Iran theater.. some thoughts

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Random thoughts about Iran theater mod..

- Latest military parade on 09-22 2009. many cool stuff..iranian military power is much stronger than expected!
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... 58&page=41

- Main iranian military photos thread on Militaryphotos.net.. tons of pics. very impressive. while i viewing some pics, the background terrain/moutains look dry, rockey, or snow-capped.. i did not see green hills.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... p?t=142058

- browsing GE SAT image of Iran.. the capsacin sea costal area is green. the rest part is sand/rockey..all over this country the tiles used in this mod look pretty close to real thing.

- iranian F-14 is A model.. it got a retractable small delta wing on wing gloves.

- well..iran is by no mean a small country. i doubt any country darn to launch ground operation/invasion in RL but, how about..
A fictional USSR invasion from Caspacin sea, Azerbijan and Turkmenistan to Tehran?
A fictional US/allied invason from Iraq border to Tehran, and from UAE to Hormtz strait/Bandar-e-Abbas?

- if no ground operation, then the only way to run this mod is PURE air operation( sounds more realistic). To stop iranian nuke dev, allied force launches air strike from Iraq, Saudi Arab, UAE, Oman, Afghanistan and Pakistan.. a 7-10 day air operation. The TRI file can be set as game clock hits day 7 or 10, allied win. OR..set some airmobile units showing up on day XX, airdrop some units at Bandar-e-Abbas to capture one or two obj, then end the war.

- anyway, after checking those realife iran military photos..i think the simulated battle could be quite fierce. no wonder US and allies hesitate to take it..could be another Vnam of Afghanistan..or even worse.

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This pic shows some fictional campaigns..


The Red arrow for..
A fictional USSR invasion from Caspacin sea, Azerbijan and Turkmenistan to Tehran?
timeframe around 70-80. USSR expands its communist empire, to capture all Capsacian sea area. US just supplys more weapons to Iran for countering russain invasion. a cold war style compaign. no US direct involvement.

The Blue arrow for..
A fictional US/allied invason from Iraq border to Tehran/Abbadan, and from UAE to Hormtz strait/Bandar-e-Abbas?
timeframe around 90-early 2000, after 2nd Gulf war. As US force secure Bahgdad, the spearhead turns toward Iran. one force heading toward Teharn, capture a city near Teharn as a signal. one force move to capture Abbadan, to secure oil resource. and another force as airmobile, move from UAE to capture Bandar-e-Abbas, to get the full control over Hormtz strait, secure the oil transportation.

and the last fictional one, 2010-2015?, pure air operation from all allied AFBs and carriers..for given days to win.

[87th_striker]

CCC This looks good !!

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CCC This looks good !!

really? i look at this theater and scratch my head.. what scenerio can it be? Apart from iran-iraqi war( which better fit ODS 128 theater), no massive operation ever happen in this area..just some minor conflict in persian gulf. Honestly, IIRC no serious operation recorded in middle, north, and east part of iran in past decades.

[Ripcord]

It is not about recreating wars that were fought in the past, if you ask me. No major wars have ever been recorded in China/Taiwan either -- but yet it is a compelling potential crisis, one of many that I can think of.

I like it, and I think it has a lot to work with in terms of storyline. I worked on a very big campaign for Janes F/A-18 set in this same theater vs Iran. You could work up a very good story line here without much imagination, particularly with NATO forces already deployed in force right next door in Afghanistan. Suppose we (western forces) find out that (a) the mullahs have finally developed nuclear weapons, (b) the regime there turns out to be supporting terrorists forces in Af-stan, and (c) they finally decide to take over control of the straits of Hormuz to control the flow of oil. That's all the story line I would need, thanks. We toppled Saddam's regime for less than that you might recall. And consider this -- Iran is not broke, they aren't under sanctions, they have plenty of military might to contend with and what they lack they can procure using petro-dollars.

The terrain offers nice moutains, desert, beaches, coastline, plenty of islands, and a big assortment of targets to hit, with plenty of bases to operate from. Don't sell this theather short, it could certainly no worse than former Yugoslavia, which turned out OK.

Ripcord

[Sherlock]

It is not about recreating wars that were fought in the past, if you ask me. No major wars have ever been recorded in China/Taiwan either -- but yet it is a compelling potential crisis, one of many that I can think of.

I like it, and I think it has a lot to work with in terms of storyline. I worked on a very big campaign for Janes F/A-18 set in this same theater vs Iran. You could work up a very good story line here without much imagination, particularly with NATO forces already deployed in force right next door in Afghanistan. Suppose we (western forces) find out that (a) the mullahs have finally developed nuclear weapons, (b) the regime there turns out to be supporting terrorists forces in Af-stan, and (c) they finally decide to take over control of the straits of Hormuz to control the flow of oil. That's all the story line I would need, thanks. We toppled Saddam's regime for less than that you might recall. And consider this -- Iran is not broke, they aren't under sanctions, they have plenty of military might to contend with and what they lack they can procure using petro-dollars.

The terrain offers nice moutains, desert, beaches, coastline, plenty of islands, and a big assortment of targets to hit, with plenty of bases to operate from. Don't sell this theather short, it could certainly no worse than former Yugoslavia, which turned out OK.

Ripcord

Bingo. Exactly my thoughts as well. It's not what HAS happened here. It's WHAT COULD HAPPEN here. So much potential. It's all about using your imagination.

[87th_striker]

CCC This looks good !!

really? i look at this theater and scratch my head.. what scenerio can it be? Apart from iran-iraqi war( which better fit ODS 128 theater), no massive operation ever happen in this area..just some minor conflict in persian gulf. Honestly, IIRC no serious operation recorded in middle, north, and east part of iran in past decades.

There are myriads of scenarios available for Iran, CCC. That is what makes it good. You have the water conflicts in the north, Kurdistan, Iran/Iraq, Hormuz, Pakistan/Iran, Afghanistan/Iran, and several oil issues in north , west and south. And let's not forget religious conflicts and civil war scenarios. Let's also not forget the nuclear program in Iran.

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Rough check on iran road system..

- from Turkmenistan to iran/Tehran, unable. many broken spots.
- from capsacin sea coast to Tehran, unable. the shortest route is not working. acutally roads along capascin sea coast is mostly broken.
- from Azerbijian to Tehran, working , only one route.
- from Kirkuk/Baghdad to Tehran, only one or two route working.
- from Basrah to Abbadan, along persian gulf coast, not working. the few broken spots.
- from Afghanistan and Pakistan to east part of Iran/AFBs.. routes open and working.
- coast road around Bandar-e-Abbas/hormuz strait area.. not working.

BTW.. i check TE and campaign files with TacEdit..
- city/town/village names are ok in TacEdit map view.. but show "nowhere" in sim. The only correct obj names are iranian obj. hmm... missing some obj name files??

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some tips to share..

- to check road system, we can only do it in TE ( ues te_new.tac). if you want to fix ( and save the edit) that *.tac file, you have to rename it in *.cam first, do the edit with TacEdit, save, then rename back to *.tac.

- to check road system, you don't have to run the TE in time compression mode. just add an armoured unit at a starting point, drag its destination circle along your favorite combat route. if the road is open, the tank unit-to-destination circle line will be established. if there is (are) broken points, the line won't be established. you may move the circle to and fro to check the exact broken point(s). of course, run the TE in time compression mode should help confirming the quick check.

- Apart from checking "desired" combat routes, you may use same method to find " if there is(are) open route(s) from A to B". first add a tank unit. then drag its destination circle to an obj, say Teheran city. if there's a open route, the unit-to-destination line will be established. Now, instead of moving destination circle, you move the tank unit icon only. Move tank unit to a new starting point - if there's an open route, a new working route will show up- if not, the destination circle will withdraw back to tank unit icon. no hurry, TRY move [tank unit icon] to a new location - if the new locatoin has a working road to Teheran city, the moving line will show up again.. see? the destination is fixed, we move starting point(tank icon) to find working routes. In this way it may help to find [the right locations to place ground units] - so they got working routes from the start.

Regarding a huge 128 theater like iran, find out existing working routes and fix few broken spots, probably an easier and quicker way to make working ground war than checking road network in selected areas.

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reference website..
http://www.scramble.nl

the following pics to show the main AFBs and stationed combat ac type in iran theater.

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A quick tweak on campaign Save0.cam, to make it can reach an end.

first - original PMC save0.cam the second one, is hard to get an ending. default TRI requests blue side/coalition force to capture Tehran to win.. a target too far. i decide to set Red side/Iran capturing [Al Basrah] to win. i add this ending event to TRI file.

Al Basrah is a city obj near iran-iraq border. i put a red brigade-five armour units on the road to Al Basrah, just 20nm way. the brigade is tasked to capture Al Basrah. once i run the sim at 16x time compression, i saw the unit moving toward its target.. some red infantry units also try moving to Al Basrah, slowly.

the test tweak successfuly ends in 45 min ending movie played... US retreating korea.


well.. the test just to prove an idea.. we may place one ground unit at a corner of the theater map, let it move from A to capture B without interruption. the traveling time, can be defined by the distance from A to B. Thus you can have a 3-day or 5-day pure AA war. once the unit reaches obj B, the game ends.

BTW.. old bug - all iraq obj names are nowhere, or nowhereEast?.