Casting Long Shadows: The Iranian Revolution, 1977-1978 2026

“Old sins cast long shadows.” – Scottish Proverb.

“My advisors built a wall between myself and my people. I did not realize what was happening. When I woke up, I had lost my people.”—Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Casting Long Shadows is a solitaire play game on the Iranian revolution of 1977-1978. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s reign over Iran was a cornerstone of US Mideast foreign policy for decades. With a military that dwarfed that of all other nations in the region, including Israel, the Shah’s rule was deemed critical in safeguarding the region from the Soviet Union, that in recent years was threatening Iran’s neighbor to the east, Afghanistan. However, by 1977 substantive cracks had formed in the Shah’s rule, and the US proved unable or unwilling to prevent the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, a force that would lead to the Shah’s abdication and the establishment of the world’s first Islamic Republic. Can you do as well or better?

In Casting Long Shadows the player takes on the role of the Shah of Iran and the US agencies (State Department, National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency) that sought to support his rule. However, the three US agencies are divided and distracted, so you will not always be able to rely upon their assets and full support. However, the Islamic fundamentalist opposition, that is governed by the game’s rules, will gain strength as the game progresses and with each misstep or defeat the Shah’s forces endure. It will take a fair amount of skill, risk-taking and good luck to win Casting Long Shadows, but then that is the history.

Each copy of Casting Long Shadows is composed of the following:

• Two 11 by 17 inch map sections with game tracks and tables. • One sheet of 176 single-sided units. • Two sheets of game tables and summaries. • Ten pages of rules.

Players will also need two opaque containers (mugs, envelopes work well), one six-sided (D6) and one ten-sided (D10) set of dice. Each turn represents 40 days of time. Game units represent 1000 protesters or 100 combat personnel with their equipment.

-description from designer