[Mohoender]

2014
Despite continuous efforts from the USA and NATO, the dfficulties in Europe increase when more pact units, partially equipped with Chinese equipments, enter the field. The allied forces are still better trained and equipped but, increasingly outnumbered, they are slowly pushed back and, by mid-year, the siege of Minsk is lifted and Pact units are trying to make the run through Poland and western Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia. They also occupy Latvia and Lithuania, forcing their reincorporation within the Russian republic. Romania and Ukraine, quickly isolated and exhausted, see no choice but to surrender. In both countries, several units refuse and form the core of a strong guerilla but the collapse of the Romano-Ukrainian front, nevertheless, frees several Pact units that are immediately redirected toward the other fronts.
In China, large bodies of citizen’s militia are now operating behind the allied front lines, attacking installations and destroying supply convoy. Moreover, the allied fail to disrupt the military industry located in the north and more equipments are coming out every day. As a result, when the main Chinese and R.U.S.S. conventional forces counterattack, to the amazement of western military experts, large pockets of allied troops are formed. The Vietnamese are experiencing the most important losses while the allied units are able to fight their way out of the pockets, losing much in the process. The front is shattered and the allied begin major withdrawals all along the front line as mobile elements of the Chinese Army rush into victorious pursuit.
In July, with Slovakia under Pact control and with several Warsaw Pact units closing on the Czech and German border, Allied High Command is to decide upon the limited use of nuclear weapons. France, Belgium and Luxembourg express a strong oposition to this path of action but, on August 15th, the use of tactical nuclear weapons is accepted by all the other members. The three countries immediately leave NATO, sign a separte peace with Warsaw Pact 2, Padania and China, and their units start pulling out from the various fronts.
On september 15th, the first tactical nuclear weapons are used in Europe. They are used sparingly at first but the forward elements of both armies are hit hard, as Warsaw Pact 2 tries to matched the NATO warhead for warhead. By late october, the Pact forces that entered the Czech Republic, northern Germany and western Poland are engaged in a general withdrawal, practicing a careful scorched earth policy as they fall back. In the Balkan, U.S. and NATO forces also begin a major offensive. The one-sided use of tactical nuclear weapons breaks the stalemate, and by month’s end, the Greeks are racing toward Istanbul. Simultaneously, other troops launch an attack on Macedonia and Serbia. The Macedonian army collapses and the country fall to the Greeks but, if the Serbian Army began to break up, the arrival of Russian reserves stops the allied columns before they reach the first Beograd’s suburb.
Meanwhile, as summer turns to fall, the Italians are facing major air stikes and an overall naval offensive by NATO. In an attempt to conquer the all of Italy, Portuguese, Spanish and U.S. troops, reinforced by remnants of the Napoli army, are landing in the south and start an offensive toward the north. Padanian forces pull out of Austria, establish strong defensive position on the Alpine passes and rapidly bring reinforcements to the south, finally stopping the armied of NATO to the south of Ancona, in the Abruzzo.

At sea, the NATO task force, strengthen by the Egyptian navy, is met by the Padanian fleet which has been joined by the Turkish fleet and Russian Black Sea Fleet. Momentarily, NATO opens the sealane to the Croatian and Greek harbours but the opposing fleet comes up on top in what is to become the only Pact victory at sea, the Principe de Asturias, the brand new HMS Queen Elisabeth, and another U.S. aircraft carrier are sunk while several smaller ships from all countries are lost. On the outcome, if both fleets suffer much, NATO surviving ships have to withdraw.
In the Far East, nuclear strikes are carried out on a more massive scale and Chinese mechanized columns are vaporized, caught in the open on the roads in imagined pursuit. Chinese population and industrial centers are targeted, effectively ending most of the war productions. The Chinese communication and transportation system, already stretched to the near breaking point, disintegrates and the roads are choked with refugees fleeing from the remaining cities. The Chinese response is immediate, but allied forward troop units are dispersed and well prepared. Moreover, the handful of Chinese bombers, trying to conduct low-level penetration raids are all intercepted by the JASDF and destroyed. Ballistic missile attacks on Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam population centers are effective, however, but the ones made at the USA are frustrated by the ABM shield that has been put up over the past years. Within a week, the Chinese riposte is spent, but allied attacks continue. China begin the rapid slide into anarchy and civil disorder. Within a month, the government of Beijing is overthrown and the state of affairs is taken over by local officers who assume the title of Warlords. Within this sea of chaos, Manchuria only remains faithfull to the Pact, getting support from Russian forces and still participating in the war.
Pakistan and India wage their own nuclear war when Pakistan, facing defeat, launches a preemptive strike on India’s economy and nuclear strike force. Although industrial centers are hit hard, enough of India’s nuclear arsenal survive to launch a devastating retaliatory strike. The Indian-Pakistani war soon winds down, as each country’s economy no longer can feed its civilians, let alone supply military units.

