Fate of a Nation AAR Egyptian vs. Israelis in Breakthrough

by Tom Burgess

With the release of the “Version 4” Fate of a Nation, my friend Charles Christy and I were excited to get our Arab and Israeli forces back on the table. We went with 75 points for the points level because my entire Israeli force only comes out to 73 points in the new book!

My force was based around an AMX-13 company. This force has to be the worst Israeli formation. The AMX-13 is a flimsy tank that was retired after the 1967 war and has no business facing Charles’ 1973 force.

The worst part is that the formation only includes a maximum of three AMX-13 platoons and nothing else! Each platoon of four tanks coast only 8 points and the HQ just 4 points for two tanks. A full formation cost only 28 point total, but with front armor 4 it won’t take much to get this formation into poor spirits.

Fortunately, I was able to add in a full Sho’t tank platoon as a support choice. This would be crucial to give me some long range killing power and good armor. But I knew when this unit was gone, the rest of my force would fold quickly (no foreshadowing here!).

I also had a unit of three 120mm SP Mortars, a full Mechanized Infantry platoon, and finally tw0 M3 TCM-20 AA half-tracks. I also own an Ouragan Fighter model, but I forgot that it was in my plane collection so I did not add it to this list.

Charles was running a T-62 Battalion. 

He had a single T-62 as the Battalion HQ.  A unit of six and a unit of four T-62s. Five T-54s, two ZSU-23-4 AA vehicles, and a BMP-1 platoon with four BMP-1s, four AK-47 teams, and three RPG-7 teams.

The mission we rolled up with was breakthrough with Charles’ battalion attacking into my Israelis. I really had no choice other than to put mt Sho’ts into reserve due to their high cost.

I deployed my infantry on my left quadrant, as a temporary blocking potion. I intended, to have them fall back into the town to secure of the objectives very early in the game. My other AMX-13s and Mortar tracks did what the could to hide in limited terrain until the Sho’ts arrived and the Egyptian forces got close enough in to flank. I also threw out my half-tacks a bit far to keep the Egyptians from a dash to close to my infantry.

Charles’ plan was to push hard against my right, where his advance could be over-watched by BMP-1s if they could get up on some rocky high ground. He also initially sent one T-62 platoon to his right as a diversion, but it quickly rejoined his main effort.

Charles’ infantry, without much else to do, would dismount and move down a valley road towards the town. For his mandatory flanking unit, Charles’ sent is ZSU-23-4’s as a token effort.

On my second turn, my unit of AMX-13s came in from reserves. But there was still not much I could do with them yet. My remaining Sho’ts maneuvered for concealment behind the burning hulls the rest of the Sho’ts. They returned fire and managed to destroy another T-62.

Charles continued to push on since he had suffered few losses so far. He blitzed three of his BMP-1s on to the rocky hill on his left and passed three of four cross checks. I did manage to kill one BMP-1 with a long-range shot from and AMX-13.

The BMP-1s AT-3 Saggers and his massed 115mm cannons had no problem destroying my two remaining two Sho’ts. For all practical purposes, any chance of winning the game went down when my last two Sho’ts brewed up.

But we played on to see if I could at least get some victory points out of the game. Charles’ ZSU-23-4s did come out of reserve, but my 2IC AMX-13 was able to flex and destroy one of them. That force a check. The other one broke and retreated from the field.

One of my AMX-13 platoons made a desperate move to get some flank shots on the lead T-62s, but I could only achieve one hit out of four shots and even that one hit did not kill a T-62.

The plucky AMX-13s actually survived a round of return fire. The T-62s shot at the forward platoon and BMP-1s shot at the one on the hill, killing two AMX-13s.

With no chance to damage a T-62  from the front, all remaining AMX-13s rolled forward for flank shots. They managed a few kills but not enough to cause any last stand checks.

Charles was not going to let the AMX-13s get away with brazenly trying to flank him. His T-62s finally destroyed both AMX-13 platoons, leaving only one HQ AMX-13 on the board. This put my core formation into Poor Spirits and the game was over as a 8-1 Egyptian win.

This result was quite a shock.  In our earlier edition Fate of a Nation games, the Israelis were tough to beat. But the Egyptians, now being hit on a 3+ instead of a 2+, are much more viable. Additionally, the AT-3s are a game changer.

The Israelis need the benefit of both range and concealment to make up for their low numbers, but the AT-3 Saggers ignore the +1 to hit at long range and lose no effectiveness at those ranges due to their HEAT warheads.

I dread to think what the Egyptian Infantry with AT-3s is going to do. This game’s result has me quite concerned about the viability of Israeli tank forces in the new Fate of a Nation. More games are needed to be sure but….I’ve got a bad feeling about this!