I had the pleasure of participating in a WaW game this morning at ACDC24 and during that we talked about how the Soviet hardware in the game is better than one the Soviets had in real life. If one wanted a more historical rather than alt-history version of the game...what modifications would be made? I presume reducing the move-and-fire capabilities would be one and likely also reducing the training and command ranges of the soviet formations.
I'm not advocating that this would be a fun thing to play. Could also be a starting point for a Desert Storm module...which could almost be a solitaire game.
I had a US Army tank instructor / gunnery training friend who participated in Desert Storm.
Upon capturing Iraqi equipment, the more professional among them wanted to see what the make-up of Soviet vehicles were for future reference.
Of particular interest was the type of armor on the vehicles, a recipe with a ballistic steel box normally filled with some form of heavy metal granular material which absorbed impact before a projectile could penetrate the inner skin of the vehicle.
When they were able to cut through the box, they found it stuffed with rags and other types of non-ballistic protective material.
Apparently the Russian military sales shortchanged their allied customers by not completing the build of the vehicles before delivering, and also indicates the Iraqis did very little to assure they were receiving quality equipment when handed off.
Considering the early difficulty with vehicle losses and maintaining movement the Russians had in pursuing their goals in the Ukraine invasion offer an indication that the vehicles weren't as hardened very efficiently and their logistics processes lagged state of the art.
