"Need Help With Modern Imagi-Nation/Alternate History" Topic

All,

Somebody help me! I'm about to start a campaign, but need an idea for another. Here's the situation: I have a small, freedom loving but war-mongering nation that has expeditionary forces ready to deploy to right wrongs, free the oppressed, etc… We have conventional forces and special operations types standing by to deploy anywhere in the world (except Cuba and the Balkans, those are already handled), though it should be a relatively small deployment.

Here's the particulars:

-the time is April/May 1990 (I like to use Imagi-Nations based off of real world events, like my upcoming Balkans campaign based off the breakup of Yugoslavia). I like my concepts to make sense in the overall (or even particular) scheme of what's going on in the world.

-my country can deploy between 20 and 200 regular and/or special operations troops.

-can be anywhere in the world (minus Cuba and the Balkans), can be made up country or real, but I need at least a rough geographical location.

-I need a roster of the players, i.e., who are the good guys, the bad guys, the indifferents, etc… Everyone we're likely to run into in the battle area, and the more the merrier. For example, in my Balkans campaign I'll have 'good guy' militia (the ones that called for help), bad guy regulars, bad guy militia, Yugoslavian conscripts, and Serbian Special Forces).

-I need a raison d'etre: is a minority ethnic group being slaughtered and the world is only watching? Is a peace loving nation being invaded? Has an insurgency sprung up? Have narco-traffickers moved in? What is the situation that needs rectifying/neutralizing?

Thanks in advance for any help you all may provide, and please let it flow, nothing is too crazy. We could even head to the Sulfanate of Ifat, just need a reason ;)

V/R,
Jack

I have some old Exercise documents from the 80's. The Island of San Rafael (map of California from Sonoma County south made into an island) had 4 countries, San Rafael in the North, Fresno (most of the Central Valley), Barstow and San Clemente. Fresno and Barstow had "ethnic" differences and were fighting over Hunter-Liggett Province.

I'll try to dig it out and scan the document.

All,

I received some questions to further expound upon my concept, here's what I've got:

-my country has recently fought a war of liberation to overthrow a dictator.
-a constitutional republic has been established and free elections have put the first president in office.
-the country is now on the western democracy side of things, vice the Soviet/Warsaw Pact or non-aligned (think North Korea, Iran, China, and Cuba) side of things.
-The country's use of its expeditionary force is entirely 100% idealistic, there is no thought to national interest/profiteering (this is my wargaming utopia, free from such matters as I'm not at all interested in getting into political debates about this). So they will absolutely die on someone else's hill to protect someone else's life/freedom, free of charge, with no other motivating factors necessary.
-The country has been oppressed by a dictator for the past 60 years and is very sensitive to other people's being oppressed, and is fairly renowned for its opposition to genocide, so will gladly pitch in to help fledgling democracies (that's what my other campaign, set to start next weekend, is about), free the oppressed, protect the weak, etc…
-My country has pissed off Iran (case of being in wrong spot at the wrong time). Iran has yet to retaliate, but it will happen sooner or later (I'm thinking something like Iran-sponsored terrorist group blows up one of my country's embassies, for example), and then my country will respond, though it would best be if the response was a proxy war of some sort, as my country and Iran are not really in position to invade each other.
-Venezuela has pissed off my country (by supporting the dictator during the War of Liberation), and that will come to a head at some point. Again, I'm looking at more proxy war-type stuff, not either country invading the other.

So, freedom loving and war mongering, in defense of freedom loving peoples; if they weren't I wouldn't have much of a background for wargaming. I hope that answers helps.

Saber – I like it, and the scan would be awesome.

V/R,
Jack

Hmmm, sounds like it could be a small, Caribbean, African, or former Soviet country.

Originally, I was going to lean on a small, Baltic state too, but not sure that fits the second posting as well.

Could also be a small, Asian island/country, or one up near the Chinese border.

Regardless, Kardashia will be happy to be your ally for the right level of tribute paid annually, in diamonds, other rare gems, and precious metals.

Here's a freebie for you:

The Republic of San Salvador.

