Fate Of A Nation - Book Review and Spoilers

Hello All

This weekend at Colours I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latest Wargames Illustrated with the Six
Days War briefing book. So I thought I would do a little review with a few spoilers for everyone.

First Impressions

The Book seems small, it's only 28 pages cover to cover but this is all lists as all the background text is in the Wargames Illustrated. The book looks gorgeous with lots of great pictures of the three forces in the book. I have to say at this point these look like some of the best painted models in any of the Battlefront books, I have to guess this was a labour of love for the painters.

Background

So for this review I'm going to include the Wargames Illustrated article as they are part of the "book" really and if this had been a full book I think they would have been in there. You have the History of the Arab-Israeli Wars from 1948 to the end of the Six Day War, a look at the Tanks of the Six Day War., a good painting article for all three forces and finally a look at the battlefields of the Six Days War with terrain ideas and mission ideas.

Overall a great selection with everything you need to know about the forces involved and how to get them to the table top. It's you quality you'd expect from a Battlefront book with the high standards they have set over the post few years.

So the lists and the spoilers!

Israeli Forces

• All Israeli troops are Confident Veterans
• The National rules are War of Survival, re-roll Platoon and Company Morale Checks.
• Few Against Many, which is Storm Trooper
• Every Soldier Is A Leader, which is Mission Tactics
• 24 Hour Battle, this allows the Israeli player to try and auto attack. You roll a dice, on a 6 you attack and it's at Dawn, on a 5 you attack and it's at Dusk and on a 1-4 your roll for the attacker as normal.
• All Israeli Tanks get Semi Indirect Fire and can have searchlights.
• Israeli Artillery has the US Artillery rules, Excellent Communications and Under Command, so Platoon Commanders and the 2IC can call in artillery bombardments.
• Israeli Motorised Infantry have Mounted Assault which is the same as the German Version.
• They get 8 different types of tanks, with 2 types of Centurion, 2 types of Patton's, 3 different types of Sherman and the AMX. The main difference between the tanks is the anti tank values go up normally to AT 18!
• The Mortar half tracks have Heavy Mortars in them! So Firepower 3+ and smoke, but do lose the direct fire stat which is what I mostly use them for with my US Tanks.
• The Israeli Motorised Infantry platoon looks a lot like a US Armoured Rifle Platoon, except with only one Bazooka and have FN FAL rifles which work like US Riles except all FN FAL teams are Tank Assault 4!
• Artillery options are either 25 pounders or Priests which are the same as the WW2 versions.
• The last platoon option is Anti Air which are US M3's which again are the same as the WW2 Versions.
• Finally you can have Airsupport, either Limited or Priority. This has quite a few special rules.
• Operation Focus, Israeli player roll two dice for the number of planes picking the highest and succeed with fighter intercept on a 5+.
• Fast Movers, All fast moving Jets get a 5+ save against anti air fire.
• Tall Flight Stands, they can range in on a target 6"/15cm away instead of the normal 4"/10cm.
• Napalm, a 30pts upgrade. Uses the double width template with the narrow edge pointing towards the plane. Only hits on a 6, all non Fully Armoured Vehicles are automatically destroyed. All Fully Armoured Vehicles are bailed out on a 5+ if hit.  

United Arab Republic

• All the troops are Confident Conscripts
• The National Rules are, Alaman which is a skill roll to move in the shooting phase like Hassar or Avanti.
• Jabri, If you fail a platoon or company moral test you roll again and on a 5+ the test is past but the command team or the highest ranking team involved in the test is removed from the table.
• Centralised Control, platoons are companies and companies are battalions, same are the Soviet rules.
• Quality of Quantity, same as the Soviet version, infantry with 15 or more infantry or gun teams need 10 hits to be pinned.
• Taa'a, this is Hen and Chicks.
• The tank company has 3 options for tanks, either the T-34 (same as the Nam version), T-54-55 (again same as the Nam version) and the IS-3. All the Platoons can have up to 10 tanks.
• The IS-3 armour is 12-10-2, has a RoF 1 gun with AT 15 and Breakthrough Gun and is a Slow Tank.
• You can have 2 ZSU-57 Anti Air Guns which again are the same as the Nam versions.
• Mechanised Infantry platoons (Arab Companies) can have up to 19 AK47 stands, 3 Blindside Teams (a super Bazooka), 2 LMGs and 2 B-10 82mm guns.
• Scout platoon, is not recon but has the Spearhead rule. The platoon can have a mix of infantry and Light Tanks with up to 6 PT-76, 4 BTR-50 PK and 3 AK47 Stands.
• The Artillery Battalion! Yes I mean Battalion! You can have up to 18 guns in the Battalion for less that 350pts! They are Confident Conscripts but with that main guns you have to hit something right! The guns are with the WW2 Soviet 122mm or 152mm artillery so it's either AT 4 FP 3+ or AT 5 FP 2+ but no smoke.
• The last platoon is the Self-Propelled Anti Tank Company. This has up to 6 SU-100's which are AT 16 and have Semi Indirect Fire.
• The Air option is Sporadic MiG-17's, they have the Tall Flight Stand and FAst Movers rule as the Israelis do.

Jordanians

• All Jordanians are Confident Trained.
• Their national rules are, Taa'a, Alamam and Jabri as the United Arab Republic above.
• Jordanian Lions, which is British Bull Dog.
• The two tank options for the Jordanians are the Centurion and Patton
• The anti air platoon is the M42 which is the same as the Nam version.
• The Mechanised infantry has 7 Rifle/MG stands, a Super Bazooka, a Light Mortar and 4 M113 APC.
• The artillery can have either 3 or 6 25 pounders which are the same as the WW2 versions.
• They have no air support.

Overall a very interesting group of lists. My first thoughts are the Israelis seem to have an advantage over the other two forces with their special rules and being veteran against two armies with Hen and Chicks, but without playing a game this is just first impressions. Things might be very different on the table top. Heres hoping this is the start of a process like Nam where we end up with a full book at some point in the future.

If you can to know anything I have missed from the above spoilers please feel free to message us and I will try my best to answer them for you.

Overall score

While the book is small it is free, I would have liked to have seen a few more lists in the book, maybe a Mechanised list for all the armies. But really this is Battlefront seeing if there is an interest in the period (also it wouldn't be too hard to work out a Mech list with the units in the book). I would give this effort 9 out of 10 as it's free but still crammed full of nice new stuff so I don't think you can really complain!

Now I have to try and resist doing a Jordanian army until I have finished my other projects.....

Thanks from reading

Ben