Need Help with an Imagination, What If, or Both

[Just Jack]

Okay, not both, but I need an Imagination or a What-If, and I tend more to the What-If  (using real countries/territories with a back-story that at least gives a hand-wave to plausibility/makes sense).

Here’s the situation: for the folks that know me, 10mm has been my thing, but somehow I’ve become a 6mm Moderns gamer (more accurately at this point, a 6mm Moderns collector).  I have :
about 40 Warsaw Pact tanks in green, about 60 in khaki
about 40 Warsaw Pact APCs in green, about 60 in khaki
various Warsaw Pact AAA, SAM, recce, engineers, arty, etc…, in green and khaki.

A small task force (M-1s, M-113s, recce, SPAT, engineers, AAA, SAM, arty, etc…) of US equipment.
A small task force of Canadian equipment (Leopard 1s, M-113s, etc…).
A medium task force of British equipment (Challengers, Warriors, etc…).
A decent sized task force of German equipment (Leopard 2s, Marders, etc…).

I’ve also got a little air support, and more infantry then I’ll ever need, for both sides.
What I’m looking for is something mid-80s to early 90s that allows me to use Warsaw Pact AND NATO equipment on both sides!  So, maybe a former Soviet state or client (to explain the WarPact equipment) that got independence, got cozy with NATO (and received NATO equipment), then experienced an internal ideological schism (maybe sort of  a “hey, this capitalism crap doesn’t work,”  against the “yes it does, give us a minute, we just started”) leading to a north-south or east-west civil war.

Oh, and the climate has to be temperate with evergreen trees, since that’s what I have lots of in 6mm 😉

So, in a perfect world, someone’s got a fully developed backstory they can dust off and provide…  No?  Okay, I’ll settle for hints and not so subtle nudges in the right direction 😉  In all seriousness, I’d appreciate any help, and thanks in advance for any suggestions.

V/R,
Jack

[shelldrake]

You could base the war on Larry Bond’s novel “Red Storm Rising”, with the focus of your game set in Germany rather than playing out any of the parts set in Iceland.

[kyoteblue]

Eli has an Imagination called Alcovia which is kinda in the balkans and uses Warsaw Pack and could include NATO equipment.  Maybe if you ask him he will loan out Alcovia.

Oh and Col. Sokolove the leader of The Sultanate of Ifat’s mercenary army is from Alcovia.

[Whirlwind]

Would the Twilight 2000 back story work okay?  It has WARPAC and NATO nations entering the war on the other side (IIRC).  And in later years, everyone is using pretty much anything they can keep in service: http://twilight2000.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline

 

[Patrice]

I have German friends who lived in East Berlin in the 1980s and joined the “Neues Forum”; they wanted freedom of speech in the GDR but not capitalism, a free GDR without STASI. Their dream was shattered when in demonstrations they heard their slogan “Wir sind das Volk” (We are the people, meaning that the ruling party was illegitimate) replaced by “Wir sind ein Volk” (We are one people, meaning that the aim was Reunification) and they always suspected that West German agents did this.

A GDR free from Moscow but still separated from West Germany could be an idea for you scenario.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Just Jack]

Guys, thanks for the quick responses!

Shelldrake – Thanks.  I apologize as I didn’t mention it, but I’m looking at this scenario fodder as I don’t want to play a ‘conventional’ Cold War Gone Hot-type scenario.  Though Red Storm Rising is a favorite of mine 😉

Kyote – Thanks, but I don’t want to steal an idea/setting someone has already put into play for a campaign.  I’ll take a look at Eli’s blog and see if there are any ideas I can ‘borrow.’  Maybe a bordering country?

Tempest – Twilight 2000, now that’s interesting.  I need to look into that, though the only turn-off about it is that I’m not really looking for a post-Apocalyptic world.  I’d like all the other countries to be normally functioning so they can provide replacement equipment to my own war-torn country 😉

Patrice – I think this is the closest so far to the type of thing I’m looking for, but I still have problems I think.  Maybe.

So, East Germany splits from WarPact; I need a reason why USSR doesn’t move in and ‘actively’ bring them back into the fold immediately.  With DDR splitting from WarPact, NATO immediately hops in with equipment and money, but after a year or so we have leadership and the population splitting into two very distinct elements: pro-democracy, and pro-socialist.  Open conflict breaks out.

