Recommendations for a small, modern, cold war inspiration?

[bluewillow]

I can think of a few I read sometime ago

 French Foreign Legion Indochina
Devils guard
Street without joy

Africa
Mad dog killers
32 battalion

[brasidas19004]

What are the Africa ones about?  And we're talking history or historical fiction?

I can think of a few I read sometime ago

 French Foreign Legion Indochina
Devils guard
Street without joy

Africa
Mad dog killers
32 battalion

[brasidas19004]

Reading Dunnigan's "A Quick and Dirty Guide to War" has been interesting - periodically, a country or region provides an interesting "what if" situation.

For example, Suriname. There are a number of players at the table, and an important mining industry - bauxite - in relationship to world production.  There has been some instability and one significant internal "war":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surinamese_Interior_War
While neither the scale of the fighting nor the internal turbulence are anywhere near most similar conflicts, there is potential for it to get bigger / worse altho that potential was not realized.

Overall, this is a perfect "what if" for a wargame set in that country, and it is also a perfect blueprint for an "imagi-nation" of almost any kind, in the modern period, or in the far future if propelled into science fiction.

[carlos marighela]

Back in the news late last year but if you look across the border into Guiana you'll see there was just as much potential there. Following independence there was a genuine threat of war with Venezuela with Venezuelan troops taking over disputed territory in the Essequibo. The Venezuelans maintain a presence on Ankoko Island to this day. Had things heated up just a little further, it's quite likely Britain may have felt obliged to intervene. If you want a third dimension, Suriname also has territorial claims on Guaianese territory.

Actually if you go a bit further north you have almost the perfect cold war era setting. Guatemala has long held a territorial claim to much of Belize. In 1972 this saw Britain despatch HMS Ark Royal and her air group at speed towards Belize, amid the threat of a Guatemalan invasion. Buccaneers did overflights of Belize City as a show of force. The Guatemalans backed down.

They massed troops along the border again in 1975 and Britain deployed a battalion group to Belize as a deterrent. This garrison was largely maintained up to the 1990s. It's an ideal gaming sized force. A infantry battalion (thinly spread) a troop of Scorpion light tanks, a Rapier battery and a reinforced flight of Harrier jump jets.

The Guatemalan's are an interesting Opfor, being equipped with an eclectic of WW2 era kit as well as modern Israeli small arms and patrol vehicles. In the early to mid 1970s they still had P-51 Mustangs on strength which they traded in for for A-37 Dragonflys. There are few cold war armies you can fit out not just with US WW2 era halftracks, armoured cars and tanks but also WW2 era 75mm German infantry guns (purchased through Czechoslovakia in the 1950s).

[Rick]

I saw some of the reports of tensions in that area, inflammatory remarks made and, thankfully, a cooling off - although nothing has really been resolved in the long term.
Chechoslovakia did quite a bit of trade post-war, what with producing their own versions of the German 251 series and artillery pieces - lots more got sold off around the world.
South America has been seen as a series of hotspots for potential, and actual, conflicts for quite some time - vested interests in the area appear to prefer cooling immediate tensions while not resolving long-term grievances, perhaps to play each country off against each other.
Now, having veered further into politics than I should have, it's time to get back to the wargaming!

[carlos marighela]

Considering the size of the continent and complexity of the geography, surprisingly few unresolved territorial disputes, at least ones that might lead to unplesantness.

Probably the best known was the Beagle Channel. Argentina and Chile almost went to war twice, the last time in 1978. Now resolved. Then of course there was the Chaco but that resolved itself about 90 years ago.

The Essequibo is still a live issue as noted above. Hell of a place to fight a war though, it really is the middle of nowhere. If you thought Jonestown was remote it has nothing on the Essequibo frontier and likely flashpoints.

Of less potential for war but long held and painful grievance is the dispossession by Chile of large chunks of southern Peru and the associated loss of a Bolivian access to the sea. Chances of it reaching a military confontation are pretty minimal.

Peru and Equador did go toe to toe over the Cenepa as late as thirty years ago but that was resolved in 1998.

The you have the Falklands/ Malvinas. Chances of that kicking off again, even with the current lunatic in the Casa Rosada are virtually nil. Argentina's current military capacity against anyone with guns or an armed aircraft or two is negligible.

The continent is more closely bound by international trade these days. The husband of my wife's favourite cousin used to regularly deploy to Amapa and Brazil's northern borders when he was in the Fuzileiros Navais but that was largely a watch on smuggling. Any incipient threat of war would have been forestalled by Washington opening his mouth and boring any potential intruder to death. We once stood outside a bedding store in Rio and Washington launched into a 20 minute conversation about the remarkable nature of a bedding store selling mattresses.