San Salvador is group of islands in the western Pacific and was a colony of Spain. The Spaniards conquered the island during the 17th century and ruled it from then on as a colony. The population was converted to Christianity and saw a large influx of Spaniards and later Filipinos. So it has a strong Asian/Spanish influence in its population and is rather westernized.

During the 1898 Spanish-American War San Salvador was conquered by the US along with Guam and the Philippines. The touch of American occupation was light and the island prospered. San Salvador over those decades would add American culture to the existing Spanish/Asian culture. In fact, baseball is the major past time of the islanders.

In 1935 the US decided to grant San Salvador its independence and that was the beginning of the First Republic which had a very American looking government and a small army/navy. San Salvador's independence didn't last long… in December of 1941 the Japanese invaded during the wake of the Pearl Harbor attacks and suffered several long years of occupation. The Japanese were brutal and quite a number of San Salvadorians were interned and used as slave labor. This nightmare ended, sort of, in July of 1945 when Soviet troops were landed to liberate the island.

Many prisoners survived captivity in Japan only to return to their home being occupied by the Soviets. The island was suppose to have free election in 1946, however Stalin blocked them and made sure that the communist party won everything. Many of those who survived Japanese prisons suddenly found themselves rounded up and shipped to gulags in Siberia.

Over the years the US has provided San Salvador with covert support and there was a strong anti-communist/Soviet movement that managed to survive the long years of occupation and communist rule. Even baseball was forbidden! Also the Soviet Union relocated thousands of ethnic Russians to settle near Soviet base areas thus creating a significant Russian population.

In 1989 the Soviets withdrew their forces from San Salvador and the local population launched a popular uprising against the now weak communist regime. By early 1990 the Second Republic was formed (the People's Republic of San Salvador immediately went into the scrap heap of history) and received significant American aid.

In August 1990 the newly formed San Salvadoran Armed Forces sent a full battalion of infantry, a frigate, and a squadron of MiG 29s to support the US Coalition to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq. The MiGs flew combat operations during Desert Storm while the frigate participated in attacks against the Iraqi Navy. In February of 1991 the Salvadorans participated in Operation Desert Sabre fighting alongside the USMC and helping in the liberation of Kuwait City. During the aftermath of the war Salvadoran troops clashed with Iranian forces in an incident over Iraqi christians.

In later years the Salvadorans would clash in a Cold War of sorts with Venezuela over influence in the Americas. San Salvador is a firm US ally and views the Chavez government as a totalitarian, if not communist, regime. San Salvador seeks to spread democracy and free market capitalism throughout the world, particularly in Latin America who they have strong cultural links with.

As of July 1991 the Salvadoran Armed Forces stand ready to carry the banner of freedom around the world. After enduring nearly 50 years of occupation, oppression, and brutal treatment at the hand of totalitarian governments and nations they view it as their obligation to come to the aid of freedom loving people everywhere.

By 2015 the Republic of San Salvador is in a worrisome place. She has claims in the South China Sea as well and she is finding that her claims aren't recognized by the PRC. She is also concerned by rumblings from Moscow about unpaid loans, ignoring Soviet era basing treaties, and has voiced concerns about the treatment of ethnic Russians. Indeed, San Salvador has a small, but at times vocal, population of Russians who seek closer ties with the Russian Federation. The republic has strongly supported the Philippines to the point of providing military aid and it is currently providing humanitarian aid to the Ukraine.

Population: 8 million. Demographics: Euro/Asian (Spanish/American/Polynesian) 40%, European (Spanish or American decent) 15%, European (Russian) 5%, Asiatic (Polynesian): 30%, Chinese 7%, Other 3%

Government: Representative republic split into three states: San Salvador, San Pedro, and San Francisco. The federal government meets in San Salvador and has three branches of government. The leader of the executive branch is the President (el presidente even in English!), the legislative branch is the Senate, the judicial branch is call The Courts. Each state follows with the same structure but the executive is called the prefect.

Languages: English (spoken by over 90% of the population), Spanish (spoken by over 90% of the population), Chinese (roughly 10%), and Russian (about 5%).

Religion: Principally Christian- Roman Catholic with some Orthodox Christian. Other religions are mostly with the ethnic minorities like the Chinese and some old religion hold-outs with the Polynesians.

