Dark Earth Timeline Discussion

[Simon Darkshade]

Dr. Michaela Quinn might be more familiar as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, played by Jane Seymour, whilst Dr. James Campbell was the eponymous main character in the 1986-90 Anglo-Canadian drama series The Campbells, played by the criminally underrated Malcolm Stoddard.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Campbells

[jemhouston]

Dr. Michaela Quinn might be more familiar as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, played by Jane Seymour, whilst Dr. James Campbell was the eponymous main character in the 1986-90 Anglo-Canadian drama series The Campbells, played by the criminally underrated Malcolm Stoddard.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Campbells

If you Google Dr. James Campbell, it's a popular name for all sorts of MDs.

[Simon Darkshade]

Apparently so. This Campbell pre-dates them.

[Jotun]

The "unspecified country" the Kidon team extracted Hans Landa from isn‘t by any chance the USA, is it?

At least it should be if I remember the movie correctly^^

[Simon Darkshade]

Clever, clever Jotun.

Obviously he doesn’t get there in the same way as the film, but is captured there after hiding out in Latin America prior to that point.

[Jotun]

Clever, clever Jotun.

Obviously he doesn’t get there in the same way as the film, but is captured there after hiding out in Latin America prior to that point.

I am mildly disappointed you didn't confirm with "That's a bingo!"

[Simon Darkshade]

I’ve only seen Inglourious Basterds once and didn’t really like it or pay a huge amount of attention to it, so that line opportunity slipped past me.

Elsewhere, I wrote ‘This removes Landa from his ghastly ‘starring role’ and simply shows him as an extremely efficient but ultimately evil monster. Here, he gets his just desserts, rather than simply getting off with a bit of a scratch and, according to Tarantino, being hailed as a hero and becoming a Nantucket amateur detective.’

[Jotun]

Tarantino has a knack for writing abject assholes who make it through whatever befalls them.

Landa is an absolutely reprehensible character, a sociopath of the highest order. But his portrayal by Christoph Waltz is beyond excellent.

[Simon Darkshade]

The actor did very well in the role, without a doubt.

I don’t really like the Tarantino style insofar as unsavoury types are concerned, and there are enough derivative postmodern universes out there which follow his path. I prefer the style of David Gemmell in that particular respect, in that good triumphs over evil and the wicked get their just desserts; more of the classic BG1 and BG2 Paladin archetype a la Keldorn the wicked Drow one from BG3, if you will.

[Jotun]

The actor did very well in the role, without a doubt.

I don’t really like the Tarantino style insofar as unsavoury types are concerned, and there are enough derivative postmodern universes out there which follow his path. I prefer the style of David Gemmell in that particular respect, in that good triumphs over evil and the wicked get their just desserts; more of the classic BG1 and BG2 Paladin archetype a la Keldorn the wicked Drow one from BG3, if you will.

I really liked Minthara, but I cannot reconcile my head canon with evil paladins. 5th ed. D&D is way too simplistic and way too "anything goes" to be really fun.

I can wrap my head around the older anti-paladin concept, but then again, those are so cartoonishly evil that it is more of an unintentionally comical concept than something one can take seriously.

[Simon Darkshade]

I quite agree on both counts - the 'open slather' approach of 5E removes some of the inherent checks and balances between classes and races, meaning that someone can't create a character who is great at everything, whilst the classical anti-paladin of 1e was very much the archetype of the moustache curling villainous Black Knight and ideally an NPC archenemy.

I have a liking for classical archetypes in FRPGs and in fantasy/fiction in general, rather than the subversions thereof, and this comes across in Dark Earth, in a way. There are clear heroes and villains, just as there is a heck of a lot of grey in between.

