"Fate of a Nation - Battle for Tel Shams" Topic

I will be running this game at Games Plus Hobby, Mt Prospect, IL shop on 21st Sept. Start time is 7pm. Also will be running the game once more at RocCon in October on Friday.

Having been successful in stopping the Syrian attacks along the Golan Heights (1973) the IDF went over to the attack to regain lost ground and to get within heavy artillery range of Damascus. Tel Shams was a strongly defended position that took 4 attempts to finally take.

The game uses the Fate of a Nation rule set. It is open to 4 to 6 players.

How does Fate of a Nation balances Israeli numerical inferiority without making them too powerful?

I think they found a pretty good balance with the ruleset. So far in all the games we have played (5 so far) all the games have been competitive. I should say that I seldom if ever play missions from the ruleset. I tend more towards historical based scenarios. In the Tel Shams game we have run it twice and the IDF lost once, won the 2nd game.

Sounds interesting Lasalle. How are modeled the different military doctrines?

(I am reading the guns of Tamuz right now… so tempted by middle east gaming)

The way the different nations are organized and the differing skill level. The one major advantage that they took away from the IDF was their ability to score more hits at long rang. In the initial release IDF tank crews we able to re-roll misses at over 16inch range if they had not moved.

The games we have played so far have been very enjoyable. The game system is pretty well balanced. The major flaw in the book are errors in organization.

The rule system primarily covers the 1967 & 73 wars. For the Arab armies organization and models cover the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians.

Yes, long range shots seem very predominant from the accounts I am reading.

Another aspect that seems to emerge is tactical flexibility, meaning that platoon/company/battalion can be re-assembled, moved under another command or attached to a different HQ quite on the spot.

On the other hand, Arab armies look a bit more rigid and to follow soviet doctrine as pre-planned drills.

The IDF had some very effective gunnery training. They found that the trajectory of the APDS round fired from the Brit high-velocity gun used in virtually all their tanks is sufficiently flat that out to 1800 meters it is possible to merely point the gun at the target to score a hit. No rangefinding procedure is required. The use of visual estimation and knowledge of the terrain (very important on the Golan Heights) coupled with the ranging mgs, effective out to 1700 meters to 3000 meters. This reduced the time required to get off the first shot, critical in tank vs tank combat. Instead of target panels for training they shot at barrels, making them much faster and far more accurate.

There are many examples in the IDF of tactical flexibility at all levels, and even ad hoc units being formed from tanks being repaired and with replacement crews sent back into the fight.

You will also find that the IDF takes the same approach in their special forces units. They create many units to perform specific tasks or fill a need, and when no longer needed break up the unit and reassign personnel.

Syria and Egypt were organized along the lines of the soviets, however the Jordanians did not follow suit. They were organized along British lines. There were many British officers that served in the Jordan Legion at all levels as advisors. I forget the year they were expelled.

In the Syrian army literacy was very low, and the soviets were reluctant to translate all their material. Making battle drills very critical to success. The Syrians also did a lot of practice in these drills. Prior to 1973 they launch many local attacks on outposts. They only lasted a single day and came to be known in the IDF as Battle Days.

Is this new FOAN book compatible with FOW V4?

The new FOAN book is a complete rules set but aligned with V4 & Team Yankee. They have released the card decks as well.

Thanks. I will have to get it sometime soon.

Lasalle, do you need the cards to play?

You do need the cards, there is info on the back that you cannot really find in the book. They are very helpful in being able to play the game as well. The good news is they are not expensive.

"there is info on the back that you cannot really find in the book."
Awww, that is just evil!

Maybe so. The front of the cards are rather useful as well. Keeps you from having to look at the book for stats. What would have made the cards a bit more useful would have been if when they refer to a special rule they also had the page number of the rulebook listed to make it easier to look up.

I have some pictures of the playtest of the game on the Fate of A Nation facebook page.