Size: 8,000 square miles split into one large and two smaller islands. Capital: El Salvador City. Major Cities: San Juan City, San Francisco, San Pedro.

GDP: $300 USD billion. San Salvador has experienced huge economic growth through trade with Korea, the US, and Japan.

Army: 4 infantry brigades as its core force with battalions of armored, ranger, marine, and airborne troops. Weapon initially are Warsaw Pact with western weapons replacing them over time.

Navy: 8 coastal patrol craft over 300 tons, 4 frigates (one is a newish O.H. Perry Frigate), and several supporting ships including landing craft and amphib craft.

Air Force: 4 squadrons of fixed wing jets (mostly Soviet stuff) and several long range transports.

Mako – Free Cuba pays no one tribute, least of all some big-butted, attention-seeking woman of a country ;)

TGunner – Holy cow, man, that sounds great. But sorry man, I probably wasn't clear. I have a country, "Free Cuba," following my "Cuba Libre" campaign; I posed the 32 batreps from the "War of Liberation" here.

Free Cuba has now formed an Expeditionary Force for worldwide deployment. They are about to send Special Forces to the Balkans to aid a small, fledgling democracy break free of the chains of communism/Yugoslavia.

It's currently April/May 1990 for Cuba Libre, and I need another campaign to embark.

V/R,
Jack

An idea of area could also be in the Balkans area, a country that came out of Yugoslavia split. Ethnic, access to the Med. Sea. Could be an island in the Med. Could be on coast of east Africa north or south of the Horn. Determine you natural resources. Either might explain issue with Iran. Go to South or Central America for issue with Venezuela.

When you are set up. Let me know. I will be delighted to attack. I have 6mm or 1/285 scale modern micro armor. Good luck with your I-magine country.

TGunner – Holy cow, man, that sounds great. But sorry man, I probably wasn't clear. I have a country, "Free Cuba," following my "Cuba Libre" campaign; I posed the 32 batreps from the "War of Liberation" here.

Free Cuba has now formed an Expeditionary Force for worldwide deployment. They are about to send Special Forces to the Balkans to aid a small, fledgling democracy break free of the chains of communism/Yugoslavia.

It's currently April/May 1990 for Cuba Libre, and I need another campaign to embark.

*snickers*

Copy and paste is a wonderful tool, isn't it?

San Salvador is an imagination I've gamed in for a while although I never thought of it as an ImagiNation. I just never did a blog for it like I did for Liberty.

But yeah, feel free to use it.

Send them to San Salvador. At that time the Salvadorans would be in the middle of finishing off communist hardliners and are struggling with those last, hard-core holdouts. Plus the Salvadoran army needs some serious retraining to mix the old rebels in with former regime troops to form the new army.

The US is sending some support but it's not much. George Bush and the peace dividend.. plus he doesn't want to tick off the Soviets too much. I think they would flip out to see US forces rushing in to fill the vacuum the Red Army just created. In fact, a newly communist-free Cuba would be a great proxy for the US to use to support San Salvador.

In my games, Merc 2000 and Recon actually, it was a setting that I used for my little merc group. They were CIA advisors who helped to train and organize the Salvadoran Army and they fought the Marxist holdouts. They later took their trainees to Desert Storm (amusingly enough, this was the campaign I played while I was still in the Army and all of my players WERE Storm vets) and I actually played out the Iraqi christian incident with them.

I will admit I did update the background a bit both for my games to involve China and Russia and changed the timeline a little to fit what you asked for.

My boys, who are getting into RPGs, will probably spend time in San Salvador. They'll probably meet Captain Dave (my favorite NPC)! LOL!! Although he is going to be a grey haired retiree when they get there.

Great stuff.

Chris – Thanks man!

TGunner – Awesome! And I'll definitely have to do someting with San Salvador, but I think I've come up with something in Africa for my current situation. I'll let you know what I get lined up. Here's the campaign background for my upcoming Balkans stuff:
link

I'm following "Round Down Range," but I see it's last post was 2012. Do you have another blog?

Thanks guys.

