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Blocs - A Cold War NRP

Sheet's done.

Blocs - A Cold War NRP

Basic information
Official name: Colony of Southern Rhodesia
Languages: English is the official language, spoken by the white upper classes. Amongst the blacks, Shona and Ndebele are widely spoken.
Capital city: Salisbury
Demonym: (Southern) Rhodesian

History: There is not much to write here, for Rhodesia is a country but thirty years old. It was colonised by Britain between 1888 and 1890, it was ruled by the British South Africa Company until a referendum in 1922 saw the BSAC's land south of the Zambezi decline joining the Union of South Africa, and instead it opted for a responsible self-government, officialy being granted this on October 1st 1923. Despite officially being a mere crown colony, Southern Rhodesia's prime minister attends Empire/Commonwealth Conferences and the government in Salisbury exercises the powers of anything between a Dominion or an Independent State.

Southern Rhodesia has developed itself into one of the richest and most advanced countries in Africa. Despite only 5% of the population being white, they have vast landed interests and nearly all of the highly educated and/or wealthy citizens are white. Salisbury has one of the few universities in British Africa, and its economy became the most industrialised in Africa.

Politics and Government: De jure a British colony, de facto a dominion. The political process takes place within the framework of a Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary Democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is the current Head of State, her representative is the Governor, currently Major-General Sir John Noble Kennedy. The chief executive is the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins.

Military: It is small, compassing two infantry regiments, the all-white Royal Rhodesia Regiment, and the white-led, black-staffed Rhodesian African Rifles. Furthermore, it has an armoured battalion, the Rhodesian Armoured Corps. They are well-trained and equipped. Currently the RAR are in Malaya.

The military history of Rhodesia is a short one, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in valor. In World War I, 40% of Rhodesia's white males were under arms. In World War II, so many Rhodesians were in the service that the RAR or RR were not deployed as a unit to prevent them from taking heavy casualties, which would have the potential of literally decimating Rhodesia's white population. Instead they were embedded with South African and British units, including the LRDG. Rhodesian pilots received more rewards than the pilots of any other commonwealth nation and divided by population, Southern Rhodesia lost the most men of any British territory. This military history is engrained in the national mind, and integral to the national character.

Geography: Landlocked and wholly in the tropics, it straddles an extensive high inland plateau that drops northwards to the Zambezi valley where the border with Northern Rhodesia is and similarly drops southwards to the Limpopo valley and the border with South Africa. Very rich in resources and a lot of good farmland is present despite the generally dry climate.

Economy: Whilst heavily reliant on farming by white landowners and black farmhands, the country does know an industrial sector that kickstarted during WWII is now rapidly expanding off in the booming post-WWII global economy.

Culture: Most of the Rhodesian whites are British. It prides itself in its military history. There exists a strong culture of segregation, but it is different than what can be seen in South African apartheid.

Infrastructure , science and development: Very good by African standards, although nothing of major note has been achieved in Rhodesia.

Analysis: Rhodesia finds itself facing an uncertain future, as it is unwilling to relinquish its white-minority government in the face of Britain going on the path of jettisoning its colonies. A preparation for this is the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in an attempt to seek a middle way between white-dominated South Africa and Portugal, and black majority states. However, the endurance of this federation decides on the power the whites, especially in Southern Rhodesia, are willing to cede the blacks. And currently, that stands at none. On the short term, Rhodesia's success is expected to continue. But on a longer term, Rhodesia's whites on a collision course with the black nationalists -and a British labour government overseeing decolonisation-

Blocs - A Cold War NRP

Southern Rhodesia interests me. That's why I picked it. It's also not very insignificant in the long run.

I'll have a chat with Outcast. Thank you for having me, expect a sheet tomorrow.

Blocs - A Cold War NRP

Do you still have room for Southern Rhodesia?

Able Archer 1983

Almere, Summer of 1982

Up in Almere, things were happening. None of which are of any concern or particularly unique; especially not the things happening to the Chocola family. These totally not important things were happening at the Almere police department; one of the family members listening to the name of ''Quintis'' was doing his utmost to talk one of his family members out of jail. As he always did. Again, the cop told him he should become a lawyer; again, he told the cop that's not really his groove. Just a normal day in Almere.
On his way home,

Quintis came across a military recruiting station. His first thought was ''Bestaan deze dingen hier?'' That's Dutch for ''Do these things exist?'' His second thought was that... Maybe he should try helping people in a different way than watering their flowers and talking them out of jail.

