Much ado in the wargaming front...

It has been an active time wargaming wise thus far.

First, I ran my Russo-Polish 2018 micro armor game using FFT3 rules. The game ran well, though two small problems:

a) I forgot to get photos.

b) NLOS 3rd gen ATGM is really, really nasty. And the launchers are damned hard to deal with. The Poles are just proving on my gaming table that Spike-LR is truly the "Israeli Death Ray".

I am also coming along with a little project for Battlech Alpha Strike: It is a company of Robinson Rangers, ca. 3056. It is an eclectic group of mechs and I really am having fun with the project, though I will admit I am taking my time with it..but I do have some in progress pics to show off.

Also, in conjunction with the Russo-Polish project, I wanted to post this little future history....and see if it was worthy gaming fodder?

The Year is 2018

·         The Western nations of the EU have cut defense spending to dangerous levels, spending the money instead on increased social service transfer payments to a restive refugee population from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan or oil and gas purchases from any quarter available, including an increasingly aggressive Russia. Arguments on what to ultimately do with said refugee population has left an East-West split in the EU that is ever widening, only through American and British efforts has NATO not split irrevocably.

·         The Mideast is in near meltdown. No central government is extant in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, or Lebanon, with the Islamic State having collapsed after the death of its titular leader in a US drone strike. Kurdistan has declared independence, revolution is in the air in Iran and Egypt. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations have become fanatical garrison states, closing their borders except at the oil ports. Egypt is in the throes of civil war. Pakistan is in chaos, in the wake of a botched military coup, and the Indians are weighing their military options. Israel stands alone as a beacon of civilization in the Mideast, but is under siege by a very desperate Palestinian population.

·         Russia’s population crisis is beginning to bite, with analysts stating that she will go from 165 million people in 2015, to 130 million by 2030. Russia is desperate for a population base to help weather the storm. With fuel prices what they are, the Russians finally have the money to settle old scores with their former Cold War “allies”.

·         Oil and gas prices are at an all-time high, with spot shortages in Europe and Asia, China is especially feeling the pinch, and she has been reduced to selling her American debt holdings back to the US in an effort to stabilize her economy. North Korea is in chaos, with a five sided civil war breaking out in 2017.

·         The US is weathering the storm, with an energy fueled recovery, and a Republican presidential victory in 2016 opening up both the Keystone pipeline and ANWAR, the US now has more than enough fuel for its domestic needs. The US has accelerated its disengagement from the Mideast,  (with the exception of its support for Israel) and has begun to focus more on Europe, with a resurgent Russia replacing China as America’s new strategic challenge. The US has begun a moderate defense buildup, which has only now begun to take shape.

·         In early 2017, Belorussia announces that it has concluded an agreement with Russia to reunify. Many observers call the treaty the Second Anchluss. Before long, major elements of the Russian military are on the Polish border.

·         While this is occurring, the Polish government announces the discovery of major shale deposits in the Carpathian Mountains, south of Krakow. The find is big, enough to meet most of Poland’s energy needs, and make Poland a net energy exporter in three years. Russia cannot abide by this, and Russo-Polish relations go into a death spiral.

·         Before long, the Russians accuse Poland of having designs on the Kaliningrad Oblast. This is a charge Poland denies vociferously. After the Russians stage an incident along the border to the Oblast, they then make threats to end the “Nazi cabal in Warsaw”. Poland mobilizes, and asks NATO for assistance. Except for concrete aid from the US and the UK (a USMC Battalion is airlanded in Warsaw and married up with its pre-positioned equipment within 24 hours of the Polish request, and a UK Airmobile Brigade lands at Krakow airport, more is arriving by the hour), the NATO allies make a lot of tough talk and halfhearted speeches about “Alliance Unity”. Germany and France go so far as to declare their neutrality in the conflict, but stating they are still willing to remain in NATO.

·         Three days later, after a Russian ultimatum runs out, the eastern Polish frontier lights up with the largest artillery barrage by the Russian Army since World War II. The Russian plan is simple, airmobile and airborne troops, backed by Spetsnaz, will seize all the major river crossings over the Bug, the Narew, the San, and most importantly, the Vistula. The Russians attempt to kill the Polish Prime Minister, and do kill quite a few members of Parliament, as well as the head of the Air Force in Spetsnaz raids. The Russian Air Force is playing hell with the roads and river traffic, delaying the Polish attempt to shift units from the West and South to the East. After that, some 15 Tank and Motor Rifle Brigades roll into Eastern Poland. The Russians have but one objective: Warsaw. All that Poland has to face the Russians is a few scratch brigades trading what space they have for time while the rest of the army shifts to the east.

·         In the rest of the world, Israel invades Syria to restore order after a warlord “accidentally” shells a kibbutz near the Golan. Iran invades Southern Iraq for much the same reasons, although they openly admit they want control of the long disputed Shat-al-Arab. In North Korea, a Chinese backed military coup partially succeeds, but winds up only controlling the Capitol, as the other Corps commanders in the North Korean People’s Army have their own ideas on who should be in charge, and a fratricidal 5 sided civil war breaks out, soon sparking Chinese and South Korean intervention, the two sides soon engaging in clashes as they both attempt to grab as much of North Korea’s arsenal of WMD before anyone else does.

·         Mexico after years of LIC between the government and the narcotraficantes, descends into civil war. When evidence of Russian arms and advisers show up in the hands of the “narcos”, the US intervenes.

·         The UN, ever a moribund organization, breaks up under the strain of at least three members of the permanent 5 in the Security Council shooting at each other in Poland.