THE ZONE: The Cold War Turns Hot

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Adapted from the Living on the Front Line: A Winter of '79 Game rules -- Skirmish rules that represent an alternative history of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In November 1983, the NATO Exercise Able Archer was perceived by the Soviet and Warsaw Pact governments as being the prelude to a full nuclear strike against their nations. Consequently, as NATO blithely carried on 'playing' at war, the Soviets prepared for the real thing. They activated missile batteries, put bombers on standby, and sent ground forces to the East-West German and other borders ready to carry out Operation Seven Days to the Rhine. As the NATO forces called 'end - ex' and began to return to their bases, the specter of full-scale nuclear war receded. The message flashed around the nuclear missile silos, bomber crews stood down and Warsaw Pact nation states began to relax.

However, on the morning of 11 November, a tired, stressed Soviet Armored Division commander makes a fateful decision, prompting a full scale Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion of West Germany. NATO forces, many of them without live ammunition, are initially overwhelmed. In a desperate attempt to slow the advancing hordes, NATO high command authorizes the use of biological and chemical weapons. Many Soviet military personnel and West German civilians are killed. The Soviets deploy a tactical nuclear weapon in response, with yet more carnage amongst NATO military and German civilians alike. The international outrage leads to the tacit agreement to not use these weapons again. A conventional war ensues, fought over the battered fields, towns and cities of West Germany.