Having done nothing but lose to the UAR T-54/55 Hordes with my Israeli AMX-13 Tank Company since the release of "Fate of a Nation," I was eager to get in some games against my friend Charles' Jordanian force for something different.
Since the Jordanian Tank Co is an "Always Defend" force we wanted to see how well that special rule worked for them. So we randomly rolled up Pincer from the defensive missions.
My force was the same as I had in my last few Fate of a Nation AARs posted here on WWPD.net. I am adding new kit like M51 Shermans and Recoilless Rifle Jeeps to give me more options. But for this game I had to fight with what I had for models, though the point level, 2305 pts, made me drop my air support, one Blindicide Team and the Halftrack Transports for my Infantry.
My Israeli Roster
My Israeli Tank Fore
My CO and 2IC AMX-13 Tanks
My "Heavy Hitters" Sho't tanks
Charles has been working on his Jordanians for quite some time and has been able to build up an impressive force of M48s and support.
Charles' Jordanian Roster
Charles' Jordanian M48 Company
Note: Artillery is not shown as we use Off-Board Artillery Rules.
Charles' Command Tanks
Charles' new Jordanian Recoiless Rifle Jeeps
The workhorses of Charles' force, the M48s
We played in my game room using a fairly typical desert type board using mostly Battlefront Terrain. Charles, as the defender choose to defend on the side of the board that had a small town and where the opposite side's stream and constricting terrain would hamper my initial moves.
This show the board from the Jordanian defenders' side with objectives having already been placed.
DEPLOYMENT
With nine total platoons, Charles choose to start off with his three tank platoons on the board and his Recoilless Rifle Jeeps in ambush. Charles used the outskirts of the town to provide some cover for his Centurions and kept his M48s further back.
I deployed with an AMX-13 platoon on each flank and my Sho't tanks in the center. My infantry and mortars were also in the center. My AAA Halftracks would not have much use in battle so I placed them on my right as best as I could where the platoon leader could act as an observer for my Mortar Halftracks.
TURN 1
On turn one, I made a general advance of my line with the AMX-13's moving from my right to the center.
The first order of business in the shooting phase was for my mortars to lay in smoke on he Jordanian Centurions.
The only direct fire shots I had were from my Sho'ts against Charles' one Centurion that was not blocked by smoke. Despite having four shots, I was only able to achieve a "Bailed Out" on the Centurion.
In Charles' first turn, he decided to bring out his Recoilless Rifle Jeeps from ambush at shoot at my Sho'ts.
The Jordanian Recoilless Rifles and supporting fire from the Jordanian M48, who remounted from the "Bailed Out" resulted in two KO'd Sho't tanks. Ouch!!!! That's a HUGE part of my heavy hitters gone before I KO'd even one Jordanian tank.
The smoke that my mortars laid did help protect my AMX-13 on my left and kept their losses down to a single tanks.
TURN 2
On my second turn I continued the general advance with my Infantry over the center hill and my AXM-13 crowding into a gap in the hills. My two remaining Sho'ts remained stationary to take advantage of their reroll missed at long range ability.
I hoped my infantry would be able to take care of the Jordanian Recoilless Rifle Jeeps and my mortars again laid smoke onto the Jordanian Centurions in the town's edge to kick off the shooting phase.
My two Sho'ts KO'd a M48 from a platoon that Charles had brought up around the edge of the town.
The Infantry and AMX-13 manage to destroy all but one Jordanian Recoilless Rifle Jeep. No matter, I thought I could deal with that last jeep in the Assault Phase.
The assault goes in but I failed to hit the last Jeep and Charles' wisely breaks off with the jeep. O well! At least my Infantry was able to consolidate forward and is now contesting the forward objective.
In Charles' second turn he had to bring that lone Jeep back out into the open to contest the objective so that I do not win on the upcoming turn three. The smoke my mortars laid continued to hamper Charles shooting. He manages to knock out three teams from my infantry platoon, but he did not KO any more Israeli tanks...especially any of the AMX-13 who were now very close. For some reason I did not get any photos of Charles' second turn and so can only provide the proceeding description.
TURN 3
My Infantry platoon failed to rally off the pin marker, so could only dig in. But at least it was contesting the forward objective.
My left AMX-13 platoon uses it's 16" move to get on the rear of Charles' M48 platoon while my second AMX-13 platoon moves up in the face of a lot of Jordanian gun tubes..praying that the mortars can yet again lay in a smoke screen.
On my right, my Sho'ts risk bogging down to get some hull down positions.
The shooting phase began with mortars laying in that same smoke screen for the third time.
My Sho'ts pick off another two M-48s giving my force it's first VP!
The left AMX-13 platoon nails two M-48s in he rear, causing the remaining tank to check morale...which it passes.
The right AMX platoon finally finishes off the last Recoilless Rifle Jeep. Victory point 2!
In Charles' turn three he gets in a reserve unit and brings in his last M-48 platoon to deal with the AMX-13's threatening his right.
Unfortunately, despite shooting five M-48s and my flimsy AMX-13, Charles only gets one hit...and that ends up just being a bailed out result. Elsewhere he does little better and so going into turn four I am looking to knock out just one more platoon to force a Jordanian morale check.
TURN 4
Now both AMX-13 platoons where zipping all through the town and set up for rear shots on both Charles M-48 platoon, that was down to just one tank, and the Centurion platoon.
Whiff!!! My second AMX-13 platoon totally missies its shots against the Centurions.
The first AMX-13 platoon does almost as bad...but does get one hot that finishes off a M-48 platoon. Victory point #3!!! And now Charles will have to start checking company morale with three destroyed platoons and just two one the table
My Sho'ts completely missed in turn four and the shooting ends with my Company Commander bailing out a Centurion with a flank shot.
But that was enough! Charles' Company Commander rolls up a "1" and the game ends 6-1 to my Israeli tanks for their first win in nearly three months of play!
Well it was great finally getting to see the AMX-13s race to get in flank/rear shots. This does not work so well against Egyptian tank units because if they lose a couple of tanks, they still have 7 or 8 left to shoot back. But against the Jordanians, losing a couple of tanks means making that unit morale check!
I have to say I was very lucky to get a 6-1 win. My smoke came in every turn just like I needed it two and really helped to let my AMX-13 get in close. I leaned that seemingly useless units like my AAA halftracks can be very useful, if nothing else calling in mortar fire so I don't have to use a tank command team for that task.
In our post game analysis, Charles felt that he needed should have had his infantry deployed to start with laid out as a line to keep my AMX-13s from getting on the flanks/rear of his tanks. So since this game was over pretty quick and we have the table and miniatures ready to go, we decided to "reset" the table and play the mission again.
To be continued........
Tom has been playing wargames since the late 70’s, and Flames of War since 2007. He maintains a gaming website www.battlevault.com for the BattleVault Gamers of Kentuckiana and posts and moderates WWPD as Iron-Tom.
