"New Modern Imagi-Nations -- The CSA and the USA" Topic

As I've been painting forces for the Kingdom of Austral, it occurred to me that I created several imagi-nations 17 years ago – the Confederate States of American and the United States of America, circa 2000 AD. I did this in a supplement for the original Fistful of TOWs called Dixie: 2000. It's free at:

PDF link

One of these days, I'm gonna have time to update it to FFT3 standards.

Anyhow, it's actually pretty interesting. Ultramodern, highly mechanized, well-trained forces equipped with mostly Western gear fighting over a HUGE front. Lemme explain the situation. No, is too much. Lemme sum up:

1990s – Arab oil embargos and price manipulation seriously threaten the US economy. The US negotiates lucrative oil deals with the Federation of Native American States (Oklahoma) and the Republic of Texas. The FNAS and Texas sell oil cheap to the US in exchange for investments and trade concessions.

3 March 2000 -- A pro-CSA coup takes power in the FNAS just before the oil contracts expire. When the contracts expire, the FNAS raises oil prices to market rate. Texas, after receiving defense assurances from the CSA, follows suit.

To avoid a recession, the US releases much of its strategic oil reserves and tries to negotiate with the FNAS and Texas. Fruitless negotiations, then threats follow, to no avail. The US invades the FNAS, which collapses in 4 days. Unfortunately, FNAS troops sabotage the oil fields. It will take 2-3 years to restore production and the US is down to a few months of oil in its strategic reserve.

Oil prices spike. US attempts to negotiate with Texas fail.

The US begins mobilization and sends forces to the FNAS/Texas Red River border. Texas mobilizes. The CSA warns the US against attacking Texas and begins to halfheartedly mobilize.

1 June 2000 – The US, exploiting its mobilization lead, launches a pre-emptive attack on the CSA and Texas. The US plan is to execute a lightning campaign to overrun key areas of the CSA. This will presumably force the CSA to sue for peace. Then the US can deal with the hardheaded Texans…

In D2K, unit densities are much lower than the normal NATO-WP dustup. For comparison, the West German front in a hypothetical NATO/Warsaw Pact battle (the "West German Front") is about 400-500 miles, and would have initially had ~60 Soviet/WP divisions and about 30 NATO divisions covering that front.

Excerpt From D2K, with commentary:

EASTAG
"The US Army divides the USA-CSA border into three sectors. Eastern Army Group (EASTAG) is responsible for the border from the Atlantic seaboard to the [source of the] Tennessee River [at about Alvarado, VA]. It disposes 2 armies, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Cumberland, with 18 Class A and B division[s]." EASTAG is about 100 miles wide and is covered by 18 Yankee and 11 Confederate divisions. This front has the highest troop due to the proximity of both nations' capitals, Washington DC and Leesburg (Richmond). Troop density on this front would approximate that of the West German Front.

CENTAG
"Central Army Group's (CENTAG) area of responsibility stretches from the [western boundary of EASTAG] to the Oklahoma border. Its two armies, The Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Missouri have 19 Class A and B divisions." CENTAG is about 700 miles wide and is covered by 19 Yankee and 10 Confederate divisions. This is the most active front and would average 1/4 of the density of the West German Front in 1985.

I played a strategic wargame to develop the history of the war. In that game, the US launched a massive attack through the Tupelo Gap in an attempt to capture Mobile AL and cut the CSA in half. The Tupelo Gap is a region of relatively open terrain that extends from the east bank of the Mississippi to about Chattanooga, then south through Birmingham, Tuscaloosa to about Pensacola. It averages about 250 miles wide (east to west).

The US was barely stopped when the Army of Northern Virginia counterattacked on the east flank and drove from Birmingham to Tupelo to the Mississippi river. This encircled a large part of CENTAG in a pocket in central Mississippi (the so-called "Yazoo Pocket"). The US forces fought their way north and escaped the pocket, but this stalled the US attack. The battles along this section of the Central Front had troop densities about half that of the West German Front.

WESTAG
"The Western Army Group (WESTAG) area of responsibility stretches from Oklahoma to Mexico. It has 8 Class B divisions." WESTAG is about 850-1000 miles depending on how closely the front tracks state borders. It's covered by 8 Yankee divisions and about 13 brigades of the Texas Army. About 700 miles of this front (from El Paso to Central Oklahoma) is desert and prairie.

In the wargame, there was a highly fluid campaign throughout West Texas. Odessa changed hands several times, but the front was ultimately stalemated. If you like desert actions, the highly mobile battles in West Texas and the adjacent states should be satisfactory. There were skirmishes along the Red river, but neither side had sufficient forces to create a decisive result.

Just found Dixie 2000 last month and it inspired me to get a bunch of 3mm Pico Armour. Have it all painted and looking forward to getting on the board and play.

I think SPI had a boardgame about a North-South war set in the 1930's. Pretty basic as I recall.

Having been to Odessa many times, I cannot imagine why anyone fought over it.

This sounds like a great idea. I'll put it to the group here for a try. The vehicles could be made quickly from the 2D ones from Wargame Vault. A map would be useful. Didn't the old SPI "Dixie" Boardgame have a scenario like this to cover the strategic situation? Lots of possibilities.

Odessa = OIL

Obviously, I was inspired by the SPI game. Well, the alternate timeline, as the game was pretty bland. For my strategic wargame, I used the map from Victory Games' "The Civil War". The land and air rules were a modified version of GDW's The Third World War (with units created per the GDW guidelines).

Naval rules were a chart and a track with Confederate Naval Supremacy on one end and Union Naval Supremacy on the other end. At various points, a side would get a benefit "Land 1 brigade of marines" or "make one cruise missile strike" or "1 naval gunfire counter available on any coastal battle". The naval areas were North Atlantic and Caribbean.

Anyhow I had a lot of fun playing and replaying that home brewed game. I learned that the Eastern Front was way too narrow (and filled with fortifications) to fight anything but a war of attrition. The West was simply too big for anything decisive to be achieved. But the Central Front was open enough for major mechanized campaigns and could be decisive. A drive through the Gap could split the CSA or allow the U.S. forces to sweep East and take the industrial hub of Atlanta from the west. A very interesting strategic situation. I'll hunt my notes down because I used the war game to write an official history of the war.

I'd suggest making an overlay with the US Highway (not interstate) system. The road net might change some of the maneuver.

I think that someone has published US maps for GDWs TTW

Ty
Just a quick not the hex size for both the Civil war game and the Fleet series are the same.

charles popp --

Ah now why did you have to go and tell me that? Now I may have to dig it all out again…

I'll be watching with interest. It's a great setting for some alternate history…

Of course the CSA would now mainly speak Spanish :)