Fate of the Nation Israeli Forces

By Eric "Tarzan" Lauterbach

 With the newly expanded book Fate of a Nation, gone are days of loading up on IShermans to crush Jordanian and Egyptian forces without breaking a sweat. Now its going to be harder, but I love a challenge.  Smacking the opponent so hard with special rules and under-costed tanks that they never want to play again doesn't do anyone any good. Your force will be sitting in the box with no one to play.  The good news is Battlefront has adjusted the balance to what looks like a way more playable game. So what are the new challenges to the Israeli armies? Lets get into it!

Magach 3 big winners in the new book.

First lets look at the new additions and changes to the Israeli force. All the super special national rules are there and unchanged, so that is good. The tank company can now have a two tank HQ instead of one, but its the tank costs that we need to look closer at. The Centurion and Magach prices stayed the same, the others went up. For example M51 ISherman went from 365 points for 4 of them to 470 points for 4 of them.  That is significant you will have to adjust your old ISherman force quite a bit. Not to worry you have some new forces for you to make up the difference.

Artillery choices were expanded with 155 and 25lb batteries, plus more 120mm mortar tracks. Added to the army list was anti-tank jeeps with 90mm or the better106mm recoilless guns ROF 1, AT16 Fp 2+ which is nice, and for a good price also. The Infantry choice added a fearless veteran parachute platoon to the list, BUT it also raised the cost of the mechanized platoon by 70 points! Ouch! It seems almost all the support choices went up the 120mm mortar platoon jumped up 60 points as well.  On the bright side of things you get some recon which was sorely needed.  Its fairly cheap at least 80 points for 4 recon jeeps.  They also expanded the recon jeeps further into a whole new force long range patrol company.  This force gets two tank slots, two AT Jeep slots and a fearless veteran rating so it might be a good alternative to the tank company since all the points went and you will be struggling with platoon count.

This awesome smoke option went up... DANG!

Expanded in the book is the Israeli mech company to three full platoons if necessary. This confident veteran force has two tank two AT jeep options and all the support the recon force has in addition it has a weapons platoon of LMGs and or 81mm mortars. The real question here is do want two or one of the 320 point mech platoons? If the answer is only one go with the recon force or the paratroop company.  Speaking of the paratroop company "P'lugah Tzanhaim" it has some nice options

These are some expensive dudes!

This go to force used to be 1500 points now it is 1835 points! OUCH!!!!

The parachute company looks really cool and I can't wait for figs that Battlefront sculpts for these guys.  A good solid battle for Jerusalem infantry fight will be a fun scenario game. Anyway these fearless veteran rock hard paras can get super expensive.  You have the option to add halftracks to the platoon and additional stands if you do this the platoon costs 455 points! Plus you must add halftracks to your support platoons. So I am not sure that is a good option unless you have a ton of infantry to dig out.

Even these AAA halftracks went up by a few points.

Sho't did not go up...yeah!!

With all the dug-in fortified infantry now available these guys might have to do some direct fire bunker busting!

So as a Israeli player where do you go now for your all around go to force? With the changes to the Arab armies you now have two very different problems. The old problem how do take down the tank horde and a new problem how do I dig out massive amounts of fortified dug-in infantry? Its clear to me the old go to force of IShermans no longer holds its value, they can't take a hit and you can't get the mass you used to.  I think the winner in the new book is the Magach 3 with its great AT 18 breakthrough gun and good front armor whatever you hit you will kill. Another big loser in the book is Israeli infantry.  With the price increase its value dropped.  I think the way to go in the future is load up on breakthrough guns and blow the dug-in infantry out instead of assaulting them, and hey that is just my style. Plus with the addition of recon now you can get the job done by lifting GtG.  So for my money I am playing Tank company of Magach 3 or a Recon company with Magach 3 and jeep AT for support.  At 1500 points its the only way to get firepower that can last and always kills plus breakthrough guns for removing that pesky fortified infantry. The real tough questions is what do I want for smoke? The 120mm went up so much a two gun battery of 155 seams pretty attractive.  I think this may be good option especially in over 1500 point games.

At any rate the new book has put new life into what was a dead genera of flames of war. I am looking forward to the new challenges and fun times gaming FotN Israeli forces. 

Tarzan out!