Memphis...

[Kilgs]

Has anyone done anything on the Memphis campaign? I dusted off my Balkans campaign and was doing unit histories when I came across the Siege of Memphis. I didn't even remember it.

The 197th had a crazy campaign schedule that looks fun... south to fight the Texian Legion and then north to besiege Memphis.

Any canon/fanon out there?

[Legbreaker]

There's nothing Canon besides the very brief and limited mention in the books.
Other than that, I've come across virtually nothing besides a handful of people who've been involved in games in the region.
Essentially it's a clean slate almost begging for expansion.

[Raellus]

It's effectively next door to the Ozarks region of north-central Arkansas, so maybe there's some info about Memphis Airlords of..., but I haven't checked.

Memphis plays a very peripheral role in my southern Arkansas-based 2030 campaign.

-

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Raellus

It's effectively next door to the Ozarks region of north-central Arkansas, so maybe there's some info about Memphis Airlords of..., but I haven't checked.

There's quite a bit in there referring to Memphis, but nothing that really details the situation beyond "military presence", "passes required", "potential target" and the fact there is an improvised military hospital in a warehouse.
Page 30-31 has a few paragraphs on the city, but most of that entry details prior events with little on the current (2001) situation. Plenty there though to expand upon, perhaps even into a whole new book should somebody feel like it...

[Olefin]

Considering the amount of effort that MilGov went thru to retake Memphis it definitely cries out for almost a Krakow type description. Basically they took one of their last decent sized armored formations with some of the best troops they had in all of the US and used it in an extended siege instead of aiding the drive in Texas where the 49th took it on the chin or sending them to CA to take back Los Angeles and San Diego or AZ to take Phoenix back.

So it had to be damn important - because if they had been in Texas instead basically they would probably have beaten Soviet Division Cuba and retaken most of Central Texas and San Antonio. Same with CA or AZ

[Kilgs]

It was important but for reasons I've long considered but haven't really been explored... the Mighty Miss!

Airlords has the most information but it's scant. But we do learn that it was because the Overlord of Memphis was extorting commerce/travel on the Mississippi.

I've been kicking around Mississippi ideas for awhile. Howling Wilderness ignores the largest thoroughfare in the country. The river allows transit/trade from north to south and forms a huge border/barrier. Selective control of bridges and dams, destruction of other bridges and you can cut off one side of the nation from the other.

And when you're planning to move thousands of people to the Plains area to avoid starvation... do you want to march them overland? It'd be a heck of a lot easier to transport them by water...

Hmm... now I'm thinking I can merge a few random ideas here.

DANG IT! I was planning on staying focused on my Balkans work!

[Olefin]

If you start to look at the Mississippi as a whole what about Vicksburg or St Louis or Nashville - and you know there will be an issue at the very end with the New Orleans area that took several nukes - lot of opportunities there for campaigns or modules

[Benjamin]

In the 2300AD timeline, which is a direct future to T2K, Memphis is used in 2020 as the meeting place for CivGov and MilGov to work out their differences. This is a full 25 years before New America, centered in Florida, is finally defeated. Thus, we can assume Memphis was a very important and stable city by 2020. It sits astride the Mississippi, is centrally located and wasn’t super close to nuke strike. I’m guessing it became a mix of Hong Kong/Geneva/Casablanca and St. Louis shortly after the exchange. Perhaps something or many things got stuck there while being moved east enroute to a more secure location in the west? (Artifacts from the Smithsonian collection, the Bill of Rights and Constitution, currency plates, CIA asset lists, NSA databases and satellite access codes, etc.)

Something was there that was important

[Olefin]

Keep in mind that 2300AD changes depending on the version you have - the original referred to Twilight 2000 and was seen as a direct timeline from the events of the Twilight War to the events of 2300AD. But the Mongoose version of the game only refers to a Twilight War or Twilight - and is not necessarily the timeline of Twilight 2000.

and Mongoose is not based on the events of The Game that were used for the original timeline - so the question is really - are the events in 2300AD still set in stone

i.e. "Mongoose 2300 AD is based on Mongoose’s Traveller rules and the Core Rulebook is required for play. Gone is any reference to Twilight: 2000 and that period is now simply referred to as Twilight or the Twilight War. Any mention of development via ‘The Game’ has also gone. (Although errors of the original such as Finland being counted as ‘scandinavian’ rather than Nordic have been retained. )"

But that is a discussion for another thread.

[Legbreaker]

Memphis only has to have a few huts and some accommodation facilities in 2020 for it to be suitable for Milgov/Civgov talks. Location is far more important.
The necessary facilities could be constructed to suit - just look at the structures on the North/South Korean border used for negotiations, etc....

