Bloody Dawns: The Iran-Iraq War is a two-player grand strategic level card driven wargame depicting the struggle between Iraq and Iran from September 1980 to August 1988. This terrible confrontation between Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini drastically changed the geopolitical balance of power in the Gulf and was the last Total War of the 20th Century. Its events still shape and influence those of today.

As a grand strategic card driven game with boxes, instead of hexagons, and for 4 month turns. The card driven system maintains suspense and obliges the players to coordinate carefully their actions.

Bloody Dawns : the Iran-Iraq War is designed by Pierre Razoux. He is also the author of The Iran-Iraq War, published by Belknap Press in 2015. Since 2012, he has been the Research Director at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (IRSEM) in Paris.

The game contains three eight turn scenarios:  
   · Saddam's Qadisiya, Iraq invades Iran
   · The Mullahs Strike Back, Iran invades Iraq
   · In God We Believe, Total War between Iran and Iraq
And the campaign game, Bloody Dawns, covering the entire conflict.

Bloody Dawns is available for $45.00

Up until March 26^th, 1970, the 1^st Air Cavalry Division’s “in country” reputation was a relatively fortunate one. It had not suffered particularly horrendous losses since its battles in the Ia Drang valley years before, and those who received orders from the Replacement Depot to report to the 1^st Air Cav’s units considered themselves rather fortunate to be sent to a “lucky outfit”. That luck ran out on that day in March when Charlie Company was caught in a large scale ambush set up by the NVA’s 9^th Division’s 272^nd Infantry Regiment. Alpha Troop of the 11^th Armored Cavalry, attached to the 1^st Air Cavalry Division, that was a little more than 4 kilometers away, immediately “saddled up” and “busted humps” through the jungle in an epic trek through the jungle that savaged men and machine alike. After driving off the NVA and rescuing Charlie Company, the combined US force made it back to Fire Base Illingworth, named for one of the heroes of an earlier battle fought by the 1^st Air Cavalry.

The survivors of Alpha Troop and Charlie Companies thought they had reached a place of refuge where they could rest, recuperate, and train their newly arrived replacements (FNGs as they were derisively termed by the veterans). However, the NVA saw their opportunity to exact revenge upon the Americans grow with each passing day Fire Base Illingworth remained in place. Little did they know, that those who fought on March 26^th had leapt from the frying pan directly into the fire that exploded all around them at 0214 on April Fool’s Day, 1970.

Bad Moon Rising is available for $24.95

Patton’s Finest: the Battle of Arracourt is a simulation of the armored clash between the U.S. Third Army’s 4th Armored Division and counterattacking German forces led by the 111th and 113th Panzer Brigades. After breaking out of the Normandy Bridgehead in July 1944, the 4th Armored had led the advance across France to the German Westwall fortifications, earning the nickname “Patton’s Finest.” Desperate to stop the American blitzkrieg, and recapture the vital railroad center at Nancy, Hitler placed General Von Rundstedt in command. To support the counterattack, emergency reinforcements were ordered up to the Western Front that included new and improved models of Panther tanks. The armored clash east of Arracourt would confirm that the Americans had learned well the lessons of war, and would foreshadow the desperate fighting in the Ardennes a few months later.

Revanche! The Battle of Dompaire is a simulation of the armored clash between the Free French 2nd Armored Division and counter attacking German forces of the 112th Panzer Brigade. After breaking out of the Normandy Bridgehead in July, the Free French 2nd Armored, led by General Jacques Leclerc, triumphantly entered Paris and advanced across the French countryside intent on liberating the province of Lorraine. Desperate to stop the Allied blitzkrieg, and recapture the vital railroad center at Nancy, Hitler placed General Von Runstedt in command. To support the counter attack, emergency reinforcements were ordered up to the Western Front that included new and improved models of Panther tanks. The armored clash at Dompaire on the 12th and 13th of September confirmed that the French had learned well the lessons of war, and that Allied victory in the West now was now at hand.

Tough Hombres: The Battle of Mairy is a wargame simulation of the clash between the U.S. Third Army’s 90th Infantry Division (nicknamed the “Tough Hombres”) and counterattacking German forces led by the 106th Panzer Brigade and elements of the newly formed 59th Volksgrenadier Regiment. After breaking out of the Normandy Bridgehead in July, Patton’s Third Army led the advance across France to Germany’s Westwall fortifications. Desperate to stop the American blitzkrieg, and forestall the American’s drive on the vital railroad center at Nancy, General Otto von Knobelsdorf ordered an attack by the newly formed 106th Panzer Brigade, equipped with new Panther tanks and commanded by the legendary commander Colonel Franz Bake, against the 90th Infantry Division. Although nicknamed “Tough Hombres” for their divisional patch letters “TO” (for Texas and Oklahoma, the two states whose National Guard units comprised the division), its record was far from distinguished. The division had run-up ghastly casualty rates during the Normandy campaign (some battalions suffering a staggering 400% rate of loss!) and the sacking of its commander. The Germans expected this American formation, charged with holding Patton’s open left flank, to quickly fold in their early morning night attack of September 8th…

A Test of Mettle is available for $45.00

Historians have described the British attack near Caen and the Canadian assault against Verrieres Ridge as disasters. Indeed, following these operations the Germans were able to transfer to the western sector of Normandy much of their surviving armor to deal with the American offensive. Nonetheless, recently discovered material and some oral histories have shown the Allied offensives came close to success.

Operation Goodwood

This game on Operation Goodwood grew out of the interest in developing the companion game about Operation Spring, the Canadian offensive on Verrieres Ridge on July 25th, 1944. Montgomery's massive onslaught against what was thought to be a severely beaten and depleted enemy was meant to be an unstoppable, irresistible offensive that would finally break the Allies out of the Normandy beachhead. That it instead ran into an un-moveable defense, planned earlier by Field Marshal Rommel, made for a ruinous fight that seriously damaged subsequent British offensives in the war. Nearly 2/3rds of the British tanks committed were destroyed in the two-day fight.

The Germans also suffered heavy losses in keeping control of their defensive positions. While many of Montgomery's supporters pointed out that Goodwood seriously eroded the Germans' capabilities to resist the Americans' Operation Cobra offensive a week later, the cost to Great Britain was severe. That the Allied soldiers came close to winning a dramatic victory ahead of the Americans is a testament to the ferocity and courage both sides brought to this battlefield.

Operation Spring

General Montgomery's offensive to take Verrieres Ridge was modeled after the one he used successfully at El Alamein. The Canadians' 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions, backed by their 2nd Armored Brigade, and the Canadian Corps' along with the 8th Army's artillery, would pry an opening in the German lines through which the British 7th and Guards Armored Divisions would exploit. Monty was convinced the defenders had suffered as badly as his forces did in the battles to take Caen and the earlier Operation Goodwood offensive. This assumption was to cost the Canadians dearly. Indeed, following the battle the Germans redeployed their surviving armored units to the west, confident the Commonwealth forces were sufficiently defeated. That the Canadians came close to driving the Germans to their breaking point is a testament to the ferocity and courage both sides brought to this battlefield.

Bloody Hell is available for $45.00