Tag: Alternate History

Fire Control in the Soviet Romanian War

On By coilerxiiIn EssayLeave a comment

Because I’m inspired by WWIII87 doing something similar and since I don’t think I’ll ever touch on the topic in any proper All Union successor, here it goes. It was in my mind, now it’s not. Enjoy.

Like with most wars since 1900, if not since the invention of gunpowder, the Soviet-Romanian War in All Union was won by artillery. While the Soviets had far more and far more advanced tube pieces, fire control was a lot more varied on both sides.

Top Tier

The top tier of fire control lay in the front level assets and units in the mobile corps, from battalion to corps itself. These contained most of the what the “recon strike complex” needed to succeed and did. Drone (and advanced non-drone) spotters, high performance datalinks, widespread designators for smart munitions, and advanced digital computers, all of it was present and used to great success. Perhaps the biggest air/artillery feat was the near-destruction of the Romanian 6th Tank Division before a single bullet was used in direct fire. The Romanians and allied Bulgarians had nothing like it. This was what caused a gigantic amount of alarm in the US and western militaries…

…although calmer heads pointed out that while still dangerous in the extreme, the Romanians had very little ability to disrupt the system.

Medium Tier

The medium tier was done by most regular Soviet units in the traditional division/army formation and the best Bulgarian/Romanian units. This involved fire control computers and other technological advantages, but still showed signs of stiffness and weakness in comparison to their upper tier (not the same as ineffectiveness, of course).

Low Tier

The low tier was largely manual and familiar to anyone in World War II, and was conducted by the bulk of Bulgarian and Romanian units, as well as a few low-category Soviet units mobilized for the war. There were many reasons why the southern front was less open and why the Romanian defense there was more effective: Units of mobilized Bulgarians instead of high-tech mobile brigades, the use of the Danube and more defensive lines, the proximity of Bucharest meaning that there was a “back to the wall” attitude, and many of the regime’s most loyal and stubborn units being deployed there prewar, possibly for political reasons.

Yet one has to be better C3I on the Romanian side (a large fortified area meant they could use field telephones and other such rugged measures far better) and worse such measures on the Soviet/Bulgarian side (especially as they had to go on the offensive). Which in turn made fire control better/worse.

Weird Wargaming: The All Union US Military, Part 1: Army and USMC

On By coilerxiiIn Essay, Weird Wargaming1 Comment

So the conventional forces of the United States in All Union, unlike its superpower counterparts, have not been the most central to any of my drafts (yet…). Therefore I figure I should infodump some of my musings on it right now.

Background

The reformation of the USSR brought about a period of aimlessness among the US Army. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the former Warsaw Pact states forming an independent de facto buffer, priorities became much lower. Going from all of Germany to the northern tip of Norway and Thrace is somewhat of a downgrade.

That being said, there has been a shift of forces to the south. The US 9th Infantry Division is in Turkish Thrace to, in the event of a Thraciapocalypse, serve as a mobile counterattack force. The lighter 51st Infantry is in Northeastern Greece near the triple border to make sure the rival NATO countries play nice serve as a tripwire for any Soviet-Bulgarian push south.

The need for “Americi-BTRs” that historically was filled by the Strykers came in the form of LAVs, both the LAV-25/Piranha of real life USMC fame for that branch and the unrelated but similarly named LAV-300/600 series for the Army.

The medium-ization of the Army came as followed: Two brigades in existing heavy divisions with their Bradley mech inf brigades replaced with LAV mech inf brigades ie BMP-BTR mixes, two “medium-heavy” divisions based around LAV-300s with a divisional tank battalion that would stay behind on lower-intensity deployments, and one “medium-light” division with the LAV-300 series, more uparmored HMMVs as the infantry carrier, and no organic tanks. For the USMC, the Seventh Marine Division came into being, along with Combined Arms Regiments (mixes of tanks and LAV-Bisons proposed in real life) for the three active USMC divisions.

More to come…

My First Zoom Roundtable

On By coilerxiiIn Blog StuffLeave a comment

Had a delightful meeting with fellow Fuldapocalypse afficianados on the subject of “Cold War Gone Hot”, and on different points of divergence in particular. It was a great time. The video can be seen below. Topics range from alternate history in general to our books to pondering why all these conventional World War IIIs seem to happen in the 1980s and not earlier.

A Thousand Words: The Natural

On By coilerxiiIn A Thousand Words, ReviewLeave a comment

The Natural (Movie)

There are several things that are all true about the Robert Redford movie The Natural, the baseball story that “adapts” Bernard Malamud’s novel of the same name to the screen.

  • It is a shallow and sugary but well-shot and well-made movie.
  • It is about as faithful to the original novel as a Minnesota politician is to her husband.
  • It’s perhaps the most prominent sports alternate history ever made.

The first part needs the least explanation, except to highlight how amazing Randy Newman’s score is. The second part is the more interesting to explain. See, the novel is in many ways just as shallow as the movie, while being far more mean spirited and, frankly, dull. One great inherent part about filmmaking is that via the trick of “the ball hits something which goes boom”, you can see what awesome thing Roy Hobbs did instead of just having someone say “he lead the league in homers and triples and hit lots of home runs until his character brought him down.”

The final point needs some attention. See, Roy Hobbs and the New York Knights obviously did not actually exist, much less win the 1939 National League pennant. But a more important thing is that instead of taking place in a vague “sometime in the past” the way the book did, this has a specific date (1939), and said date is several decades before the filming and release of the movie. If that’s not alternate history, than what is?

Mobile Corps Emblems

On By coilerxiiIn Art, EssayLeave a comment

A while ago I did a post on the various Sovereign Union Mobile Corps in All Union, which included their “mascot” animals that appeared on each emblem. Now that Stable Diffusion XL has been released, I’m delighted to say that their logos became a reality. (Note: Some are rougher than others. Goal was general idea)

17th Corps

Starting things off is the 17th Corps that heroine Cholpon Murad-Kyzy served in during the Soviet Romanian War. Its mascot is the Huma Bird, and I chose the output/prompt that didn’t look so much like an eagle. Located in Central Asia, it serves as the de facto strategic reserve corps, being ready to go east, west, or south in equal measure.

5th Corps

The Belarusian 5th Corps is a bison. Historically, it was the only such corps actually made (and not have a bison as its symbol.)

7th Corps

The 7th Corps is an elk. Not much else to say about it.

26th Corps

The Northwestern TVD’s 26th Corps has the Karelian Bear Dog as its mascot animal. It did not participate in the Soviet-Romanian War, but in the event that the All Union and Northern Fury timelines were fused into one combined World War III, it would be the central Soviet force in Norway.

28th Corps

The Lviv-centered 28th Corps is one of the main units opposite new archrival Poland. Its symbol is a fairly plain lion.

64th Corps

The Donbass-garrisoned 64th Corps was in many ways the “pet” unit of legendary reformist president Anton Yatchenko, who happened to come from that area. Its symbol is a nightingale, and it was one of the key units in the Romanian War.

32nd Corps

The Crimea-based 32nd Corps was the only such one to serve in the southern Danube Front, and it only entered the battlefield after the initial Soviet-Bulgarian force had established firm bridgeheads on the northern side of the river. It’s the corps with the most focus on amphibious, airborne, and light infantry operations. Rumor has it that part of it is earmarked for a separate attack on Iceland. Its mascot is a hippocampus, a mythical literal sea horse.

43rd Corps

With its cartoon mosquito being the most whimsical logo of the entire army, the 43rd Corps is the primary mobile corps opposite the old and rising enemy: China. Because of this, it was never even considered being sent west to Romania in 1998.

