoured phalanx, and began slowly rumbling down the road leading towards Yehudia. In the process the last of the Barak Bde’s Centurions was damaged twice, and so was abandoned. With so many Syrian tanks shooting, survivability wasn’t great for the IDF tankers that morning! So, all that was left of these remnants of Barak’s Bde. was the elusive jeep recon unit.
Meanwhile, two companies of Ishermans had now fully deployed, and began shooting at the Syrian host. Better still, the battalion’s artillery OP team was ranging its heavy mortars in, while the brigade command post had now been set up, and the Forward Air Observer was busily whistling up a strike by IAF Phantoms. Of course, Chris’ own AOP was doing the same, so we could expect a Mig-21 to come in sight, bearing pyrotechnic gifts.
See – I get all Biblical when it comes to fighting in this theatre! By now though, Lt. Col. Ran Sarig’s ad-hog brigade headquarters had deployed behind Yehudia, That’s his command team above, with command tank and half-track, AA cover and a Centurion ARV. Most importantly though, the attached air and artillery observer were set up. That though, is here we had to leave the game – which we hope to pick up again soon, as it reaches the climax! 
That was a fun game. The range of the M40 series106mm RR really needs nerfing though. Halving it would be about right.
The other thing that was off was gun stabilisation. The stabilisation of the time was only really meant to keep the gun in the direction of the target so that fine adjustment could then be made at the short halt. Accurate (enough) firing on the move was only possible at very short ranges. It would not have cancelled out the accuracy degradation from movement at medium and long ranges.
That and we agreed artillery takes two moves to arrive. It really should be considerably longer than that (unless preregistered).
In the rules, it says:
‘Stabilized (s)
Advanced fire control systems on some western tanks have stabilized guns that can fire on the move without suffering the -1 to hit penalty from moving before or after it fires.
In other words, I accidentally waived the -1 penalty for your T-55s, as their stabilisation capability wasn’t up to NATO standard, which is why the Centurions get ‘(s)’ and the T-55’s dont.
The Centurion at that time did not have an advanced FCS (I don’t know if Israel ever fitted one to Centurion derivatives) – it didn’t even have an optical range-finder like US tanks, relying instead on a shorter ranged, but faster 0.50″ ranging machine gun and the flat trajectory of APDS. The stabilisation system was significantly better than that of the T-55, but you’ll still need to fire from the short halt to have a decent chance of hitting at medium or long range. The advantage was less fine adjustment was needed. At short range, you could fire on the move without much degradation. Think about it this way. Every time the range doubles, the apparent size of the target reduces by 75%. Stabilisation that would easily keep you on target against 3x1metre rectange at 200 metres would struggle against a 30x10cm rectangle simulating 2000 metres. Conversely, at 200 metres, the difference between the stabilisation systems of the Cent and T-55 would be moot. When I get Steel Beasts running on a decent games machine again you can try out moving gunnery on a (very well) simulated Sho’t.
We also need to fix the anti armour capabilities of the HMGs in game. The KPV will penetrate 32mm RHA at 0 degrees at 500 metres which is its practical range against an un-upgraded M113 from the front. The M113 had a maximun thickness of armour of 44mm of aluminium at 45 degrees. 45 degrees increases relative thickness by 1.41 so that’s 62.04mm, but aluminium has 1:3 the armour value as RHA, so 31mm RHA equivalent. Weirdly, the vehicle has slightly thicker upper side armour, albeit vertical, so there is not really any difference engaging from the side and only a small improvement to penetration from the rear arc.
As I recall we didn’t have any machine guns firing, did we? Even if we did, both sides had MMGs or VMGs (medium or vehicle-mounted), so it didn’t come into play. It sounds, though, that your KPV could easily take out one of the Israeli M3 halftracks.
And the M113 head on at 500 metres or less and from the side up to at least 1000.
One big problem I discovered with the Centurion in a Golan scenario was that you can’t spot fall of shot with APDS because it impacts before the dust thrown up by the muzzle blast has cleared. That made engagement at longer ranges very problematic.
I don’t normally cut and paste from AI, but this is what it comes up with from a question was “How good was the stabilisation system on the Centurion tank”:
The Centurion was the first mass-produced tank to feature a two-plane gun stabilization system (introduced on the Mk 3 in 1948). While revolutionary for its time, its accuracy on the move was low by modern standards.
The system was revolutionary but limited in the following ways:
On-the-Move Accuracy: The stabilizer could only keep the gun roughly aligned with the horizon over uneven terrain. Hitting a target accurately while the tank was actively moving and bouncing was highly difficult.
The “Short Halt” Tactic: Crews found the system was most accurate when employing a “short halt” tactic. The stabilizer ensured the gun remained relatively level so the gunner could fire instantly upon stopping, drastically speeding up engagement times compared to non-stabilized tanks.
Historical Comparison Tests: During operational trials against comparable 1950s armor, stabilized Centurion crews scored roughly 64% hit rates on nonstop, stabilized runs over a course, compared to 83% hit rates when halting to
The models were really beautiful and I loved your model and figure basing technique.
I’ve been doing this for a wee while, Chris!