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Old 05-05-2021, 10:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus View Post
Those are relatively minor strategic mistakes compared to failing to close the Suez canal. Failing to strike a few factories might result in the US producing a few hundred more AFVs and combat aircraft- if the production lines can continue to operate when deprived of power and parts, that is. And even then, the US still has to get that stuff to the fronts (easier said than done) before it can hurt the USSR.
+1. Also, I've always thought that Twilight 2000 is supposed to be reminiscent of the Dark Ages not the Stone Age, which is where it would have probably landed up if every town in the USA that had some sort of connection to military production got nuked. That starts to move into the territory of Mutually Assured Destruction and takes the game World in a different direction.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus View Post
That's v2.2 "canon", correct? You mentioned that earlier, I believe. I'm looking at alternatives for v1.
I agree that in V1 the Suez Canal would be a tempting target for the Soviets. Nukes would likely be the easiest way to do it but if you wanted to look at alternatives maybe Spetznaz boarded ships in transit and planted conventional explosives that scuttled multiple vessels in the Canal, thus blocking it? I don’t really know how feasible that would be - I mean, I presume scuttling a number of vessels in transit is feasible but that supposes that the Spetznaz team(s) manage to get in country with all of their kit and then successfully get aboard multiple vessels (I’m presuming there would be some sort of shoreside security…). I mean, I work in marine logistics but this isn’t really the sort of thing that we talk about…

Slightly more low tech option…GRU recruit Islamic groups (probably using some sort of false flag approach) to fire RPG’s at vessels in transit from shore.

I don’t think either of those are particularly good alternatives though. A nuke seems a lot simpler and more likely to achieve success though. I just wonder if scuttling vessels in transit might be an option if the Soviets didn’t want to do permanent / long term damage for whatever reason, ‘only’ close it for six months.

And yeah, the fact that the Panama Canal is still functional seems like an oversight on the part of the author of that module. Of course that also sets a precedent for another option for Suez in V1, namely that it is also still open and navigable.
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