Twlight 2030

[Raellus]

The second part of this think-piece imagines the beginning of WWIII. It reads like the v1.0 history. Chilling.

https://warisboring.com/imagine-world-war-iii-between-american-and-china/

I imagine that while the U.S. and China are duking it out in the South China Sea, Russia is completing the annexation of Ukraine and invading the Baltic States.

[Targan]

I just scrubbed the post I was about to write because it would have undoubtedly offended someone and been seen as excessively political and anti-theist. Instead I'll just say this - we deserve to be eclipsed by China. East Asia is utterly driven to produce smarter, better educated people and to usher in a new era of near-magical technology and we've got what? "Cash me ousside" girl? SMH.

[RN7]

I'd love to know were Alfred McCoy the author of this article gets his research because it is in the main a load of nonsense.

The best is his claim that China filed 801,000 new patents in 2014, half of the world total, compared to a measly 285,000 patents filed by the U.S. Funny because in 2016 there were only 304,000 new patents filed under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid and Hague systems. Under PCT America filed 56,600 and China was third behind Japan with 43,100 patents. Under Madrid the U.S. was first with 7,700 new patents, followed by Germany, France and China. Under Hague Germany was first with 3,900 followed by Switzerland, South Korea and the U.S. China filed 96.

As for the rest don't get me started. Please!

[Raellus]

Seven years ago or so, Rainbow Six and I worked out a timeline/future history for Twilight 2030. In a nutshell, the US and a somewhat fractured NATO is fighting a resurgent Russian Federation (including allies Belorussia, Bulgaria, Serbia) in Eastern Europe; while a new iteration of SEATO battles the Chinese in East Asia. It’s a quite a bit more complicated than that (the rough draft narrative history fills a 12-page Word doc). If you're interested, said doc is attached. Of course, the war escalates- first, with the use of battlefield tactical nukes and, later, a limited strategic nuclear exchange, culminating in a failed NATO summer 2030 offensive. Some of what we predicted in 2014 has already come to pass in the real world today; fortunately, none of the really bad stuff has. Yet…

Although I like the idea of playing Twilight 2000 with current/near-future weapons, vehicles, and equipment, there are a couple of issues that arise as a result.

If both the PC party and the OPFOR have equal access to modern weapons, optics, NODs, comms, body armor, etc., then you essentially end up playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with paper and pencil. If the PC party has greater access to said gear, then they become OP (bordering on godmode); on the other hand, if the OPFOR has greater access to said gear, it won’t be long until a TPK scenario takes place.

Also, IMHO, having access to a lot of modern/near-future tech kit sort of violates the retrograde ethos of T2k.

But still, if you're interested in a future history game, these notes might help.

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[Raellus]

A friendly Syria gives Russia access to the Mediterranean, a major reason, no doubt, for Moscow's steadfast support of the genocidal Assad regime.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40777/russian-tu-22m3-backfire-bombers-based-in-syria-are-going-to-patrol-the-mediterranean

EDIT (5/26):

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40800/right-on-cue-russian-tu-22m3-bombers-now-flying-from-syria-brandish-anti-ship-missiles

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