Alternate History / Timeline: Invading the US

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Harald387

One scenario I've seen proposed is that in the early 30s, Canada's rising Socialist movement takes over and the democratic leadership is overthrown in favor of second major Communist state, sister to the USSR. It's conceivable - what with the distraction of the war in Europe - that the US would let this stand on the northern border, and that that government would persist. That'd give the avenue you need for Soviet invasion post WWII.

If it's the early 1930s, the war in Europe is not yet clearly on the way. The British and the USA will want to preserve democratic government in Canada. You can get a Canadian civil war going this way, but it's hard to achieve a rapid Socialist takeover, except by them winning an election.

[DocRailgun]

Milton Bradley published a game called "Fortress America" which was about an invasion of the continental US. It was in the same series as the original Axis and Allies, Conquest of the Empire, Shogun, and a couple of others.

Though it was an interesting game, it often was an exercise in futility... it tended to bring home the truth that an invasion of the US would be a total waste of resources and time, even in the high-tech future of the game (I seem to remember it had laser satellites).

Originally Posted by thrash

Wasn't there a board wargame about Russia invading over the North Pole? Despite the challenges, it's still the shortest route (just as it is for missiles and bombers).

[Fred Brackin]

[QUOTE=mlangsdorf;2171644

The Cuba assault has the best supply lines - only 120+ miles across open water [/QUOTE]

The Cuba assault has the _shortest_ supply lines but Florida is rich in Air Force bases and Naval Air stations. Major Navy/Marine installations all along the East and Gulf Coasts too.

Also during much of the discussed periods the massive Roosevelt Roads Navy base is still open in Puerto Rico and there's at least something at Guantanamo. It's make a landing zone at a minimum.

I have trouble seeing the build-up working that well and I really don't see the logistics train holding up. Hunting down all the potential guerillas in Cuba would be a problem but blowing up supply dumps and airstrips or ports would be a lot easier.

[mlangsdorf]

Of the 4 proposed invasion routes:
* The Cuban base of supply is 120 miles away across open water. It's vulnerable to interdiction by the massive US naval and air force presence in the area.
* The Mexico/Texas base of supply is 500-1000 miles away across bad roads and desert. It's vulnerable to interdiction from amphibious forces in the Gulfs of Mexico and Baja, plus the sizeable US air force presence in Texas and New Mexico.
* The west coast air/amphibious assault has base of supply in Vladivistock, 3500 miles away across the Pacific. It's vulnerable to submarine interdiction and the massive US naval and air force presence in California.
* The Bering Strait assault is being supplied across the Bearing Strait. After conquering Alaska, the supply line to Seattle is 2500 miles long through sub-arctic terrain. It's a huge salient through western Canada and is vulnerable to assault there, plus US amphibious assault along the Canadian shore - the first of which is removed if Canada is an ally, but still.

I wouldn't say the Cuban supply route is much good, but it's the best of a bad lot.

Harald387's soviet Canada proposal is probably the most reasonable idea for an invasion. Sure, it's a 2500 mile wide front, but that works for and against both sides. In the 1950s, enough of American industry is still concentrated in the north and northeast that it's plausible: if the Russians can take Seattle, Detroit, and New York City, they've deprived the Navy of roughly half their major repair yards and the Army of one of their primary sources of utility vehicles (and some tanks, I think). It's not like coming up through Texas and expending a lot of blood and effort to get some oil fields and cattle ranches.

[mlangsdorf]

Tying this back into GURPS, I could see a couple of gameable experiences from this:

* Espionage/Action as a group of OSS/CIA agents attempt to subvert the Canuck Commies and let freedom ring north of the border. Or as People's Mounted Canadian Police act to prevent the capitalist running dogs from subverting the People's Revolution, if that's more your style.
* Action as a group of guerillas in occupied (pick a northern state of your choice) stage hit and runs against the ruthless invaders.
* Mass Combat at just about any level from company commanders to multi-star generals, depending on what the players and GMs find interesting.

And of course you can do the usual Weird War cross-overs: Russian occultism, super heroes, monster hunters, whatever. You could even say that atomic bombs were used, if you want to play out an Atomic Horror/After the End game.

[Ji ji]

USSR somehow learn in advance that the Big One is coming. They know the month with 90% accuracy, or whatever. So, when the San Andreas Fault blows up, they are ready to invade a devastated California.

It’s 1950 and ICBM can’t yet be deployed. Bombardiers are a thing but there’s no clear superiority in this field. Of course, US military is not going to bomb California. So the Red Army achieves a good control of coastal and inland California at the same time of a coordinated attack to Hawaii and Alaska, with a special strategic attention to oil fields.

Maybe Mexico is going to strike an alliance with USSR? And what about Japan, maybe there is diplomatic work going on between the commies and the Emperor (ehm...). Who knows.

[Anthony]

The obvious way to get around the problem of invading across the ocean is to have an invader who's not across the ocean. For example, in our history a significant number of Nazis fled to Argentina. You can create a setting with a veneer of plausibility around the Fifth Reich being based on South America.

[PTTG]

Quick political note: I went with spy-thriller psychology for this one; don't consider this a realistic assessment of intentions, ideology, resources, or methods of any nation mentioned.

