The following War Tapes were released from the vaults of the Swiss Mountain Command Centre. Exact deployments of Russian and American forces, plus their manouvrings, remains unknown. Certainties only exist in the movements and engagements of EU forces.
In 1984 Gemany proudly unveiled its Leopard Mark III. Combined with the new British Warrior APC and the Italian Garibaldi attack helicopter, Europe leapfrogged both Russia and America's conventional forces and became an entity capable of defending itself against the invading forces of the Warsaw Pact without American help.
In full knowledge that an American initiated nuclear war would spell doom for the crowded cities of Europe, and mistrustful of their allies increasingly aggressive foreign policy, Europe disolved NATO and created a new EU alliance, pledging neutrality in the war between Capitalism and Communism.
At first Soviet planners welcomed this development, feeling Europe was ripe for the plucking. They initiated Plan Thunderbolt, a concentrated thrust directly aimed at the nuclear facilities of Europe with every conventional asset available. Once captured, they would be held against counterattack and used against America in conjunction with Soviet missile forces. America suspected such a policy, and began to draft an action resulting in the pre-emptive nuking of Europe's command and control centres followed by nuclear facilities. This pre-emptive razing was designed to cow Russia and 'simplify the board'. This contingency plan was leaked to Europe, causing immense hostility.
Russian forces massed on the European border. The American fleets put to sea. European forces cancelled all leave.
The world watched and waited. Who would make the first strike?
The US fleet appeared on EU radars off the coast of Spain. British, French and Spanish interceptors were launched to fly demonstrative dummy attack runs to warn them off. America, disbelieving their radio cautions that these were dummy warning runs, opened fire on the first wave. The EU 1st Battleship fleet and 1st Carrier fleet, enraged, moved away from their mass naval arctic deployment and steamed past Ireland to punish the enemy forces, leaving the 2nd carrier and battleship fleets behind to rearguard against a possible Soviet attack.
Hostilities opened. Clouds of EU fighters swarmed over the US fleet, temporarily gaining air supremecy. The battleships discharged their missiles and shells. American carriers and battleships sank to the bottom as coastal ICBM defence silos swung into operation and, alongside landbased bombers and fighters, tore into the US fleet.
Tens of thousands of sailors died. But the US was undaunted. They threw in their entire surface naval capacity. Their fighters blackened the sun and shot down the EU air cover before turning on their ships. Both EU fleets under the weight of attack sank under the waves. Only one carrier out of the six deployed remained. It quickly steamed back to Ireland.
At this point DEFCON 1 was reached. Russia moved its subs off America's West coast, confident from the US fleet's entaglement in the Atlantic. It disgourged its MIRVs against San Francisco, LA and Portland, which perished in nuclear fire.
The EU, welcoming the distraction and feeling safer in the knowledge that Russia's subs were clearly engaged elsewhere, began to activate its nuclear forces. Enraged by a solitary exploratory nuke launched by Russia against a radar installation in Romania, the EU began a counter-attack. They knew at least three SILOS in radar range, though the other two remained unknown. The destruction of three however, would gain them a significant advantage in any escalation of a nuclear exchange.
But things were not that easy for the EU. Now US submarines were launching MIRVs off the coast of Spain. A wave of missiles burst from the ocean and descended over the panicking citizens of England, France and Spain. They disolved in nuclear fire.
The faces of the generals and admirals, nestled relatively safely in the subterrenean bunker complexes of the Swiss Mountains, were grim. They vowed revenge against the US, but could do nothing while Russia remained such a close threat. They pushed the button.
Bombers took off en masse from the 2nd carrier fleet stationed hundreds of miles above Vladivostok. They immediately wheeled South. Their mission - to take out the AA-SILO and radar network of the Ukraine and Western Russia. As they flew over the two submerged sub fleets, the EU decided to commit all its forces to the pulling of Russia's teeth. Bomber nukes launched. Submarines disgourged their MIRVS. A wave of death descended on two thirds of Russia's military might.
Her SILOs never stood a chance, three of the five atomised near-instantly. The second wave of nukes vaped Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk and a dozen more cities. Russian generals howled with grief and rage but all for nought... for they had lost four fifths of their nuke capacity. Still, they launched bombers against Eastern Europe. A few got their nukes through, but most perished under the AA fire of the EU silos and air defence. For the EU still had not switched its silos to ICBM launch.
Russia largely knocked out and fresh bombers having been launched against the newly revealed remaining two Russian SILOS, the EU turned its attention to America, which was now launching a major ICBM attack. The EU couldn't be sure if it was against Russia or herself, but she decided to respond. She launched everything she had. The first wave of nukes from the land SILOs targeted two coastal US silos. They put up a valient defence, vaping half a dozen inbound ICBM's, but gradually succumbed under the weight of fire. New York followed and Chicago, city after city. A fresh bomber wave from US carriers incinerated a couple more EU cities, but that did nothing to stem the grim tide of death. More EU bombers launched from the continent and stabbed home at the heart of the Mid West. And so the farm belt became irradiated under the obscene blossoming of incandescant mushrooms.
The remaining EU battlefleets sank the US subs in the Atlantic. The warring nations, sickened both mentally and through the afterglow of radiation, ceased their assaults. On the hideous calculus of war, Europe had won through protecting her Eastern cities and nuking much of Russian and Western America. The US came second through her intial opening onslaught against Eastern Europe and a minor latter strike against Italy. Russia came up the rear with its nuclear destruction of the West Coast of America and a couple of Eastern European cities.
In nuclear war, there could be no winners.
But, in a more accurate sense, Nervouspete of the EU Force won.
Great game, y'all!