Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Italy is in a bad way. There is no effective government beyond local areas.
The northern, industrialised part of the nation was heavily nuked according to Med Cruise and a flood of southbound refugees resulted.
Italy also is in no way part of or even allied with the Pact nations. Italy entered the war as a result of their treaty with Greece when Nato ran their blockade in an attempt to resupply Turkey in their local conflict.
France in my opinion has far too many problems of their own to worry much about what's happening more than a stones throw away. A few small teams and the odd individual operative is likely to be encountered from time to time, but the situation within France and it's client states is highly likely to occupy their attention for several years to come.
France, even though not actively involved in the war, was still nuked. Ports, industry, communications, etc are all sure to have been hit to deny them to the enemy. Both Nato and Pact missiles are likely to have been used with one side blaming the other to avoid the counterstrike - or perhaps the counterstrike was launched by France? The half dozen or so missiles were simply lost amongst the hundreds already being thrown about by the belligerants.
France also lost most of it's trading partners due to the war. Imports of food, fuel, parts, etc would have effectively ceased inflicting further hardship on the populace and further pressure on the military and security forces to keep control. With a great length of border to protect from Germany in the north all the way around to Spain to the south, not to mention the possiblity of boats from across the channel, just border protection alone would occupy almost all available forces. We know that the French have set up the Dead Zone along the Rhine extending 50 km into Germany - it's likely that a similar buffer would exist all around the country.
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I concur. To me, people tend to overemphasise France's role and power in the post-nuclear exchange world of the Twilight War. Yes, France is the strongest power left, or rather, it is the
only intact power left. Let's look at the other powers:
USA: nuked, in anarchy, starving
USSR/Russia: ditto
China: ditto
UK: ditto
etc.
etc.
So in this kind of environment, it doesn't take much to be the strongest power around. But what good does being strongest do for France in a nuked out world? Or to put it another way, France is the tallest midget in a roomful of midgets. Yes, France is better off than the rest, but in the world of "Twilight 2000" better is a relative term. I personally think that by 2001 several million people have died in France as a result of the nuclear attacks, radiation, famines and epidemics. I'll post here what the Finnish Sourcebook has to say about France (I'll eventually post the World Situation in 2000 section when I get to it):
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"Despite her neutrality, France suffered from nuclear strikes directed at her ports and oil industry in order to deny them to NATO. The destruction was mostly limited to the coasts, but the number of deaths was great. Riots and instability caused by the war and ensuing refugee crisis led first to the closing of the borders and then to the occupation of the entire west bank of the Rhine. Because of this the Army has created a freefire Dead Zone (
La Zone Morte), where anyone who is caught moving can be freely killed. The border is officially closed to all but French citizens, although in practice one can bribe one's way in, provided that you have a useful profession that you can support yourself with.
The Franco-Spanish border is also closed, but smuggling is rife. The black market is run by the
Union Corse (a Corsican organised crime syndicate). With the worsening of the situation the French government has had to take tougher measures, and as a result life in most areas is hard but bearable.
In some areas (particularly mountainous ones) there is open rebellion against the government and martial law is in place almost everywhere. The governments of the southern French departments are unbelievably corrupt because they are controlled by the
Union Corse. Marseille is the largest undamaged city, though it is in bad shape compared to the pre-war era. It represents the remains of trade between the merchants of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and is completely under the control of the Corsicans.
Most of France is
organized (mostly due to the French government/Army though the
Union Corse functions similarly in southern France). A few mountainous areas are
disputed or
independent .
Terrorised and
isolated areas as well as
military cantonments are to be found in the west bank of the Rhine.
La Zone Morte is
destroyed.
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So with all these issues, I'd say France has its work cut out just trying to keep things together, never mind going off on foreign adventures except for the aforementioned small teams and individual agents. I can see the French in the Middle-East because of the oil, but I don't see them doing much in Africa. The only thing I could come up with is setting up transportation nodes in the African coast, to safeguard the Middle-East oil shipments from pirates and the like. But stuff like interfering in Canada, or South America, or Asia... I dunno. I just don't think they have the resources for that.