From: Doug Murphy <dmurphy@WPPOST.DEPAUL.EDU>
Subject: Review: Fast Attack Boats: A Game of the Arab-Israeli
Naval War 1973 by Yanquito Publications 1980

Fast Attack Boats (FAB) was published as an "album" game by
Yanquito in early 1980.  The game is introductory level and
simulates the naval war between missile boats of the Arabs and
Israelis in the Yom Kippur War of Oct. 1973.  You get 8 pages of
rules, a player aid card, 179 counters (mostly Komars, Osas,
M43s, Saar-class boats, some IS DDs and various marks of Styx and
Gabriel missiles and torpedoes and the 12 by 24 inch mapboard
album.  There are two game formats: Battle games which are
tactical match ups between small squadrons and Strategic games:
IS vs. Syria & Eygpt fleets.

Boat units have an overhead view of the boat, number of missiles
carried & type, gunnery factor, range, movement factor, "ram"
factor and name.  The map is just blue water hexes.  Units are
p laced face up on the map edge with missile counters stacked on
top.

Both players choose fleets for the Battle game up to certain
point values. Battle game sequence of play: arab move / resolve
ram combat / Is move / resolve ram combat, resolve gun combat
simultaneously, arab missiles move, Is missiles move, missile
hits resolved.   As you can see, the game is pretty
straightforward.  Resolve combat on a CRT w/ columns for
appropriate missiles, gun factors.  Damage in %.  Once % reaches
100, boat sunk or can be immediately sunk.  Damaged boats move
slower and lost gunnery factors.  If you ram an enemy boat,
consult the ram column on the CRT w/ differences between ram
factors as drm.

Each boat fires guns individually at one target.  Missiles move
a certain number of hexes and range dependent on type.  Last boat
on the board wins.  There is no ECM except by what is built into
the CRT by misses. (in the real war, IS ECM made the historical
battles extremely one-sided. See also the latest issue of Command
for a nice article on the IS-Sy naval war.)

The Strategic Game is more interesting.  Generally, it consists
of a string of up to ten Battles.  Players deploy inverted units
(Arab first) on game charts which correspond to "rounds" which
are divided into "segments" and may include up to 2 battles. 
Boats may be shifted one round on the charts.  Boats finding
themselves in a certain segment of certain rounds are deployed
on the map for a Battle.  This allows IS to shift units between
Egypt and Syria.  There is a three player version which is most
fun as it doesn't allow Egy and Syr to easily  gang up on IS. 
This simple game is literally a blast: your boats zip around and
launch missiles at each other.  Missiles miss or zap some
unsuspecting target (tactical formations are important).  The
strategic game is most fun as it keeps you guessing on
deployments.  I created a chart to play the Arab side deployments
so I could game solitaire.

Doug (dmurphy@wppost.depaul.edu)