Fate Be Changed: New Units for Fate of a Nation

By Richard Steer

Over the last few months, Battlefront has released a series of free updates for a number of its games. Fate of a Nation, set in the Middle East in the 1960s and 70s, has now had its turn with a free expansion to the Egyptian and Jordanian lists.

This expansion, available as a PDF download and in the Forces of War list-building tool, is the first update to FOAN since its second edition was published in 2018. It brings in a number of the miniatures from Battlefront’s other games that were historically present in the theatre.

The Egyptians: SKOT and Shmel

The primary addition to the Egyptian forces is a Mech Battalion transported in the OT-64 SKOT. This APC will be familiar to Team Yankee players from the Czech, Polish, and Iraqi lists.

The battalion follows an identical structure to the BTR Mech Battalion, with two or three Mech Companies plus a range of supporting units.

The OT-64 Mech Company at full strength is 1-point cheaper than the BTR-60 Mech Company in the book. It has a much better Road Dash, but a worse Cross and one fewer MGs.

The second addition for the Egyptians is the 3M6 Shmel. This is a truck-mounted anti-tank missile team originally released for the Soviets in Flames of War in the Late War Leviathans expansion. It occupies two boxes in the support tree: one as an alternative to the Sagger Company, and a second of its own.

If you are playing open games, the Shmel isn’t a meaningful addition. Its weapon stats are all worse than the Sagger, and being mounted on an unarmoured tank team with a 5+ Save makes it painfully vulnerable to enemy fire.

In themed games set in 1967 that would exclude the Sagger, the 3M6 is a nice historical option. Players will, however, have to weigh up whether it’s worth it, given it is 1-point per team more expensive than the SU-100.

The Jordanians: Charioteers and Archers

Jordan has received two new formations. The first is an Armoured Squadron equipped with the British Charioteer tank – another import from Late-War Leviathans. You are paying about half the cost of a Centurion (20pdr) for a tank with the same main gun, but much faster and very lightly armored.

As with the other Jordanian tank companies, the Charioteer suffers from coming in British-style units of two or three tanks while being Hit On 3+. Its speed, firepower, and uniqueness does however make it look like a very interesting option.

The second new Jordanian formation is a Mechanised Company transported in Saracen APCs. The structure is identical to the existing M113-equipped Mechanised Company

The Saracen is worse in every way than the M113. It has less armor, worse mobility, and less firepower. The Mechanised Platoons are already so cheap that those drawbacks aren’t significant enough to translate into a reduction in cost.

The final change to the Jordanian list is an expanded Support tree that adds a very welcome reconnaissance option in the Saladin Armoured Car, and more anti-tank firepower with the Archer tank destroyer.

Reflections

It would be remiss of me to write about Fate of a Nation without pointing players towards the Miniature Ordnance Review blog, which has a number of posts containing tables that identify the equipment that was present in 1967 versus 1973, for  Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Syria. Alas, the blog has not been active for many years, so the equipment tables may never be updated with this new release. Battlefront has, however, included enough information in the background text that players should be able to create their own historical restrictions for the new units if they wish.

It is great to see some of Battlefront’s new releases finding their way into Fate of a Nation. Game-wise, it’s fair to say that a number of them aren’t particularly compelling options, but it’s always better to have more options, so refreshing the game with additional historical units as the models become available is an excellent move and I hope it continues.