SireChaos
Posts: 710
Joined: 8/14/2006
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Status: offline
|
I plan to create a series of scenarios - who knows, maybe it´ll be an entire campaign or tow - around the alt-hist idea that the Cuban Missile Crisis turned into a shooting war. Right now the scenarios are still only in theoretical planning stage.
The point of departure is that, after the U-2 is shot down over Cuba, Kennedy orders air strikes against Cuba. He considers the shootdown an intentional escalation on part of the Soviets (no Cuban-operated SAMs could have shot down the U-2). For him, this is an effort to prevent anyone from interfering with the work on the missile sites, and he and his advisors concludes that Krushchev had not previously negotiated in good faith.
Scenario One: The Missile Hunt
Since the Soviets are likely to see attacks on the SAM batteries as a prelude to attacks on the missile sites, it is decided to attack both the SAM batteries and the missile sites themselves. It is assumed that the Soviet officer in charge of the nuclear missiles cannot simply launch them on his own initiative, but has to get approval from Moscow first. This lengthy decision cycle gives the US a time window in which to knock out the missiles before they can be fired - but it is imperative that ALL missiles are destroyed. With the Soviet´s nuclear deterrent on Cuba gone, even if the situation escalates into a full shooting war, that war will remain a conventional war - IF the US can destroy all missiles on the ground, using only conventional weapons themselves.
This scenario will have three sides - US, Cuba, Soviets; only the US is playable. The Soviet side will control the nuclear missiles, their SAM sites, and all the other Soviet-manned equipment on Cuba.
I haven´t played around with the event system yet, so I´m not entirely sure what is possible to implement the special conditions here. As soon as US forces fire on Soviet (not Cuban) forces, a timer of several hours starts; as soon as the timer has run down, the Soviets will get nuclear release and a mission to strike several target markers in the US (or they have one to begin with and get the other via event, depending on what is possible). I am considering giving the US forces nuclear weapons (and nuclear release) - but actually using them trigger a MUCH shorter timer, which also leads to Soviet nuclear release and strikes on the US, representing either the Soviet commander firing the weapons on his own initiative because he thinks nuclear war has started, or Cuban forces seizing the weapons and firing them in retaliation for nuclear strikes against Cuban soil - so if the US use nukes they had better be even more DAMN sure they get all their targets.
The US wins if they destroy all missile launch sites without any of them launching missiles; US military losses and Cuban or Soviet other assets destroyed are irrelevant.
The US loses if at least one nuclear missile hits a target within the US.
The scenario also has a fairly tight overall time limit; should this run out before the US wins or loses (because the timer was triggered late enough to not have run down yet), the result is a draw, as negotiations resume.
Scenario Two: (No Name Yet)
(This scenario assumes that the US won scenario 2)
In the aftermath of the missile hunt, Castro decides to retaliate by attacking the US base at Guantanamo bay with the intention of neutralizing it, removing the armed US presence from his island.
I am not sure yet how the US would react to this:
- Send amphibious troops to reinforce Guantanamo?
- Send transports to evacuate Guantanamo?
- Land troops elsewhere on Cuba (on the North coast opposite florida, most likely) either to divert effort from Guantanamo or to topple the Castro regime - the latter would practically dictate a landing at or near Havanna
Thoughts?
|
Printable Version
The Cuban Missile War - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread