An Alternative Survivor's Guide to the United Kingdom

[Rainbow Six]

Evening all,

As some of you may recall a couple of years ago I posted some pieces on an alternative non canon Survivor's Guide to the United Kingdom and the attached documents form an update and an expansion to that work. Changes to the timeline I originally posted are relatively minor - basically I've moved the UK Capital to Winchester instead of Oxford (thanks Simonmark6 and DudeUK for that suggestion), changed slightly the area under HMG control (it now more accurately follows the canon SGUK) and generally tidied up a few bits I wasn't overly happy with in the original, mostly to do with the destruction of the central Government. I've also tidied up the order of battle for HM forces (thanks LouieD for your input to that) and added the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Other than that and the part on MI5, it's all new material, which I hope you'll find to be of interest.

Questions and comments are most welcome! The work is based on 01 June 2000 in a V1 timeline.

Part 1 - Timeline / Regional Guide

The Regional Guide is based on the Cold War civil defence regions, and uses county names in place at the end of the 80's, some of which have now changed. I had originally hoped to go into a fair degree of detail for each region, but unfortunately time has been my greatest enemy, so I've had to settle for a broader description of each region, though I have tried to include a few adventure "seeds". As this work focuses on the UK mainland only, Northern Ireland is not covered, other than in the timeline. I have changed the nuclear strikes very slightly - basically I've spared Birmingham but hit the ports at Felixstowe / Harwich and also High Wycombe (the latter because that was where I placed the Government's command bunker).

[Rainbow Six]

Part 2 - His Majesty's Government / HM Armed Forces / The Security Service / Scottish and Welsh Separatist Movements

Again, the listing for HM Armed Forces only refers to those units on the mainland that are still following HMG's orders. Some of the detail in this section was inspired by James Langham, while I'm indebted to LouieD for his input on the order of battle.

[Rainbow Six]

Part 3 - The Americans / the Soviets / the French

Short pieces on the three major foreign powers present in the UK. I plan to add the Dutch in the near future.

I'm also still working on Part 4, which will cover a selection of non Governmental lawful groups, e,g, the Norwich enclave, the Highland Coalition, and the Free City of Carlisle, and Part 5, which will cover marauder groups such as the Duke of Cornwall, Bloody Mary, and the North Preston Front. I hope to have all of that done by the end of the year.

Cheers

Dave

[James Langham]

Part 3 - The Americans / the Soviets / the French

Short pieces on the three major foreign powers present in the UK. I plan to add the Dutch in the near future.

I'm also still working on Part 4, which will cover a selection of non Governmental lawful groups, e,g, the Norwich enclave, the Highland Coalition, and the Free City of Carlisle, and Part 5, which will cover marauder groups such as the Duke of Cornwall, Bloody Mary, and the North Preston Front. I hope to have all of that done by the end of the year.

Cheers

Dave

Thanks for the attribution.

Really nice write ups.

Please tell me the North Preston Front doesn't have characters called Lloydy, Spock and Diesel...

[James Langham]

Part 2 - His Majesty's Government / HM Armed Forces / The Security Service / Scottish and Welsh Separatist Movements

Again, the listing for HM Armed Forces only refers to those units on the mainland that are still following HMG's orders. Some of the detail in this section was inspired by James Langham, while I'm indebted to LouieD for his input on the order of battle.

Great work - a few nitpicks

Should the Household Brigade be called the Guards Brigade

22SAS doesn't have a Zulu Squadron - I assume this is deliberate, if not A, B, D or G Squadron should replace it.

I assume Comacchio's 51mm is mainly for illum, not many circumstances in nuclear weapon guarding or oil reg protection.

I would look at issuing some of the Welsh and Scottish militia .303s and double barreled shotguns, maybe with an SLR or L85 in the role of a squad automatic.

Looking forward to seeing more.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Please tell me the North Preston Front doesn't have characters called Lloydy, Spock and Diesel...

I was thinking it might be all quiet on that front

As an aside, I'd love a game of "Gurkha Tank Battle"

[schnickelfritz]

I am having trouble opening the one on HM Forces, but cn open the others. Can a fresh copy be uploaded or a .pdf file
Thanks!

Other than that, awesome work!

-Dave

[schnickelfritz]

Scratch that-after several tries, got it to download completely. Happens sometimes. Thanks Microsoft!

[James Langham]

I was thinking it might be all quiet on that front

As an aside, I'd love a game of "Gurkha Tank Battle"

Makes me laugh!

[Rainbow Six]

Firstly, thanks all for your comments.

Great work - a few nitpicks

Should the Household Brigade be called the Guards Brigade

Personally I just like the sound of the Household Brigade...to be honest I could almost see a scenario where different officers are sitting around a table in Salisbury after the Brigade is formed debating which number to use and the senior man (a Guardsman obviously!) just thumps the table and says "Damnit, we'll just call it the Household Brigade and be done with it!"