[RN7]

2300AD and Twilight 2000 are two distinctly different games and although there is a direct link between both games through GDW's original sourcebooks, there has been some discussion about divorcing the two timelines due to the trouble it causes in canon debates and everyone's different interpretations of it.

In Twilight 2000 the city of Memphis is a strategically important location on the Mississippi River.

The city developed as a trade and transportation centre in the 19th century because of its flood-free location high above the Mississippi River, but its location has always been of some importance to both Native Americans and later white colonists. The people of the Mississippi River Valley culture settled the high bluffs in the first millennium AD because it protected the location from the waters of the Mississippi River. The bluffs were later contested by the Spanish, French and English for the same reason. In the late 18th Century the area rivalled Fort Nogales (Vicksburg) and Fort Confederación (Epes, Alabama) through which European powers could control United States encroachment and their interference with Indian matters. Spain and the United States vied for control of Chickasaw Bluffs located on the present-day location of Memphis. In 1795 the Spanish built Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas on the bluff. Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas remained a focal point of Spanish activity until the Treaty of San Lorenzo or Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 (implemented in March 1797), which gave the United States the right to navigate the Mississippi River and won control over the Yazoo Strip north of the thirty-first parallel. During the Civil War the State of Tennessee seceded from the Union, but Union forces captured Memphis in June 1862 due to its importance and held it for the duration of the Civil War.

The Mississippi River physically divides the eastern United States from the west and is a major artery for trade and commerce, and the Mississippi River Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the country. Therefore controlling it or part of it will be highly important to everyone in the Twilight War. According to Howling Wilderness the system of levees and dams on the Mississippi broke down after the breakdown of civil government in 1998-1999. The Mississippi River also changed course by 2001, with its new mouth being through the Atchafalaya River which has radically affected the water table of the old delta. Fresh water supply to cities downstream of Baton Rouge were contaminated with salt water, but it implies that it was the Lower Mississippi that was the worst affected.

Memphis is one of the most strategically important locations on the Mississippi River. Four railroad and highway bridges cross over the Mississippi at Memphis; the Frisco Bridge (single-track rail), the Harahan Bridge (double-track rail), the Memphis-Arkansas Memorial Bridge (Interstate 55), and the Hernando de Soto Bridge (Interstate 40). The two rail bridges carry several major east-west railroad freight lines, and also the major north-south railroad lines that run through Memphis and connect with Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, Mobile and Birmingham. The Port of Memphis is the second largest inland cargo port on the Mississippi River, and Memphis International Airport is the second largest cargo airport in the world. Also Shelby County is located over four natural aquifers, one of which is recognized as the "Memphis Sand Aquifer". Located 350 to 1,100 feet underground this water source is considered soft and estimated to contain more than 100 trillion US gallons of water.

The Mid West and the Great Plains in Twilight War

MILGOV
MILGOV controls the Middle and parts of the Lower Mississippi. They control Cairo and in 1999 retook Memphis after eliminating the Overlord of Memphis and also defeated CIVGOV's 35th Engineer Brigade forcing it west across the Mississippi. MILGOV controls territory in Southern Illinois, Kentucky and Western Tennessee within 100 miles of the Mississippi River. They have an enclave in Louisiana and are fighting remnant New America forces in Arkansas and Southern Missouri. MILGOV also controls nearby Kansas, Oklahoma, Western Nebraska and parts of Northern Texas.

49th Armored Division: Oklahoma
85th Light Infantry Division (1st Brigade): Fort Beauregard, LA
95th Light Infantry Division: Oklahoma/Western Kansas
98th Light Infantry Division (2nd Brigade): Arkansas
194th Armored Brigade: Cairo, IL (detachment at Robinson, IL)
197th Mechanised Brigade: Memphis, TN
The School Brigade: Nebraska/Western Kansas

CIVGOV
CIVGOV controls Minneapolis and other parts of the Upper Mississippi in Minnesota, Northern Illinois and Western Wisconsin. CIVGOV also controls nearby Iowa and Eastern Nebraska and CIVGOV forces are moving west towards the Mississippi from the East Coast through the Cumberland Gap and the Ohio Valley.

84th Light Infantry Division: Minneapolis, MN
35th Engineer Brigade: Omaha, NE
184th Infantry Brigade: Moving west through Cumberland Gap
228th Infantry Brigade: Moving west along Ohio River

NEW AMERICA
New America has strongholds in Arkansas and Southern Missouri and sympathisers elsewhere.