Quote from: Jason Morningstar;394884(I'm also sort of excited about Okhrana, but you'd probably predict that)

Really? I am shocked to the core!

Quote from: Joshua FordI must admit Malcolm, that is was The War Game and Threads that came to mind when looking at elements of the setting. Two of the most unnerving things I've seen - I wasn't even allowed to watch Threads after the first fifteen minutes when it was first broadcast but the Radio Times cover of an armed traffic warden intrigued me.

My parents let me watch Threads back in 1984 (I was ten years old at the time) and it terrified the life out of me. I still find it (along with The War Game) one of the most genuinely horrifying films I've ever watched. And the traffic warden was the thing that stuck with me as well. It seems to fix itself into the mind.

Quote from: Joshua FordAnyway, whilst thinking about possible scenarios I remembered the following:

http://www.willys-mb.co.uk/rudloe.htm - Britain's Strategic Steam Reserve. I like the idea of a nuclear-powered sub but perhaps a group wants to acquire a number of well-maintained steam engines to avoid too much reliance?

Ah, the good old SSR! It's a great topic of discussion as to whether or not it ever actually existed in the manner believed by a lot of people. My own feeling is that yes, there were probably a few steam locos in storage, but that there was never a huge SSR of the kind claimed by some investigators. But, who cares? For the purposes of Hot War, the SSR is a great thing and I can totally see it coming into games in some way, shape or form.

The Army would certainly use a couple of steam engines to create armoured trains. Hell, with all the fuel running out, it would give them some form of mobile gunnery position and so forth. That would be kind of cool: an armoured train snaking its way round the London railways, with ragged children throwing rocks at it, CDA cells trying to blow it up. Maybe it drags a couple of box cars full of refugees or prisoners around as 'insurance'? Hmm, this has really inspired me! Must get writing!

Cheers
Malcolm

Quote from: D-503;394827If I make it this year I'll definitely try and sign up for that.

Ghost Whistler, I saw that Star Trek episode for the first time on Saturday!  Cool avatar.

I did think the episode had some logical flaws:

"so far you've not commited any crimes" - well apart from stealing a space yacht and breaching Romulan space, no, I suppose not.

And the whole thing where the space hippies try to murder the entire crew in cold blood, which the crew then sort of forget afterwards while wishing the space hippies well, what the fuck?  There was a weird mix of Manson family vibe in that episode at times which I'm not sure was entirely intentional (or entirely unintentional, but when you try to murder hundreds of people you do kind of cross a line).

well they weren't trying to murder the crew. That was Dr Severin who was insane.

Logical flaws are far from the worst parts of that episode

We reach.

Quote from: Malcolm Craig;395001armoured trains.

Poland invested heavily in armored trains between the wars. Their rolling stock was used in the east by the Germans (one was parked in Warsaw throughout the Rising, too). The Russians also had some. Plenty of inspiration there if you dig for it, Malcolm...

Quote from: Jason Morningstar;395080Poland invested heavily in armored trains between the wars. Their rolling stock was used in the east by the Germans (one was parked in Warsaw throughout the Rising, too). The Russians also had some. Plenty of inspiration there if you dig for it, Malcolm...

Amazingly, during WW2, there were armoured trains patrolling the railways near to where I live. I never knew that we had a train detachment up here. And the crews were, for a time, at least partiallly made up of Poles.

For those who are interested in this, there's some more photos and stuff here some Soviet WW2 trains), here (the remains of an armoured rain in Sarajevo), here (film of an armoured train in Eire during the early 1920s), here (White Army trains from the Russian Civil War), here (Red Army trains from the Russian Civil War), and here (more WW2 Soviet trains).

Cheers
Malcolm