ImagiNations - Cold War

I have been thinking about my Cold War project as of late. I want to start fiddling around with it sooner rather than later, least I loose my motivation for it and it suddenly have another project that collects dust. So here was my thought to push some toys around the table with what I have. Create an ImagiNation of East and West Bratislovakia that is located in the intersection of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria.

The small nation was largely overlooked during World War II due to its tiny size and the fact that it did not appear on German or Soviet maps. As a result, the nation suffered no damage during the war. The nation was an absolute monarchy. It was centuries ago it was a minor portion of the Austro-Hungrian Empire until its Duke declared himself Emperor of Bratislovakia and independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The nation was rather disappointed when no one noticed. Cooler heads prevailed and they downgraded themselves to a kingdom a few years later.

The main export of Bratislovakia is a plant based yellow dye that is used in making artificial cheese products. Kraft foods has the only contract with the nation and patented its usage in their "Mac and Cheese" products. They are also known for being the only nation to have perfected an artificial beet flavor. Strangely the production facilities for the beet flavoring were all located in the eastern portion of the country.

In the 1950s, the small country split into eastern and western sections following a nearly bloodless revolution. The now two nations were so small that they had been largely ignored by NATO and the Warsaw Pact until the late 1970s. Fortunately for Kraft, the processing plants for the yellow dye was located in West Bratislovakia.

Eastern Bratislovakia began forging closer ties with the Soviet Union and began receiving military aid in exchange for beet flavored candies and jellies. Western Bratislovakia promptly appealed for aid from NATO as this was happening.

Eastern Bratislovakia began to receive equipment and some Soviet advisers. The west looked to improve their ties and offered some space within their borders for a NATO base. NATO accepted their offer but under the direction of the Carter administration were hesitant to post troops there. During the Regan administration, the base was populated with a training battalion and troops from around the world were sent to Western Bratislovakia for training.

Beginning in 1983, the NATO base in Western Bratislovakia had the training battalion and units from Israel, Brazil and Spain present. To the East, the Soviets had upgraded their advisory presence to a full Infantry Regiment and had equipped the Eastern Bratislovakia Defense Forces with modernized equipment. Both the East and West Bratislovakian militaries were brigade size forces. Each trained and equipped according to their sponsor nation's doctrines.

On July 10th, 1983, Eastern Bratislovakia's Independence Day, an incident occurred that began a shooting war. A flock of Western Bratislovakian goats wandered across the border into Eastern Bratislovakia and destroyed several acres of crops that are used to make the artificial beet flavor a week before the harvest. The loss of these plants was catastrophic to the Eastern Bratislovakian economy as they had a huge order of Beet Flavored Lolipops that were needed to be shipped to Moscow in payment for the brand new BMP-1s that the EBDF was training with.

The goatherds had managed to wrangle the animals and were retuning back to West Bratislovakia when a patrol of EBDF arrived on the scene and opened fire on the goatherds and their flock. Western analysts question the events and have forwarded claims that the photographed animals were already dead before being shot at by the EBDF patrol as some goats clearly have their throats cut. It was also argued that a significant amount of the agricultural damage was due to the Sagger missiles fired at the fleeing goats that were running away from the automatic weapons fire.

In the sabre rattling and political denunciations that followed, Soviet and US diplomats quietly met to ensure that the conflict remained isolated to Bratislovakia and would not cross other borders. The deal brokered by the Soviet and US ambassadors would effectively isolate the two Bratislovakias from the outside world. They had permission to utilize any advisory forces present within their borders as of July 10, 1983. Later satellite evidence shows that a Regiment of Hungarian Infantry came across the border on July 11th after the deal was brokered. In the long term, it would temporarily sour US and Soviet relations but for the course of the Bratislovakian War, it would have no real impact.

After the slaughter of the goats, the EBDF moved forces into West Bratislovakia the next day. They did not cross the border until 2pm in the afternoon. First, each of the nations with troops in either side of the border were given the option of withdrawing or remaining to fight. Despite objections of some of the western nation's diplomats, all of the military forces chose to stay and fight.

In a hastily organized defense, several of the units at the NATO training base were rushed forward to encounter the enemy. Thus the saga of IDF Task Force Mordecai was born.

Task Force Mordecai was the name given to the company commanded my Captain Uzi Mordecai. His was a company of Israeli paratroopers operating as mechanized infantry. Most of his vehicles were standard M113 tracks but a few of them had been upgraded to the new TOGA armor. Those were in limited supply as most of the more recent equipment was being sent into Lebanon rather than on a single company on training exercises in Europe.

The first field headquarters of TFM was a small village just a kilometer from the border. The village had been largely unchanged for the past two centuries. It is from this position that they were to hold their area of the border. To their right was a unit of the West Bratislovakia Police. West Bratislovakia lacking the manpower for both a police force and a military, they combined both functions into the same force. Calling their army "police" seemed less provocative. Besides, that way they could claim they did not have an army. Just police mounted in armored personnel carriers with a few tanks as a bonus. What police force would not want an M60 tank to deter burglars?

To TFM's left was the Brazilian contingent. Surprising everyone was that the Segen Mishne of TFM was a Brazilian emigre to Israel who was therefore, fluent in Brazilian Portuguese. Thus the two companies had vexed their American trainers by cooperating far more closely than any other training units had before. This would help them in the coming battle. The Brazilian contingent had a platoon of M-48 Patton tanks that they were borrowing from the Americans for the training exercise. The tanks were a permanent part of the American training force.

Well this is what I have cooked up for tonight. Lets see what happens. Scenario 1 of a Chain of Command campaign coming up!