Alternate British Armed Forces stuff...

[James Langham]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

With how bad things are... demobilization might not be the best course of action right away. From what i've been told, Regiments in the British Army are drawn from various UK regions. Having these units 'garrisoning' their home town areas might allow for the reconstruction to go much faster with more central planning.

Being realistic, can the UK afford all of the troops? Certain units are not going to be necessary - electronic warfare, much of the artillery, air defence and heavy artillery for example. Also many service personnel are going to be unfit for service (blinded, missing limbs, etc) - these can be demobilized into jobs they are capable of. Some servicemen/women can also be converted into civil servants.

How many troops do you really need? Until you reach Scotland (and possibly Wales) you are not going to meet significant conventional forces. A better model might be part time soldiers protecting their local area behind your borders with rapid response troops (similar to the late Roman Empire). I would also guess that non-violent methods would be the preferred option for reunification (e.g. trade, bribery (e.g. well if you join us we will need an MP until we can sort elections...), better standards of living). Very much the Roman or ink blot methods of gaining control.

Whilst at the start of the war troops would be very tied to locations, after four years of war this will be FAR less important when assigning troops (compare 1917 and 1944).

It helps that I partially envisage a Roman type demobilization - here's your land now go farm and protect it...

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by James Langham

Until you reach Scotland (and possibly Wales) you are not going to meet significant conventional forces...

Unless the Scots and the Welsh form a Celtic alliance and invade England first...

[James Langham]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Unless the Scots and the Welsh form a Celtic alliance and invade England first...

Being Welsh... :-)

Not enough troops to do it (even with the Welsh having the Gurkha Coy from Brecon - that may confuse a few characters when they meet them!).

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by James Langham

Being Welsh... :-)

Not enough troops to do it (even with the Welsh having the Gurkha Coy from Brecon - that may confuse a few characters when they meet them!).

Cymru am Byth...

[simonmark6]

Originally Posted by James Langham

Being Welsh... :-)

Not enough troops to do it (even with the Welsh having the Gurkha Coy from Brecon - that may confuse a few characters when they meet them!).

Agreed, most people see the Welsh nation in Tw2K as being ultra-isolationist and thus fairly unlikely to launch an invasion of its own. That said, I'd expect them to have occupied a defensive line that included the Severn and the Dee (I think that's the river that runs next to Chester) as this gives them a solid barrier to refugees for the majority of the border. If they did this, they'd only have an open land pass of about 50km to defend rather than 300+.

Given that border and the reconstruction needed in South Wales, the WVNA is going to be spread very thinly and not attacking anyone in the foreseeable future.

[Rainbow Six]

Sorry, I was being a little tongue in cheek last night...I wouldn't expect the Welsh (or the Scots) to come charging over the border either...

[simonmark6]

No, it would be an interesting scenario, but unlikely. If the situation persisted for enough years for the Scots to get really organised however, I bet they'd be tempted to try for a land grab on the North of England.

[Rainbow Six]

That's been tried before! It never ends well!!!!

Seriously, I think it would take years for Scottish separatists to be in any position to be a serious threat to England and by that time I'd imagine the entire BAOR would be back in the UK and working on restoring HMG's control. I don't see the Scots being able to take on the BAOR and win, so we'd lose. Again.

With regard to Wales though, I certainly agree that there could be some WNVA troops in England for the reasons that you mentioned...in my alternative piece I placed a detachment of Welsh troops in Oswestry in Shropshire.

[James Langham]

Originally Posted by simonmark6

No, it would be an interesting scenario, but unlikely. If the situation persisted for enough years for the Scots to get really organised however, I bet they'd be tempted to try for a land grab on the North of England.

A more crafty plan would be inviting the independent towns on the border to come over and gradually spread (Berwick on Tweed would be a prime candidate).

[natehale1971]

That's pretty much what i'm talking about... yes you'd move troops from being artillery, or electonic warfare, or what ever... and have them move over to a Home Guard like set up where they would focus the bulk of their time and efforts on rebuilding the country and community.

The 'organization' that the military would be providing would be more along the lines of, "We need to build <insert item here> at <insert location here>, and you and your Home Guard Platoon/Company/Battalion is assigned to make sure that it happens."

Originally Posted by James Langham

Being realistic, can the UK afford all of the troops? Certain units are not going to be necessary - electronic warfare, much of the artillery, air defence and heavy artillery for example. Also many service personnel are going to be unfit for service (blinded, missing limbs, etc) - these can be demobilized into jobs they are capable of. Some servicemen/women can also be converted into civil servants.

How many troops do you really need? Until you reach Scotland (and possibly Wales) you are not going to meet significant conventional forces. A better model might be part time soldiers protecting their local area behind your borders with rapid response troops (similar to the late Roman Empire). I would also guess that non-violent methods would be the preferred option for reunification (e.g. trade, bribery (e.g. well if you join us we will need an MP until we can sort elections...), better standards of living). Very much the Roman or ink blot methods of gaining control.

Whilst at the start of the war troops would be very tied to locations, after four years of war this will be FAR less important when assigning troops (compare 1917 and 1944).

It helps that I partially envisage a Roman type demobilization - here's your land now go farm and protect it...