Alternate British Armed Forces stuff...

[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.

[simonmark6]

Oh, yes!

I'd agree entirely but it never stopped people before. I was also envisaging a time several years into the future, long after the BAOR came back. On the whole, once the BAOR return England will start to recover but the unit can only do so much at a time.

If I was an aggressive Scottish or Welsh leader that wanted to destabilize England I'd either be trying to develop or trade for cheap anti-tank weapons to distribute like sweeties to the seccesionists(sp?)in England, the more heavy kit they take out, the less left to reassert claims on the Celtic Fringe.

The most likely result though is a peaceful rejoining of the union with greater powers of self-determination for Scotland and Wales.

[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).

[simonmark6]

Might work although the deep rooted history of border clashes in the Cheviots might work against it. It would depend on what the Scottish Government had to offer, sometimes sheer bloody mindedness trumps common sense, sadly.