Fast Attack Boats
Encyclopedia
Fast Attack Boats is a board game
simulating naval combat between Arab
and Israel
i missile boat
s during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War
. The game is an introductory level product with an emphasis on playability over historical accuracy.
Yaquinto Publications
in 1980
issued Fast Attack Boats as one in their series of "Album Games", which used the same jacket as a double vinyl record album, with the mapboard printed inside the jacket and game components stored in the two pockets.
In the Battle Game, players agree upon a common total number of points for each fleet and select naval units of varying point values until each fleet has reached its limit. All units are immediately deployed, Arab units forming a line on one side of the mapboard and Israeli units on the other. The rectangular shape of the mapboard, long missile ranges, and the requirement for boats to use their full movement value often lead the two opposing sides into simple head-on charges. The range, large quantity and high degree of destructiveness of the cruise missile
s also typically leaves the much shorter range guns and torpedoes to play a minimal role near the end of an engagement, and the confines of the mapboard limit boats trying to maneuver. Most battle games, therefore, are completed in 15–30 minutes or less and involve a significant degree of luck over skill. The winning player is the one with the last surviving boat on the mapboard.
The Strategic Game requires the use of all naval units, and divides the forces into three sides (Egypt
ian, Syria
n and Israeli). The Arab player divides up the Egyptian and Syrian fleets for five rounds of combat each, while the Israeli player must fight all ten engagements (5 rounds against each Arab power). There is provision for players to shift forces from one round to the next, but the Egyptian and Syrian fleets operate independently and may not combine, a restriction the Israeli player does not face. The movement and combat sequence of play is identical to the Battle Game. The Strategic Game is slightly more complex than the Battle Game and may require three or more hours to resolve, but is still predominantly a game of chance. The winner is the first player to reach six victories, or in the event of an even number of victories, the side that lost the fewest total points in the values of the eliminated boats.
The Arab fleet is composed of Komar
and Osa
boats armed with Styx missiles
and P4 torpedo boat
s. The Israeli fleet is made up of assorted Saar boats equipped with a mix of Gabriel
Mk1 and Mk2 missiles and torpedoes.
Alternative rules include allowing two persons to play the Arab fleets in the Strategic Game, thus creating a three-player game; permitting the Israeli player to move less than the full movement factor to reflect Israel's better trained crews; and making ramming more difficult.
The rulebook's "Brief Historical Summary" incorrectly characterizes the 1973 Arab-Israel War's naval encounters as "one of the most decisive and stunning victories by a weaker power in the history of sea warfare," and that if "the Arab powers had been able to gain control of the sea, they could have disrupted the flow of supplies to Israel, which could have meant disaster for the hard-pressed Israeli Army." While the Israeli Navy's performance was impressive, it was not one of naval history's stunning victories and had no effect on the ground campaigns in the Golan
or the Sinai where the conflict was decided. Moreover, while the United States
did begin resupplying Israel at the end of the first week of the war, these military supplies were sent via air, and even then arrived too late and in too few quantities to influence the outcome of the war. The legacy of the conflict instead lies in the debut of electronic countermeasures
in naval combat and the widespread use of cruise missiles.
The designer also takes liberties with the actual equipment and tactics both sides employed during the conflict. For example, Fast Attack Boats does not factor in Israel's highly effective electronic countermeasures that rendered the Arab Styx missiles largely useless, or the Syrian fleet's use of unwitting merchant ships
to hide behind from incoming Israeli Gabriel missiles. The rules do devote significant attention to ramming an opponents boat, although this tactic was not used in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and is generally not a feature of 20th century naval combat, but probably reflects the narrow confines of the mapboard and the near inevitability of the two fleets crossing one another's path during game play.
representing Egyptian, Israeli, and Syrian boats and missiles; a 12" by 24" hexagon-patterned abstract scale mapboard, two plastic bags, a game card each for the Arab and Israeli players, and a rulebook. The game requires but does not include two six-sided dice. Yaquinto Publications did not issue errata for Fast Attack Boats.
