In Defense of the Red Army

[Legbreaker]

It's basically the same way I've thought the war would progress. As you've stated Rae, the Soviets, and almost all of the countries in the WP had experienced combat in China for at least nine months (the timeline is unclear as to when exactly war broke out - sometime in 1995, presumably in the second quarter from how I read it).
Sure, most of those experienced units were still in the east, but it's not too much to believe veterans were rotated out back west and into training and command positions (especially the wounded).

I believe given the circumstances leading up to the war we're presented in the histories, the initial sucess of NATO most definately would have been neutralised, then reversed by the WP forces. Also, given the usual reluctance of so called "free" western democracies to implement conscription until the last possible minute, NATO reserves in the initial months would have been extremely limited.

Just imagine for a moment. War in Europe breaks out with the bulk of WP forces already committed in the east. Is there a pressing need in the eyes of the populace to sign up immediately? No, they've been told for decades their "boys" are worth fifty of those filthy commies.

Time goes past and all the ready units have been committed for the drive east. China falls apart (something nobody saw coming in a hurry, but nobody saw nukes being used either) and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of battle hardened WP troops and equipment are released to Europe.

And so the various governments begin recruiting in ernest, perhaps a few even implementing conscription. Now they've got the troops, but it'll take months to train them all to combat readiness, equip them, and send them over to the front lines, all while the remnants of NATO units are desperately trying to hold back the hordes of the WP bent on recapturing their homelands and teaching those child eating capitalists a lesson!