OOB 17- Iraq Mod

[Marcello]

Some of the changes which will be included in the next release.
1) Overhaul of several mechanized/motorized infantry formations. A couple of them in particular were screwed and have been fixed.
2) Republican guard now available since 1985.
3) I have managed to obtain more informations on the iraqi inventory of 155mm artillery (types, availability dates etc.), there will be several changes.
4) NLA units (iranian exiles armed by Saddam) added; they were involved in some late iran iraq war engagements and allegedly took part in the suppression of the kurds after GW1.
5) Type 69 tank armor values standardization.
6) More accurate fighter bombers payloads.

[Marcello]

The new version of the mod is now up. Additional changes include

1) Historical tank guns have been reworked on the basis of rounds actually used by the iraqis.
2) Many of the new iraqi security forces are now available in separate dedicated formations instead of under the X3 radio code as previously.
3) Engineers mounted on MRV APCs for route clearing have been added.
4) Several artillery formations reorganized.
5) The new icons and pictures have been incorporated; vehicles like the Dzik-3 have their own now instead of generic.
6) The characteristics of some tanks, like speed, number of rounds carried, presence of smoke dischargers etc have been modified on the basis of historical research.
7) The new iraqi army is supposed to get some fire support in 2008. Tentatively I have put some units in, even if the exact models have not been announced yet.
8) In addition to the QM some others experimental prototypes from the 80's have been put in, like the upgunned BRDM-2 or the wheeled Al Faw SPA. All these units are available from 1989 to 1991 under the X3 radio code.

EDIT
I should also mention that in the previous version there was an issue with APCs carry capacity and squads sizes.
This has been reworked. I also eliminated LRF and FC ratings from the vehicles fitted with HOT 3 launchers, given that they apparently made no practical difference.

[Marcello]

On a slighty different note is there any interest in a purely historical OOB to be incorporated in some future patch?
It would pose a few problems with formations design (due to the disbanding of the iraqi army post OIF and others issues) but with a few modifications in the picklist should be doable.

[Marcello]

Some of the changes planned for the next release, due for some times after the next patch.

1) I had mistakenly equipped some on map artillery units
(the 25pdr, the Zis-3, the indirect fire version of the
T-55A) with AP rounds, without remembering that this gave them cluster rounds in the game.The AP rounds will be replaced by Sabot, HEAT or more HE rounds, depending on the platform.

2)Further revision for tank guns values. In particular the data that I used to calculate the penetration of the
BM-6 and the BM-3 for the 115mm guns turned out to be incorrect, I hope to have them fixed now. Further updates to the 125mm guns, to reflect the fall out of use of the BM-9 and BM-12 between GW1 and OIF, as well as the aquisition of small quantities of BM-42 and BK-29 in those same years. Small update for the 100mm guns.

3) Revision of antitank guns along the lines of what has been done for the tank guns.

4) Noting that many of the new iraqi security forces vehicles have extensive ACAV style gunshields for their machine guns some of the AAMGs have been replaced by MGs that can be fired while buttoned up.

5) Cougar replaced with ILAV (well basically not a big change)

6) Whatever new useful icons and similar stuff that will become available will be included.

7) Others various things.

EDIT

In addition to the above the light artillery has been reorganized. The iraqis used to have a 120mm mortar battery at the divisional level, formed by three platoons. As I realized that nothing with a range of fewer than 200 works offboard they have been deleted. The 105s followed the standard 18 tubes per battalion deployment, so they are reassigned to the medium artillery. The only things left under this classification are therefore the Zis-3. The 4.5 howitzer has been deleted and the weapon slot used for a full range Zis-3.

[Marcello]

The new version of the mod is now up.
In addition to the changes listed above the new iraqi army has been totally redone, with the formations
following the US patterns. Also its equipment has been updated on the basis of new informations. Changes incude but are not
limited to introduction of M60 tanks, the switching (now underway) from the AK-47 to the M16/M4,
the planned aquisition of COIN turboprop, etc. The insurgent forces have been rationalized as well.
Fortifications have been revised on the basis of my (albeit rather limited and imperfect) undestanding
of the strenght of concrete and earth structure.
Various other things (changes to RPG ammo loadouts etc.).

[cbreedon]

I don't see M60's or units with M16's what numbers are they?

[Marcello]

The M60 are units 610, 680 and 681. They are available under NIA (New Iraqi Army) Tank Co/Plt. The infantry with M16 are available under NIA Rifle Co/Plt at page 3.

EDIT
One of the M60 has a wrong availability date (102-109 instead of 108-120). I have corrected this mistake and uploaded the corrected version.