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Originally Posted by Adm.Lee
Geography may be the key you are missing, then. Iran is BIG-- there is a large no-man's-land between the forces, and trying to expand would leave one's flanks hanging in air.
One of my *other* favorite GDW games from the '80s was the "Third World War" series, which covered conventional combat in Germany, Norway, the Balkans and Iraq-Iran ca.1985. They could be played all together, most of the maps actually linked. I bring this up because the Iran game almost always featured lots of empty space, and both US Soviet sides had a lot of empty flanks to watch. Unfortunately, one could not break down divisions in that game*, so quite often it became a sideshow really quickly as both sides would turtle in some mountains or cities. The main show, of course, was a Soviet drive across north Germany.
[*In the Norway game, the Soviets had some breakdowns, to enable air and sea lift. ]
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When I was in they told us that our plans were made to repel amongst other things an airborne operation of Soviets ,they would take the main roads and strand our units in invaluable areas .they told us that in the event of a full blown war the soviets could drop 5 or 6 brigades simultanously .Apparently the airborne invasion gave only 2 1/2 - 4 hours warning before it all went Red Dawn .An amphibious assault was also envisioned as a part of the operation .The assault would have 15 -30 hours warning time and could comprise as many as 11 brigades.
Seeing as we only had 2 brigades in active duty and the rest mothballed as a mobilization defense it was very much a theoretical game of speed and lucky circumstances up here on Natos north flank .The North has limited road systems and a lot of fjords cutting into it - for a tactical game of conventional warfare I guess it would be an interesting match .(Did the game take into account our own little maginot line that we had built in Troms ? It didnt go all the way across but still,a concrete bunker fortress is a novelty in our days of warfighting.)
As for real life I dont think we could have done much against the Soviets.Our real defense was our close alignment with the US that made any move against us a possible trigger for a big conflict .On the ground I guess the plan was to hold enclaves /provinces that could be used as staging areas until the designated allied forces arrived -with their airpower- and mobilize our army as best we could in these areas .And then break out I guess. ( The threat of nuclear war ,other political events not taken into account and just focusing on the war on the ground I mean .)