The Cold War Turns Hot - A (Not so) Brief Campaign Introduction

Last weekend we played our first games of Fistful of TOWs. The write-ups from those will be making up my next few blogposts so I thought it'd be worthwhile giving a brief introduction to the Cold War turned hot campaign which they're a part of (Hello readers, it's me from the future! Having just finished this blog and gone back to read over it I realised I'd rambled on way past the two paragraphs I originally intended this post to be and thought I should probably come back and remove the word "brief". However, I've decided to leave it in anyway to show that my intentions were good).

In our alternate 1983, after a period of increasing tensions NATO's Able Archer military exercise is perceived by the USSR as preparations for a genuine attack. With American Pershing II missiles on their way to Europe, the Soviet leadership decides to carry out a preemptive attack on the West before the initiative is lost and NATO's military power in Europe becomes insurmountable.

The campaign system is pretty simple. Europe is split into 27 territories and 7 sea zones. Territories can be either under strong NATO control (dark blue), weak NATO control (light blue), weak PACT control (pink), or Strong PACT control (red). Sea zones are either NATO controlled, contested, or PACT controlled. Before the scenario designer decides which territory or sea zone the game is going to take place in and the side that wins can choose to increase their control in that territory or another that they already control by one level. Each side can generally only increase their control in territories adjacent to ones they already have control in. This applies to sea zones as well. So if you have control of a sea zone you can then carry out naval invasions of any territory bordering that zone. Territories that don't have any neighbouring or sea zones controlled by their side move to weak enemy control.

There are also 5 neutral (white) territories. These may be pushed to picking a side in two ways:

• If one side successfully invades a neutral territory it may push other neutrals to seek a defensive alliance with their opponent, giving them weak control in that territory. After invading a neutral roll a d6, on a 1, 2 or 3 your opponent gains weak control of a neutral territory.
• If chemical or nuclear weapons are used by one side it may push neutrals towards their opponent. After using a chemical or nuclear weapon roll a d6, on a 1, 2 or 3 your opponent gains weak control of a neutral territory.

The use of chemical and nuclear weapons is clearly a tricky, not to mention sensitive, issue for this campaign. I've decided to handle it with what I've called the DEFCON tracker which will probably get updated and amended as the campaign goes on:

• DEFCON 5: The starting conditions for the campaign. The use of conventional military force is authorised.
• DEFCON 4: Reached once the control of any territory is switched from one side to the other. Use of chemical weapons is authorised. Every time chemical weapons are used roll a d6, on a 1, 2 or 3 move to DEFCON 3.
• DEFCON 3: Use of tactical nuclear weapons is authorised. Every time a nuclear weapon is used  roll a d6, on  1, 2 or 3 move to DEFCON 2.
• DEFCON 2: Prepare strategic nuclear weapons. Every time a nuclear weapon is used roll a d6, on 1, 2, 3 or 4 move to DEFCON 1.
• DEFCON 1: Unrestricted use of nuclear weapons begins. The player that causes the tracker to move to DEFCON 1 loses the game. But really everybody loses :(

The DEFCON tracker also ties into the victory conditions of the campaign (which may be a surprise to anyone taking part because I've just made them up having realised we never decided how you actually win this thing). They are as follows:

• While the game is at DEFCON 5: Both sides agree that war is silly and put aside their differences.
• While the game is at DEFCON 4: Have 19 territory points. Each weakly controlled territory is worth 1 point, each strongly controlled territory is worth 2.
• While the game is at DEFCON 3: Have 21 territory points.
• While the game is at DEFCON2: Have 23 territory points.

The games we currently plan on using as part of this campaign are:

• Fistful of TOWs. After playing some Cold War Commander in the past and picking up a copy of Seven Days to the River Rhine we've settled on FfoT as our prefered option for 6mm cold war games. It hits the sweet spot of handling lots of units being on the table, having a large variety of nations and kit covered, and feeling right at 1:1 scale. 
• Naval Command. A great naval game by Rory Crabb who has several other rulesets on Wargames Vault. We've been tempted to add in some house rules to account for the Soviet navy's immense ability to spam out deadly missiles faster than our NATO fleets could ever hope to shoot them down but to be honest, and this will be apparent in my AARs for our FfoT games, the real culprit may be our desire to play scenarios that are far too large before we've really understood the game we're playing.
• Check Your Six! Jet Age: While the outcomes of these game won't be causing territories to change hands they will be used as part of small narrative sub-campaigns (particularly before naval landings) to decide who has control of the skies. I've also in the process of writing a progression system for our pilots that will hopefully add a bit of personality to a campaign that otherwise tends to be on a far larger scale.
• Skirmish Sangin: Although it primarily covers the more modern war in Afghanistan I also intend to use the wider campaign as the setting for some very small scale skirmish games, again probably as part of narrative sub-campaigns that influence the set up for FfoT or NavCom games. Maybe some Spetsnaz or SAS raids behind enemy lines.