Fatherland and Beyond...

Many moons ago I wrote an article entitled Deutschland Uber Alles which appeared in Ragnarok 9. It looked at the possibilities of wargaming in the alt-history world of Robert Harris' Fatherland novel (a highly recommended read if you haven't read it). Reading Guy Saville's The Afrika Reich on the train today my brain started pondering the possibilities again.

Fatherland is set in the 1960's following a Nazi victory in the west and an ongoing guerilla war east of the Urals. The idea of playing some games in the latter struck me as promising some alt-history fun and I did start collecting some models as part of a small project.

For the Germans I though Cold War East Germans would be perfect. the helmet they wore was a late war German design and the AK47 is really only a simplified Mp44. For armour I picked up a couple of old Airfix Leopard tanks, my thoughts being that the C2 version with its rounded armour would look great in WW2 three colour camo! The only stumbling block I came across was infantry AFV's, something I still occasionally ponder about.

By the sixties defeated Britain is nominally independent but allied to Germany and I considered the idea  of a British Volunteer Force out in the east with Centurion tanks (Airfix again...)

For the Soviets, a a mix of WW2 and Cold War types in camo suits would be needed. I did buy a JS3 to use as a battered old tank for the guerillas. I still fancy making it up and adding field fitted armoured skirts... The Americans are supplying the Soviets guerillas as is their wont so some M113's with US advisors on hand can be easily sourced from Vietnam ranges.

Of course Afrika Reich (as you will know if you have read it) is set in a different timeline and on a different continent, but some of the possibilities suggested in the book would certainly lend themselves to some great alt-history games.