Alaternate History Snippets to explain the Start of the Twilight War.

[kato13]

In another thread, I mentioned how succinctly Red Dawn build the alternate history (future at the time) to do the heavy lifting of world building. I erroneously thought it was 7, but it was 9 and they are below.

• The Soviet Union's worst wheat harvest in 55 years
• Labor and food riots in Poland
• Soviet troops invade
• Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000
• El Salvador and Honduras fall
• Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament
  Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil
• Mexico plunged into revolution
• NATO dissolves
• United States stands alone

While dealing with my general insomnia last night, I wondered if one could come up with a similar simple, elegant list to get the world where it needs to be. It probably would have to be longer but fitting it onto a page would be interesting. Year or year ranges might be helpful to add.

Here are some non canon ones I have come up with please share any ideas you might have.

• 1970 - While building new defensive structures, the Soviet Union's discovers massive Gold, Rare Earths, and Oil reserves near their disputed Chinese Border.
• 1972-1975 Khabarovsk - Vladivostok Pipeline completed hugging the Chinese border and supplying more oil to East and South East Asia then the US and Middle East Combined due to restricted middle east production.
• 1974-1984 Soviets Recruit the Walker - Hansen - Ames - Pelton - Bailey - Cervantes - Keller - Mcgrath - Palmer - Acosta - Johnston Spy rings who are effective throughout the Cold War into the Hot War (I randomized most of these names if you have interesting substitutions let me know)
• 1976 As Gold and Palladium (as well as new soviet tech chips using both metals) reach the USSR (and to a lesser extent the Warsaw pact) a small Renaissance occurs behind the iron Curtain
• 1986 - Leading computer chip developer Dr Miles Bennett Dyson killed and all his work destroyed by unidentified female terrorist.
• 1990 - While Crafting the "High Performance Computing Act" Senator Al Gore is killed in an Automobile Accident.

[Claidheamh]

Dyson

Wow, Dyson's line of computer research was just terminated

[lordroel]

In another thread, I mentioned how succinctly Red Dawn build the alternate history (future at the time) to do the heavy lifting of world building. I erroneously thought it was 7, but it was 9 and they are below.

• The Soviet Union's worst wheat harvest in 55 years
• Labor and food riots in Poland
• Soviet troops invade
• Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000
• El Salvador and Honduras fall
• Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament
  Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil
• Mexico plunged into revolution
• NATO dissolves
• United States stands alone

Found this once below, it is the extended TL they made for the movie, can be found in the movie film script:

- El Salvador Militarily Untenable.
- President Reagan blames congressional restraints.
- Labor and Food Riots in Poland.
- Communist Party declares emergency. Soviet troops invade.
- Economic Boycotts upon Soviet Regime.
- Western Europe wavers.
- Cuba and Nicaragua Reach Troop Strength Goals of 500,000 Men Combined.
- Greens Party Gains Control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil.
- France Signs Non-Aggression Pact with Soviets.
- Cuban and Sandinista Governments Form CAPA (Central American Peoples Alliance).
- Revolution in Mexico.
- Japan and European Common Market Sign Trade Agreements with Moscow.
- NATO dissolves.
- Soviet Union suffers Worst Wheat Harvest in 55 Years.
- Cuban Advisors Sent to Mexican Civil War.
- Moscow and CAPA recognize Revolutionary Provisional Government of Mexico.
- United States Stands Alone.

[Raellus]

For All Mankind

Last night, I watched the first two episodes of For All Mankind on Apple TV+. If you're not familiar with the show's premise, the initial Apollo moon mission ends in fiery death, prompting the NASA program managers to pursue a more cautious approach on subsequent missions. As a result, the Soviets land a manned mission on the moon first. I don't want to spoil the show for anyone interested in watching, but the afore mentioned role-reversal sets off a further chain of alternate historical events, leading to a more militarized Cold War space race... (I'm looking forward to watching what happens next).

What I've seen so far got me thinking what the ramifications of a more successful Soviet space program- how this might be a way to explain how the Soviet Union could survive, and even thrive, into the 1990s, in an alternate history timeline.

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[Targan]

Last night, I watched the first two episodes of For All Mankind on Apple TV+.

I love For All Mankind! The further along its timeline goes, the more interesting the differences from our own.

[Raellus]

Alternate History Newsreel, 1978-1982

Here's the opening "newsreel" montage from For All Mankind Season 2, episode 1. It mostly uses RL footage to summarize changes and similarities between 1978-'82 in our actual timeline and the alternative timeline presented in the rest of the series, and is narrated by an AI-assisted Ronald Reagan. Could make a really cool way to intro a similar T2kU overstory to your players.

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=MGXwVWSaMA8

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[Raellus]

Alternate History Newsreel, 1988-1992

Just started Season 3 of For All Mankind (AppleTV+). Like Season 2 (see previous post), it starts with a "newsreel" covering the show's alternate history from 1988 to late 1992.

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=h7p1lQMbgks

Rolling with these alternate history timelines would reconcile the NATO peace dividend with Soviet economic strength. And, this timeline gives the Ref four years to set up the war as they see fit.

Combo Newsreel

The following link combines both newsreels (the one in the previous post and the one linked above).

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=sxRGhmMeaLI

To find out what happened between 1982-'88, you'll have to watch Season 2.

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[kato13]

Those are pretty cool.

I was thinking about a series of power point slides for presenting the history changes needed for T2k, but with AI advancement something akin to these videos could be possible in the near future.