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.