The Battle of Jerusalem, Paratroop Brigade 55 vs. Arab Legion

 By Eric Lauterbach

During the Cold Wars blizzard John Sulek, Allen Smith, Jim Best and James Best played a battle of Jerusalem game.  We had been wanting to do it for some time and now that John Sulek's Israeli Paratroop force was done they needed their first outing.  What better way than a historical scenario about the Battle of Jerusalem?

Essentially, his force was two companies representing the various Paratroop battalions, with attached tank support. The Jordanians had 3 companies of Infantry scattered throughout the city and a strong fortified area representing Ammunition Hill. Like in the real battle, we started with a night attack by the paras, with the objectives being to take Ammunition Hill, The Old City, and Central Jerusalem. Almost immediately the fighting went ugly on Ammunition Hill with the Paras sneaking up in the dark and firing everything they had on the outer defenses.

Read More

AAR: Fate of Nation Israel & Jordan Pincer (2305pts) - Game 2

By Tom Burgess,

This AAR is for a reset/refight of a previous Fate of the Nation game published here on WWPD where my Israeli AMX-13 based tank company won 6-1 against my friend Charles' Jordanian Tank Company.  Charles felt like he needed his infantry deployed at the game start to form a screen so that my AMX-13 would not be able to get to the flanks and rear of his tanks so quickly. So we backed up the miniatures, redeployed and started all over again.

 We kept the board set up exactly the same and Charles chose to defend the same side. We did not even bother to reposition the objectives.

Read More

AAR: Fate of Nation Israel & Jordan Pincer (2305pts) - Game 1

By Tom Burgess

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

Read More

Fate of a Nation Jordanians

 By "Tarzan" Eric Lauterbach

At last!!  The New Fate of the Nation book is coming out!  My Jordanians are saved!!  I was about to dump them on eBay for a song... and not even a very good song.  I was ready to do this because, lets face it they were useless and unplayable. It was a huge exercise in frustration to play Jordanians vs the Israelis - it was not even a game. Because of this, they were banished to the bottom of the gaming closet not even fit to be a paper weight.

Now.. the new book has arrived and breathed new hope into my scrap army..can they be the "Jordanian Lions" I once hoped for?  Well they are certainly a lot better. So what were the major fixes for this army?  Death to dreaded "Taa"(Hen and Chicks) rule.  Now it is possible to move and shoot and have a decent chance of scoring a hit, which really unties your hands now you can at least dance a little vs the Israelis.  This fix was the most needed -  it is no fun when you can't shoot.

The next major change was the addition of the "Professional Traditions" rule, which is you may re-roll main gun misses when stationary at targets over 16" away. The Israeli player will now think twice about the long range duel with Jordanian armor.  Another rule that tips the balance of power back to something reasonable is "Operation Tariq" which is Jordanian armor companies always defend.  I find this to be an interesting change and certainly will add more of challenge to the Israeli armor player.

Read More

Battle for the West Bank Isreali Vs Jordanian AAR

By Eric Lauterbach

Here we have another battle between Eric and John Sulek's Fate of the Nation Forces for Flames of War's new Arab Israeli line.  This time we decide to do 1700 points and the Mission is Hold the Line.  The Israelis will be defending this time so this should be different from our previous battles where the Jordanians just hide from long range tank shots.   It will be good to have the whole force of Jordanians on the table together. 

John's Israeli tank  force is only 5 platoons, pretty rough in a half on half off scenario like Hold the Line. 

Army lists courtesy of  EasyArmy.com

Here's my Jordanian Confident Trained Patton list. 

Read More

Battle Report Israelis vs. Jordanians Counterattack

By Eric Lauterbach

On a snowy day, John Sulek and I were able to get a couple of games in playing 1700 points of Fate of the Nation Jordanians and Israelis.  Today we rolled the random mission Counter attack.  I was Jordanian and John was Israeli. He won the roll off and got to be the attacker.

Ugh.... this not good - defending if you are a tank company - its either two platoons of tanks or strip away the M113 and add the Artillery platoon and I still get one tank platoon.  Seamed like the better option. I could really be overwhelmed and killed before I get much on the table even if the objectives do not go hot until turn six. 







The Lists:

John's Israeli Tank Company.

Courtesy of Easy Army

My Jordanian Tank Company

The Table:

The West Bank is green and populated - its not the desert the Sinai is.

Read More

Review: Battlefront M42 Duster (AJO161)

by Eric Lauterbach

AJO161 Jordanian M42 Duster

The Battlefront Jordanian M42 Duster AJO161  is an essential piece of kit for anyone building a Jordanian army. Developed and produced in the 50s by the US Army as a mobile AAA platform it was soon found in many countries around the world. The US Army had almost phased the vehicle out by 1963 but the Vietnam War revived the Duster and several battalions were reactivated. As a low level AAA platform the Duster served well in the Jordanian Army as well since most of their Air Force was wiped out in the first day. I had purchased a couple of Dusters for my US forces in Vietnam pack VUS161 and had not put them together yet so the Jordanian was my first go at it.

Read More

WWPD game day Fate Of The Nation battle!

By Eric Lauterbach

For the last battle of the day at WWPD game day last December we decided on a Fate of the Nation battle from Flames of War with what we could scrap up.   So far it had been pretty good day at Game Vault. Lots of fun, and this looked like a perfect way to cap it off.  Myself and Chris Jacques took the Jordanians and John Desch and John Sulek played Sulek's Israelis in a 1750 point team game.  We randomly rolled the mission and came up with Hasty Attack.  After the roll off it turned out the Jordanians would be defending with the Israelis attacking.    

My Jordanian Company Commander and his quick get away car! Looks at watch...uuhhh I got a meeting back at Division let me know how it turns out.

The Lists:

Eric and Chris' defending Jordanians:

Lists provided by Easy Army. 

Jon and John's attacking Israelis.

One objective in the town guarded by the Jordanian Mech platoon. The other you can see a piece of it on the bottom hill

Read More