The Next Gulf War

Iran invades Saudi Arabia to protect Qatar

In this game, you play Iran, and you are trying to stop Saudi Forces from invading and occupying Qatar, your ally. You will need to find a way to stop Saudi armored forces from overrunning Qatar’s meager defenses. This is a tall order, as Saudi Arabia’s army is better equipped, and the Royal Saudi Air Force is much larger than its Iranian counterpart. Time is also working against you. Egypt will send armored forces to defend Saudi Arabia if attacked. You do have a few advantages: 1) a limited number of cruise missiles that can crater runways and temporarily ground GCC air forces, 2) a few ballistic missiles that can disrupt the supply lines of enemy armored formations, 3) a small number of surface to air missiles that can protect your troops from air attacks, 4) loyal Shia militias in Southern Iraq that can disrupt enemy supply lines and 5) a force of highly mobile veterans of the Syrian Civil War that can penetrate deep behind enemy lines. Use them wisely. Good luck!

We built this game to simulate a modern land war between two roughly equal regional powers. Iran and Saudi Arabia fit the bill because they have comparable militarizes/populations/economies. Saudi Arabia has a more technologically advanced military due to its close ties to the United States and other western powers, so the Iranians would probably be the underdog in a conventional land war. However, the Iranians have spent decades building up asymmetric capabilities that could help even the odds in a clash with Gulf States. Iran appears to have, or soon will have, enough ballistic missiles and cruise missiles to knock out key pieces of Saudi infrastructure, at least for a few days or weeks. The Iranians also have enough advanced air defense missiles to keep GCC air forces at bay, at least temporarily. The combination of a long range precision strike capability and tenacious air defenses should allow Iranian ground forces to operate in the open for a short period of time. And a short period of time is all you really need to make it from the Iranian border to Riyadh.

Click here to play the game. You might want to use a stylus if you are playing on a mobile phone

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