The 8th ID takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque...

[Legbreaker]

The position of the 8th ID is first established in V1.0. Further explaination of their plight is found in the east Europe book.

The more I think about it, the stronger I believe that the 8th were in the area by plan rather than accident. Their exact location may be a result of navigational error, but in my mind that wouldn't put them more than a couple of dozen miles away from where they thought they were.

Bear in mind that there's no GPS, maps are scarce and probably completely inadequate - 1:1,000,000 or greater and intended for aircrew.

I'm liking the shale oil idea as an objective as it both removes the resource from the Soviets and gives Nato greater mobility. It may require domination of the Baltic to allow transport of the oil, but with the entire Polish coast covered by the German III Army, I don't see that being a major concern.

Why wouldn't Nato go for shale deposits closer to their starting position? Probably because they were already strongly covered by Pact forces, had been worked dry by the Germans in WWII and likely nuked by one, or both sides in 1997-98.