Prologue to Campaign "The bears Gambit"

[Nike-Ajax]

 

In the hopes that everyone have had a good New Year, and looking forward to 2018, then this is the prologue to the Campaign "The Bears Gambit". My recommendation is that you read it in the attached PDF format document. 

This Campaign will start at sunday 21´st of January 2018, and run through February to March. As usually, then it is open to all. More information to follow - and to be continued...

 

The Bears Gambit

 

 

 

"My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist!"

Charles Pierre Baudelaire

 

 

Prologue

 

By Nike-Ajax, All Rights reserved

 

 

Leningrad 1975

The young man left the grounds of Leningrad State University, smiling he looked up at the imposing structure. As his eyes fell on the Soviet flag gently swaying in the wind and his smile faded. He was a Russian, and a proud one, but Communism to him was a blind alley, far away from civilization.

Not that he would ever say that out loud, being intelligent not just in the books as his freshly acquired Law degree proved, but also in the ways of the party and the ways power worked. His Professor Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak and he had had many quiet and discreet talks: what would be the future of his beloved country. And would the future be under and through the Communist party?

He mentally shrugged his shoulders; it was a theoretical discussion, and a forbidden one at that. He was a member of the Communist party because he needed to be, and because it was a way to power – in a way the only one. And to serve his nation as he wanted he could not allow himself to be compromised…

And besides … working for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, was probably not a place to show anything but undying devotion to the Party, he thought to himself as he laughed. He had just been accepted to training the day before. Looking one last time thoughtfully at the flag he turned and continued.

Germany 1989

He looked out the window, disgust and irritation curling up his lip. Stupidity, weakness and incompetence… THOSE were the keywords of the new Soviet president: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev might talk about his new ideas of Perestroika and Glasnost. But to him they were Nekulturnyi, irrational and worst of all weak. Even Chernenko was less of a disaster he mused to himself, as he sadly shook his head.

The Soviet leadership had managed to weaken his beloved Rodina … and he knew it would be worse before it became better again. Seeing the East German youths waving banners and chanting slogans, something which only months before would have sent them to prison or worse, he shook his head again and turned back to the files that he was burning to keep them out of reach of the mob.

While working he wowed that he would make his Motherland Great Again … Somehow and someday.

Saint Petersburg 1991

He smiled at the men sitting at the table. His old professor had done well for himself: Being a mayor of Saint Petersburg, a name he actually preferred to the old one. And the Professor had helped him with his newfound power. His smiled faded as he took a look out the window at the street littered with old veterans covered with medals and begging to get food … or more likely more money for the next bottle of vodka.

His country needed a new future… HE needed a new future. He had done his best, brokering deals for food, which his countrymen desperately needed - and for this he had been investigated. There would be a time for reckoning later, both for the traitors and for the countries that had raped his country and even now was laughing at it. A cold calm fury settled into him: he could not allow himself to lose focus. There was too much to do, and only barely enough time.

He didn’t know many of them by name; he knew Medvedev was another of his old professor’s students and protégées, but the others he didn’t really know. This was part of the overall idea, which he had thought up with his old professor. What they were doing would help shape the future of their country and help save its future and people.

The men were powerful, clever and intelligent – and they also in each of their own fields were powerbrokers. Together they possessed a vast amount of power, and if their plans worked then would become even more powerful in time. His old professor raised his hand, and the room fell silent.

“They say that to make an omelet, then you need to break some eggs. Maybe that it’s true. Or maybe that is just another oversimplification like the ones that the foreign nations use when they talk of our nation. They think we are beaten, they think they have won and they think they can take away our power, our resources and remove all the buffer states, that our forefathers through hundreds of years died for, in order to safeguard our Rodina against the foreign powers that have tried again and again to invade us from all sides of the compass except North. And do it while making fools of us, humiliating our Great Motherland.

Well – my friends and fellow patriots. We are not beaten. We may be on our knees, but the advantage from being on your knees is that you see things other people do not. And that our enemies and adversaries will underestimate us. So what we will use is patience, our willpower and the freedom of action that the fact that they underestimate us gives. The old system fell because it was a weak and corrupt system, built on irrational and delusional ideas. But Russia existed before communism, and it will survive it too. Metal tempered in fire and cold becomes stronger.

What we will plan today is the future of our Country. Our plan will take years if not decades and demand the utmost sacrifices. Maybe even our lives. We who are here are ready to make that sacrifice. We don’t plan for the short scope and short term. We will get a better and stable future for our grandchildren. The west, despite all their power, is weak: they are bound to goals on the short term, because they have to bribe their voters every 3 to 5 years. Because of this their politicians wants to take the easy solutions.  But we will not make the same mistake that they did and underestimate them.  

Their democracy makes them both strong but at the same time weak. In this they are much the same as the Communists who managed to squander our countries valuables away on stupidity and irrationality and helped by useful Idiots and traitors in the west.