Maybe he should join the army.

Seedorf barracks, November 10th of 1983

For David, there was no fancy flashback. He lived in the present and future, not the past; the past happened, no sense in thinking about that. All of this was for the future; even if his future wasn't exactly the new gold dream he had imagined for himself.
These were his exact thoughts, translated to English for convenience. David was a dreamer, even while emptying his tank's storage boxes to make room for his beloved four-stringed rhythm instruments known as bass guitars. He wasn't particularly inclined towards socialising with his fellow military men, for one simple reason: football club songs hurt his sensitive musical soul.

He took a short break, sitting down atop the tank's turret. His sunken in eyes peered out into this new world; behind those eyes was a whirlpool of information and song lyrics. The information mostly consisted of the specs of his new ride, and the song lyrics were the words to Simple Minds' ''New Gold Dream''. He made a mental note that it'd be really cool to write ''crashing beats and fantasy'' on the tank's side. Something to discuss with his crew.

OOC stuff!

Character sheets for referenceeeeeeee

Name: Quintis Chocola
Age: 22
Description: A bear of a man. 1.96 metres tall, naturally muscular, capable of breaking anyone unfortunate enough to anger him in two. Like a true son of Suriname, he has dark skin and smiles a lot, his white teeth forming a stark contrast with his skin. Brown eyes. In a long-gone past, he had hair; it is completely gone now, though. His bald head leaks surprisingly stylish.
Personality-wise, Quintis likes laughing, flowers, music, and all the good things in life. Peaceful, but not a pacifist; he also has undying enthusiasm and a good sense of humour, taking whatever life throws at him and laughing at it. He isn't stupid, though, being surprisingly quick-witted and having a gift for languages.
As mentioned before, he is peaceful, but absolutely not a pacifist. Push him far enough, and he'll be angry just like any person; if you're unlucky enough to anger him, run. His muscular body makes him quite the opponent in any brawl, and he'll snap anyone who he doesn't like in two.
In combat, Quintis generally laughs a lot and has a knack for cracking jokes while under fire. In a sense, he's the perfect driver, keeping his cool while under fire; he does need very close instructions from the commander, since he lacks tactical insight, and therefore isn't confident in his own tactical skills.
In Dutch army terms:
A1 B1 O1 H1 Z1 I1 S1
Background: Born in the beautiful country of Suriname, emigrated to The Netherlands after his home country became independent, along with about half of his fellow sons and daughters of Suriname. Wound up in the beautiful, typical Dutch city of Almere, where he enjoyed a peaceful youth of tending to the flowers, living the good life with his friends, and getting in trouble with the police.
Unlike other cases, the army didn't happen to him; he happened to the army. He showed up at the recruitment office on one sunny day with his infectious smile and a motivation to do something fun and possibly useful with his life. To him, the army was a way to meet new people and do something for the country which had been so friendly to him; to the army, he was the perfect candidate for driving tanks around, tanks to his massive muscular mass.
Unit: 41. Pantserbrigade
Role: Driver
Equipment: UZI, combat knife, saxophone
Rank: Korporaal (corporal)
Misc.

