The Pacific Northwest

[Tegyrius]

When I saw that cover come up on my notifications be advised you made Ancestor feel like he was 14 again! Thank you!

Mission accomplished, then.

(Not gonna lie, I fought with the layout for about a month to get the look and feel as close to the v1 modules as possible. I'm a writer, not a graphic designer, but I really wanted the design to say "Twilight 2000." The hardest part was getting the fonts right. They aren't perfect but they're close enough that I can live with them.)

- C.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

It's well worth the purchase and I hope it does really, really well so that people can see that there's still good material being written for the earlier editions and there's still lots of life left in the earlier editions.
I know that my discussions about it on another site, encouraged a few people to consider buying it so "word of mouth" is definitely working in its favour (and as they say, a good product sells itself).

[Tegyrius]

I appreciate the boost, SSC. It looks like it's moved a bit over 90 copies so far today, so it's off to a good start, and earning Marc some beer money.

- C.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I appreciate the boost, SSC. It looks like it's moved a bit over 90 copies so far today, so it's off to a good start, and earning Marc some beer money.

- C.

Well as much as I can appreciate Marc for his efforts to keep the GDW games available, I hope it actually earns you some beer money!

[Olefin]

And that is four now - East Africa/Kenya Sourcebook, Rooks Gambit, Korean Sourcebook and now the Pacific Northwest - plus two new fanzine issues - lets keep this going and keep getting out quality releases for the V1 and V2.2 versions of the game

[Rainbow Six]

Teg, you've done a fantastic job here - it really is packed with awesomeness.

[Tegyrius]

@Jason - thanks for the plug on your blog, and I look forward to the wargaming suitability analysis. While I didn't specifically design New America Idaho for that purpose, I think their force mix would be an interesting challenge for a lightly-equipped (i.e., PC) group.

Your criticism of the lack of maps is valid and expected. I am no cartographer, and in the absence of free maps, I suspect that hiring an artist for that purpose would have cost me more than I stand to make on this product. I used Google Maps and Google Earth rather extensively to try to make the geography make sense, but those aren't period-accurate. On the other hand, anyone who has access to DriveThruRPG for a PDF purchase should have access to those same tools... but I do still feel the lack of cartography in the finished product.

I did recently buy World in Conflict via GOG but I haven't played it yet and wasn't aware of the Washington campaign until you highlighted it. I'm now rather interested to see how that plays out! The Battle of Seattle as depicted in the sourcebook was spun out of a throwaway line in the 104th Infantry Division's original writeup in the U.S. Army Vehicle Guide/Howling Wilderness:

The division was formed at Vancouver, Washington on 20 July 1998 by redesignation of 104th Training Division (US Army Reserve). Upon activation, the division came under command of 8th Corps and on 2 August 1998 entered combat against Soviet forces attacking the Fort Lawton area from the north. By late August, the situation was stabilized and the division was withdrawn from the front line to take over internal security duties in the Montana-Idaho region.

That gave me a definite minimum depth for the Soviet advance into CONUS, so I had to figure out how it happened. Really, most of the module is the result me trying to expand and rationalize one-line details from Howling Wilderness... sometimes obsessively.

(I myself am not a fan of ORBATs but I know a large portion of the audience here appreciates them. Rationalizing the 47th ID's real-world history against the fiction's mid-'80s point of departure was something of a challenge, one relieved by frequent creative profanity. But apparently at least one dude on Facebook really appreciated it as a former IL Guardsman in 1-123 Infantry, so I'm glad I brought him some joy.)

- C.

[Southernap]

This is really interesting and good. Now that I am reading it. It sets up some good ideas of adventuring in the region.

However, if I might offer up some constructive criticism if you decide to do a revised edition of this book.

The refineries and the aerospace industry of
Washington were destroyed in the nuclear exchange.

This is from the Washington page of Howling Wilderness, page 46. That means Boeing Field, Paine Field, and the city of Renton all took nuclear strikes during the nuclear attacks after 1997. This makes sense considering that Boeing Field was where there is a factory for large heavy military aircraft (such as the B-52s and rework of aircraft like the KC-135s and E-3s). There is also a major factory in the Renton Area for Boeing commercial and military aircraft in the 1990s. In addition there is Everett that has a major factory for commercial aircraft. So assuming that each of those received an air burst of between 500 to 800kt. That means most of Seattle proper and southern Seattle region would be devastated just by the nuke strikes alone.

Also, just wanted to show with the attachments what and where the refineries were as well as what direct hits were to be if Everett, South Seattle and Renton took 500kt hits.

Still some really good stuff in the book and if I might add for those looking to use it, I know that for most of the islands in the region such as Whidbey, San Juan, Orcas, Vashon, Bainbridge; if the bridges are blown, then there are only selected beaches to land on and most of them only have trails to hike up. So it would be hard to get places unless you are using a ferry and the various ferry docks in the region.

