Broke Low: FOW Israeli Infantry vs Jordanian Fortified Company

Well today I had one of the wildest swings in a Flames of War game yet! Robert and I we able to get a game of FOW in using the new Fate of a Nation book. Rob picked a Jordanian fortified company and I brought out an Israeli mech infantry force, sans halftracks.

We settled on 1500 points, and boy do the points run out quick for the Israeli's.

My Confident Veteran Israeli force contained two platoons of Infantry, four AT jeeps, three 120 mortar halftracks, and four M51's a perfect 1500... or not. I used the points cost for the 90mm DEFA's instead of AT jeeps, I was 85 points short, oh well. I felt a little low on firepower, but wanted to stay somewhat close to historically accurate.

Robert's Confident Trained Jordanian force had two fortified infantry platoons, four 106mm recoilless nests (proxied by 17 pdrs), and two platoons of three M48 Pattons. He added a barbed wire entanglement to give him seven, to go along with his four minefields and two HMG bunkers. Rob also sold himself short as he should have had four more barbed wire entanglements.

We rolled for surrounded, with the Jordanians as defender. This made sense as the Jordanians were a fortified company, the were likely to be surrounded.

My main concern was to protect my tanks, and somehow knock out Rob's. Easier said than done as the M48 Pattons were more than a match for my thin skinned Shermans, and the terrain was pretty open on the short ends.

That is when I decided to attack at night, all Israeli companies can do. We rolled and I was attacking at Dusk!

Jordanian Infantry dug in and ready for a fight.

Patton's keeping watch.

The small village was heavily fortified.

17 pdr... or 106mm Recoilless backing up the infantry.

I deployed all AT on the north side of the village, with an infantry platoon.

I hoped to push the M51's along the table edge with the infantry, and have the jeeps watch the center.

The second platoon of M48's deployed from immediate ambush.

Another Israeli infantry platoon pushing up from the South with the mortars.

Get the cover!

The first term I pushed up both pincers, and the Ishermans knocked out a HMG nest. My mortars failed to range in a smoke bombardment on the Pattons... they would suffer for that soon. Rob's first turn saw a 106mm nest knock out a AT jeep, and Patton knock our a mortar halftrack. The distant Patton platoon shifted and took out a Isherman at maximum range, I'm down to three tanks.

On my next turn I pushed the M51's up to the minefield on the side an knocked out a 106mm nest, the AT jeeps also knocked out the nest that had taken one of their number the previous turn. I also took one shot at a M48 that had peeked out, Rob failed the armor save, but I rolled a 1 for firepower with the 105mm gun... just bailed. On the south side my infantry get to the two story building overlooking one of the objectives.

Rob fails to remount, but moves the other two Pattons up and bails a Isherman.

105mm HE takes care of a AT gun.

Jeep revenge!

Well, this seems nice.

Oh, hey look... those tanks sure are big.

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My Ishermans were lucky to survive as the far Patton platoon had threaded a few shots across the board as well. My one Isherman promptly remounted, and prepared to fire on the Pattons. Both infantry moved up and the mortars pinned the Jordanian infantry in the trenches, the AT Jeeps went to group in the palm trees, as they waited for targets. I took 5 shots at the Pattons right in front of the Ishermans and hit four times, one tank failed its armor save and died, but the commander rolled two 6's and saved... That platoon was not even below half! So I pushed my infantry up to assault the bailed Patton over the hill, however with the command tank firing with al its machine guns the assault was pinned.

In Roberts turn the bailed Patton remounted and moved over to take on the Ishermans. The distant Jordanian infantry platoon was moving over to support the first platoon on the objective. In the shooting phase the Pattons knocked out all of the Ishermans... no more tanks.

Not enough. Pattons are tough to kill.

The second Jordanian platoon and Patton platoon moving over to support.

Ready to get into the fight!

Well, I really thought it was over right here. Tank support gone, plenty of Jordanian infantry on the objective and soon to be five M48 tanks there as well. But Flames of War can always surprise you!

The pinned Isareli infantry on the north side unpinned and pushed over towards the objective. Follow Me!

I set up the assault on both the two Pattons and the Jordanian Infantry platoon. The mortars were able to pin the infantry, and in the best news of all, the three AT jeeps knocked out two of the pattons from the second platoon. The Jordanian tanks had moved into the open to finish off the Ishermans and three hits on the front followed by three rolls of 1 & 2 left two of them burning.

I then pushed into the assault, with little hope, Rob took fourteen shots of defensive fire... and... four hits! The assault made it through! I took out one of the tanks and three infantry, both Jordanian platoons counter attacked. They killed a few infantry teams, and the Israeli's counterattacked and knocked out the last Patton and a few more teams. Then once more the Jordanians came back in and knocked the Israeli's down to two stands and the CiC, but once again the Israeli's came back in and killed all but the Jordanian CiC, who backed off into the trenches.

The Israeli infantry had done it, and then they passed their morale check to stay around!

Somehow the Israeli's made it through.

A Patton burns.

The brave Jordanian infantry push in to support the tanks.

The battle if fierce!

The Jordanian CiC fights it out.

The victorious Israeli's consolidate into the trenches.

Then at the start of Roberts turn, night fell. His last remaining Patton stayed in fight and would attempt to hunt down the mortar halftracks for the rest of the game, with no success. The last Jordanian platoon moved up to contest the objective but was constantly pinned by the mortars, ranged in by the Israeli CiC.

The second Israeli platoon crossed the wire and moved into the trenches to support the first, then with the darkness, they assaulted the reduced Jordanian platoon and pushed them back.

With that the Israeli's took the objective and won the game, the vital crossroads was in Israeli hands!

What a fun FOW game.