u/Baconuget

I was looking through my old Oil War book while planning an Iraqi army and I feel like Iraq should get an updated book like Israel, there are definitely things missing especially if Battlefront want to continue the 89-91 route Team Yankee has taken.

So my question is what would you like to see in an updated Iraqi Book? Below is what I have thought about.

1. Expanded/"New" Republican Guard Units.

Technically the Republican Guard is already in the game, as the 10th Independent Armoured Brigade. But that is only one formation and its not labeled as the Republican Guard. (In fact it has the same stats as the rest of the Iraqis.) I think they could at least use two formations. One is the T-72 formation already in the game and a new BMP-2 formation. Iraq bought about 200 from the Warsaw Pact in the late 80's, and these would have been placed with the Republican Guard. (Typically, dictators place their best equipment in their most loyal troops.) Basically swap out the BMP-1s in the BMP formation for BMP-2s. I also think the Republican Guard should use similar stats and function like a poor man's T-80 Shock Company and Shock Motor Rifle Company.

2. "Low-Grade Infantry" Conscript Formation

Iran's Basij infantry had me thinking of the guys Iraq captured and forced into conscription during the Iran-Iraq war. A lot of the conscripts that survived the previous war had to fight the Collation in 91' A line of regular army infantry divisions shielded the main Republican Guard forces, although not well. To represent these guys I would take the base BTR-60 formation and take away the BTRs, and adding the option to take M-46 field artillery instead of 2S1s. You could also throw in ZPU-4s to replace the Shilka and a Sagger platoon to replace the Spandrel. These guys would be running the worst stats and they should be comparable to the Basij Infantry Company.

3. Updated Iraqi Support

There have been a lot of units released since the Oil War book, some of them fit in with the Iraq in the 89-91 period. First one is the SU-22 Fighter Bomber Flight, with Iraq having quite a few of these. Second one is a BMP-1 scout platoon and BMP-1 Observation Post. Third is the already mentioned M-46 artillery platoon.

The final one is something I think would be pretty interesting for the game. Battlefront has a Frog-7 Launcher, and while it isn't the Scud Launcher the Collation was so worried about in 91' (and 03') it still would be a cool thing you could deploy. I would give it similar rules to the TOS-1, but a 72" range and only one shot. (Again the idea of a poor man's soviet unit.)

TLDR; Expand the Republican Guard, and add some light infantry options to the Iraqis. Also update the support unit options.