Fate of Four Gamers – T’Egyptians

Today, Duncan and Fez bumbled through their thoughts and list for their Egyptians for the upcoming Fate of Four Games. Let the hobby insanity commence!

 

What drives a man to IS-3s?
Duncan – 1973 Egyptians

Fate of a Nation… what a book.

I’d played a little with the old Fate of a Nation so when we got access to the new version the pages were well-thumbed, to say the least. Last time around I had dabble with the Israelis but felt that the 1967 setting meant that the Egyptians and Syrians were pushing water uphill slightly; with the new Fate of a Nation, well, it’s game on!

Leafing through the new book there were a couple of things that really caught my eye and got the hobby mojo going. The inclusion of the 1973 units meant the inclusion of T-62s.

Egypt received around 200 T62s between 1971and 1973 and they were issued to the 15th and 25th Armoured Brigades. These modern tanks would form the spearhead of the Egyptians forces that crossed the Suez on the 6^th October 1973 and would be a match for anything that the Israeli army could put in the field.  This is reflected in game terms with the 115mm gun packing a might AT19 and armour 13 making the shooting of the older tanks still in Israeli service far less of a threat. The core of my force would be built around a T-62 Company but there would not be many of them…

To thrust on behind this tip of the spear I needed something to clear out and capture objectives. There are several strong options at the Egyptian disposal from the costly but effective BMP-1 mechanised forces through to defensively orientated Infantry Company with integral barbed wire defences. Having already decided that my force would have the cream of the armoured options I forwent taking the BMP-1s and opted instead for the Thunderbolt Battalion for my infantry… I mean come on – THUNDERBOLT BATTALION! High morale and skill mean that even without transports these troops can Blitz forward if needs be and still motivate to keep pushing on. Including an additional AT-3 Sagger and SA-7 Grail means that they are extremely self-sufficient.

The final main choice of note was taking a full platoon of IS-3s. I did toy with including some T-55s or bolstering the T-62s but there were a couple of things that swung it for me…

Firstly even in 1973, the IS-3 has decent protection – a testament to how advanced the Soviet tanks at the end of WW2 were! Secondly, it has a Brutal 122mm main gun. I really like to include some assets with the Brutal keyword in my force to dig out opposing infantry teams in conjunction with my own infantry. So the IS-3s will support the Thunderbolt Battalion, when and where possible. The third, and most important, consideration is they look really, really cool. I mean really cool; just look at how menacing that silhouette is!

So my 100pts for the Fate of Four Games challenge looks like this:

T-62 Battalion

• T-62 HQ
• 4 x T-62s
• 4 x T-62s
• 4 x ZSU 23-4 “Shilka”

Thunderbolt Company

• 9 x AK47 assault rifle teams
  6 x RPG-7 AT teams
  2 x AT-3 “Sagger” teams
  1 x SA-7 “Grail”

IS-3 Company

• 10 x IS-3

PT-76 Platoon

• 6 x PT-76

As you can see the core formation is very brittle but I’m hoping that I can use it as a mobile firebase to dissuade the Israelis from trying to go toe-to-toe with it whilst I jam the IS-3s and Thunderbolts straight at the most achievable objective. I’m very conscious of the Israeli airpower hence the investment in the better radar tracking AA in the form of the large Shilka platoon.

The PT-76 platoon is a bit of a roll of the dice – they are a bigger investment than their BRDM brethren but with 76mm guns, they can threaten then lighter Israeli armour.

So that is my “Elite Egyptians” constructive criticism welcome – I think it is going to be a fun army to collect and paint and will prove a different challenge on the table top.

And so I will hand over to my fellow Egyptian commander…

IS3’s are OP – Real men drive T34’s

Fez – 1967 Egyptians

Thanks Duncan, Fez here – My Egyptian army is very much the other end of the hobby spectrum to Duncan’s. The tank museum in Bovington has an Egyptian SU-100 that was captured in the Suez campaign in the 50’s, and this must have been stuck into my hobby consciousness.

There is something about outdated kit being used in combat that strikes a cord, and when the new FoAN book landed, my eyes glazed over with possibilities when I reached the T34/85 formation. 31 tank hulls for a mere 31 points…

The T34/85 can’t hurt most Israeli MBT front armour, so it’ll be a headlong rush into the flanks, hoping that they don’t have enough shots to stop them all. Add the maximum 6 SU-100’s in support, and I only have 63 points left to spend.

With my first formation on the list, I knew I would need another one to make up some points! Aiming to make a pure ’67 list, I went for T54’s, 11 of them to be precise. I am so thankful they are plastic now….

So what does the list look like?

T-34 Battalion

• T34/85 HQ
• 10 x T34/85
• 10 x T34/85
• 10 x T34/85

T-54 Battalion

• T54 HQ
• 5 x T54
• 5 x T54

BTR-60 Mech Company

• 13 x AK-47 Teams
• 3 x Blindicide AT Teams
• 2 x PKM LMG
• 9 x BTR-60

SU-100 AT Company

• 6 x SU-100

ZSU-57-2 AA Company

• 4 x ZSU-57-2

Centurion Tank Company

• 4 x Centurion

Mig-17

• 2 x Mig-17 Fresco

Having so many tanks to paint for the challenge I threw in some Centurions to soak up some points, and give me some long range firepower (and some amazing models to paint, I love Centurions!).

The AA should help a little against those Jets; Shilkas would be better but they weren’t made yet. The BTR-60’s are cool little transports, I only realised quite how many teams they were after I had made the list, and they will give me something to hold objectives in my half of the board. The MiG-17’s would have probably been destroyed on the ground, but air support is a fun part of the game for me, so if I can have it I’ll try to have them in my games.

So that’s ’65 Armoured Fighting Vehicles, 18 Infantry Stands and two Aircraft to paint in three months….

I got this.

#PrayForFez