An Alternative Survivor's Guide to the United Kingdom

[simonmark6]

A long as the armoured Rolls Royce is still going, I don't give a monkey's chuff. I've loved that car since I had a ride in it during my first visit to Bovington in the late seventies. I go there now and look at the museum and say, "I remember when all this was fields..."

My school used to do Geography Fieldwork in Swanage in the early '90s and we used to do a day looking at how the army preserved the environment in the grounds. If I remember correctly, the vehicles being used at that time included:

FV 432
Cargo version of the M113
Fox armoured car
Rolls Royce Armoured car
Centurion
Chieftan
Early Chally

Those were what came out regularly, I also heard they had a couple of Panzers (Mk I and MK IV) and later they were receiving Soviet gear from Desert Storm and some of those worked, barely. The ones above are those that are likely to be working with maybe some of the other armoured cars being made to work, mostly variants of the Fox and Ferret as well as a Humber Pig and a Saladin.

There would have been a couple of dozen able to be used as pill boxes with guns running from 155mm to about 76.2mm.

There would also be a fair number of recovery vehicles around and a decent number of old timers that knew a lot about kit bashing: it was the time where the volunteers were basically rebuilding a Tiger Tank from scratch.

How many survived the war? Age would be against them but location would be a plus, good farmland, access to coastal fishing, some excellent defensive positions and yo can't spit without hitting a squaddie (not that I ever tried).

[Olefin]

An excellent work Rainbow Six - love the modifications you have made, ones that turn what was to me a very unsatisfactory Survivors Guide into one that is much more realistic and playable.

And having at least one operable SSN for the RN is not only very believeable but also supports what I will be posting as to an alternate timeline after Omega - that having only one surviving SSN in the whole world and one surviving boomer is just not realistic.

And having Ark Royal damaged and tied up at her berth isnt a huge deviation from canon as it sounds - for one even if you have her fixed up you still need to find fuel for her planes and for her.

One question - are the American forces you have here pre or post Omega?

[Rainbow Six]

Thanks Olefin, glad you like it.

My version is based on a 01 June 2000 date, so all the US forces listed are pre Omega.

if you read the section on the Soviets, I did think it might make for quite an interesting storyline if Major Ivanova of the GRU finds out about Omega in advance from her source at HQUSNAVEUR and has to try and find a way of communicating the information to her superiors in Russia.

[Rainbow Six]

I finally made a deadline...sort of. I know I'd originally hoped to have this done by Christmas, but I have managed to make my revised deadline of the end of May with a few days to spare!

Attached a selection of marauder groups. It's obviously impossible to list every marauder group in the UK, so I've tried to present a selection that can be used as "templates" so to speak and can be relocated to other areas should a GM wish ...so for example whilst I have placed the Beasts of the Moor on Ilkley Moor, they could be just at home on Dartmoor, Glencoe, etc, etc.

As the work evolved a few groups didn't make the final cut, most notably the North Preston Front, for whom I have six different drafts saved, none of which I was happy with, so when I figured that after two weeks I didn't have something that I thought was workable, perhaps I needed to reconsider (as a comparison, Bloody Mary took me two days to write, so sometimes something just feels "right" while something else feels as though it will never get there - the NPF fell into the latter category).

A few groups also changed their names from that put forward in the Regional Guide, most noticeably the Outlaws, which became Bandito Yankee (which is in keeping wih the original material). I will at some point post an updated timeline / Regional Guide (and timeline) which will correct these changes.

A few other general comments...the Border Reivers was a joint piece with RN7, who did at least half the work, if not more. Thanks mate for your help with that. The Duke of Cornwall and Konev's Wolves have both been posted before, but putting them here keeps everything in one thread (there are a few very, very minor changes to the Duke of Cornwall).

The gang of football hooligans in Birmingham is still in progress...I have the main group done, but I think I need to develop it slightly by doing some work on the other gangs in the City, so am holding back on that one for now.

Finally, some of the material, particularly Bloody Mary and the Beasts of the Moor are probably rated as a 15 (UK) / PG13 (US) at least.

As ever, comments / feedback etc most welcome.

[Rainbow Six]

And the others...

[James Langham]

Rainbow - great articles thanks for posting. Would you object if I took elements from them and incorporated them into my own UK Guide (which is more canon based).

If it would help, I lived in Birmingham from 1987-1992 and may be able to provide any help you need. I also did a two week camp at Oakhampton so might be able to provide the odd detail there too.

Please keep writing.

[Rainbow Six]

Thanks James. I don't mind at all if you want to take parts of it for your own piece - be my guest. I will get back to you on Birmingham - I'd be most grateful for any local insights you can offer.

I've been spending a fair amount of time on this recently so plan to follow my usual practice of taking a break for a couple of weeks (which goes a long way towards maintaining my domestic harmony!) then I'll continue work on the Birmingham piece and lawful groups (East Anglians, Highland Coalition, Free City of Carlisle, plus probably a few others). Also in the pipeline are short pieces on the Dutch Government in exile (long overdue) and the Secret Intelligence Service (I originally left the SIS out delibarately as I figured it didn't really fit in to a guide to the UK, but in hindsight I think it probably warrants a short piece).