Iran in Oil Wars

The history of the Iranian government since the 1979 revolution has been….complicated. And in the case of this part of the oil wars book, the fluff provided gives an appropriately involved and messy political history worthy of the 3rd World War environment of the book.  The Iranians make a devil’s bargain with

their Soviet overlords, and find themselves in a slugging match with many other nations across the desert.  Because of the nature of the varied assistance, they have received from 1st world and 2nd world allies over the past several decades, Iran is a hodgepodge of different tanks, equipment packaging, and weapons systems.

The impact of this is to have a terrible skill rating and a horrible assault rating. (5+ in most cases) but what they lack in skill, they more than makeup for in their horrifying willingness to stick around and die. morale and courage ratings of 2 or 3 are common.  If you are coming at the Iranians, you best not miss. One round of

bad shooting could well be the end of you.

Lets take a look at each of their formations:

 

 

 

 

 

What is Available?

The Support is nothing to write home about, it does some of the basic jobs you would hope for, but the meat of this is in the insanely cheap tanks and infantry that will be thrown at your enemies.

#1 – The Chieftains

You can take one tank in the HQ for 4 points, or two tanks for seven points. A platoon of three tanks will cost you 10 points. Slightly more than three points per tank. The weapons systems and armor are the same as the British they were bought from, back when the Shah and British Petroleum were still good buddies. But as you will see many of the ratings are different.

The British Stats are; Courage 4+, Morale 4+, Remount 3+, Skill 3+, Assault 3+, Counterattack 4+. When compared to the Iranians,  the Iranians have the edge in courage, morale, and counterattack. Tie in remount (and with most FP happening on a 2+ for MBTs the only remount you would need is after being hit by a bazooka) and lose out in Skill and Assault. But with this many tanks on the table at AT 20, I’m not sure these will see the front lines charging infantry very often.

Compare all this to the British.   Whose chieftains clock in at a whopping 6 points per tank. While the ratings are different, I think the Iranian Chieftains are under pointed.  If I take a maxed out set of Iranian Chieftains, it will cost me 37 points (without grabbing the mechanized group) and get me 11 tanks.

If I were to do that with the British, it would cost me 66 points for the same number of tanks with the exact same hardware.  The British have a broader formation with more integrated support options, and are hit on 4s and not 3s, but still….this seems a bit crazy. I’ll wait and see it play out on the table, but I suspect we will see a lot of Iranian forces on the table at Team Yankee Nationals.

 

M60 Patton

The US sold their share of tanks to the Iranian government before things went south as well, and here are your m60 tanks.  They clock in at roughly 2-points per tank.

In the Iranian lists, there are no choices to take fewer or more tanks in a platoon. The Cap is always three. Making the platoons somewhat fragile (if it weren’t for their morale rating.) At 2+ you will still need to kill every tank in the platoon to get rid of them.  I can only speak for myself, but my opponents don’t tend to roll a lot of 1s.

Like the Chieftains, there is no integrated support other than a single Mechanized Group.

 

T-62s

For the First time in Team Yankee, the T-62 is making its appearance. (unless I missed it in one of the earlier Warsaw Pact allied forces.) They are, like everything else in the Iranian Arsenal, absurdly cheap, and horrifyingly effective.  They are

limited by their slow firing gun, and lack of a laser rangefinder, Their armor won’t stop a Milan or a MBT shot.

But their AT of 19 makes them nasty if they can close distance. And with the number of tanks the average Iranian will have on the table, it is possible to pull that off.  When they are paired with some of the infantry assets we are about to see, it becomes even easier.

Mechanized Group

Able to take bTR 60s, or BMP 1’s as well as the stock M113s, these are a hodgepodge of American and Soviet equipment.  clocking in at 4 points for a “bulked out platoon” these are excellent objective sitters, but won’t do much else.  Compared to their Other infantry option (more on that in a minute) I don’t expect to see these very often,  except when taken as part of a tank platoon to bulk out the formation.

Basij Infantry Battalion

Let’s start by showing the Rules for these guys…

A maxed out platoon will cost you 22 points…and will buy you 37 total stands of infantry.

They are hit on a 3+ and save on a 4+ (a needed modifier due to their monstrous size.)

Twenty-five AK47 teams will be the meat shield for 12 RPG-7 AT teams.  These will close the distance to defenses, and will kill tanks and infantry together in a wave of homicidal glee.  If you are trying to kill them….bring artillery or a lot of MGs.  Their ability to surge forward and get within their 6″ assault range is insane.  These will be something to see on the table.  I plan on using my soviets to play test these guys and see what this will look like.

The Support

The only Dedicated AA the Iranians have are the ZSU-57-2s (for .5 points a piece) or the Shilkas for 1 point each. They can field no fixed wing aircraft, and the Cobra attack helicopters are from an arms sale during the Nixon administration, so we have something else to thank him for.

I may start taking strike aircraft to deal with some of these tanks if I face Iranians.

There is a lot to process here, and I’ll be curious to see what people’s take on the Iranians are. The book overall gives a lot of unique options, and will open up the game for a lot of players who were waiting for this.

I am worried about game balance when facing these things, but there is a rules update for Team Yankee coming to bring it more in line with current V4 rules. When the artillery and morale rules are updated I think that will help tremendously.  If the Iranians only need to make one test on their tank platoon needing a 2+, it’s quite different from having to make that same test every turn once they get to one

tank. So the shift from current to future rules will make a huge difference.

For the player who has been hording t-62s and eagerly awaiting their chance to field an Iranian force, you’ve got a lot of options to play with.  As a primarily NATO commander, I will be in my underground bunker trying to figure out how to escape hundreds of fanatical infantry stands.

 

Tom “Chairborne” Mullane is a high school teacher in NY who lives in Danbury CT.  He is currently playing in and around Western Connecticutt and primarily plays at Kirwan’s Game Store in Catskill NY with War Gamer’s Anonymous. I you are in the area, drop him a line and get in a game.