Development and Rules: S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
Production Coordination: J. Stephen Peek
Box Art: Charles Micah
Graphics: Yaquinto Printing Co.
Playtesters: Mayfair Wargamers, Bob Armstrong, Nolan Bond, Joel Breger, Chris Cornaghie, William Cutrer, Kevin Duke, John Ford, Dave Furguson, William Glankler, Frank Hernandez, Wayne Lanham, James McDonnel, Steve Peek, Mike Pellam, Cliff Pellam, George Petronis, Ed Safley, John Paul Snellen, and John White
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
simulating naval combat between Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i missile boat
Missile boat
A Missile Boat is a small craft armed with anti-ship missiles. Being a small craft, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming an inexpensive navy...
s during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
. The game is an introductory level product with an emphasis on playability over historical accuracy.
Yaquinto Publications
Yaquinto Publications
Yaquinto Publications was the wargame publishing arm of the Robert Yaquinto Printing Company of Dallas, Texas. In March 1979 Robert Yaquinto hired Steve Peek and Craig Taylor, both experienced wargame designers with several famous titles in their resumes...
in 1980
1980 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1980. For video and console games, see 1980 in video gaming.-Significant games-related events of 1980:...
issued Fast Attack Boats as one in their series of "Album Games", which used the same jacket as a double vinyl record album, with the mapboard printed inside the jacket and game components stored in the two pockets.
Game Play
Fast Attack Boats may be played to represent a single engagement under the "Battle Game" rules, or a series of up to ten engagements under the "Strategic Game" rules. The mechanics of both are identical with the exception of fleet selection and deployment.In the Battle Game, players agree upon a common total number of points for each fleet and select naval units of varying point values until each fleet has reached its limit. All units are immediately deployed, Arab units forming a line on one side of the mapboard and Israeli units on the other. The rectangular shape of the mapboard, long missile ranges, and the requirement for boats to use their full movement value often lead the two opposing sides into simple head-on charges. The range, large quantity and high degree of destructiveness of the cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
s also typically leaves the much shorter range guns and torpedoes to play a minimal role near the end of an engagement, and the confines of the mapboard limit boats trying to maneuver. Most battle games, therefore, are completed in 15–30 minutes or less and involve a significant degree of luck over skill. The winning player is the one with the last surviving boat on the mapboard.
The Strategic Game requires the use of all naval units, and divides the forces into three sides (Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n and Israeli). The Arab player divides up the Egyptian and Syrian fleets for five rounds of combat each, while the Israeli player must fight all ten engagements (5 rounds against each Arab power). There is provision for players to shift forces from one round to the next, but the Egyptian and Syrian fleets operate independently and may not combine, a restriction the Israeli player does not face. The movement and combat sequence of play is identical to the Battle Game. The Strategic Game is slightly more complex than the Battle Game and may require three or more hours to resolve, but is still predominantly a game of chance. The winner is the first player to reach six victories, or in the event of an even number of victories, the side that lost the fewest total points in the values of the eliminated boats.
The Arab fleet is composed of Komar
Komar class missile boat
The Soviet Project 183R class, more commonly known by its NATO reporting name Komar, is a class of missile boats, the first of its kind, built in the 1950s and 1960s. They also hold the distinction of being the first ships to sink another ship with anti-ship missiles.- Design :The Project 183 MTB...
and Osa
Osa class missile boat
The Project 205 Tsunami, more commonly known by their NATO reporting name Osa, are a class of missile boats developed for the Soviet Navy in the early 1960s. The Osas are probably the most numerous class of missile boats ever built, with over 400 vessels constructed for both the Soviet Navy and for...
boats armed with Styx missiles
P-15 Termit
The P-15 Termit is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was Styx or SS-N-2. In Russian service today it also seems to be called the Rubezh...
and P4 torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
s. The Israeli fleet is made up of assorted Saar boats equipped with a mix of Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
Mk1 and Mk2 missiles and torpedoes.
