Iraqi Freedom: Thirty Days to Baghdad simulates the 2003 Iraq War as a military conflict, and also as a systematic hunt for Iraq’s High Value Targets, otherwise known as Iraq’s Most Wanted, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The game simulates the entire war and includes two mounted maps of Iraq as it existed in 2003, including accurate topography (such as the alteration to the Mesopotamian wetlands, drained by Saddam Hussein after the end of the Gulf War), and extending northward to encompass Kurdish territory, as well. The game includes an entirely new set of game pieces representing all of the belligerents, including insurgent units such as the Fedayeen, Ansar al Islam, Al Quds, and Ba’athists (Saddam party loyalists). In addition, there are more air unit types, including the B-2 stealth bomber, F-14, Royal Navy Harriers, etc.

Other new game pieces include smart bombs (such as the GBU-12 and GBU-31), Iraqi medium range missiles, a Patriot battery, plus numerous elite units (e.g., British commandos, U.S. Army Rangers, and of course Special Forces, Marines, and so on). The game even includes the optional U.S. 4th Infantry Division that had been scheduled to invade Iraq from Turkey (historically diverted after Turkey’s refusal to permit staging from Turkish territory). The rules include a standard scenario, a variant scenario, and a campaign game that links Desert Storm to Iraqi Freedom.

Better yet, this game includes a bonus Desert Storm supplement that includes additional game pieces, a historical scenario (with a historic 1991 set-up), plus an entire Event Cards effects system. That is to say, the Desert Storm event cards don’t merely move suit markers upon the suit track; rather, now each event has a specific game-play effect that *may* occur during game play (two possible events per each card among the two decks), multiplying the operational possibilities of the game (completing the innovation of the Desert Storm game as it was always meant to be). Moreover, the Desert Storm supplement booklet includes a page of clarifications and errata to complete Desert Storm. Highly researched and accurate, this game is a complete presentation of the Iraq war militarily, technologically, politically, as well as ecologically.

—description from the designer

Games