Another game! Modern Spearhead Iran-Iraq War

Rather optimistically, on Monday I approached my wife about the chances of attending the Whitley Bay 3D Gamers club the following night. I’d seen that Dougie was putting on a Modern Spearhead game and having had the rules for a while and never played  them (shock horror!) I fancied giving them a go. And Lo! Permission was granted!

So on Tuesday evening I set off for the club and enjoyed a small but most enjoyable introductory game. The basic scenario was that a reinforced Iraqi infantry battalion was tasked with defending a small town and the surrounding hills straddling a main road. Two Iranian Mech battalions (one green)  and 3 tank coys (Chieftains, T72s and T55s) were to secure the town and hills and drive the Iraqis back across the border.

First off, we were using Dougie’s lovely GHQ models. I’d seen these on his blog a long time ago and his HQ bases were the inspiration for some of my own. But his stuff is VERY nice!

Modern Spearhead requires a written plan/orders for each unit to follow and they will do so (with varying flexibility) until ordered to change. The latter not always being easy… Here you can see the basic layout (4’x4′ table). Iraqis were hidden in the town and dug in on the adjacent hills, the left hill supported by a tank platoon

My tank coys were deployed on the left and were to bypass the town and engage and take the left hand hill.The green mech battalion was to move across the hill and engage the town from the right. The regular mech battalion was sent on a flank march to appear on turn 2 on the right rear, engage the troops in that area and then move on the town.The Iranian HQ prepares for the attack. Dougie’s HQs are rather nice!The defence on the left:The green troops move on the town but are engaged by the defenders on the hill.

The Iranian armours skirts the town having sacrificed its recce unit to confirm it was defended. However the defenders chose to stay IN the town so could not shoot out or be targetedSome very nice T55sThe green troops forge on but take casualties from the sagger teams on the hill.The view from the Iraqi side showing the flank march arriving on time! And moving rapidly on the rear of the defending Iraqis.The Iraqi armour engage the advancing IraniansSuppressing a T72 platoon:But there was too much armour to stop and the Iranians closed on on the position.Meanwhile, on the left, the green troops pushed on after taking quite heavy casualties from the hill troops before the flank march descended on their rear.But shifting dug in troops was proving hard work and casualties were taken on both sides

Dislodging the Iraqis on the other flank was proving just as hard. A first overrun attempt by the T55s was repulsed and it took several turns to finally clear the hill with the T55s and T72s taking the brunt of the casualties before the Chieftains finally finished them off.And on the right the final troops were finally dislodgedConfusion over orders meant the green troops move to a defensive order while they manoeuvred to assault the town.As the remains of the other battalion moved to support the assault.

The final positions. At this point the Iraqis failed their morale roll but it was only a matter of time before the Iranians coordinated the assault. Although this would no doubt be bloody and there would be doubt as to whether they had the will to push the assault. So. Victory to the Iranians as the Iraqi aggressors were driven back across the border!

It was a good fun game. The command rules work well and you really need to think about your plan and what you want to be doing at different stages of the game. Combat is quick to resolve and didn’t produce any outlandish results. The plan is to next time introduce artillery, air power etc.

Having mostly played CWC up to now (which I still like), I’m happy to give these another go!

Thanks to Dougie for running the game. Alex for a solid defence. And Callum for the successful assault and flank march!

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