There can be no other word to describe the effectiveness of Pasdaran infantry.

For the uninformed, Pasdaran is the "honor" ascribed to Iranian Army Units which have Mullahs essentially in control.

The Iranian Army and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pasdarans ) are separate military entities to be sure. And in some circles ( or websites ) the Pasdarans are portrayed a homogenous units of elite troops.

We read somewhere a report we believe more: that the Pasdarans are any military unit which has at least one major subordinate unit that is commanded by soldiers loyal only to the Mullahs (MM). An Iranian brigade with a Pasdaran unit, such as a battalion essentially makes that brigade a Pasdaran brigade.

This is unlike another historical "elite" units, notably the German SS in WWII. The SS, from top to bottom, were SS, no soldiers and no outsiders. You engaged the SS and you knew the whole unit was filled with these folks.

Soviet Guards units, on the other hand and similar to the way Iranians organize their forces, at the battalion level and lower you fight a Soviet Guards battalion means you fight every fighter as a dedicated communist. Above that, units tended to get mixed, but as with our theory about Iranian military units, the presense of any major suborinated unit made that whole parent organization Guards.

In WinSPMBT, unlike the earlier and discontinued DOS version, the game designers have vastly improved Pasdaran infantry to the point where their firepwoer and effectiveness are in line with some of the best units in the world. And it is easy to see why. Small squads filled with fanatics armed to the teeth, their pointy heads filled with "Allah, Allah" with nothing in the future in sight but peace, Islamic style.

Oopsies... Political commentary. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyways, Pasdaran rifle units are impossible to stop on first contact.

We prefer to play Russian BTR infantry. Why? Because those units are fast, they bring nice armored vehicles to protect against mortar attacks, and each BTR vehicle brings with it 7.62mm and 14.5mm automatic weapons to the fight, with plenty of ammunition. In defending against an attack, those vehicles have the capacity to stop and kill infantry units, beyond 500 yards. Any closer than that and it is the RPG and LAWs laden rifles which run the show.

Anyway, even if you can catch the lone Pasdaran rifle unit in the open, they have to take 60 to 80 percent casualties before they start really thinking about their mortality. Pasdaran unit will have five or less fighters in each group left, out of 12, before they break.

Think about that: you and a group of your best buds in your rifle squad, you know you have those "Allah, Allah" screaming crazies by the scrotum, but they keep coming, losing very little of their effectiveness until a little more than half of them are gone.