That said, I think the most accurate title would probably be 32nd (Guards) Infantry Brigade or possibly 56th (London) Brigade. I think I could probably be persuaded to change it to 32nd Guards (which is also what was used in the excellent canon orbat on the etranger site).

22SAS doesn't have a Zulu Squadron - I assume this is deliberate, if not A, B, D or G Squadron should replace it.

Yep, you're right - it's deliberate...my thinking here is that the "regular" Squadrons will all be deployed on operations worldwide so Zulu Squadron is raised as an ad hoc unit to take under command the handful of Special Forces types still in the UK. I chose Z purely because it was the last letter in the alphabet, which I thought gave it a feeling of being "improvised" - if that makes sense

I assume Comacchio's 51mm is mainly for illum, not many circumstances in nuclear weapon guarding or oil reg protection.

Good point...

I would look at issuing some of the Welsh and Scottish militia .303s and double barreled shotguns, maybe with an SLR or L85 in the role of a squad automatic.

Again, good point...I'll rework that part...

And don't worry - there's no Lloydy, Spock or Diesel!

To be honest, my thinking for the Preston based marauder group was a) that I wanted to get away from calling every other marauder group the Butchers, the Headhunters, the Predators, etc, etc and b) I wanted to try and come up with something that suggested a hint of legitimacy about that group, particularly as they are fronted up by a pre war MP (the idea was loosely based on the relationship between the White Death and the Congressman (whose name escapes me) in Allegeheny Uprising)...so basically we know from reading the Regional Guide that the NPF are out and out marauders, but a group of PC's might not neccessarily know that. That kinda led me to the North Preston Front (there are a few other references to British pop culture dotted about here and there; maybe that one was a bit too tongue in cheek! )

Cheers

[TiggerCCW UK]

(there are a few other references to British pop culture dotted about here and there; maybe that one was a bit too tongue in cheek! )

Not at all - I like spotting the references and would usually include some in my own games.

[James Langham]

Minor quibble, Leicester would have 7 Royal Anglian not 3WFR (who are based in Chesterfield & Mansfield).

[Rainbow Six]

Minor quibble, Leicester would have 7 Royal Anglian not 3WFR (who are based in Chesterfield & Mansfield).

My orbat's based on the real life pre Options for Change orbat (with a few tweaks), so I have 7 RAR going to Germany with the 2nd Infantry Division at the start of the war.

I have 3 WFR remaining in the UK in a home defence role; they get sent to the Birmingham area after the nuclear strikes to try and keep order, but break up as a cohesive military unit during 1998. Different groups head in different directions, with one finishing up in Leicester.

Attached is a copy of my 1996 orbat. The tweaks were based on a suggestion of LouieD's, namely that the large "Volunteer" Regiments (Lowland, Highland, Yorkshire, and Wessex) revert back to their original Regimental names, so 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Volunteers becomes 3rd Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, etc). That results in a modest expansion of the TA as four additinal Battalions are formed. I also have 1 and 2 Bns, London Regiment being raised, but no 8th Queen's Fusiliers - 1 LONDON goes to to Germany, while 2 LONDON is tasked for home defence of London (and gets toasted on Black Thursday).

Cheers

[James Langham]

My orbat's based on the real life pre Options for Change orbat (with a few tweaks), so I have 7 RAR going to Germany with the 2nd Infantry Division at the start of the war.

I have 3 WFR remaining in the UK in a home defence role; they get sent to the Birmingham area after the nuclear strikes to try and keep order, but break up as a cohesive military unit during 1998. Different groups head in different directions, with one finishing up in Leicester.

Attached is a copy of my 1996 orbat. The tweaks were based on a suggestion of LouieD's, namely that the large "Volunteer" Regiments (Lowland, Highland, Yorkshire, and Wessex) revert back to their original Regimental names, so 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Volunteers becomes 3rd Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, etc). That results in a modest expansion of the TA as four additinal Battalions are formed. I also have 1 and 2 Bns, London Regiment being raised, but no 8th Queen's Fusiliers - 1 LONDON goes to to Germany, while 2 LONDON is tasked for home defence of London (and gets toasted on Black Thursday).

Cheers

Makes sense but I think you might need a reason why 3WFR head that way as it is the wrong way to go home (which is walkable). Maybe have a company based in Coventry who have a mission further east so are near Leicester when the nukes hit

[Rainbow Six]

Makes sense but I think you might need a reason why 3WFR head that way as it is the wrong way to go home (which is walkable). Maybe have a company based in Coventry who have a mission further east so are near Leicester when the nukes hit

Yep, I take your point. Mind you, 3WFR had Companies based in Derby and Nottingham, both of which get nuked, so it is possible elements of both of those Companies might make for Leicester.

Perhaps simplest solution would be to have one Company based in Leicester at the end of 1997 and they decide to just stay in situ as it all kicks off elsewhere. Particularly if they are either the Derby or Nottingham Company, who effectively have no home to go to...