Quote:
Originally Posted by Lurken
In the Nordic I have planned to detail a neutral, but war damaged Sweden.
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During that week, there was border skirmishes along the Sweden-Norway border, but in the end a cease-fire was reached between Sweden and NATO, and with NATO being technically the initial aggressors the Soviets/Soviet commander in Kiruna brokered a deal that they will stay put for now and act like a buffer against Narvik. To much wailing and gnashing of teeth of the Swedes. But... Sweden did not and could not act due to it being political suicide. Since they saw how destructive this war is and was.
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I liked the write-up on this, and I will consider that canon IMC, when I'm using the normal setting and game.
For the immediate future, I expect the FL box set coming soon, and want to play something. The box set is to include a big map of south-central Sweden. I paid for the rules, I paid for the map, I might as well get something out of this. I'm planning a short game, possibly 3 sessions, to explore the stuff.
I may eventually have two sets of canon at my table: FL rules in Sweden, GDW rules in Poland.
Anyway, I started thinking about what NATO and Pact troops would be on that particular map, and I think I'm going to take a slice of both 'histories'.
- FL posits a larger Soviet invasion of Sweden, one column crossing the sea to south of Stockholm, that's the part that is depicted on their map.
- One of the pieces of GDW's history that always rubbed me wrong was the US insertion of IV Corps into Jugoslavia in the autumn of '98.
Crossing the streams, summer & fall of '98
1) I'm going to send the lightly armed IV US Corps to southern Sweden, entering through the western coast. Perhaps they were invited, perhaps to assist in refugee aid, I'll worry about that later. BUT, in my mind, they are also supporting the insertion of the II MEF (finally assembled 2nd Marine Division, support & service elements, whatever's left of the air wing, certainly some NATO marine units, too). The Army divisions secure the west coast and central parts of the country, the Marines the east coast and Gotland island. Undefined naval elements support this, too.
2) the Soviets send a (formation to be named later, not important right now) from the Leningrad/Arctic Front into northern Sweden (passing through the aforementioned 64th GMRD at Kiruna) AND the Baltic Fleet sneaks ashore some naval infantry and paratroopers south of Stockholm, reinforced with heavy stuff from the Baltic Front-- expanding to the 9th Guards Army.
3) I guess the Soviets arrive first, the Americans join in as a reaction.
4) all of this is during the other 1998 battles in central and eastern Germany, perhaps as a distraction. No other NATO forces are available to help the Swedes, so the 3 light/leg divisions from the East Coast are sent-- not good from the CONUS perspective, it turns out.
5) When the MilGov-CivGov split happens, most of the American Army forces in Sweden go the CivGov, the Marines mostly with MilGov. Individuals and small units might migrate from one camp to the other (literally).
6) Stuff stays quiet until the late spring of '00. NATO moves the Marines into northern Poland, per our "normal" understanding of things, leaving some sort of rear base detachment behind on Gotland and/or SE Sweden.
7) Soviets strike out from their enclave south of Stockholm after the Marines leave, using supplies collected over the last year or more, mostly hitting the American forces staying behind. Ground is gained, more-or-less doubling the territory held.
That gets me American, Swedish, some other NATO, and Soviet troops on the map that's in the box, more or less in the positions given in the books, not necessarily the same units.
Thoughts, suggestions?