From: Tracy Johnson Subject: [consim-l] "Back To Iraq" Session I played XTR's "Back To Iraq" zip lock this weekend and the following is a short review: Scenario III was chosen, which is a full retaliatory invasion of Iraq with French, US, UK, Syrian, & Turkish, Saudi, and Kuwaiti units. Iranians intervene on the Iraqi side on a roll of '1' on a 6 sided die every turn but the first. If the Iranians join in, so can the Israelis. All units start at full strength on the board in this scenario, so one does not have to worry about incremental build up and reinforcements. I played the Coalition side. I was surprised at the ease of play. I was originally put off by the quantity of units but as it turns out, the majority are step losses and static one-step units. This leaves fewer mobile units than one may think. The combat table is quite bloody, as there are no ZOCs and no retreat options, again it simplifies the game quite a bit. Play is not encumbered by consideration of retreat path, you simply lose steps and move to the next combat. Although I was quick to utilize the Coalition air power (represented by icons of 8 A-10s) which change the column shift odds by 1 in my favor, I realized I could have been more efficient at the onset if I had not forgotten to take advantage of a couple of items: 1) I hardly ever used the "Hasty Attack" feature for my forces. (A function similar to "Overrun" in other games.) 2) I consistently forgot to raise the odds by 1 for "Deliberate Assault" (a normal attack while in supply.) The first 7 turns played rather easily for my side. I was able to eliminate almost every Iraqi unit but 1 by the time the Iranians intervened. The Iranians have a much larger quantity of higher strength units. The Iranians attacked with a vengeance, almost wiping out the U.S. Marine Corps 1st MEU and the 82nd Airborne. And completely destroying the Turkish and Syrian Armies. The U.S. and the Remainder of the Coalition forces regrouped. They were able to make about one or two effective counterattacks per turn while in full retreat towards the relative safety of Saudi Arabia and the newly arriving Israelis. Retreating helps quite a bit during this phase of the the mid game. Although the Iranians are quite powerful, they are also quite slow. While being chased across the board by the fewer Iranian mechanized units, this separated them from their equally powerful infantry, making them vulnerable to my aforementioned counterattacks. Alas I was unable to bring the end-game to a slug-fest. My opponent became greedy, and decided to invoke the Iranian "Nuke" option. This option simulates the Iranians having obtained (or designed) a few nuclear bombs and is usable once per turn. After using the Iranian "Nuke" option, my opponent rolled a '4', meaning it hit 'off target' (this is the same as a 'Scatter' rule in other games.) He 'scattered' his 'nuke' onto his own stack of units (the original target was the U.S. Marine MEU.) We checked the rules at this point, and it was explicit in that only Coalition units take losses from an Iranian nuke, so my opponent lucked out here. However, an Iranian 'nuke' opens the possibility of Coalition 'response'. A 1 to 5 roll means the Coalition responds 'in kind' by removing any Iraqi/Iranian stack on the board. A roll of 6 indicates massive nuclear retaliation into the Iranian heartland and an instant win for the Coalition. I rolled a 6. Needless to say, the game only took 3 hours to play. -- BT NNNN Tracy Johnson Justin Thyme Productions Sponsors Free Multiuser Wargaming on the WEB at: http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/