Your Preferred T2K Timeline
 

I seem to remember a similar thread on the old board but I figured I'd put it out there again since TW2013 is a reality now and we have some new members here.

I prefer the v1.0 timeline for its alternative history feel and childhood nostalgia. I use it pretty much as is, except for allowing RL military equipment issued before the TDM and a few changes developed by the DC group.

Since I don't know if there are any timeline differences between the two, I added separate poll choices for v2 and v2.2, just in case.

What's your fav?

Please limit discussion to the various versions of the timeline, not to the game mechanics of each version.

Modified V1.

V.2 plus homegrown
 

In the 1990s we did play the original timeline -it was sort of in touch with the times -but after the end of the decade it was all homegrown

I think we all know how I roll :D

V.1: very good as an Alternate History.

I stick nearly 95% with the V2 timeline. I might borrow a little here and there, but for the most part everything in my games adhere to V2 timeline.

I don't now if I've ever even read the V2 timeline in its entirety. I put V1 in the poll but as most people here will know, my campaign is a bit of a Twilight Nightmares mish mash so I guess it could qualify as a homebrew timeline too.

I don't know if there are differences either. Can anyone enlighten us on this?

I'd have to call my preference a slightly modified v1 timeline. Most of the modifications I have included are to keep the v1 timeline as intact as possible while accounting for real world developments up through 1995.

Webstral

My own as you must have guessed.:D

I went for V1, my history is the V1 timeline with additional modern equipment that could have made it in, or indeed something that I reckon is just too cool not to use:D My game world is a bit like Targans as well in that I have zombies turning up now, but the background is mostly cannon.

I like the V1 timeline, with the use of nukes pushed back some. If I ever run a game, tactical nukes would be first used in '97, with the TDM in '99.

IMO, they were used way too early. I would have thought they would be used as a last, desperate measure.

I'm also a bit like Tigger and Targan as some elements of Dark Conspiracy are slowly getting in.

V1 for me with a few (very minor) tweaks here and there...plus additional equipment like Tigger mentioned (e.g. the G36)

I use v2.2 for timeline, simply because this is the version that fell in my hands here in Barcelona. Anyway I don't give too much importance to the timeline. Any knowledge adquired about any other timeline is because the threads in this forum.

I voted for v2.2 as that is what I used to run.

If I could start a game now I think I would go for a v2.2 variant where ODS turns into a full invasion like OIF, only less successful. Add in a smattering of Harold Coyle, i.e. Russians invade Iran for their oilfields, pull France out of the coalition as it goes against the UN Resolution (maybe FFL mutiny or are left in Gulf region with no support, and attach themselves to US/UK forces), Israel makes first nuclear strike...

My game history is the V1 timeline...the "current" year in the game is 2003 though.

As others have said a slightly modified V1.

As a nostalgia-fueled v1.0 apologist, I'm pleased to see the old stuff holding a slight edge.

I like the v2.2 game system (though it has some weaknesses and needs some fixes), but I prefer the v1 timeline.

Same here.

I use v2.2 but with the TW2010 timeline (and don't ask me for the link because I can't find it anywhere:( ).

Since so many people like the V1.0 Timeline, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me rebuilt my modification of the V1.0 timeline where the Sino-Soviet War doesn't start until 2000 (mainly used to allow the ecconomic reforms that 'saved' the communist systems from collapsing), and the Soviets not calling up Warsaw Pact allies for troops until 2002 after the Sino-Soviet War bogs down into a stalemate (and this call for troops from the Warsaw Pact is what gets the Western allies to start supplying the PRC with weapons and more). I had described Danilov's reforms being basicly the same kinds of reforms that the PRC has been doing in real life.

If anyone is interested please let me know, and as soon as the V1.2 timeline is completed we'll post it here for everyone to enjoy.

For me, part of the reason why I like the V1 time line is because of when it takes place. None of the modern weapons of today, its all classic, hard core, cold war gear.

That said, I do acknowledge it would be all around better suited with the USSR having an improved economy.

And it would also be alot better with the Soviets having alot more to loose with the purging of Danilov by the hardliners (and give a much better reason for the Red Army quickly facturing after the loss of control from the Kremlin, and why the units so far apart are part of the same 'faction').

IRL, the collapse of the Soviet economy was partially brought about by US military technology, and the Soviets trying to keep up -- unsuccessfully. Militarily, they sort of thought the West's military engineers were magicians. Their economy couldn't support that kind of R&D.

In a T2K v1 timeline, this might lead to a sense of increasing desperation --"We better attack now before they come up with something we definitely can't counter. We already can't match their technology -- we'll have to overwhelm them with numbers, which we have right now..." That sort of argument.

Although the novel Red Army didn't get too heavily into the "whys" of the Soviet attack chronicled therein, the reason you mention above was alluded to several times.