Speaking of ferries; here is a link to the state ferry system's listing of ferries (as of 2020) but assume that similar style ships are in active service in the late 1990s. I will say that going to Whidbey's Coupeville and Port Townsend were a pair of ferries that were built as late as the 1920s that were only just replaced about a decade ago. So there are some other vehicles that could be potential sources of adventuring in the region.

[Tegyrius]

Thank you for the input, Southernap. While I probably will issue an update for errata in a few months if there is need, I do not plan to make large-scale revisions. I have other projects in the queue, both personal and paying, and after spending three years on this manuscript, it's past time for me to move on to other work.

With regards to the nuclear targets, one of my design objectives was to align as closely as possible with canon. That includes the nuclear target list in Howling Wilderness. In the case of the aerospace facilities, my thinking is that destruction via direct strikes was unnecessary given sufficient EMP.

I did stretch canon with the ADM deployment against the naval facilities, as well as the near-miss on Tacoma's waterfront. In both cases, though, as well as the partial survival of the regional aerospace industry, my intent was to generate partial destruction rather than total devastation. Partial destruction means a chance of partial recovery, which is a reason for Milgov to continue investing in Seattle. If the only value of the Pacific Northwest is food production, the 47th ID's focus should be east of the Cascades, not along the coast. As it is, Seattle and its industrial remnants are a resource sink for the Joint Chiefs, a tantalizing opportunity for recovery into which they will continue throwing coin. The struggle for that while dealing with multiple hostile factions will continue generating conflicts of the sort in which PCs can involve themselves. In other words - stories for us to tell.

ETA: Apologies; I neglected your point on island access in my focus on the broader "blow up Seattle" issue. That is excellent local color/detail, and I'll keep it in mind for a (brief) mention during the errata process if the layout can accommodate any more words there.

- C.

[Olefin]

Just a question - what size ADM's did the Soviets use and what yield ADM's can vary in yield from .5 kilotons to 15 kilotons - given that you said they used several I am assuming they were small devices and at the lower end of the yield.

[Jonesy64]

(I myself am not a fan of ORBATs but I know a large portion of the audience here appreciates them. Rationalizing the 47th ID's real-world history against the fiction's mid-'80s point of departure was something of a challenge, one relieved by frequent creative profanity. But apparently at least one dude on Facebook really appreciated it as a former IL Guardsman in 1-123 Infantry, so I'm glad I brought him some joy.)
- C.

I served as an Military Police in Schweinfurt, Germany from 82-85 then Fort Myer, VA from 85-87. When I got out I went home and was with the 1/123rd in HQ's woring in Operations in Bloomington/Normal, IL Home of Twilight 2000 and Game Designer's Workshop..

[Tegyrius]

Welcome to the forum! I hope you're content with where they wound up in this work.

(I'm sure I'll get hate mail from a couple of guys who served in the real-world units whose fictional counterparts followed the Proconsul... but I had to pick someone to buy into his vision.)

- C.

[Southernap]

Thank you for the input, Southernap. [Snip]

With regards to the nuclear targets, one of my design objectives was to align as closely as possible with canon. That includes the nuclear target list in Howling Wilderness. In the case of the aerospace facilities, my thinking is that destruction via direct strikes was unnecessary given sufficient EMP.

[More snipping]

ETA: Apologies; I neglected your point on island access in my focus on the broader "blow up Seattle" issue. That is excellent local color/detail, and I'll keep it in mind for a (brief) mention during the errata process if the layout can accommodate any more words there.

- C.

Not a problem with the local color detail update.

Also, you explanation makes sense and I didn't really think about it that way since with the EMP hits from the strikes in the region that some of the factories would have been damaged beyond usefulness.

Still an awesome add and a good place to segue into regions beyond what the official modules have describe. Hopefully, we can start to round out the gaps in Howling Wilderness with books like yours.

[chico20854]

Just a question - what size ADM's did the Soviets use and what yield ADM's can vary in yield from .5 kilotons to 15 kilotons - given that you said they used several I am assuming they were small devices and at the lower end of the yield.

There isn't much out there. The most info I could find that isn't sensationalist generalizations is in Russian here and here. You'll have to machine translate it if you, like me, don't read Russian but the summary is that the older models weighed about 25kg and had a .2-1 kt yield; the newer RA-115 weighed 30kg and had a yield of .5-2 kt and was made in a submersible version for Naval spetsnaz as well as a land variant.

[Olefin]

There isn't much out there. The most info I could find that isn't sensationalist generalizations is in Russian here and here. You'll have to machine translate it if you, like me, don't read Russian but the summary is that the older models weighed about 25kg and had a .2-1 kt yield; the newer RA-115 weighed 30kg and had a yield of .5-2 kt and was made in a submersible version for Naval spetsnaz as well as a land variant.

Now that is good information - the US ADM's have much bigger yields then - and if you are looking at as little as .2 kilotons then you could need several devices considering the size of the naval base - i.e. 200 tons of TNT is a lot but the Halifax Explosion its not

So basically the ADM's would be looking at an explosive force similar to the Beirut explosion most likely - which wrecked their port