[Simon Darkshade]

December 1973
December 1: Opening of a new large integrated tank and armoured vehicle manufacturing plant in Wingfield, Adelaide, connected by rail with Port Adelaide and the Adelaide to Darwin and planned Adelaide to Brisbane national railways. The 240 acre facility will initially build Super Centurions for service in New Guinea and the South Pacific before shifting to other vehicles in line with the current plants in Bankstown, Sydney and Essendon, Melbourne. Further facilities are planned by the Hawke Government in Perth and Brisbane, in addition to the Imperially funded Commonwealth Arsenal in Albury.
December 2: Establishment of the Banzai Institute for Biomedical Biomedical Engineering and Strategic Information in Holland Township, New Jersey as a joint venture by noted brain surgeon, theoretical physicist, jet car test pilot and freelance adventurer Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, philanthropist Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, Hollywood actor and international man of mystery Tomasz Wiseau and eccentric scientist Dr. Noah Insano.
December 3: The Huntly atomic power station in New Zealand begins generating electricity for the national grid, with the plant's 4200 MW nearly doubling total electricity generation in the country. A second plant for the provision of atomic power to South Island is in the early stages of construction at Ashburton.
December 4: Denmark's general election sees the Social Democratic government routed from office in a landslide, with an opposition grand coalition of Venstre, Progress, the Conservatives, Christian People's Party and the Social Liberals forming a new government after the loss of 34 SD seats.
December 5: The British Army of the Rhine begins reorganisation of its 120 forward deployed battle groups, including the fielding of new assault guns, tank destroyers and heavy mortars, extensive guided missile systems, Light Artillery Rocket Systems, reinforced detachments of armoured heavy infantry and upgunned variants of the FV432 and FV525 in infantry battalions.
December 6: The New York Times carries a special lifestyle features on the different Christmas foods of the world, contrasting the English speaking world's preference for ham, turkey and roast beef with the fish of Italy and Eastern Europe, the peculiar specific embrace of wild boar in one region of Brittany and the recent oddity of Japan's 'Christmas craze' for Kentucky Fried Chicken last year.
December 7: US doctors successfully use a new arcano-medical device to completely reverse damage to a spinal cord injury, paving the way for an effective cure for paraplegia.
December 8: Noted American scientist Dr. Emmett Brown is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his expansive work on the US nuclear fusion power project, from its earliest days of successfully generating 1.21 gigawatts in 1961 to its current revolutionary potential, and his steadfast promotion of the future utility of the flying car.
December 9: Florida police arrest 20 year old drifter Bernard Giles for the attempted abduction of two young hitchhikers. Subsequent investigations uncover that he is responsible for the murders of five young women, leading to him being sentenced to death and going to the electric chair on March 22nd 1974.
December 10: The Nobel Prize dinner takes place in Stockholm, with Ivar Giaever, Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson sharing the Physics prize, Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst Fischer sharing the Chemistry prize, Saul Bellow receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy for his steadfast global leadership and inspiration.
December 11: The Wall Street Journal leads with an article on the American economy bouncing back from the 1973 Recession, describing the rebound as so strong that it will likely break postwar records for recovery. It further notes that this has been accompanied by a small yet noticeable drop in the cost of living due to health care reforms and wage growth.
December 12: A British consortium of motorcycle manufacturing companies consisting of New Imperial Motors, Vincent, BSA, Royal Enfield, Norton-Villiers AMC and Triumph begin joint development of an experimental arcane flying hoverbike under contract by the British Army at special facilities in Central Australia.
December 13: The Royal Canadian Sovereign Fund reaches a value of £52,000 million, having been established in 1928 by Prime Minister Sir William Richardson to ensure that future generations can enjoy the largesse of Canadian oil and mineral wealth.
December 14: Launch of the Royal Navy's newest nuclear attack submarine, Trafalgar, lead boat of her class. The 18,000t, 525ft long submarine is armed with eight 32" torpedo tubes and a number of smaller tubes for anti-torpedoes; two dozen Lionheart cruise missiles and an unspecified number of Hawker-Siddeley Paladin supersonic anti-ship/ground attack missiles, de Havilland Blue Moon medium ranged strike missiles, anti-submarine missiles and anti-aircraft missiles; and other classified capabilities.
