"What Alternate World War II Settings Do You Like?" Topic

I've read Turtledove's books on alternate WW2, both the American version and the alien invasion one. I know about Weird War II and love it, also like GHQ's Wehrmacht '47. I have run a WWW2 GURPS campaign that involved Nazi experimentation with werewolves while fending off vampires. I digress. Today I started thinking about an alternate WW2 where the whole "shebang" is different from history. Below are my current thoughts, I would like to know what others have come up with for their own alternate WW2 settings regardless of timeframe, and/or weirdness. Thanks.

Maybe WW1 ended in an early ceasefire or the Russians kept out of the Balkan mess. Radical elements never took over in Germany and/or Russia. Ceasefire lasts until late 30s when war breaks out again.

I have always thought a skirmish campaign based on a 1940 German invasion of England would be fun to game

I have been waiting to play a game of AE WW II and understand that it is a very good set of skirmish rules with lots of flavor, including vampire Nazis, Golems, weird science, etc.

Rattrap games produced a wonderful supplement for their .45 game with a Weird WW II setting. I fondly remember playing a scenario with Nazi Zombies that had explosives strapped to their bodies attempting to blow up a bridge. The handful of Americans including a Sgt Rock type character fighting wave after wave to prevent the Nazi objective.

Personally I think any kind of alt WW II history can work and be a fun war game. Even something as simple as moving the end of the war up so that the Germans can field some of their supper tanks just to see how they would fare.

I prefer ones more gounded in some sort of twist to what really happend (not that I have anything againse Nazi zombies, of course).

So, what if Germany had developed an atomic bomb and used it in late 1944 against Moscow or London?

What if Hitler had a rare moment of sanity and din't launch the summer 42 campaign into Russia?

Or decided to finish off the African campaign in 41 before going after Russia?

Mike

WWII without-- Nazis, and others--(Hitler dies of smoke inhalation during the Reichstag fire, von Vorbeck is elected-Stalin accidently shot by the NKVD before the Purge, Tukhachevsky becomes a Red Napoleon and Mao/Kiang kai shek/IJ defeated by a coalition of Warlords led by Fu Manchu's Daughter)--then redesign the world and tech breakthroughs. That way everyone gets more replacements and better industrial capacity in order to obliterate each other properly.

It's the anniversary of Jane Austen and Stalingrad so…Pride and Prejudice and PTRD campaign would be soooo apropo:)

One idea is that the Atomic tests and Bombs that were dropped ripped gateways to the Mythologies of the bomb sites (Southwest US and Japan). Maybe not right away but in a short time (months afterward

Like how you're thinking there skippy.

Atomic bomb gateways is an interesting idea too.

Does "None" count? :-)

I really like the Gearkrieg setting, but it's most detailed in the 1939 to early '42 timeframe. I need to sit down and re-read all that stuff and come up with a good midwar timeline.

Heavy on the weird/superscience, not so much on the mystical side of the house.

However, I recently picked up a series of books by Larry Correia where magic arrived in the world in about 1850, and some seriously weird stuff happened in WW1. The books are set in the interwar period. Kaiser zombies, Tesla weapons, people that can use a Lewis gun like a kid's rifle, etc.

Along the lines of Skippy. Hitler does the usual speech and gives enough time to the bomb to explode right under his nose. Stalin gets a "heart attack" while considering all his enemies around before or during the purges, the situation maybe degenerating into a civil war…

Other than that, DUST by Parente is way cool.

occult, weird science and non zombie ones

I'm a fan of the setting in the relatively obscure RPG Godlike. Essentially WW2 with supers, but they're drafted into the military like anyone else and most (including the PCs) are limited enough that the battlefield is nearly as deadly to them as regular GI. There are also lots of them, and the number each country winds up with is directly related to their population and how active they are in the war.

I like both Incursion and Dust Warfare for setting and figures.

C

I quite like reading alt-WW2 books, but as far as gaming anything, the closest I've got is Operation Sealion.

Generally all the zombie/werewolf stuff leaves me cold.

Try an American Civil War in 1851 where the USA splits in two and work it forward from there.That is what I am using for my Oklahoma oil wars of 1936.

In my world the North is the richest most progressive country in the world having avoided WWI and other overseas intanglements. It has the largest merchant fleet and navy to protect it. In 1872 it adopted the Prussian reserve system due to threats from the Southern radicals, but now have reduced funding due the failed States in the South not being a major threat.

England at first supported the Southern States in 1851, but within a few years realized it was a bad idea and reconciled with the North. It paid off in WWI when Northern banks help financed the war and raw materials flowed to factories.

France supported the southern States and even interfered in internal affairs when States failed and erupted in war. The only thing they got out of the support was the Southern Expeditionary Corps of a few divisions in WWI.

The new German Empire quickly saw an advantage in the enemy of my enemy is my friend and did all it could to establish good relations with the North. This paid off in WWI when the North ruled blockades as illegal and forced the issue by escorting US conveys carring food and other humanitarian aid to the ports of Germany. The French and English blockade of Northern ports in 1852 now came back to haunt them. In 1919 WWI came to an end thanks to a Northern peace deal, with the borders restored to 1914.

The south is a mess. Texas has formed a republic of it's own. It tries to dominate the Oklahoma territory and Northern Mexico. Virginia and North Carolina have formed a coalition. Louisiana thanks to New Orleans money and gun boats stays stabile but corruption runs wild. The rest of the South are failed States where the land owning elite fight between themselves for power. The third world has come to the south.

In Europe a war unfinished simmers away waiting to erupt again. Then a Texan led coup in Oklahoma to control the oil fields starts a spark that leads the world into WWII.

I tend to look at a WW2 where France isn't knocked out of the war and the Western Front stabilises without American involvement. Ground forces in France evolve, for example the B1 series evolves into something amazingly similar to the American M3, then into the M4….. to a certain extent, France takes on American equipment, but without the overwhelming resources backup.

If you're looking at alternate/counter factual history, and you've read the Turtledove WWII stuff, try the American Empire series by the same author. First starts with and America where the South won the civil war, and carries the timeline up to around late 1945 (9 books total). More concerned with America, but does have both sides involved in WWI and a new ACW around 1940.