Thursday Night Game - Iraqi amphibious assault

I have been moving the Iran-Iraq war project alongside developments in new terrain boards and operational game techniques and Thursday nights game will be an attempt to push all three developments.

This will be the first outing for my new river/desert boards.  If we get the temperate boards done I will use the same process.  These will be the river sections on table 2A in an operational game.

The game will be a mini simulation of a D-Day attack and will be the basis for rolling this out on an operational game level in the future.  We will only be gaming on one of the tables below but the Iranians must potentially defend all three.  The Iraqi's will decide on which they will launch their attack but will have opportunities to misdirect how the Iranians place their reserves.

The Iraqi bank is covered in date palm plantations giving extra cover for jump off points.  The Iranian side is densely covered in village sectors and palm groves.

(Got the rotation wrong!). The oil refinery is the main objective of our Thursday night mini-campaign.  Devoid of cover the installation is a series of town sectors.

There is no cover on the Iraqi side.  The Iranian side is sparsley covered with a single village and two pieces of high ground

The map for all three.  The Iranians must choose carefully where to place their reserves so that they can influence the main battle as soon as possible.

Frank and Russ will defend with the Iranians and Mark and Jon will be the attacking Iraqis.  One player on each side will be the tactical player and the other will be in charge of reserve commitments, air attacks and off table artillery - we will discuss as to whether we will allow communication between players on Thursday; it would make a better game but I don't want to ruin any fun!

Iraqi Objectives

1 point for taking the oil refinery

1 point if pontoon bridge is built and a bridgehead is secured.

1 point if any battalion is exited off the Iranian side of the table.

-1 point for loss of Aircraft.

Iraqi's draw if they secure 1 point

Iraqi marginal win if they take 2 points

Iraqi decisive win if they hold 3 points.

Initial set-up

The Iranian's have one battalion of Revolutionary Guards dug in on each table.  They have a weak mechanised brigade and a motorised battalion of Revolutionary Guards in reserve (or they can begin dug if they are that confident of Iraqi intentions!).  The reserves are placed on any of the points behind each table.

The Iraqi's choose which table to attack.  They have 1 x armoured and three mechanised battalions tasked with the attack.  The mechanised infantry are in amphibious AFVs.  The armoured battalion will need the pontoon to cross the river.  

They have a company of commandoes which can be used prior to the game to deploy by dinghy on the Iranian side of the river and dig in during the night to secure an initial bridgehead - however the Iranians will know about this at first light and may move reserves; but as this is revealed before the game begins it may be used as a subterfuge to make the Iranians move reserves in the wrong direction!

If the commandoes seize a position already occupied by the Iranians then this is resolved by a close combat.

Or they can deploy the commandoes by helicopter during the game, risk AA attack and not be dug in!

The pontoon bridge is of five sections and one section is built every 1/4 hour from the start of the game if they are not attacked or shot at by the Iranians.

The engineers can make a head start on the bridge during the night by building up to 2 sections or construct up to four tank berms or any combination thereof.  The tank berms will give a +1 cover for tanks and can be built on any table in order to fool the Iranians into sending reserves to the wrong table.  Obviously a head start on the pontoon bridge will confirm where the main attack is coming!

The Iraqi armour may be attached out by companies of 2.

The Iraqi's may use preplanned bombardment on a wrong table to also try and make the Iranians send their reinforcements to the wrong place.

After all the Iraqi preliminary moves, the Iranians can move reserves from one spot to another as soon as the game begins.  They can only do this again at every half hour point during the game.

Iraqi OoB

1 x Mech Brigade HQ with BRDM recon 

1x Armoured Battalion of HQ BTR60, 1x ZSU57-2, 6x T55

3x Mech Battalions of HQ BTR60, BRDM recon with sagger, 6 BTR50

SA6 Gainful 

1x Commando company with Mi-6 helicopter

2x Mig 21 attack flights

2x MLR with 2 rounds each (May smoke)

3x D30 with 4 rounds each (May use as div support)

Iranian OoB

Each table has one dug in Revolutionary Guard battalion.

1x HQ, 9x Inf, 1x RR A/T, 1x 120mm mortar, 1x Zsu57 AA

Reserves

1x Mech Brigade of HQ M113, 1x Scorpion recon, 1x M113 recon, 3x Chieftain, 1x Shilka and 3x M109A1 SPG (off table) - 4 rounds each

The M109A1 have an off table range of two tables (i.e positioned behind the oil refinery table they can hit the other tables either side) and can counter battery against Iraqi artillery positioned behind the same table on which they are deployed behind.

1x Motorised Martyrs Brigade of 1x HQ, 9x Inf, 1x RR in jeep.

1x AH-1 Cobra

1x F5

Hopefully, this should be an interesting little game.