The canon Survivor's Guide to the UK was a huge disappointment to me. It had a number of out and out factual errors, paid no more than lip service to the Territorial Army (and completely omitted to mention the Home Service Force) and had a number of proposals that in my opinion were simply not plausible - DudeUK has already mentioned the gimmicky marauder groups, and as for the idea of the Queen abdicating...eh, no, don't think so.
Hence the reason I've spent the last few years working on an alternate version that currently runs to approx 105 pages / 45,000 words and still isn't finished (I really must get my finger out and get some work done - Dude UK, marauder groups will probably be the next section completed!).
To summarise the changes
- A considerably expanded - and hopefully more realistic - Order of Battle that includes a small number of surviving Royal Navy warships and RAF aircraft.
- The Queen remains on the Throne until the nuclear exchanges when both she and Prince Charles are killed so Prince William ascends the Throne
- More meddling by the French
- No invasion of Northern Ireland by the Republic
- Slightly amended nuclear target list
- Some changes to Scotland - basically the Separatists only control part of the Central Belt, not the whole country - HMG still retains an enclave in the North.. I also discarded the Royal Army of Scotland and gave the Separatists an alternative Defence Force
- Discarded most of the marauder groups listed to be replaced by my own creations (a notable exception is the Duke of Cornwall, who I retained and expanded on)
- A whole host of minor changes - different Prime Minister, that sort of thing
With the exception of the situation in NI, I have retained the overall "look" of the UK put forward by canon - i.e. HMG still only controls south east England, parts of Wales and Scotland have declared independence, and much of the rest of the country is in anarchy.
I would like to think that the changes I've made don't radically change the basic tenets of the game as far as the global situation is concerned - for example, I would hope that the small number of operational warships doesn't give the impression that the Royal Navy is going to rule the High Seas.