So, I'm lucky enough to be in a Roll20 T2K4 game. Oddly enough, most of the players have only a passing familiarity with military life. I think I and another person are the only veterans. The referee specifically asked us not to get all 'old war mutt' with it, correcting or providing TMI about the military during the Cold War. So I decided that I'd do something I'd never done in an T2K game: I'd play a Pole. Why? Because what I know about life in the Polish military can be written on the back of a match book in crayon...
Here is a list of my Osprey research to get into the character of my Polish supply sergeant /linguist.
If you're a military historian, you're familiar with the UK's Osprey Publishing.
While they've gotten into the gaming market quite a bit in the last 5 years or so, they're primarily known as the publisher of excellent military titles going back some 40 years. Their most famous series is the 500+ volume 'Man-at-Arms' series but they publish several series on almost every military subject you'd care to delve into.
The principle benefits of this publisher is that their books are written in plain English with very little 'militar-eeze' jargon [and where that jargon appears it's most often defined in a glossary], the level of research and bibliography lists, and the photographic evidence presented. In addition [and being honest this is the part that most of us fans love] each volume contains wonderfully accurate color artwork [usually 6-8 pieces per]. My character sheet illustration is from Osprey's 'Warsaw Pact Armies' and is by Ron Volstad.
To provide everyone with a visual sense of what we're all up to in the game, I wanted to provide a list of the Osprey titles that my mental picture is using. I hope this will help those of you who have little exposure to the military in getting a sense of time and place.
I've limited my selections to the era of 1985-1995. Most of these are from the Elite series, which is more focused both by units and time period discussed. Let me also point out that titles specifically discussing the Red Army and Warsaw Pact were written during the Cold War. During the Age Before The Internet, you had to read trusted analysts in order sort out what was the truth behind the Iron Curtain and what was propaganda. Some of these titles have aged very well, some not so much.
Elite 5 Soviet Bloc Elite Forces
Elite 10 Warsaw Pact Ground Forces
Elite 12 Inside the Soviet Army Today
Elite 14 The British Army in the 1980s
Elite 16 NATO Armies Today [note: circa 1987]
Elite 20 Inside the US Army Today [note: circa 1988]
Elite 26 Tank War - Central Front: NATO vs Warsaw Pact
Elite 27 Panama 1989-90
Elite 45 Armies of the Gulf War
Man-at-Arms 177 Russia's War in Afghanistan [note: Published in 1986, for obvious reasons this is the book that is least accurate; however it does discuss the Red Army's performance in combat much like the Elite Panama title does for the US. Therefore, it is germane to the conversation.]
Unfortunately, Osprey chose not to publish much about the Breakup of Yugoslavia until several years after the conflict. Even then, later research showed that some [perhaps 15-20% of the information] was inaccurate. This was largely due to several parties [on all sides] trying to change the narrative of the historical record to cover up war crimes. They [Osprey] have since corrected the errors and a discussion of that war is upcoming in the Essential Histories volume 'The Collapse of Yugoslavia', due out early next year.