Bioweapons

[Legbreaker]

We know (obviously) nukes were used in T2K and it's strongly implied chemical weapons too (Ruins of Warsaw, plus they're in the equipment lists), but how about bioweapons
How widely do you think they were employed, how effective, who used them and just how persistent were the effects. Note we're talking a fictional reality here so IRL facts about their capabilities doesn't really have to come into this discussion.

If you've used them in game, what symptoms, etc did you apply

[Targan]

In my last campaign,while Major Po's team were operating in the NYC area they stumbled upon a batch of ice cream powder that had been deliberately contaminated with what he eventually came to believe was weaponised anthrax. He ended up packaging some of it up and caching it. I don't know what he intended to do with it. I do recall being horrified during the process he used to test it on captured civilians.

[pmulcahy11b]

I can't remember the book's name, but one of the mercs had a blowgun for silent kills. The last time he did that, he took a deep breath to fire the blowgun, with his mouth on the blowgun, and sucked the dart into his throat and choked to death on it.

[Legbreaker]

...and choked to death on it.

Natural selection in action.

[swaghauler]

I highly doubt Bioweapons would be used intentionally. They are too hard to "control" on a battlefield and you might end up with as many friendly casualties as enemy ones. I would use it as a "plot device." Both the US and Russia have small stockpiles of bioweapons for study purposes. Such a weapon MIGHT be released by a "rogue actor" facing extinction like North Korea but I doubt it.

I don't even have Nukes being used that much. I substitute THERMOBARIC MUNITIONS for tactical nukes. No fallout or residual after-effects once the fires die down. Putin LOVES his Thermobarics. He used them to level Grozny during the second Chechen War. Thermobaric munitions will give you that "nuke level of destruction" WITHOUT all the other hassles. I have the Russians using them wholesale in Poland in my alternate timeline.

Non-persistent chemical weapons are also a favorite on the Russians BUT these aren't as effective against military personnel equipped with MOPP gear. I think they would still see use in rear areas with civilians and poorly equipped reserve troops (mostly to disrupt logistics areas).

[Legbreaker]

In the case I have in mind, control is not necessary. In fact, the wilder it gets, the more widespread and destructive the better. Not going to be either Pact or NATO forces using them either.