However, as I said, then they are not to be underestimated. Democracies are capable of astounding feats of production, military engineering and endless cruelty if awoken, like the Germans and Japanese in general, and the people of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular, learned the hard way.  Like a bear it is better to let them sleep, and slip unseen and quietly by them until we are ready to face them on our terms, when we are strong and they are weak.

We will forge a new road, we will make a new future and we will do it by taking the best from both systems. And we will make a system that in 25 years will be stronger than either. From weakness we will build greatness. And we will have to accept the humiliation that the west subjects us to now, in the knowledge that our country needs to be hardened – like a sword is hardened in fire and cold. But like a sword our cause needs to be tempered the right way: show flexibility, so we have the adaptability our enemies and our predecessors lacked. And not break in the process, but rather seize the opportunities and the future”   

The men in the room slowly all nodded and looked at each other, feeling the weight of responsibility and history.

The conference lasted well into the morning of the next day, and continued for another four days. When the conference finished, the men quietly left, and walked with confident steps past the ruins of the Soviet Union which could be seen everywhere, leaving the detritus of a failed state and ideology in their wake without a second glance.

Moscow 2015

“The fools … 20 years of warnings and talk and showing them our military might. The west love talking about not crossing lines, and yet they seem intent on crossing them all themselves.  And still they keep trying to run our country and continue with their cold war and pushing their bases closer to us, while disregarding warnings and signs that a five year old child would have registered. Well … at least they are predictable. And weak – fortunately their words and talks no longer can stop us” 

The man slowly shook his head and turned from the window, looking at the men sitting at the table.

 “We have secured our south and east. We can never ever trust the Nekulturnyi Iranians or Chinese, but at least we can trust their greed, hunger for power and the need for self-preservation of their tiny elitist ruling cadres as well as their need for technology, weapons and resources. In this they are as predictable as the West. It is regrettable and unforeseen that we have lost the Indians in the process, but there is nothing to do about that. Now then: Are we ready for the next phase…?”

He lifted his glass of tea in its silver holder and took a sip while his blue eyes piercing them as he gazed across them.  One by one the men nodded, the last man taking the word for them all:

“Yes my President. Our long-term Maskirovka is running as planned. The west is weak, militarily especially so and almost disarmed, or rather weekly armed for battle against terrorists and bandits. They have slowly started rearming but for most of the Europeans they only make symbolic gestures. We estimate that they will not be able to disrupt us militarily and therefore not have the political willingness or courage to try when we move to the next phase.

Many of the core military competences that many of their nations once held have been abolished. We estimate that it would take these nations 10 years from the time that they might try to get them back, before they could even come close to their former strength. That is to say if they try to get them back. We don’t even have to finance and support what Lenin termed the useful idiots, who helped with our goals during the cold war, as there seems to be plenty who are willing to weaken their countries without our guidance or help. Our plans expected the West to disarm to some degree while we gathered our strength. But we never expected the west to disarm to the point that they did – even the Swedes who once could field one of the strongest defenses, have basically dismantled it, by repeatedly cutting in half their forces over a number of times. Reality it seems has exceeded our hopes.

Also their nations stand divided and UN paralyzed. Anything that they might try to push through UN can be blocked by either us or the Chinese. And the Chinese like us haven’t forgotten the western abuse of UN in Libya. UN, like the League of Nations was, is a toothless, powerless and weak old man, run by corrupt fools. And it is one that will be put out to pasture when the time is right. We will secure the next buffers in three to four years as planned, barring any unforeseen events. And then we are secure from the west”

Good, The President thought, and turned to the window again with a sigh.

“Make sure that there are no mistakes. And any unforeseen events we will handle as they might appear” 

He allowed himself a small smile, as he contemplated the possible futures, and the events that unfolded in Ukraine and other places. Not everything went as planned, but enough went well that the plans would not be disturbed significantly. And the process of political solidification, rearmament and strategic alliances were on track. In fact he along with the other in the leading cadre had been and still was, amazed of how well things went – they just needed to be patient for another 3 to 4 years more.

And then they would break the seventh seal.

 

 

The Bears Gambit.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[Furia]

Somehow reading this is worrisome when you consider how much of this can be easily be true.

 

Very well written. I am looking forward for this campaing. 

[Nike-Ajax]

"Somehow reading this is worrisome when you consider how much of this can be easily be true. "

 

Exactly what I am aiming for. And even though this is fiction, then it is based on facts ...

Edited January 1, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[Gibsonm]

Sounds good but unfortunately if its run during your standard timeslot, I wont be able to make it.

[Nike-Ajax]

Sorry to hear that, I would have liked you to be a part of it. As usual its a matter of finding the least bad timeslot, and no matter when we place it, then it will be bad for some.  

