AN' DONTCHA' COME BACK NO MORE

BACK TO IRAQ by DORLON J. ELLIOTT

from XTR

One 34"x22" map; 352 counters; Charts & Tables sheet; Rules Book. Ziplocked, from XTR, POB 4017, San Luis Obispo CA 93403. $22

Reviewed by SCOTT JOHNSON

The Second Gulf war of 1990-91 brought about the death of the Iraqi Army. At the same time it infused new life into certain segments of the wargaming industry, with more than one company trying to ride the ebbing popularity crest of the Gulf War wave. The latest such company to hang ten is XTR, with Dorlon Elliott's Back to Iraq, which covers three, near-future but hypothetical wars in the Gulf.

Back to Iraq uses XTR's Desert Storm system, with most units at division level plus a few specialist brigades, regiments and battalions. The game has that quintessential XTR look: big font, 5/8" counters, alternating NATO-symbology with pictographs, and a Simonitch map covering nearly all of Iraq and parts of her surrounding neighbors. The rules are bone-basic, Igo-Hugo, with a simple move-fire sequence. There is no, true exploitation phase, as such movement after combat is accomplished by victorious mech units that did not move prior to combat. As the game - like all XTR games these days, pace Chris Perello - eschews ZOC's, it is too bad there isn't a reaction phase. Then again, the scale - 17 miles per hex - is rather large.

The game models three "possible", near-future conflicts. The first, "Between Two Rivers", is an Iranian, revenge/invasion of Iraq. The second, "It's the Oil, Stupid" shows Iraq invading Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all over again. The third scenario portrays a revived, Western "Desert Storm" invasion of Iraq to save the Kurds and Marsh Arabs from genocide, entitled "The Mother of All Battles - Really". It is evident from the three scenario titles that Oscar Wilde is not working in San Luis Obispo.

Of the three, I found the first the most enjoyable … and plausible, the rationale behind the other two being somewhat laughable. The proposed Iranian invasion has them setting up first, with the Iraqi player having the luxury of seeing where the main Iranian thrusts will be. (This is backed by some convincing mumbo-jumbo about the west providing Saddam with the same information we gave him - and Iran - to, more or less, force a stalemate.) This may seem to be a disadvantage - and maybe it is - but the Iraqi player definitely has his work cut out for him in stopping the Iranian steamroller.

The long Iranian border has lots of victory-point laden targets all along it, and the crippled Iraqi army is hard put to stretch its defenses to hold them all. Luckily for Iraq, the northern and southern sections of Eastern Iraq are formidable terrain obstacles for any attacker. The big prize, however, is right in the center: the two-hex jewel, Baghdad. And when those howling Shi'ite Iranian forces hit the border, it's gonna get real ugly, real fast.

The CRT, with no retreat results, is pretty bloody, so units sort of stand around bludgeoning each other into oblivion. On big plus for the Iranians, other than their advantages in manpower and artillery, is that their Revolutionary Guard units get to make "will o' God", human wave fanatic attacks that double their strength. The flip side of this is that they automatically lose a step of strength, plus any other losses they receive. This is nicely representative of the Iranian incapability to do anything other than launch insane frontal assaults, although doubling their strength seems a bit much. The Iranians do have other tricks in their bag: two Marine brigades, their 55th paratroop brigade, 3rd Special Forces Division, combat engineers, and that old bugaboo, Chemical Warfare. (This time it's the Iraqis, seeking brownie point from the West, are the ones withholding the gas.) And for those with that sort of bent, the Iranians appear to have purchased an A-bomb on the Russian black market. Must have come with a free Rollex. Hoo-boy!

For Saddam, it's hold on until the end of Turn 15, at which time the war becomes a trench affair, much like the original. To do so, he is forced to bleed the attackers dry. What WILL save the Iraqi bacon [Ed. an interesting metaphor there, Scottso …] is if Western powers intervene. The proposed Western aid can be pretty substantial: eight different divisions and a few regiments from the US, the U.K. and France, along with nine aircraft units. These forces actually start deployed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (with a plausible rationale) and build up gradually as the game progresses, with the huge western units increasing their steps each turn … all the way up to the giganto 23 step US 24th Mechanized Infantry division (as compared to the 1 and 2 step non-Western units). This is a curious bit of lumping all components into one huge counter that lets you feel that the western armies operate under some sort of Stalinist ideal, where the units stick around until the last man dies.

That has about as realistic a feel as do the game's command and supply systems, the woeful inadequacy of which should define both the Iraqi and Iranian armies. Instead, it's "trace a supply line" time, which works on a pure gaming level but provides little of the insight into what is really going on, other than killing and maiming. To do otherwise would go against the XTR, Design for Effect philosophy, wherein our troubled and already over-burdened minds are freed from such mundane, byzantine small potatoes as logistics and administration.While that's all well-and-good for the 3-1 Dice Bangers, it greatly shortchanges the game in The Reason Why department. It all comes down, as we have said before [Ed. well, at least I have] to what you want from these games.

The second scenario is actually something of a nail-biter, wherein the Western player must deftly devise a good defense on the run, build up his forces, and then lash back at the Iraqis. With no ZOC's there's a whole lot of counters zipping around like waiters at a banquet, although it is a modest view of what it might have been like if the Iraqis had his Saudi Arabia right after they took Kuwait. The third scenario is simply an orgy of destruction, along the spin-like lines of "… let's kill them because they're all butchers." You can end up with the Iraqis and Iranians on the same side of the field, while a massive Western-Israeli war machine heads their way, like a a giant wedge. The whole thing is reminiscent of the tactical doctrine expressed by "Doctor Who's: cyborg nemeses, the Daleks: "Seek. Locate. Exterminate."

The Dice Bangers will love it.

CAPSULE COMMENTS:

Graphic Presentation: Solid, professional.

Playability: Good. Command-o-philes can jump right in.

Replayability: If you ignore the lack of detail, the first two scenarios offer good competitive balance, and the games play fast enough to try again.

Wristage: Normal.

Creativity: Not much. We've seen it all before. The High Priest of Design for Effect sacrifices much to the God of Fast Play. If you don't care about this, it won't bother you.

Historicity: Is the designer, a Naval intelligence analyst, trying to tell us something here? Is it time for the Iranians to re-don the Bogeyman Hat?

Comparisons: Certainly a lot more playable than Gulf Strike or Arabian Nightmare.

Overall: A solid, accessible XTR design. If you like their approach, you'll go for this.