It's 2027. American diplomatic belligerence has weakened the UN, fractured NATO, crippled international trade, and resulted in new diplomatic ties between Eurasian forces. The highly controversial 46th president won with the minority of the popular vote following a very divisive 2024 election that went up to the supreme court.

As a result of all this political disruption, the US military is out of date and underfunded (due to steep tax cuts and increasing inflation). The new president's staff is largely made up of political allies, and the bureaucracy thinned. The opposition holds the senate strongly and the house barely, paralyzing legislative progress.

Some forces in Russia and China see a USA that is at its weakest in decades, if not more than a century -- but one that could resurge at any time. They also see the most productive industry and farmland in the world ripe for the taking. Yes, they are an unlikely alliance, but they are both very pleased to see the other expanding outside of their region of the globe. Essentially, they agree to a non-aggression pact and a partitioning of North America under a first-come-first-served basis. The political maneuvering to get the civilian government's cooperation in the scheme happens quietly, and the inexperienced US intelligence agencies detect nothing.

By the end of 2026, troops and supplies were positioned and all that was awaited was the right moment.

On January 1st, 2027, a series of Chinese-launched satellites in LEO detonate, filling the most critical band of space with debris. This serves two purposes: One, it disables US-GPS; and two, it renders ICBMs unable to take high trajectories. This, combined with other countermeasures, effectively prevent the US' missile arsenal from coming into play. As a relatively small side-effect, it leaves the US' weather service blind at the height of one of the worst winter storm systems on record on the east coast, and a record drought on the west.

Simultaneously, Russian hacking efforts shut down official US landline communication and utilities, but conspicuously leave running some civilian networks for a time. During this period, they blitz rumors and propaganda designed to confuse and befuddle. Some of the most effective messaging blames the blackouts on a coup in the USA lead by the congress against the presidency, a fiction which had been quietly promoted over the past year.

Though these were the opening shots, the first day of the war saw no further direct attack on the USA (aside from terroristic sabotage by sleeper agents planted in the months prior.) Instead, Chinese and Russian forces shut down US consulates and bases near their territories, and previously concealed garrisons of invasion troops made their way to the US across the (largely ice-free) Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Essentially, Russia planned to take Alaska, Canada, and the eastern seaboard, while China would take the pacific coast and the southwest, the two having a border starting in Washington state, passing through the Chicago region generally, and then diagonally south towards Florida. China planned on forcing Japan and South Korea to surrender after securing the Pacific from the USA, aiming for strategic security in its sphere while Russia drove for mineral and industrial wealth.

As for how well they pull off those plans, that depends on your players, naturally. Remember, the US has high-quality TL-8 stuff, but OPFOR has low-quality TL-9 stuff and a lot more dudes. The USA also has internal divisions that are confused, opportunistic, and aggressive. (China and Russia, however, are Spy Novel Bad Guys here, so they're all cooperatively evil.)

[RyanW]

I once played around with a scenario involving Germany achieving a quick victory in the European War of 1914. Expecting the US to invoke the Monroe Doctrine should Germany try to take the Caribbean lands they had rightfully won, they invade Puerto Rico, support an anti-US coup in Panama (thus cutting the US Navy in half), threatened the US East Coast, and coordinated with Mexico to open a Southern Front.

Basically, War Plan Black versus Operationsplan III, with a bit of the Zimmermann Telegram thrown in for good measure.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I once played around with a scenario involving Germany achieving a quick victory in the European War of 1914. Expecting the US to invoke the Monroe Doctrine should Germany try to take the Caribbean lands they had rightfully won, they invade Puerto Rico, support an anti-US coup in Panama (thus cutting the US Navy in half), threatened the US East Coast, and coordinated with Mexico to open a Southern Front.

Basically, War Plan Black versus Operationsplan III, with a bit of the Zimmermann Telegram thrown in for good measure.

Minor quibble: the Panama Canal wasn't completed until 1914, and while I'm sure the admirals appreciated it, the US fleet mostly expected to have to go around South America at that point.

The USN would have 10-12 dreadnoughts and 20 or so pre-dreadnoughts available around 1916. Even without splitting the fleet, the existing German Navy would probably have been adequate to deal with those ships, assuming the Gerrmans didn't lose any more ships than they did historically by 1916 and didn't have to detach too many forces to deal with the French or British fleets. If the Germans managed to get some French or British BBs as part of the peace treaty that ended WWI, they probably have a qualitative and quantitative edge over the US Navy.

Definitely a fleeting advantage from the German perspective: the USN "Standard" BBs were quite excellent designs, and the US had credible plans to build another 40(!) of them during and immediately after WWI. Given how the Germans struggled to match England in the dreadnought race in the run up to WWI, a victorious Germany deciding to stop a second race in 1916 or so makes a lot of sense.

I support 1916 as another credible "Invasion America" scenario, though it does have the problems that the enemies are the Imperial Germans instead of the Soviet Russians, and the early 20th century isn't generally a popular period for role-playing. It might be a good start for a dieselpunk campaign, though, and it's actually sensible to include a lot of zeppelins in the game. Zeppelins make everything better.