I think I still need a reason USSR doesn’t crush it immediately.  I think later you can argue NATO offers the former DDR protection as a burgeoning democracy, and so both NATO and WarPact counterbalance each other, staying out of the fighting for fear of turning it into WWIII.

 

Interesting, and I appreciate everyone’s concepts, and still open to more ideas.

 

V/R,
Jack

[shelldrake]

Just Jack wrote:

I need a reason why USSR doesn’t move in and ‘actively’ bring them back into the fold immediately. With DDR splitting from WarPact, NATO immediately hops in with equipment and money, but after a year or so we have leadership and the population splitting into two very distinct elements: pro-democracy, and pro-socialist. Open conflict breaks out. I think I still need a reason USSR doesn’t crush it immediately. I think later you can argue NATO offers the former DDR protection as a burgeoning democracy, and so both NATO and WarPact counterbalance each other, staying out of the fighting for fear of turning it into WWIII. Interesting, and I appreciate everyone’s concepts, and still open to more ideas. V/R, Jack

the USSR is embroiled with another Russian Civil War; With Brezhnev dying in 1982 a power struggle begins for control of the country. This flares up in to a civil war.

 

Or, with the failure of the Afghan war plus the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 creates increased public dissatisfaction with the Communist regime, again leading to a civil war.

 

Regardless of why, a civil war within the USSR would be one reason why East Germany is ignored… and who know what other countries will follow suit, leaving the Warsaw Pact weaker.

[Luddite]

I’d go for a  couple of middle eastern/african countries  that have just switched allegeiance between superpowers. They will have both Warpac and Yankee kit.

[kyoteblue]

You could have a more active Russian Chinese  hot border conflict.  That and Afghanistan could keep the Russians busy.

[Just Jack]

Shelldrake – I’m digging it!  I like the 1986 idea: Afghanistan going terribly, Chernobyl freaking folks out, economy cracking, Glasnost/Perestroika, maybe Gorbachev falls ill, encouraging a power struggle.  To Kyote’s point, maybe this emboldens the Chinese to act on some limited territorial disputes.

Now I’m thinking about the Baltic states breaking away instead of Germany, maybe Poland too?  I dunno.

Luddite – I’d thought about doing a Lebanon deal, or maybe South Africa, but all I have are pine trees for 6mm!

Thanks guys.  Nothing is settled, so new ideas are still welcome.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

The Cedars of Lebanon , Um Cedars =Pine Trees. That and if all goes as planned and we get the house, I will have a 3 car garage as my man cave gaming area and can get back to making terrain . I will build you some real hills Just Jack….wink wink.

[warren coleman]

Slightly off topic, I’ve been reading the Twilight 2000 Wiki.  Are there any books/novels associated with these alternative histories?

 

[shelldrake]

warren coleman wrote:

Slightly off topic, I’ve been reading the Twilight 2000 Wiki. Are there any books/novels associated with these alternative histories?

 

The Twilight 2000 RPG had some source books, but apart from that, the best you can find are novels, with Larry Bond writing most of them. He has novels set in Europe, Korea and Africa, and well as a modern one of a Chinese invasion of Vietnam.

[kyoteblue]

Next time if I remember I’ll dig through some of my stuff to see if I still have the Twilight 2000 stuff.

[Patrice]

Or you could imagine that the GDR (or other countries) gains some independance under Gorbachev; but that the 1991 Moscow military coup against Eltsin succeeds and the USSR is ready to fight again.

(Not that I think that they really wanted to fight in the earlier period, I’m convinced they didn’t, but hey, you want imagination).

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Just Jack]

Kyote – Three car garage?  What’d you do, knock off a bank?

Patrice – Do you mean GDR (or other Baltic States) fighting against the Russians?  I’ve been a bit wary of that, as I don’t believe my little country will survive the Russian onslaught 😉

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

No I didn’t knock over a bank, my Lady Joyce is selling her farm and using part of the money to buy a new home. So I get the garage. The house has a study but Joyce wants a place to paint and do crafts.

[Author]

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