Name: David Steenbruggen
Age: 23
Description: Tall and slender, as a true bassist should be; he stands 1.84 metres tall and weighs a grand total of... 66kg, putting him in the ''almost underweight'' category. As a true bassist should be.
Even if he is a tad slender, he is by no means weak, his shoulders easily capable of lifting a vintage MusicMan Stingray bass. Or a 120mm shell, in a pinch.
Like a true new-waver, he has a pale skin and sunken in deep blue eyes, with a blonde Derek Forbes hairdo protecting his scalp from the cold and not being fabulous. The sunken in eyes are accentuated by the copious amounts of eyeliner he wears, like a true new waver.
Mentally, he's just as a new waver should be as well: quiet, calm and laid back, with a certain air of mysticism surrounding him... Right until the moment someone pisses him off, in which case someone's gonna find out just how badly a Fender Precision Bass can hurt when it hits this someone's skull.
In combat, it's generally the new waver side which is showing; behind the piercing eyes is a mess of data and ideas on various military subjects; tactics, doctrines, intel on various Russian-made materiel... And song lyrics and slap bass techniques. He rarely speaks when in thought, only to give orders or curse as only a Dutchman can. Off-duty, the mystic aura remains, though he tends to be a slight bit more talkative. His taste in music describes his personality well; one would find plenty of Simple Minds, Joy Division, Japan and Depeche Mode on his Walkman.
In official Dutch Army ratings:
A2 B1 O2 H2 Z1 I1 S3
Background: David hails from the beautiful, idyllic Dutch city of Utrecht, where he enjoyed a happy, typically Dutch youth of street fights, failing school and making music. David was always a bit of an outcast, with his affinity for guitars of different kinds and wearing make-up once he reached his puberty years, fitting in perfectly with the punk and new wave movements.
And then the army happened. He made a valiant attempt to get disqualified from the army by means of peanut butter, a teddy bear and a dissolved cigarette (hence the S3 rating), but it didn't save him from the army. While he was quite capable of lifting heavy instruments and tank shells, he wasn't particularly impressive on foot; this landed him in the Dutch armour divisions, his intelligence (and education as an officer, which he chose to take) making him a perfect candidate for the role of tank commander.
Unit: 41. Pantserbrigade
Role: tank commander
Equipment: UZI, combat knife, Fender Precision Bass coloured Candy Apple Red and modded with a pickup cover, Walkman
Rank: Wachtmeester
Misc.

The Iron Curtain: A Cold War NRP

HeySeuss said
Hi, can we get back to the RP? And by the RP, I mean the participants? Just a request, it's not like I'm in charge, but I'd like to figure out how to RP, assuming RP is still possible at this point.

Aye, my original intent was to leave this discussion now. I just tend to get carried away in these things. Apologies.

The Iron Curtain: A Cold War NRP

Omega said
, Main battle tank concept began in WWII with medium tanks evolving into the roll as armor became less useful due to increasingly effective main guns. Also i was given a great deal, including 4 regiments worth of heavy tanks. You like the IS-3 so much but seem to be forgetting I have them too. We are still in an era were airplanes have difficulty against ground armor actually. Post war tests showed most weapons were not accurate enough or not powerful enough to actually known out a tank and the necessary missile developments have not progressed to the point where you will see many AFVs defeated by airpower. I also have a noticeable sea border, if the USSR chooses to invade the US and UK will likely extend a hand of friendship.

I'm not talking about the Russian air force's abilities against AFVs. I'm talking about its ability to bomb and possibly flatten cities.

You're also forgetting that if the west gets involved, this will escalate into WW3. I don't think the US and the UK are stupid enough to start WW3 over infighting in the USSr, especially when this benefits them in the sense that the USSR is throwing materiel at someone who's already in their sphere of influence.

You were most likely not given IS-3s, but IS-2s.

The MBT concept really started with the Cent, but only become an actual thing after North Korea, with the T-54 hitting the battlefields and heavy tanks finally becoming outdated. You also seem to forget that your military is still stuck in the era of WW2, so the whole MBT thing is pointless anyway.

The Iron Curtain: A Cold War NRP

Omega said
Not really, I was given Soviet equipment and just got more as Poland was meant to be the 2nd Echelon in either an offensive into NATO territory or the 2nd echelon of defense.

You still lack a way to counter the IS-3 and Russian air superiority. The former isn't such a major thing. The latter /is/. I wouldn't put it beyond Russia to start bombing Polish cities if they get bogged down. You're not Afghanistan, you do not have the US as your friendly weapon-providing friend. Once you piss Russia off, that's /it/. You cut off your own weapon supply, and are suddenly surrounded by people who really do not like you.

The Iron Curtain: A Cold War NRP

Omega said
The IS-3 is meant for an outmoded form of warfare, we are less than a year out from next generation MBTs. The IS-3 was not a big deal, the T-54 was.

It's still going to kick the living shit out of your entire army, since your army is still stuck in the era the IS-3 is from. The MBT era of tanks kicked off properly after Korea.