V/R,
Jack

My school system went google and I lost my blog. So I did this one.

link

I'm not as active as I would like. Having four kids, two of whom are 4 and less takes the time out of you. But my girls are bigger and my wife is wrapping up her masters so I can play more. But soon I'll be doing the masters thing too… so limited times for the next couple of years.

Sounds like fun, the Serbs need a butt kicking.

Be warned that San Salvador is a 15mm zone!! LOL!!

Found the map, still looking for the background data

Will post a link in the AM

Kardashia has officially unfriended "Free Cuba" on Facebook, due to the hurtful and slanderous comments above.

Let the Twitter cyber war against them begin……………

Note, we will be setting up a GoFundMe page for Kardashia, which of course any and all people should contribute generously to, in order to help stamp out such sexist, anti-female hostility.

Here is the Map:

1drv.ms/1RhmIyL

"Players" are:
Monterey
Fresno
Roberta
Escondido

Monterey, Fresno and Roberta have conflicting interests in Hunter-Liggett Province.

Well, Free Cuba doesn't even have a Facebook page, because Free Cuba has more important things to do. And this:

"Note, we will be setting up a GoFundMe page for Kardashia, which of course any and all people should contribute generously to, in order to help stamp out such sexist, anti-female hostility."

is just another example of Kardashia sucking the life and treasure out of mankind ;)

Saber 6 – Thanks man, that's cool. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to find it and post it.

V/R,
Jack

I'm still looking for the "manual". I have the maps (1:500,000), too large to scan.

Found this document. 1drv.ms/1Nl5ACo

The Scenario part of the "manual". The rest was all the Puzzle Palace stuff of what the exercise was trying to achieve (IIRC communications and order formats with Britain, Australia and Canada)

Caltrop Tyro, eh? I like it.

Thanks again for taking the time to post this stuff.

V/R,
Jack

My thinking for New Byzantium, starts over here as a carve out after WW1

link

And more posts here on development after WW2, start with this one. May give some ideas.

link

Also an analysis of a typical Banana Republic military force

link

FWIW a clubmate of mine imagined a whole Alternative Europe (no WW2)

link

Sounds like you could become a Catholic Emancipatory Force, kicking out Soviet and US proxy regimes and freeing the righteous – would explain the Iranian grumpiness ;)

Just Jack:
Your Cubans could deploy to Chad/Libya/Mali which was a war-zone in the spring summer of 1990 due to the Tuareg Rebellion which lasted about six years. Also Rwanda was an active place for foreign deployments attempting to stop the genocidal violence which eventually consumed the country. There was a small civil war in Djibouti in the early 1990's which could pit your Cubans against FFL troops! Also there were civil wars in Sierra Leone, Algeria and Somalia.
Perhaps the Cuban Expeditionary force participated in the Mindanao Crisis in the Philippines in 1990. Spanish would be a useful tongue there. You could pit them against Islamic zealots or Filipino regulars and possibly even American special forces! Where would Jack's rooting loyalties lie there?
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

If you were Francophone maybe the Previous Glorious Leader of your country has persuaded the Foreign Legion to come and sort you out :)

Freecloud- thanks, New Byzantium has some interesting concepts. I think I'll stay away from the Catholic Emancipation thing though;) and the Legion, should they make an appearance, would be on the side of righteousness and freedom, alongside Free Cuba.

Rod – I believe my 15mm campaign is going to the African nation of South Leon, to support a regime but then conduct a NEO. After all this time you still don't kno where my loyalties lie??? Let's just say it would be a cold day in hell before Free Cuban troops cross swords with the U.S.!

V/R,
Jack

Ah, Jack:
I come from Canada or as the Viking Bjarni Hrolfsson called it Helluland because it was so cold. Helluland is cold! So it being a cold day in hell, when can we expect to see the Free Cubans going up against US Special Forces then? :)
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Rothinn-Griss Robertsson

I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, for 7 years, and it wasn't cold enough to have Free Cuba vs US, so relax Rodencrantz…

V/R,
Jack

Jack, I would attack you, you are too far and back 25 years in 1990. I am (on GHQ) Commonwealth of Chrisdom. I was more contemporary. But I have not put a date on it except equipment, like F-35. I can cancel that….move back in time.
But what to do with it now? How do we engage?