"Soviets vs Allies in 1945-46, any novels or games?" Topic

Any novels or wargames out there that have the Soviets and the Allies going to war in 1945 or 46?

Red Gambit series. I just finished them bloody fantastic books.

Red Inferno: 1945, novel by Robert Conroy

I second Red Gambit. Gripping stuff.

Thanks guys!

Red Inferno by Robert Conroy is pretty good:
link

Will have to check out the above books. Thanks.

P.S. I am running a FOW Operation Overcast 1945 scenario at the HMGS-PSW convention (Fullerton CA) this saturday. Large table 16x6 FOW game using 20mm miniatures late war American vs. Soviets and some die-hard Germans to muck up the scenario. Unlike a normal American vs. Soviet game, this scenario has a German advanced technology search aspect before the possible trigger fingers action.

My preparation has been documented on the blog over the last two months. Late tonight the scenario notes file hopefully will be posted giving full detail how this scenario will run and the 6000 point forces involved.

Preparation link: link

Convention details: HMGS-PSW hmgspsw.com

Holy Goose Feathers rabbit!!!
That is impressive!

Red Inferno: 1945 and Red Gambit….

Talk about badly written war porn… Conroy, king of the cardboard character. And so formulaic that once you've read one of his books, you've read them all. And Gee.. Massively overwritten, wandering tripe (anyone hear of an editor???). And both have dodgy history (Conroy writes that Germany invaded Russia in 1940…hmmmmm.. Really?)

There's got to be better than this sad trash out there…

re Charlie 12's comments. I cannot speak for Mr Conroy, and neither can he now, as he passed away a while back. I can however speak for me. Overwritten and wandering tripe? That is undoubtedly in the eye of the beholder, and the vast majority clearly find the books otherwise. Labelling work sad trash is sort of childish in my view, and is as beneath me as it should have been beneath you. However, dodgy history I think needs some explanation, bearing in mind that it is an alternate history. Please do explain your comments. Thank you.

ColinG- Interesting. I did noticed on Amazon that you're quick to respond to any criticism (and now, even on this niche forum). Its always been the general understanding that author's allow their books to stand on their own merits, good or bad (evidently you think otherwise). That said…

I read your first volume of the Red Gambit series… And wasn't impressed.

The criticism on the Amazon site more than covers the major writing issues (bad editing, bad grammar/spelling/punctuation, lack of structure, etc). So I won't dwell on those (annoying as they are).

Nor the the endless weapon descriptions (that add nothing to the story), the disjointed battle scenes (with little context) and other structure problems. (At one point I started to wonder if there was a plot hidden somewhere in all this verbiage. I concluded there wasn't.)

As to the "history", I'll only point out one glaring example. You have the Soviet Navy's submarine arm successfully attacking and mauling a Royal Navy task force. Now historically the Soviet submarine arm did little to nothing during 1941 to 1945 (other than get sunk). So minimal was their impact that the Baltic was a German lake for the entire war. While the RN from 1939-1945 (with US help in the later years) fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic against the most skilled submariners of the time. Now we are to believe the Soviet submariners, who couldn't prevail in the Baltic against the Germans (whose ASW was not that stellar), are now going to best one of the most experienced, well equipped ASW services in the world? REALLY??? I know this is "alt history", but even that has to have a point of departure from an established reality. Imagining that the RN suddenly forgot 5 years of hard learned lessons and that the Soviets become seawolves overnight is pure fantasy.

Yes, you have your fans. And good for you. But having worked in the book field, I'll just point out that bestselling numbers are no indication of quality. If that was the case, Joan Collins would've been a multiple Pulitzer winner….

Indeed, I respond to all posts, regardless of their content. Initially I responded in kind to posts whose content was unfounded and clearly intended to harm ratings and nothing more. I have always suffered fools badly but have now learned to reply in a calmer fashion. Some of your statement above is valid, as I produced a substandard offering in the first instance. My editing skills were poor and I had to revisit OM to address that issue. Endless weapon descriptions is hardly factual. Disjointed battle scenes is possible, as I have my own style which is decidedly different. Your suggestion of an absence of plot requires absolutely no response from me whatsoever as it is wholly laughable. Your glaring example fails to acknowledge certain salient points, perhaps unsurprisingly as you haven't really read the books. However, for those who observe this exchange, I state the following. The USSR launches a surprise attack against an unready western allied group who are winding down as quickly as they can. The ongoing enemy is in the Far East, and any problems with the USSR would c!early not take place on the high seas, so navies are being reduced at a greater rate. The Soviet navy acquires some Type XXI U-boats, that had capabilities well in excess of the vessels normally operated by the Kreigsmarine in WW2. The capabilities of the XXI were way ahead of the time, so they are employed in such a way that they make an impact. The early successes by standard Soviet submarines were mainly as a result of the surprise element, rather than a technical advantage. This is reasonably evident in the books, but there are none so blind as they that will not see.
As for your last point, if you worked in the book industry in an area concerned with sales and marketing, then you will be aware that quality is often a secondary issue, where quality is judged by those with their set of rules and guidelines on what makes a good book. Readers will buy what entertains and satisfies them of course. Selling a notable number of books will tend to be a matter of luck for self publishing authors like me, and I have been extremely lucky. I set out to entertain and entertain I have. Your comments still retain a certain petulance which I'm sure will not go unnoticed by those who read them. For my part, I will continue to write as I write, improve my editing skills, and produce work that those with some knowledge will be able to understand as possible and not challenging the boundaries of credulity. I never read Joan Collins, so bow to your experience.

I am not sure what you mean by games. Maneouver Group can and does work for this period. We had an alternate game using larger numbers of tigers of the massive sort and Centurians and Pattons on the other. You can make up the stats based on real world assumptions. Maus may be a bit difficult as they proably would bog more quickly and getting across any water feature may be difficult as most bridges at the time would proably not take them. Shermans could all be Fireflys or an "invented" US equivalent. Russians could actually field lots of JS3's to add to the fun.

Could somebody have invented a gun stabilisation system that actually worked?

Sorry being little late but second both Red Gambit and Red Inferno like everyone else.There's also Fox on the Rhine which is a second part to Fox at the Front. Is go with Red Gambit tho. The books are full of detail late War equipment and vehicles as well as early cold war vehicles. There's even battle maps in the chapters that could be used for wargaming.