Custom Scenario: Cold War (circa 1975) for East & West
Context:
Back in the days of A&A: Iron Blitz for the PC, one of the custom scenarios I came up with for that game, was a Cold War variant. I started off with having EU/NATO (as well as Commonwealth countries) with their capitol in the UK, allied with the US. On the opposing side was the USSR/Warsaw Pact (including Cuba) allied to a coalition of China and the Arab League (with it’s capitol in Japan, for mechanical reasons related to the PC version – the “fiction” I had invented was that they invaded Japan, which was the catalyst for the war.) This was probably/possibly/partly inspired by Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 being out around this time, and having Iraq and Libya as factions under the Soviets.
Around the same time, East & West was out; when I found out about it, adapting this scenario to it was one of the first things I had thought of. I had been refining the idea, and doing more research into the historical context of the period. Here’s what I eventually came up with:
Whereas the “Berlin Airlift” scenario (of the original E&W) sets the war at the high-water mark of the colonial powers, the 1975 scenario was meant to be the high-water mark of the smaller factions who were in play during the cold war era. (As an aside, I think the Imp Games “major neutral/neutral alliance” paradigm is sort of a response to World at War having tons and tons of independent neutrals, just waiting to be gobbled up, one by one.)
Setup:
An early draft of the rules/setup for this scenario are available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8U3vyGydEjmMTdyd1Frb0M0VTQ/view?usp=sharing
Factions:
Western Europe
European NATO countries (Iceland, UK, Portugal, France, Norway, West Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey)
CENTO: a successor to the Baghdad Pact, which in this period includes the UK, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan
SEATO: an alliance which included the major NATO powers (US, UK, France) as well as smaller regional partners (Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand)
South Africa: arguably makes more sense as a US territory, but with the rest of Africa being more affiliated with Europe, I eventually decided to add them in here. During this period, they were fighting various factions either aligned with or backed by communist powers.
US
While things like the ANZUS pact and SEATO could reasonably slot Australia and New Zealand in with the US, the CENTO “piece of the puzzle” led me to slot them in with WE. To compensate, I shifted Canada over to the US; their cooperation would expand during the cold war era, with things like NORAD, and it just made sense that in the case of war, the NATO allies on the American continent would be more of a unified force.
Warsaw Pact
Around the time that West Germany was admitted into NATO, the USSR formed this pact with its eastern bloc satellites. The Vietnam War had ended, with the communist forces taking control of the country. (Somalia and Ethiopia have a weird cold war history, but in the scope of a global war, I figured it made the most sense to stick the territory under the USSR.) After gaining independence from Portugal, Angola and Mozambique went communist, with the former receiving military aid from Cuba. Afghanistan was also ruled by a communist regime, at this time.
Minor Neutrals
Yugoslavia had a falling out with the USSR, and never joined the Warsaw Pact. In 1955, Austria was also released from occupation, pledging to never join either of the major military alliances. Yugoslavia is a neutral territory in this scenario, since it approximately occupies the space of both of these countries (i.e. bordering Switzerland to the west.)
Israel had been proclaimed in 1948, and steadily gained more territory (in the intervening years leading up to this scenario) in successive wars against its Arab neighbours. Jordan is a neutral territory (representing Israel and its occupations/conquests) in this scenario.
Burma (now known as Myanmar) was one of the few countries to never join the British Commonwealth, after decolonization, so it is an independent neutral in this scenario.
Major Neutrals
Organization of American States: (purple) remains unchanged from the original E&W, though communist influence began to creep in, throughout the cold war.
Arab League: (yellow) greatly expanded its membership, with the decolonization of various north African countries. (I’ve considered re-branding this faction to “Islamic Conference” which would allow it to also include Equatorial Africa, Maldives, and Indonesia – further consolidating a few minor neutrals.)
China (orange): expanded its territory with the annexation of Tibet, in the early 1950s. With Nixon’s visit to the country, and overall thawing of relations with the US, in this scenario China will support either the Soviets or the US.
Commonwealth of Nations (brown): from the ashes of the British Empire, this faction represents members of the Commonwealth who remained outside of the rival alliances.