2015
With the elimination of China, Warsaw pact 2 finds itself in a even more vulnerable situation when, in the west, NATO air units begin making deep nuclear strikes against communication hubs in Belarus. Warsaw Pact 2 responds with theater nuclear missiles, launching them against an array of industrial targets and port cities in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. In turn, NATO uses similar strikes on industrial targets and major port cities in western Russia. Throughout Spring, the exchanges continues, escalating gradually.
Fearful of a general strategic exchange, both sides hesitate to target the landbased ICBMs of the other but, this time, Russia is first to cross the line over mid-year. The ABM shield that has been so efficient against China fails to stop this attack and a handful of SS-18 Satan decapitates all of the U.S. ICBM defense. So far, neither side had wished to cross the threshold to nuclear oblivion in one bold step but after that decapitating strike, the escalation cannot be stopped.
Industrial targets clearly vital to the war effort are targeted, followed by economic targets of military importance (transportation and communication, oil fields and refineries). Then, industrial and oil centers in neutral nations are hit, to prevent their possible use by the other side. The civilian political command structure is first decimated, then eliminated (almost by accident in some cases) and the exchanges keeps on, fitfully and irregularly, until October when it gradually peters out.
In the fields, the situation goes from bad to worse for both sides. The average strength of NATO combat divisions at the front has fallen to about 8,000, with U.S. divisions running at about half of that. Warsaw Pact 2 divisions now vary widely in strength, running from 500 to 10,000 effectives, but mostly in the 2000-4000 range. Lack of fuel, spare parts, and ammunition paralyze the armies and no major actions are taken during the second half of that year. Peace might have come, but there are no surviving governments to negotiate it. Only the military command structures remain intact, and they remain faithful to the final orders of their governments. In a time of almost universal chaos, only the military has the means of securing and distributing rations. Moreover, military casualties have been much lower than casualties among civilians.

In Africa, insurgency continues as a number of nuclear strike hit the continent by years end. In North Africa, many oil fields and various cities are destroyed while Egypt is subjected to a strike that matches the ones conducted over major regions. The ensuing chaos results in an allout civil war launched by various islamist movements that destroys what remained of the legal authorities. Finally, only Libya retains some form of government ruling from Misurata. In Sub-Saharian Africa, the bombings hit Nigera, Cabinda and South Africa and, as this added to the already chaotic situation, several among the few survivng governments collapsed.
Latin America still escapes but, in addition to instability and insurgent movements, the drug cartels influence is expending, as the various governments are gradually loosing strength.