So in another answer to your question, then it will be at the usual timeslots at sundays at 2000 Viking time aka. CET or GMT+1.

[Nike-Ajax]

The next chapter of this story will be released with the other scenario info roughly a week before the first Scenario. 

 

And in case somebody is wondering if this is real:

 

Most of it is ... and some of it might be ... and some of it might not be ...

Let me put it this way: It is as close to reality as I can make it in a work of fiction.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[Furia]

Can you give us an idea of our own side units composition? Not the full organization but the types of vehicles we will be using?

I am specially interested in the Recce, Tank Hunter and Mech Inf ones.

[Nike-Ajax]

hmm ... wouldnt it be more fun to be surprised ? 

 

But for the first one I would suggest training with a CV9040 and STRV122... 

[Red2112]

Back to duty...

 

Thanks for your moral and empathy Nike!

[Nike-Ajax]

2 minutes ago, Red2112 said:

Back to duty...

 

Thanks for your moral and empathy Nike!

Very glad to hear it Red2112 - You have been missed

 

I hope that this will live up to yours and everybody else´s expectations.

 

And as for the other: You are worth it and more

[Gibsonm]

The text above indicates it will run " and run through February to March ".

 

Do you expect it to be completed by 01 April?

 

I want to de-conflict it with Rolling Thunder '18 where one of the possible three dates is 01 April.

 

If you expect it to still be running then, I'll remove 01 April as an option.

[Nike-Ajax]

Hi Mark 

 

I can verify that it does not conflict with my campaign - and thanks for asking, good on ya mate.

 

This is the schedule as of today:

 

http://www.kanium.eu/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=3793

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[Major duck]

Just to verify question mark dossent mean that we don't play on that day just that we haven't figured out which scenario yet

 

MD

[Gibsonm]

Well what I'm asking is "Do I schedule an optional date for RT '18 to be 1800 GMT on Sunday 01 APR?"

 

If Kanium is running this campaign (or something else) then there is no point in providing that as an option as people would need to choose between Kanium or RT '18.

 

That can only result in both events suffering.

 

Hence my offer to remove option "c" from my availability post.

 

This is the same reason why I asked a very similar question on the TGIF thread.

 

Now if Kanium decided that their Sunday evening session was in fact to attend RT '18 then that would solve it (except of course for those who have already said they couldn't make "c").

 

So just let me know what Kanium intends to do and I'll adjust.

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Gibsonm

[Nike-Ajax]

Hi Gibson 

 

Judging from the poll, then there seems to be no conflict ?

[Gibsonm]

3 hours ago, Nike-Ajax said:

Hi Gibson 

 

Judging from the poll, then there seems to be no conflict ?

So far.

 

I am a little surprised though that very few Kanium people have indicated an interest either way - after all I picked a "Europe friendly" time slot.

 

It may not be an issue if the response rate remains this low - I just wont run it (there is no point in those of us building the scenarios continuing if it will be under subscribed). But its too early yet to make that decision.

[Nike-Ajax]

Well Mark .. I have signed up? 

 

We are a group of adult men, and nobody orders anyone around. So I wont speculate on the reasons that people havent signed up. 

I speak for myself: and I would like to try it, as have SnS, Furia, Connaugh and Chrisreb and whomever I have forgotten - who all play with Kanium ?

 

In other words: come one, come all: we are aiming for an adhocsession in about 50 minutes

Edited January 8, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[DrHat]

I think things will turn out just fine :-)

[Nike-Ajax]

Invitation to all: 

 

http://www.kanium.eu/2018/01/10/blurring-the-borders-of-fiction-into-reality-the-bears-gambit/

 

 

And the event Calender:

 

http://www.kanium.eu/event/bg-scenario-1-tf-32-operation-red-route-1/

 

 

[Furia]

A Coy Reccon  if possible 

[Nike-Ajax]

10 minutes ago, Furia said:

A Coy Reccon  if possible 

Thank you Furia - I love your energy and enthusiasm, but sign up wont be for another week and in another thread

Edited January 11, 2018 by Nike-Ajax

[Nike-Ajax]

On ‎11‎-‎01‎-‎2018 at 8:21 PM, Furia said:

A Coy Reccon  if possible 

I signed you in - verify if I got it right plz ?

[Furia]

Thanks Nike-Ajax. That is perfect. Thanks!

Is this a B or C model?

What type of dismounts/weapons do we carry?

Edited January 15, 2018 by Furia

[Nike-Ajax]

On ‎15‎-‎01‎-‎2018 at 4:27 PM, Furia said:

Thanks Nike-Ajax. That is perfect. Thanks!

Is this a B or C model?

What type of dismounts/weapons do we carry?

 

Good question, for the benifit of all then I have answered it in the main thread:

 

MAIN THREAD

 

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Nike-Ajax