"Iran-Iraq War reposts" Topic

Thought I'd get some extra mileage from the following Iran-Iraq War gaming image(s).

First one is a storage container for an Iranian Chieftain battalion, with a cross-attached infantry company, assuming American style org and training. It is organized for the typical 1-5 figure ratio rules, such as Spearpoint, etc.

Our campaign was only semi-historical, in that we assumed a better level of training and organization than was actually the case. So no purges by the new Iranian regime, etc.

The terrain sheet (re-used from my WW2 Western Desert) at its full extent looks like this. Normally it would be placed on my 7' by 8' table, either in its entirety, or folded in half. The "hills" are treated as abstractions, so they can either be treated as hills, minor defilade positions, or non-existent, depending on the particular battle.

What are the small turreted vehicles?

Fox armored cars. That's the cool thing about 3rd world semi-historical conflicts; you get this interesting mix of equipment.

So did the Iranians actually deploy Fox armored cars? When we first did Iran-Iraq in the 1980s, a number of my sources indicated that Iran had ordered these (which they had) and we assumed that they had been delivered (which they probably hadn't been). The new regime apparently cancelled most of the Shah's outstanding military equipment orders.

The models are from CinC, GHQ, and Heroics/Ros. I think the BTR-60s were Heroics/Ros for example, as were the jeeps, and Fox ACs.

I think the Iran-Iraq War has some interesting potential for some good games. This is especially true in the early stages of the war from what I recall, similar to the Korean War.

I know GHQ published a scenario that looked pretty interesting on one of these earlier battles featuring tanks and helicopters among other things. The kit for both sides is very interesting as well.

I just played an early war scenario of that war last night with 6 players, 3 to a side. I used 3mm Pico Armor figures and tried to model an actual battle: the Iraqi assault on the city of Shush early in the war.

It turned out pretty similar to the real battle. The Iranians had to retreat but not before dishing out some solid punishment especially to the Iraqi tanks.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the game.

One resource we have now, which wasn't there in the 80s, is terrain image databases like Google Maps / Streetview.

So when I read the following from "The Iran Iraq War" by Razoux (translated from the original French, apparently), we can sometimes see what the actual terrain looks like (in this area they seem to have removed some images since I last checked however).

…A single winding and plunging road connected Musiyan to the village of Naderi, on the banks of the Karkheh, cutting across a uniformly ochre, folded, and cracked arid landscape of high rocky plateaus with scattered dried-out wadis forming natural obstacles and sharp ridges, giving it a lunar aspect. The division chief (sic) had no choice but to put his brigades in single file along the road, led by a reconnaissance regiment charged with detecting obstacles and traps. In this configuration, the Iraqi tanks were particularly vulnerable to Cobra helicopter ambushes…