Alternative rules include allowing two persons to play the Arab fleets in the Strategic Game, thus creating a three-player game; permitting the Israeli player to move less than the full movement factor to reflect Israel's better trained crews; and making ramming more difficult.
Simulation Value
Fast Attack Boats admittedly does not attempt to replicate the lopsided naval engagements that took place during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, but instead is designed as a game that "captures the flavor of the actual events." Consequently, it does not simulate any particular naval exchange or geographic area, instead opting for generic open seas engagements with player-selected fleets.The rulebook's "Brief Historical Summary" incorrectly characterizes the 1973 Arab-Israel War's naval encounters as "one of the most decisive and stunning victories by a weaker power in the history of sea warfare," and that if "the Arab powers had been able to gain control of the sea, they could have disrupted the flow of supplies to Israel, which could have meant disaster for the hard-pressed Israeli Army." While the Israeli Navy's performance was impressive, it was not one of naval history's stunning victories and had no effect on the ground campaigns in the Golan
Golan
Golan was a biblical city in Land of Israel. It was in the territory of Manasseh in the Bashan.Golan was the most northerly of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River . Manasseh gave this city to the Gershonite Levites .According to the Bible, the Israelites conquered Golan from the...
or the Sinai where the conflict was decided. Moreover, while the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
did begin resupplying Israel at the end of the first week of the war, these military supplies were sent via air, and even then arrived too late and in too few quantities to influence the outcome of the war. The legacy of the conflict instead lies in the debut of electronic countermeasures
Electronic countermeasures
An electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...
in naval combat and the widespread use of cruise missiles.
The designer also takes liberties with the actual equipment and tactics both sides employed during the conflict. For example, Fast Attack Boats does not factor in Israel's highly effective electronic countermeasures that rendered the Arab Styx missiles largely useless, or the Syrian fleet's use of unwitting merchant ships
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
to hide behind from incoming Israeli Gabriel missiles. The rules do devote significant attention to ramming an opponents boat, although this tactic was not used in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and is generally not a feature of 20th century naval combat, but probably reflects the narrow confines of the mapboard and the near inevitability of the two fleets crossing one another's path during game play.
Components
179 die-cut countersCounter (board wargames)
Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...
representing Egyptian, Israeli, and Syrian boats and missiles; a 12" by 24" hexagon-patterned abstract scale mapboard, two plastic bags, a game card each for the Arab and Israeli players, and a rulebook. The game requires but does not include two six-sided dice. Yaquinto Publications did not issue errata for Fast Attack Boats.
Credits
Design and Research: Neil ZimmererDevelopment and Rules: S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
Production Coordination: J. Stephen Peek
Box Art: Charles Micah
Graphics: Yaquinto Printing Co.
Playtesters: Mayfair Wargamers, Bob Armstrong, Nolan Bond, Joel Breger, Chris Cornaghie, William Cutrer, Kevin Duke, John Ford, Dave Furguson, William Glankler, Frank Hernandez, Wayne Lanham, James McDonnel, Steve Peek, Mike Pellam, Cliff Pellam, George Petronis, Ed Safley, John Paul Snellen, and John White
Sources
- Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974, by Trevor N. DupuyTrevor N. DupuyTrevor Nevitt Dupuy was a Colonel, United States Army, retired, soldier and noted military historian.-Biography:Born in New York, the son of noted military historian, R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor followed in his father's footsteps. Trevor Dupuy attended West Point, graduating in the class of 1938....
, Harper and Row, New York, 1978 - A Survey of Arab-Israeli War Games, by Ian Chadwick, in Moves MagazineMoves (magazine)Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI , who also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics , was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games...
#55, February-March 1981 - Fast Attack Boats, by Don Lowry, in Campaign Magazine #102, March-April 1982
- Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-1991, by Kenneth M. Pollack, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2002