2016
The winter of 2015-2016 is particularly cold. Civilian war casualties in the industrialized nations has reached almost 20 percent by the turn of the year, communication and transportation systems has been wiped out, and food distribution has become almost impossible.
In the wake of nuclear war and global unrest comes famine on a scale previously undreamed of, but the worst is yet to come. The exceptionally cold winter delayed simultaneous epidemics but, with the spring thaw, the unburied dead finally bring on the epidemics the few remaining medical professionals had dreaded but were powerless to prevent. Plague, typhoid, cholera, typhus, and many other diseases sweeped through the world’s population. HIV and Tuberculosis are spreading faster again but the worst comes from SARS and regular flu. By the time they have run their courses, the global casualty rate will be 60%.
In Europe, France and Belgium have been hit the lightest and they stand virtually alone in maintaining a semblance of internal order throughout the cataclysm. Then, the governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg form the FBU (Franco-Belgian Union). They are quickly joined by surviving African countries (Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Senegal and Tunisia) and by a few States from the Middle-East (UAE and Oman). As refugees begin flooding across their borders, they closed their frontiers, and military units begin turning people back with gunfire. In the Pyrenneans, there are several skirmishes with rogue Spanish units while people are trying to cross into south-western France. In the north, the new government authorizes the army to move west to the Rhine to secure a solid geographical barrier. As refugees pile up on the frontier and as fighting occur with the Dutch, a large lawless zone springs into existence. Unrest and fighting for food are followed by mass starvation and disease, until the lawless zone becomes barren and empty.
Around the Black Sea, the partisan bands in the mountains of Romania and former Ukraine have escaped almost untouched, while many Pact regular units were destroyed in the exchange or have just melted away after it. The Romanians and Ukrainians begin forming regular combat units again, although still structured to live off the land and subsist from captured enemy equipment. At first, there is a great deal of enemy equipment just lying around waiting to be picked up. Meanwhile, in the Balkan, the Greek army directly annexes Macedonia.
In North America, a flood of hungry refugees begin crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico. This is too much for Mexico, the government fell and is replaced by a socialist coalition, led by the PRI, that establishes a number of large refugee camps. Over, summer, with the eat going up, the refugees camps start to be touched by widespread food riots and the new government order this violence to be dealt with military force. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of staff protests, start to move what troops it can gather to the south and, within weeks, fearing retaliation from the US, Mexican army units cross the Rio Grande while the Latin Social Union declares war on its behalf. More U.S.units are quickly shifted south and scattered fighting grow into open warfare. Mexican light armored columns, backed by Cuban units and by the Russian division “Latin America”, drive northeast toward Arkansas and northwest into southern California. Russian troops make a tremendous efforts in the Artic and launch a succesful landing in Alaska. Another one, however, carried out by Cuban and Venezuelian forces in Florida fails as it is repelled by New American fighters and Cuban Americans. At last, the fronts quickly stabilized in southeast Texas and central California while civil disorder and anarchy spead elsewhere in the USA with the withdrawal of army units.

Further south, the U.S. 4th Fleet takes action against LSU naval units and it achieves supremacy. However, it has very reduced assets and that is not done until mid-September. Meanwhile Venezuelian troops are attacking Colombia while the Sandinistas are entering Costa Rica in an attempt to seize the Panama Canal. These military operations all come to a brutal stop when nukes are used against the various countries that compose the Latin Socialist Union. On the outcome Central America is in turmoil, Venezuela is scorched, Ecuador and Peru are facing major insurgencies, Bolivia and Colombia fall to the drug cartels, Panama is still under U.S. control, and Cuba remains organized (except for the Havana which was destroyed by a nuke).
In late June, Pact forces in Hungary and Slovakia try a last gamble and launch an offensive toward Austria and South Germany in an attempt to seize the scattered surviving industrial sites of Europe. Actually, those areas in Austria and south Germany which had been under Italian occupation are still in good shape, as neither side was willing to strike them heavily. At first, NATO forces are largely insufficient but reinforcements are quickly brought from Germany and galvanize the allied into renewed action. The NATO forces make a maximum effort to reform a coherent front and, as a result, the Pact offensive finally stalls along a line that is going from Linz to Spittal and they never enter southern Germany.
In late August, NATO launches its own offensive from the area of Krakow, driving south to penetrate the Pact rear areas in Slovakia. The thinly spread Pact units are quickly overwhelmed and Pact forces in the Czech Republic begin a precipitous withdrawal to Slovakia, laying waste to that country as they retreat. A simultaneous and surprising offensive by remnants of Croatian and Bosnian armies drive north in an attempt to link up with NATO, forcing the Hungarian neutrality. They are halted near lake Balaton, however, and thrown back as Hungarian troops secure their southern border. As more Pact units arrive in Slovakia and eastern Poland, the NATO drive runs out of steam and loses its sense of direction. Troops are shifted west to garrison the devastated Czech Republic, and many lives are wasted in a futile attempt to force the Alpine passes into Padania.
As the autumnal rains begin, NATO and the Pact initiate several high altitude nuclear strike that generate a large amount of EMPs. All of what was left in term of industrial centers over the world are shot downed and civilian equipments suffer to a level that was unthought of. Fighting gradually runs down to the level of local skirmishing and both sides prepare for another winter.