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omnipus
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sat 09 Jan 2021, 01:06

Arc Light is my favorite of the techno-thriller genre. The quality of writing is by and large much better than most of the competition.
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Daquack
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Tue 23 Feb 2021, 20:04

While a sci-fi setting I think some of David drakes hammer slammer series could be fun to read as it mostly deals with small squad adventures and some of the ugliness of war. Red storm rising would be my obvious first choice as mentioned above.

The group trying to survive in Iceland especially seems to fit perfectly into this game.
 
Byrax
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Tue 23 Feb 2021, 23:08

 
Solitare99
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sat 27 Feb 2021, 02:15

The Zone Series total of 10 books: Alternate History by James Rouch, where the Berlin Wall did not fall. The series takes its name from a large strip of no-man land in West and East Germany where nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons have been used by both sides indiscriminately, creating a contaminated wasteland called "The Zone".

Book 1 Hard Target:
Across the hellish strip of Western Europe known as The Zone, super tanks armed with tactical nuclear weapons, lethal chemicals, and fiercely accurate missiles roam the germ-infested terrain. The weapons are sophisticated, the stakes are high, and death is as bloody as ever. War in the mist-enshrouded Zone is a giant game of hide and seek—with a deadly booby prize for the losers.

But British Sergeant Hyde and American Major Revell of the joint NATO strike force intend to win. Their men are mavericks, misfits, and the very best the free world has to offer. Their mission—to destroy a Soviet tank salvage unit situated behind a refugee camp—is all but impossible. Except the impossible happens all too often in the nightmarish no-man's-land of THE ZONE.

BOOK 2 Blind Fire:
The death-filled battleground known as The Zone is growing larger by the day. Soviet T84s and quad-barrelled flak-wagons advance through the German countryside spewing lethal chemicals and tactical nuclear weapons, leaving a living hell in their wake. The Third Battle of Frankfurt has begun in a savage frenzy of blood and fire as superpowers use superweapons to fight for control of Western Europe.

American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde of the joint NATO strike force have their orders: delay the Communist column. But Revell will be damned if he'll risk the lives of his men just to buy a few lousy minutes. He'll do more than delay the column—he'll destroy it! Only a madman would take on Shilka anti-aircraft tanks with some outdated mines and a few Dragon rocket launchers. But insanity is a way of life amid the carnage and chaos of... THE ZONE.

BOOK 3 Hunter Killer:
IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, WAR WILL BE FINAL! Along the ravaged countryside, dead bodies lay trapped in icy graves as the bleak face of winter froze the devastation along the battleground known as The Zone. Russian SA-8 missiles silently stood waiting and ready to heat up the cold war as freezing temperatures all but closed the Baltic ports. While a Soviet fleet planned a killer punch to the convoy routes, American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde of the joint NATO strike force plotted their course of action. They would get one chance to maintain the balance of power in The Zone and stop the Russians. And they knew that their men-frostbitten but stalwart heroes-would do anything to defend their free way of life. The only chance was an airdrop onto a Swedish island-a sabotage mission in Arctic weather to strike down the deadly warships amid the icy terror of... THE ZONE.

BOOK 4 Sky Strike:
AN AIR STRIKE WAS THE ONLY CHANCE LEFT FOR THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE FUTURE! The cold war burned with renewed fury as the super-powers launched their best men into battle. Across hundreds of square miles of western Europe, where Napoleon's armies had once marched and Hitler's Reich had crumbled in blood and rubble, the new warriors of Armageddon do battle amidst the landscape of hell. American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde aim their joint NATO strike force with surgical precision at the Soviet supply jugular-but the shut-down of the vital arterial rail junction deep behind the East German front line turned out to be useless. Soon this special combat group found themselves battling desperately back, hoping to survive the wasted, death-seared waterscape of... THE ZONE

Book 5 Overkill
DEATH IS A WAY OF LIFE FOR THE NEW WARRIORS OF ARMAGEDDON The cold war has turned white hot as the superpowers launch their deadly wipeout squads into the hellish strip of western Europe known as The Zone. War has become a fiery confrontation for supertanks, nuclear weapons and fiercely accurate missiles, but death is as bloody as ever for the warriors of tomorrow. American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde lead their joint NATO strike force up the wreckage and mine-strewn Elbe to the surrounded and besieged city of Hamburg. But the relief force arrives too late and too weakened to do more than join the desperate ill-fed, ill-armed defenders clinging to the ruins of the devastated city. With the stench of the dead hanging over the smoking rubble, they fight a hideous battle for survival against a Russian enemy grown savage with frustration in the nightmarish no-man's-land of... THE ZONE.

BOOK 6 Plague Bomb
It took a new breed of men to fight the war of the future! The contaminated territory lies along the battle-scorched edge of the hellish strip of Western Europe known as The Zone. Leeched of life by Russian defoliants and experimental chemical weapons, littered with the decaying corpses of soldiers and refugees, the barren wasteland exudes a poisonous toxin soup of certain death for anyone unequipped to cross its boundaries. When the joint NATO task force of American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde is assigned to intercept a spurious civilian peace mission intent on reaching Russian lines, their most direct route leads across the plague-infested terrain. But hellish death can come in unexpected forms to the new warriors of the Armageddon, and the special combat team suddenly finds themselves waging a savage battle against a more insidious enemy than they could ever have imagined on the infected, death-seared edge of... THE ZONE.

