I agree with Raellus that heavy conventional fighting can do the same sort of urban damage as a nuke, those aren't needed. For my Baltic Marines game, if it comes up, I'll say it there was heavy fighting in the summer of '97, between the Germans and the Soviets who were trying to prevent the restoration of East Prussia, and the protection of Kaliningrad, actual Soviet territory. I see a last stand, maybe even a siege of cut-off Soviet forces there, same as in Warsaw.
If we've seen that the few NATO units that crossed the Polish-USSR border were in the central area, that does not mean that all of NATO forces were on the border, and the German left wing could have been held back to the west. Thus, Elblag and the lower Vistula becomes a near-static battleground for a few weeks, and that's plenty to waste a city.
Hmm, the Soviet forces most likely to be fighting up here would be the armies of the Baltic Front, that would include the same 9th Guards Army we are seeing in 'A beach too far.' Those guys might be a little more motivated?
All that said, tactical nukes could easily have been dropped by air or short-range missiles on obvious chokepoints like the Vistula delta bridges and railyards, when they were just behind the lines. So, GMs can pick their poison.
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My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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