Egyptian Forces in Fate of a Nation
by Tom Burgess
Usually, when I sign up to write a force review article I write about a force that I am playing. For Fate of a Nation, however, I’ve only played Israelis.
I usually am “that guy” who will build and play the “bad guys” when nobody else will.
When it came to building a force for Fate of a Nation I had to draw the line as I had no time to build and paint another horde army. I was also not very interested in the Arab armies because of how they played in the original (V3) release. But the in new Version 4-style (V4) Fate of a Nation, the Arab forces are much more interesting and I’m now excited to build an Egyptian force to oppose my current Israeli collection. Here’s why.
First off, the V4 approach to the new ruleset has allowed Fate of a Nation to represent units in a much-nuanced way. The United Arab Republic list for the Egyptians (in the V-3 Style Fate of a Nation) rated them as Confident Conscripts. This meant they were hit on a 2+. On open desert boards, that just did not seem like fun to me.
But in V4 Fate of a Nation, the Egyptians are hit on a 3+, while their poor training is represented more by their lower skill rating of 5+ instead of them being a virtual auto-hit.
The second reason that I really like the Egyptian is how the new book covers both the 1967 and 1973 wars. By doing so, the Egyptians have many more options and new kit. T-62s, BMP-1s, AT-3 Suitcase Saggers, Thunderbolt Battalions, etc. have added some exciting new dynamics. Honestly, I never really liked V3 Fate of a Nation as it really just felt to me like WW2 Flames of War in the desert, but with bigger tanks.
In contrast, I loved the various V3 Vietnam books because they all felt very distinctly different than V3 WW2 Flames of War. The addition of helicopters, Riverine Operation, Political Victory Points, and very different scenario options substantially changed the flavor from the WWII FOW. I like how this new V4 Fate of a Nation pushes into an early period of Team Yankee.
I do feel, however, the new Fate of a Nation book fell short by not helping players to delineate between forces that would be appropriate for 1967 or 1973. Some kit in the book would not be availed in both wars and its left up to the player to figure out how to build period appropriate forces. If one reads the “fluff” under each entry you’ll normally find the information you need to tell what belongs where, but none of that is actually specified in the list options.
The Egyptian Forces
The Egyptians have five tank force options (T-62 Battalion, T-54 Battalion, T-34 Battalion, IS-3 Battalion, and Centurion Battalion), two Mechanized force options (BMP-1 Battalion and BTR Battalion), and two infantry force options (Thunderbolt Special Forces Battalion and line Infantry Battalion).
Support options include three scout unit options (BTR-50PK, PT-76, and BRDM-2), four artillery unit options (Field Battery, Heavy Battery, 120mm Mortar Nests, and BM-21 Hail Rocket Launchers as well as an infantry observer option), two Ant-Tank Unit options (Su-100 and AT-3 Sagger), and air support from Mig-17 Frescos.
Let’s look deeper into the Egyptian Units offered in Fate of a Nation.
The Confident morale aspect from the old Fate of a Nation remains largely intact in the new book as Egyptian forces have 4+ Courage, 4+ Morale, and 4+ remount. In the Skill ratings, the Egyptian units are suitable low with a 5+ Skill rating, 5+ Assault rating, and a 4+ Counterattack. One very interesting note about V4 Fate of a Nation is that national rules are essentially completely removed. There is no Qadri (partial chance to reroll a morale check) and Mothabara (equivalent to V3 British Bulldog).
The Egyptian tank arsenal retains the T-54s, T-34s, IS-3, and Centurion 3 options from the V3 Fate of a Nation but now adds the T-62 as an option. The T-62 has the same armor as the T-54 (Front 13, Side, 9, Top 2). Both tanks have the same movement characteristics (Tactical 10″, 14″ Terrain Dash. 20″ Cross Country Dash, 24″ Road Dash, and 4+ Cross Checks).
The T-54 now has the HEAT special rule added but the T-62 does not. The T-62’s gun though is AT 19 compared to the AT 16 of the T-54. The T-62 also lacks the T-54’s copula mounted 12.7mm AAMG. I was surprised to see that the T-62’s 115mm gun did not get the Brutal special rule. Both tanks have Slow Firing special rules for their main guns. The T-62 is roughly half a point more expensive than the T-54. I see it as being a very popular option for facing the heavy Israeli tanks, but its less of an all-around tank than the T-54 I think.
Egyptian Tank Battalion force must take at least two but can take a third tank company. All of these must be of the same type of tank. A BTR-152 Company can still be taken as a formation unit in all the Egyptian Tank Battalions. The T-54 and T-62 Battalions can take BMP-1 or BTR -60 Company instead of the BTR-152s as fourth formation unit. The T-62 and T-55 battalions can also add a fifth formation unit of either ZSU-57-2’s or ZSU-233-4’s.