Also, the Soviet's war in Afghanistan was a severe drain on their finances. Withdrawing from A'stan, as they did IRL c. '89, would have saved the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Also, cutting back on subsidizing every Third World strongman or revolutionary who declared himself a Marxist/socialist/communist would help as well. With a few sginificant cost-cutting measures, I think the USSR could have remained solvent until T2K '95. Perhaps gaining control of resources on the Chinese side of the border was one of the Soviet's motives in launching the war.

If I remember right that was the reason behind the Soviet attack in War Day by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka as well - the US was starting to deploy an SDI system that would have rendered the Soviets almost totally (they felt) at Americas mercy. War Day is another book I'd highly recommend.

Great book, - War Day - it showed how the US broke up into little territories and how they salvaged New York City to recover all the valuable material left behind.

Relative newbie to T2K
 

I've only played T2K two times. Both times were very enjoyable. I do not own the books, so I have no way to compare versions.

All I know is the game was very thought provoking.

That is why we are still here 25 years later. Glad you came for a visit to this board. Quite a bit of potential post apoc crossover with Morrow Project.

Greetings gentlemen,

Not so long lurker, first time posting...

Ever since the USSR fell apart in 1991, Twilight 2000 worked best as alternative history, rather than as speculative fiction. It should have been re-released as an alternative history period piece set at the turn of the millenium. I think the folks behind Twilight:2013 may have made a mistake setting the game in a year that is rapidly approaching. Before you know it, events will overtake the speculative fiction, which will end up looking pretty quaint.

For example, I think we can all see that Frank Frey's moderate Islamic Republic of Iran (as depicted in the RDF Sourcebook) turned out to be as fanciful as the USSR lasting until 2000. And the idea that the Slovenians and Croats would side with the USSR against pro-NATO Serbs shows both it's age and it's false assumptions.

For myself, I've been working on a homegrown history of my own, heavily influenced by the v.1 and v.2 histories. My history diverges in 1989 when hardliners in the USSR assassinate Gorbachev by blowing up his plane while he is traveling to China just before the Tianamen Square Massacre. So, no 1991 coup, no Sino-Soviet War, no wall coming down...

... well, not completely anyways. 1989 to 1991 is an era of extreme crisis, with the USSR desperately trying to hold the Warsaw Pact together, the Gulf War and the break up of Yugoslavia. All these events are recast in light of the renewed Cold War and a hard line USSR.

My Twilight War ends up being a massive confrontation not just between western democracies and a reinvigorated Sino-Soviet alliance, but also between radical Islam. With the Gulf war working out differently, the Serbs engaging in "ethnic cleansing" against Muslims in the Yugoslavia, and the USSR scapegoating their Muslim citizens for the assassination of Gorbachev, leads to the growth of radical Islam into a world-wide threat about 5 years too early.

Rather than bore the crap out of everyone by writing about it here, I'll hold off and post my Twilight War time-line when I've filled in some of the biggest gaps. It currently stands at 37,000 words and tries to incorporate as much real world history as possible. I've also got a sort of global gazetteer in the works, trying to come up with the basic state of the world's governments after the Twilight War. That's currently at 35,000 words and still growing.

Anyways... excellent material on this forum. Keep up the great work guys.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing.

Sounds great. Definately interested in what you've done.
Wouldn't mind lending a hand either.

Well, it looks like I can attach pdf files to these forum posts, so I guess I'll just set up a new thread and post it when I'm feeling gutsy...

... what I've got is very basic and hasn't been fully researched. At least, not to my tastes anyways.

Anyone prefer a format other than pdf?

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

Word would be nice if you don't mind me tweaking things a bit with some suggestions - need something to do while I'm supposed to be working!

:naughty:

Well, since my work will clearly be perfect, and beyond the hand of mortal man to improve, there will be no need for you to tweek it.

Seriously though, if you know how to use Word's editing options so that I can see all the corrections, that would be fine. It looks like I can post two files attached to each forum post. I'll try to get this done before Tuesday, but as I have to get on a red-eye flight to GenCon Indy, it may have to wait until after I get back.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

You should be able to attach 10 files (up to 5 at a time).

We do have a 500kB limit on files to keep bandwidth down. If you want to share something larger I would suggest www.rapidshare.com. Just make sure you sign up for the collector zone at the end (to allow more than 10 downloads).

For example I put the breakdown of all my morrow project kits there.
http://rapidshare.com/files/23600164...ll_formats.zip

Most would not apply to T2k but the some of the medical kits would.

Can be done!

If you use the cutewriter program you can write it using any word processing program and convert it to pdf.

I'm currently playing in a game based on an alternative timeline, where war starts in 1983 as a result of NATO's ABLE ARCHER-war game being interpreted wrong by the paranoid Yuri Andropov. The change in era means that NATO and the Soviets are much more equal in strength and economic capability.

Have you read the thread "Able Archer 1983??" (http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=2263)? I think you might be able to contribute some very interesting material to that discusion.