Cold War Commander Iran Iraq

[Westbury]

Inducted the 'Regulars' into 10mm Cold War Commander today with the 10mm Iran Iraq collection.
Encounter game between Iraqi 15th Mechanised (2 x Mechanised battalions and 1 x Armoured battalion) plus an Armoured battalion from the 26th Armoured and the Iranian 37th Armoured (2 x Armoured battalions and 1 x Mechanised battalion).
Iraqi armour was mainly T54/55s with a few T62s, Iranian armour was M60A1s and M48A5s, all the infantry had a ride. No artillery or air support was used.

[Westbury]

Initial deployments were a bit slow and disjointed and one of the Iranian armour commanders was particularly ineffective 
On the Iranian left the mechanised battalion sped for a large palm grove and debussed there and settled down to await targets which were obligingly supplied by one of the Iraqi mechanised battalions who lost several vehicle & infantry platoons to RPG fire. Ultimately the Iraqis withdrew and took up positions in a nearby town.
On the Iraqi left the other mechanised battalion advanced confidently supported by the additional armour. 

[Westbury]

When the Iranian armour had got it's act together in the centre it started to make it's superior quality tell. The Iraqi T54/55's suffered and the left flank mechanised battalion decided discretion was the better part of valour and reversed behind the burning armour and some hills - safe! Just to show off the M48's also lobbed some shells at the other Iraqi armour 

[Westbury]

Not wishing to be executed, the Iraqi armour on the right opened up on the palm grove and forced the Iranians to retreat with some losses and then decided that was enough for one day.
The Iraqi armour getting shot up by the Iranian armour bravely closed to get into range but it was a losing fight and when we called time they clearly weren't going to have much effect.

[Westbury]

People had places to be so we didn't get to complete the game but in terms of reaching the battlegroup breakpoint (the rules mechanism for deciding winners and losers) the Iraqis were closer although they could afford to lose more.
As a rule set I like it and as a first game for most of the players I think it played out well enough. The big problem for the Iraqis is the weakness of the T54/55s against the more modern US and British armour, the T72s would equal it out a bit I think but I haven't painted them yet 
The main problem players have to wrestle with is the relatively open ground a desert table presents and so the challenge becomes one of cluttering the table enough to block lines of sight without the table looking nothing like the real thing - this is a consequence of a rule set originally developed for 1980's Germany where there is a lot of cluttered countryside. I guess I'll have to invest in some more scenery 
For me, the rules scratch a long standing itch so I will be ploughing on. Next game, artillery and air support 

[Pattus Magnus]

Very cool looking game!

I’m wondering whether the challenges presented by the open terrain might correspond with some of the difficulties the combatants faced historically. There were reasons why that conflict bogged down into trench warfare where neither side could get a decisive advantage - long sight lines may have been a factor. I suspect the Iraqis’ experiences against Iran gave them an inaccurate picture of what fighting the Coalition in 1991 was going to be like. They expected a similar type of static warfare would develop, but it didn’t happen.

[carlos marighela]

A lot of the heaviest fighting took place in marsh lands and in and around cities in the south, neither of which should be considered open terrain.

The Iraqis had a number of successes, one of the better known ones is the Battle of Dezful, where they handed a couple of Iranian armour brigades their arses on a platter. The Iranians lost over 200 tanks.

The Iraqis were smart enough to understand the limitations of their kit and tactical training and after advancing, dug in their vehicles and essentially set up a giant armour ambush into which the Iranians obligingly drove. I don't know the rule set but no doubt it provides to hit modifiers for hull down vehicles.

[flatpack]

Ian,
Sorry buddy but I don’t own marches and city scenery.
I reckon we know someone who could build it for you…..after he has finished my farm of course 

[has.been]

As Ian kindly said the Iranians were the winners, & as I was one of the Iranian commanders (Ian was the other  , though he spent most of his time umpiring)
I would like to claim that it was my tactical genius that won it, but in truth I just blundered through the battle.
I won't follow Ian's exploration of Cold War Commander, not least because I could not afford all those vehicles!
I too will 'scratch the itch' of this war, but will do it at the budget end of the games with '7 Days to the River Rhine' with a few vehicles.

Thanks should go to Bob (Flatpack) who provided the buildings that the Iraqis hid in & behind.

[vtsaogames]

Then there's the late war Iranian problem when they can't get spare parts except on the black market at exorbitant prices.

Problem when you manage to alienate both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

[Frostie]

Nice write up and lovely looking collection

[Westbury]

Another game as I/we learn more of the rules and more kit gets painted.
This time the Iranian 37th Armoured (2 x armoured battalions & 1 x mechanised battalion) attempting to hold a railway line and a couple of settlements. The Iranians also had a FAO on the roof of one of the high rises as we were going to see how the artillery worked. The Iraqi's deployed the 15th Mechanised along the baseline (2 x mechanised battalions & 1 x armoured battalion plus one battalion of T72's from the 10th Armoured) and also had a single pre scheduled artillery barrage available.

[Westbury]

In brief, the Iraqi's advanced in two sectors, on the right, hidden by a dried river up river bed, was the 10th Armoured and the 2nd Mechanised and on the left, hidden by a large hill was the 9th Armoured and the 1st Mechanised.
The Iranians deployed their mechanised infantry to defend the bend in the river bed and placed their armour in the central plain near one of the towns to await developments.

[Westbury]

Faced with the two pronged Iraqi advance the Iranians took the bold decision of advancing to take on the left sector. The M60's and M48's outranged the T54 & T55's so first blood went to the Iranians and the Iraqi tank commander scuttled back behind the hill. Undeterred the Iranians ploughed on to crest the hill and start shooting up the de bussed infantry, however, as we all know, unprotected tanks are very vulnerable and after a couple of infantry assaults which destroyed one platoon and very nearly took under another (awful die rolling by the Iraqis) the Iranians fell back to the rail line.
From a rules standpoint the assault mechanism works well and was a lesson learnt for us all 

[Westbury]

Over on the Iraqi right the advance went well and the Iranians were slowly ground down despite the advantage of cover (the river bed) and calling in the off table artillery on two separate occasions - then the ammo ran out 
The artillery was a bit of damp squib for the Iranians inflicting minor damage on both occasions, mainly due to drift from the point of aim. As a rule mechanism it was pretty straight forward once I'd understood the language - the rules do suffer in a couple of places from a clarity fog 
Ultimately the Iranian infantry and most of their vehicles ceased to exist.