When Should I Set my Cold War Gone Hot Project?

[Trooper]

Worker,

for some good modern scenario ideas, Harold Coyle's books are worth a look, as he pits US forces all over the world in various Cold War and post Cold War settings. By the way "Team Yankee" was by Harold Coyle and not Tom Clancy.
Clancy's Red Storm Rising has some good ideas too, like an amphibious Russian invasion of Iceland.  Also check out "The Zone" series. Not brilliant literatrue, but an interesting WWIII variant set in the 1980's. And of course don't forget Sir John Hackett's pair of WWIII books, or the brilliant "First Clash" by John Keegan, which has the Canadian Brigade pitted against the Russians in Germany.
Or, what about setting it in the late 1940's, after the German surrender. Both sides matched to a certain extent, but with Centurion and Pershing tanks coming on line, as well as the usual WWII kit, against T 34's and JS III tanks? Just a thought.

[Col.Stone]

Super Doc, i've been looking at microarmour just the last few days, finally coming to terms with the fact i'll never be able to fit a full 28mm battalion on my table

If you'd find that site again i'd be very happy to see it

It's very interesting to read what the Soviets thought about the Iraqi use of T-72s

I have one thing i really remember reading about NATO-tanks Vs iraqi T72,s
i can't remember exactly what it said bu it was
basically lots of laughter that they were proud to have blown up
20 or 30 year old tankmodels with their "brand new" kit.

[Lowtardog]

Super Doc, i've been looking at microarmour just the last few days, finally coming to terms with the fact i'll never be able to fit a full 28mm battalion on my table

If you'd find that site again i'd be very happy to see it

I have one thing i really remember reading about NATO-tanks Vs iraqi T72,s
i can't remember exactly what it said bu it was
basically lots of laughter that they were proud to have blown up
20 or 30 year old tankmodels with their "brand new" kit.

Have a look at the tiny ones Eureka sell I have been tempted a few times and used to play Spearhead WW2 but had heard Modern SH isnt too hot so it passed

[Col.Stone]

picoarmour 1/600?
http://picoarmor.com/

sooo small

[Lowtardog]

picoarmour 1/600?
http://picoarmor.com/

sooo small

Thats the ones, I was toying with division sized games and up

[Col.Stone]

Darby over at Fields of fire ahs been showing off the stuff for vietnam,
very very impressive, and probably the size i'd go for,
to really get the HUUGE battles

[Doc Twilight]

Super Doc, i've been looking at microarmour just the last few days, finally coming to terms with the fact i'll never be able to fit a full 28mm battalion on my table

If you'd find that site again i'd be very happy to see it

I have one thing i really remember reading about NATO-tanks Vs iraqi T72,s
i can't remember exactly what it said bu it was
basically lots of laughter that they were proud to have blown up
20 or 30 year old tankmodels with their "brand new" kit.


No problem:) I'll see if I can find it.

I know that the Soviets kept insisting that the Iraqis were totally incompetent when using them. As for a WARPAC perspective, a cousin (who was lucky enough to crew a T-55M for the Hungarian Army during the Cold War... luck being a relative term) said that a "pack of drunken monkeys" could have done a better job.



-Doc

[Col.Stone]

 

[The Worker]

Wow! Loads of interesting information here - particularly the "We don't want to go MAD" stuff; I'd always thought that the NATO doctrine to counter the Soviet juggernaut was "Aiee! The Reds are coming! Nuke Germany!!" and as a result the Soviets would spearhead with 2nd-line formations and use 1st-line stuff in the second wave to fight through the nuclear slag.

Seems I was wrong! I've got a lot of reading to do about the Cold War primarily because my main 20th Century military interests have always been the Eastern Front and SCW.

A chemical war would be much more interesting (a bit like fighting games of Rogue Trooper - much higher rate of casualties as punctured NBC suits = dead men) than a LOL J00 R N00KED BAI game, so that's a plus.

I've decided - thanks to all your info, Doc T, and others - that my 20mm Moderns stuff will be:

Late 1984 - after years of Russian atrocities in Afghanistan, and leaked (and possibly fake) intel claiming that the Soviets have an eye on punching through Afghanistan and into Iran to the oil fields, NATO have begun to supply advisors to the Afghans. The CCCP decries this as "typical capitalist hypocritical moralising and interfering in the free peoples of the world" and responds with Spetznaz ops in Western Europe. NATO then carries out 'tactical strikes' in Eastern Europe, and it all escalates from there until in early 1985 the Soviets advance West, obliterating the Berlin Garrison in one day of vicious fighting...

And, of course, I'm going to get about a platoon of figures a side to do the 1990s breakup stuff, because the idea of militias and regulars and mercenaries in weird parts of the world are all too fun to pass up!

Doc, I'd love to see those links if you can find them, and ANY more details or info you have would be most welcome!

PS:

Red Storm Rising's my favourite Clancy book, although the stupid US ultra-stealth aircraft are annoying and predictable. Bah humbug.

[Col.Stone]

For rules, i'd suggest disposable heroes with Socwad if you want a "single figure" game, has rules for NBC conditions, and is pretty fast and funny, there's also a shedload of free soviet/us content on their yahoogroup

[Gunbird]

1985 is a good date, I've used that as my cut off date for the equipment for my Dutch Army that I am building, as well as the VDV force to attack/oppose it. The secondary Russian force is 2nd rate and fits anywhere from 1960 till 1990, depending on the supoort I give it and the vehicles it rides in. 20mm, so you can have a decent table with nice toys that don't break the bank.

Mind you, the heaviest vehicle I have done for my Dutch against the Russians is a Jeep with a TOW mount, and my Leopards 1's and possible 1-V's are a long way off from being finished (Deadline 3rd quarter 2010)

It is a nice time for a lot of forces as they were peaking in terms of equipment and readyness, after this the Cold War thaws out and is over. Not sure what NATO force I wan't to build after I finish my Dutch, was looking at a German Territorial Army after that as I have a few boxes of old M48A2G2A tanks (how is that for a tank to fight T-64's and T-80's with  )

[Col.Stone]

That's great, a real reversal on the tank power role there 

i've got quite a vietnam collection aswell as my more modern stuff, i've been thinking they'd make pretty good 2ndline US troops

[The Worker]

Vietnam-period troops would work well as National Guard, I think.

[AndyRix]

First post here so Hi,

There are a couple of great things about the cold war from the soviet perspective.  The whole army is immensly flexible, so Cat 1 units in the 50's carried similar equipment to cat 3 in the 80's.  Client states fielded a lot of the 50's equipment whether in the middle east africa or centeral asia

from a core set of equipment you can fight across a very wide variety of conflicts and potential conflicts across quite a geographic and temporal range.  The soviets kindly painted their stuff mostly green and supplied it to a lot of clients in that state.

So the core of my soviets was built for early to mid 80's Central front but can be rounded out easily to support intervention ops in Namibia afghanistan etc.  You could consider a Histrorical "Soviet" force and a Fantasy insurgent/oposition force which gives quite a spread of conflicts that can be played.  Equally the core soviet equipment can fill out client state inventories for the same period.  So I currently play a fantasy arab state that was invaded by the sovs in the 80's and everyone else in the 00's doing duty for iraq and afganistan

as for the NBC options thought you'd like to see these, produced by Elhiem figures.

[The Worker]

Wow! I've never heard of Elheim and they're ace.

Hmm... Liberation Miniatures have a fantastically wide range of forces, and Elheim seem to do some good (and unique) figures too. Does anyone have any other suggestions for 20mm stuff?

Also, are there any good overview books (e.g. Ospreys) that cover NATO/WARPAC forces for the 1980s?