BOOK 7 Killing Ground:

BOOK 8 Civilian Slaughter:

A NEW BREED OF SUPER-WARRIOR WAGING THE WAR OF THE FUTURE-WITH SURVIVAL AS THE ONLY PRIZE! The Zone-a strip of Western Europe where armies have faced each other and fought their wars for centuries past. It has become the devil's playground for the super-weapons and super-warriors of the future. Blasted to a likeness of Hell itself, barren, desolate beyond description, ridden by disease and stinking of death, here opposing forces seek each other out in a deadly, never-ending game of cat-and-mouse. A shaky truce has been called. Major Revell's Special Combat Company, misfits and mavericks accustomed to fierce front-line action, is assigned mundane behind-the-lines duties. But their interest-and their anger-are aroused when a series of mass graves is discovered. Civilians are being slaughtered by the KGB battalion facing the SCC position. Revell's reports are ignored. HQ threatens to disband the SCC if the matter is pressed. So Revell and his fighting band of misfits take matters into their own hands, waging merciless war on the perpetrators of the atrocities and adding new devastation to the nightmare landscape called... THE ZONE

BOOK 9 Body Count:
Major Revell and his Special Combat Company, a new breed of super-warriors waging the war of the future in a land wasted by nuclear destruction, must reclaim the blood-soaked city of Frankfurt, but they find themselves outgunned by an insidious new force from inside the Zone

Book 10 Death March:
A Russian General plans to use refugees as a shield for his assault on a city. The Special Combat Force has been sent behind Russian lines to retrieve a damaged nuclear demolition device. They find they are the only NATO troops in a position to obstruct the enemy attack. The risk to them is as great as it is to the enemy.

Pulp, trashy novels which read fast-paced and fun.. Basically a TK2000 adventure. I am going to use some as seeds for my group.
 
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omnipus
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sat 27 Feb 2021, 22:56

Sounds like Twilight meets OGRE with a hint of Stalker.
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Nicolas Michon
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun 06 Sep 2020, 21:18

Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sun 28 Feb 2021, 00:37

For inspiration, I highly recommend a book that was recommended to me by one of the other members of the Facebook group: Arkady Babchenko's One soldier's war. Extremely well-written (Babchenko was a law student when he was conscripted, and later became a journalist who had to fake his own death to escape Russian hit squads - so he claims), it has haunting scenes of what war does to places and people, and is a merciless look at the Russian army of the mid-90's. The one in T2K would be a bit better, but probably not that much. You will find countless scenes, and even scenario hooks (there were slave markets in Chechnya after the Russians evacuated after the first war ....). Not recommended if you are prone to nightmares, however.
 
Packratt66
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sun 28 Feb 2021, 08:48

While not really a single book or video, I’d give anything dealing with the Able Archer ‘83 exercise from both sides. This came way too close to actually setting off a real Twilight War. Just ask someone who was there...
 
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omnipus
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Mon 15 Mar 2021, 00:22

Tom Clancy page burners are fun and all, but probably not relevant as more than vague half-forgotten backstory to the actual world of T2K. On the other hand, I just picked up this little gem off the electionic bays:

Image

Some pretty choice background, lifestyle, and adventure material in there (not to make light of the struggle of people who were there). A few very standout and useful pull quotes:

UNPROFAR, or for those who don't know them, United Nations Protection Forces, were awaited as saviors when they first arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina with their white vehicles and blue berets. As time went on, they proved to be powerless. Now they are helping in repairs of the infrastructure, in cleaning the city. They are also establishing bureaucratic rules of their own. In some instances proven to be good merchants, they are driving around in trucks, jeeps, transporters. Children are climbing onto their vehicles, and soldiers are throwing them sweets. They transport wounded, bring humanitarian aid, drive from and to the airport. In short, nothing is done without them.

UNPROFAR headquarters is in the building of Communication Engineering at Alipasino polje. Soldiers are in the barrackjs which were formerly inhabited by the Yugoslav Peoples Army. The main Headquarters of the UNPROFOR's commander is in a private villa. All these successions seem to be very natural.
Or:
What functions best is bartering. For two kilos of raw coffee, you can get a propane gas bottle of 12 kilos. A package of antibiotics is worth two local phone calls. For a liter of cooking oil you can get a carton of cigarettes and a liter of cheap liquor, or three liters of cherry syrup. For two liters of oil you can wear almost-new Reeboks. A used male winter jacket costs 3 kilos of onions. A once-standard package of 18 kilos of paint is being exchanged for any kind and any amount of food. 10 liters of oil, the amount which supplies energy for the two-hour shooting of a TV broadcast, is exchanged for 12 cans which supply energy for your private survival.

In handwritten ads on Tito's street, one finds supply and demand ranging from gas stoves, jackets, shoes, to messages such as this: "I am looking for a woman to help me survive the winter."
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
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Ursus Maior
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Sat 04 Sep 2021, 22:17

Arc Light is my favorite of the techno-thriller genre. The quality of writing is by and large much better than most of the competition.
Yes! That was my impression, too. I started my reading with RSR by Clancy, like most did, probably, and I still find it okay with lots of good mixed in. But I was underwhelmed by Team Yankee. It's arc is too short and the characters appeared flat to me. Arc Light is a different beast entirely.

Also: Trinity's Child, which saw a good television adaption as By Dawn's Early Light is recommended. It follows closely a B-52 crew during a nuclear exchange and it's background story features a Sino-Soviet confrontation. So T2K players might get some ideas for their games, especially referees.
liber & infractus
 
Cossak11
Posts: 3
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Re: Recommended books for inspiration?

Thu 23 Sep 2021, 17:12

It can be kind of hard to find, but 38 North Yankee and its sequel book Firefall by Ed Ruggero are both really good books for showcasing combined arms warfare in the 90s from an infantryman's standpoint.

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