In the old V3 Fate of a Nation, mechanized infantry could only be taken as a “weapons slot” in the Tank Battalions. Now they can be fielded as Battalions on their own.
A BTR Battalion can take 2-3 BTR Companies, all of the same type, as formation units. They can also take a tank unit (T-55 or T-62), an AA unit (ZSU-57-2 or ZSU-23-4), an AT units (57mm ATG or AT-3 Sagger) and 82mm mortar nest unit as part of the formation.
The Mechanized BTR Infantry Company is organized the same in the new book as the old except that the number of Blindicide AT teams numbers increased. They can also add an AT-3 Team with BTR and SA-7 team with BTR. The two 82mm Recoilless Rifle teams can still be taken and now they get their own BTR when added. The BTR-60 joins the BTR-152 option from the previous book. The BTR-60 cost roughly one point more for every five vehicles.
The BTR-60 is better armed with a 14.5mm main gun and a COAX while the BTR-152 just has the 7.62 MG. They have the same movement characteristics (Tactical 10″, 10″ Terrain Dash, 18″ Cross Country Dash, 36″ Road Dash, and 4+ Cross Checks). They both have front armor 1 and top armor 0. The BTR-152 has a better side armor rating on 1 while the BTR-60 is a bit more thin-skinned at side armor 0.
The BMP-1 Mechanized Battalion formation is a new option in Fate of a Nation. It differs from the BTR Mech formations in that its infantry have RPG-7s instead of Blindicide AT. They are slightly smaller and they do not have the option to add 82mm Recoilless Rifles and ground mount AT-3 Saggers (since they are on the BMP-1s already).
The BMP-1 has the same stats as they do in Team Yankee. The BMP-1 companies can add an SA-7 team with its own BMP-1 though. The BMP-1 Battalion can take 2-3 BMP-1 Companies as formation units and can also take a T-55 or T-62 unit as part of the formation as well as a ZSU-23-4 AA unit. Unlike the BTR battalions, the BMP-1 Battalion cannot take the AT unit and 82mm mortar unit in the formation.
The last two formation options are both Infantry battalions. These come as normal Infantry battalions or as Thunderbolt battalion. The later of these is an elite special force organization that spearheads the crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 war. The elite battalions field two to threeThunderbolt companies and may add one BM-21 Hail Rocket Launcher unit as a fourth formation unit. The Thunderbolt troops have a better 3+ Courage and a better 4+ Skill than the line Egyptian units have. The companies have AK-47 teams, RPG-7 teams, and one AT-3 Saggar team. An SA-7 team and an addition AT-3 Sagger team can be added.
The line Egyptian Infantry battalion formation option in Fate of a Nation is meant to represent defensive organizations. The Infantry battalion must take two, and can only take, two infantry companies.
Other formations unit options include one 57mm AT gun nest unit, one 100mm AT gun nest unit, one 82mm Mortar nest unit, and one 120mm Mortar nest unit. In addition, the battalion can take one tank company (T-35, M4 Sherman, of FL10 Sherman) as a formation unit.
The line infantry companies are not nearly as well equipped as their mechanized and Thunderbolt counterparts. They have AK-47s and Blindicide AT as primary team types but each company can also add up to two 82mm Recoilless Rifles and one 12.7mm AAMG. They also come with three or four minefields and three or four wire obstacles for each company depending on the size of the company taken.
Support options were mentioned already in this article and largely remain the same as they were in the previous Fate of a Nation with a few notable changes. The first of these is in the old Fate of a Nation the Scout Company was a mixed unit with PT-76s and BTR-50PK mounted infantry.
These are now split into a separate PT-76 unit and a sperate BTR-50PK unit. Both units have the Spearhead special rule as does the BRDM-2 units giving the Egyptian forces some nice recon options.
Another change is that even though the Soviet WW2 mortars and artillery used by the Egyptians still don’t have a smoke bombardment option, the newly added BM-21 Hail Rocket Launchers do! One turn of smoke coverage can really help those T-54 and T-62s close in on defending Israelis.
In summary, the Egyptians are a much more interesting and more capable force than the United Arab Republic force in the older Fate of a Nation. My Israelis have already lost to them in a playtest game. If Battlefront was to release plastic infantry for the Egyptians with this new release, then I’d think I’d be all over doing some Egyptian Mechanized Infantry. These also could possibly also be used later as Iraqi units for the Iran-Iraq war and even Desert Storm using Team Yankee.