57th Corps

The leaping lynx that is the 57th is the other Far Eastern mobile corps. Like its “brother” the 43rd, it did not fight in the Romanian War. However, it was on standby along with the 26th in case a second mobilization and major operation needed to be launched (it didn’t).

Review: Hell to Pay

On By coilerxiiIn Review2 Comments

Hell To Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan

With the atomic bombing in the news thanks to the Oppenheimer movie, I figured I’d had to take a look at D.M. Giangreco’s Hell to Pay, an analysis of what would likely happen if the dreaded invasion of Japan was likely launched. Spoiler alert: Hundreds of thousands of Americans and over ten million Japanese would have almost certainly been killed.

With clear and concise arguments that cite primary sources from both sides, Giangreco makes the case very convincingly. With their backs to the wall and years of experience and preparation, the Japanese would face a strung-out American fleet. This book certainly gives credibility to the statement that the atomic bomb was actually the most humane choice.

Those interested in WWII or alternate history should definitely read this book.

Review: Nixon’s War

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Nixon’s War

Rick Kester’s Nixon’s War is one in an “alternate presidents” series of alternate history novels. How is it? Well, uh, not very good.

This alternate Cuban Missile Crisis gone hot starts in a conference room. And continues in a conference room. I can sympathize trying to balance exposition with storytelling (after all I’ve had to do it myself many times). This doesn’t really strike a balance. Especially as it jumps to everyone from Lee Harvey Oswald to Elvis Presley to random civilians. All of whom talk like they were in a conference room.

(There’s a lot of exposition, ok?)

Anyway, the B-59 goes ahead with the nuclear torpedo launch that it avoided in real life, and World War III begins. This is at least a slight improvement over the conference room mania, simply because you can’t make a nuclear war completely boring. However, the exposition continues apace. Worse, it’s not even accurate as constant references to “5.7mm” bullets are made, a caliber that didn’t come into being until decades after the events of the book. And apparently the US Army is adopting the Browning Hi-Power (I guess the author likes FN weapons?)

The last third of the story propery after the (realistically) skewed war is mostly just people bumbling around in an uninteresting fashion. The reader is treated to philisophical debates and infodumps on everything from child care policy to plutonium reactors. In fact, the final section of the book is nothing but historical exposition. And this isn’t a small afterward-it’s about a quarter of the whole thing!

I don’t want to be too hard on this book. It does sincerely try to have a wide variety of characters reacting to World War III, does have a large number of battles, and tries to be a good “big war thriller”. It just doesn’t really succeed, which is a shame.

Fictional Prime Ministers

On By coilerxiiIn ArtLeave a comment

Two fictional Prime Ministers of the UK, created in Stable Diffusion. They are Jane Fallow and Alister Stern. Stable Diffusion with the right models is very good at making these “pseudo-photos”, especially if it’s in an undemanding format like an upper body portrait. And yes, I’ve taken advantage of this to see what characters in my writing have looked like. Also yes, you may see these names in a story…

Review: Duped

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Duped: Slave Of The New Confederacy

I’ve read a lot of alternate history in my life. But not until Lena White’s Duped: Slave of the New Confederacy did I read a certain alternate history subgenre. In this case, alternate history fetish fiction. Now, there’s nothing wrong with fetish fiction. But this is a particularly shallow example of it.

Here’s the actual alternate history summarized: The South won the Civil War and became an independent country with slavery and still has it in the present in this book. (I will give Duped legitimate credit for not buying or promoting the Lost Cause mythology of the CSA’s secession and values not being slavery related.) During the Great Depression, slavery in its traditional form collapsed for economic reasons. But then in the 60s, it returned and reversed. Slaves became objects of ‘love’, mostly white females, and the slavers became mostly black males.

You can probably see where this is going. Anyway, the protagonists go south for what they think is just some harmless play acting as slaves. Spoiler alert: It’s not, and the book ends with basically just a sequel hook. It’s basically just a very strange footnote in how alternate history can fit into more or less any type of story.