[Rainbow Six]

Thanks guys, I do appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Looking at a map and some websites, Winchester looks like a pretty good choice, and certainly seems to be a better one than Salisbury (Dude, if you discount Portsmouth then your other suggestions are pretty much it I think, though I have ULKF HQ still intact at Wilton as Salisbury isn’t listed as a canon strike, although Bristol is).

As I mentioned in my original post, I am attached to the idea of having the capital in Oxford, and I think it could work – there is the possibility of additional security coming from the RAF at Brize Norton and possibly the Americans at Upper Heyford but that said I can’t help but now think that it leaves HMG’s borders too exposed, whereas consolidating south of the M4 gives a more solid border. I know it’s only a motorway and could still be crossed easily enough, but I’m thinking that it can be fortified to a point, with barbed wire for example, and can be patrolled regularly, whereas securing a clearly defined and defensible border north of the M4 is going to be a much harder task, so by extension putting the capital north of the M4 is probably not the best idea.

With regard to troops, I’ve got 43rd Brigade covering the western border; 6 Light Infantry are in Warminster, with a detachment at Bath, whilst 2 Wessex are in Swindon, where they have been reinforced by RAF personnel from Lyneham and assorted bods recruited into the HSF in 97/98, so can muster six full Rifle Companies. Royal Wessex Yeomanry are nominally based at Bulford, but in practice spend much of their time away from base patrolling the borders and beyond. 4 Brigade also has 11 Regiment Royal Signals and 14 Regiment, RA (less one Battery) attached to it (both in an Infantry role).

The other main formation I have in the south is 2nd Brigade. Whilst I have 2nd Brigade suffering heavy casualties in the 97 exchanges (Brigade HQ at Aldershot and one regular Battalion in the Dover area are basically obliterated), I have it rebuilding in 98 and currently has under command 1 Royal Anglian Regiment (the other Regular Battalion assigned to the Brigade pre War) and three TA Battalions brought back from Germany in Dec 97 (there is a reference to this on page 11 of the SGUK), plus elements of the Duke of Lancaster’s Yeomanry.

43rd and 2nd Brigades end up with roughly 2,000 men each at the moment, both having been reinforced by personnel from the RAF and the various Support Corps, HSF, personnel separated from their unts, etc, etc.

The third Brigade is the Household Brigade, which is effectively serving as the Sovereign’s guard. From what I can tell even when War broke out it's possible either three or four Guards Battalions would have stayed in the London area – I obliterated one Bn in the 1997 London attack and another one in the 1998 York attack, but that still leaves the possibility of at least one being in the UK. So currently my Household Brigade has elements of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, a single Company of Grenadiers, 63 Squadron, RAF Regiment (now retitled King’s Colour Squadron), and a detachment of Dutch Marines, with the possibility of adding a Guards Battalion if I wish. If the idea is purely to protect the Sovereign, I think the force is strong enough without the additional Battalion, so at the moment I’m inclined to put them in Bulford, with a role as UKLF’s strategic reserve.

The Portsmouth area is covered by the RN. So...what I think at the moment I’m inclined to do is abandon the territory north of the M4...the west looks OK...and in the east I’m going to look at pushing the border out to a line running more or less north east up th3 A3 from Portsmouth through Petersfield to the ruins of Aldershot

Thanks again guys, particularly for the suggestion of placing the capital in Winchester, as that had absolutely not occurred to me...I’ve got to sit on a train for five hours later on in the week, so I’ll most likely spend that journey poring over a map of the south of England trying to come to some sort of final decision as to what I’m going to do, as frankly I’m spending so much time thinking about this at the moment that it’s starting to give me a headache!

Cheers