Cross border drug smuggling and international drug cartels remain the biggest threats, apart from internal dissent and there's much more co-operation between countries than antipathy, as it's a shared problem. Last armed incursion on to Brazilian soil I can think of was FARC attacking a Brazilian army post in the early 1990s and the response was a pretty decisive joint op between the Brazilian and Colombian militaries.

[italwars]

The you have the Falklands/ Malvinas. Chances of that kicking off again, even with the current lunatic in the Casa Rosada are virtually nil. Argentina's current military capacity against anyone with guns or an armed aircraft or two is negligible.

Fine but , instead of a "what if" , why don't you just game the historical Faklands War land skirmishes and  battles (all quite small as concern troops involved) that took place in 1982..few troops, just model soldiers to purchase,  very few artillery, almost no tanks, no trucks, no IFVs, occasional and limited air and naval support,  lot of detailed info now available for both sides, simple (from a wargame point of view) terrain to reproduce and, in my opinion, also quite a few good maps available in exactly the right scale you need to help setting tabletop terrains

[Altius]

One conflict I’ve often thought about gaming was the war in Nicaragua in the 70s and 80s. There were two different conflicts involved, the revolution itself against the Somoza regime which ended in 1979, followed by the long, drawn-out Contra War involving three forces: the Sandinista military, the CIA-backed Contras and the Miskito Indians (who really just wanted to be left alone). There are a lot of hypothetical and not so hypothetical combattants too, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you really want to get in the spirit of things, you could find a Spotify playlist of the music of Carlos Mejia Godoy to use as a soundtrack. He was really popular among all Nicaraguans during the period, but especially the Sandinistas.

At the moment, however, I’m deeply involved in putting together the forces to refight the Bay of Pigs invasion in 10mm. Yes, it was a ridiculous and utterly hopeless scheme, but it’s full of interesting features and satisfies my interest in obscure conflicts. Plus, I can always use the troops later for other conflicts in Latin America or Africa during the 60scand 70s. 

[carlos marighela]

At the moment, however, I’m deeply involved in putting together the forces to refight the Bay of Pigs invasion in 10mm. Yes, it was a ridiculous and utterly hopeless scheme, but it’s full of interesting features and satisfies my interest in obscure conflicts. Plus, I can always use the troops later for other conflicts in Latin America or Africa during the 60scand 70s.

Needs a Peter Falk as CIA agent figure a la The In-Laws .

Sheldon: 'You were involved in the Bay of Pigs?'
Vince Ricardo (Falk): 'Involved? That was my idea.'

One of my favourite films and as an absurdist comedy, it's closest to the thought patterns that inspired the Bay of Pigs.

[Altius]

Needs a Peter Falk as CIA agent figure a la The In-Laws .

Sheldon: 'You were involved in the Bay of Pigs?'
Vince Ricardo (Falk): 'Involved? That was my idea.'

One of my favourite films and as an absurdist comedy, it's closest to the thought patterns that inspired the Bay of Pigs.

That is a sorely needed figure. What a great movie. My father took me to see that as a child. I’ve rarely heard him laugh so hard. 

[madman]

brasidas19004

Like many of the others I too am looking for ideas to grab me channel my energies to create a suitable locale and environment for an on going campaign. Also like you I am into Traveller. I saw a youtube video by a guy, Seth Skorkowsky, who reviewed an adventure in a recent copy of Mongoose's Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. The adventure is called Ship In The Lake and is a rewrite of a much older adventure published in the original JTAS. The adventure is set on a back water planet which has been experiencing a long term (decade long) insurgency. I ran the adventure and ended up detailing the world to a large extent. We have played a couple scenarios using Stargrunt II, a handful using Ambush Alley and one using Battlespace. If you want to kick around ideas on detailing worlds in Traveller or thoughts on adapting conflicts you can discuss them here or PM me.

Stephen

[Stevie-the-Gamer]

You could do worse than the Jerry Pournelle books that describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion.  Interplanetary travel, lots of asymmetrical warfare themes, slug throwers rather than lasers etc.

Falkenberg's Legion (Falkenberg's Legion #1)
Prince of Mercenaries (Falkenberg's Legion #2)
Go Tell the Spartans (Falkenberg's Legion #3)
Prince of Sparta (Falkenberg's Legion #4)

There's a compilation called The Prince (Falkenberg's Legion #1-4)

[Rick]

You could do worse than the Jerry Pournelle books that describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion.  Interplanetary travel, lots of asymmetrical warfare themes, slug throwers rather than lasers etc.

Falkenberg's Legion (Falkenberg's Legion #1)
Prince of Mercenaries (Falkenberg's Legion #2)
Go Tell the Spartans (Falkenberg's Legion #3)
Prince of Sparta (Falkenberg's Legion #4)

There's a compilation called The Prince (Falkenberg's Legion #1-4)

I read those books quite a while ago, they're very well done. After reading 'West of Honour' I just couldn't shake the feeling that Pournelle had based the story on a historical campaign, but never could work out which.