December 15: The third SeaWorld resort opens in Orlando, Florida, following on from the other facilities in Aurora and San Diego. The gala event is marked by the spectacular arrival and landing of a specially chartered Saunders-Roe Empress flying boat carrying a pod of killer whales from California.
December 16: Celebration of the bicentennial of the Boston Tea Party, with a group of historical reenactors dressed as colonials made up as Red Indians clambering aboard a replica sailing ship in Boston Harbor and throwing crates labelled with 'Tea' into the waters below; a spokesman assures a group of British tourists that no actual tea was harmed in the simulation.
December 17: Dendochronologists in Lyonesse reassess the age of a giant oak in the Avalon National Park ,long noted for its size with a girth of 50ft and a height of near to 300ft, as being at least 12500 years old after new core scanning spells.
December 18: Prime Minister Stanley Barton gives an expansive television and wireless address on the progress of Britain, recovery from the recession and the planned road forward for Empire Socialism, with the next steps to focus on a programme of targeted aid and support of New Commonwealth states in a policy of ‘help at home’, or assisted development of education and industry.
December 19: The War Department issues an extensive requirement for a successor MBT to the M-70 Marshall; and for an upgraded longer ranged version of the M109 self-propelled howitzer and a doubled barreled variant. The chief military news of the day, though, comes in the form of the timetable for the planned increase in the divisional strength of the U.S. Army, with the 11th Infantry Division and 13th Armored Divisions to be activated in 1974/75, the 17th Infantry Division in 1975/76 and the 14th Armored Division in 1976/77, taking the force to 24 infantry, 16 armored and 2 mechanised cavalry, 6 airborne and 2 air cavalry divisions, the Ranger and Commando Divisions and the 4 artillery divisions for a total of 56. No changes are to be made to the strength of the Army National Guard, but the Army Reserve could be in line for an increase pending the results of a complex study into mobilisation requirements.
December 20: The Prime Minister of Spain is assailed by would be assassins in the gardens of his residence outside Madrid but turns the tables on the miscreants thanks to his magic ring of protection, giving him an opportunity to shoot both with his derringer whilst his guards come to his aid.
December 21: The ground force phase of the US punitive expedition to Sudan, Operation Fateful Lightning, formally concludes as the final planeload of troops embark at Khartoum, with the Task Force commander, Lieutenant-General Joshua Chamberlain, stating that the United States of America would go to the ends of the Earth and beyond in defence of freedom and her people, whenever necessary. A flight of B-52s passes overhead during his statement, en route from England to bomb suspected rebel sympathising targets in Gadarif.
December 22: Adventurers claim to have discovered the long lost tomb of Tutankhensetamun in the Valley of the Kings, describing it as perhaps the last untouched royal tomb of deep antiquity and speculating on the fabulous treasures that probably lie within.
December 23: Soviet biological scientists develop a new series of specially enhanced insects and arachnids of dramatically increased size, leading KGB agents within the programme to make urgent reports on the perceived stability of Comrade Lysenko and his cabal.
December 24: Release of The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien, a compilation of twenty years’ worth of charming letters and stories ostensibly delivered to his children each Christmastide from Father Christmas. A spokeself for Father Christmas describes it as ‘an imaginative version of events’, but indicates that the book receives the North Pole’s seal of approval, but that further comment would not be forthcoming, as all there were a tad busy today.
December 25: Queen Elizabeth II delivers her annual Christmas message to Britain and the Empire and Commonwealth, highlighting the spirit of change and the value of family and faith, utilising film shot through the year for the first time, including the marriage of Princess Anne and Prince Christian and the Princess of Wales with her new son. Earlier in the day, a special Royal Christmas Feast is held at the Crystal Palace, with over 50,000 poor, needy or deprived people invited to share in food, drink and Christmas cheer, whilst nearly 600,000 hampers are distributed to needy families across Britain on Her Majesty's command.
December 26: Release of The History of the Second World War, the official British history of the war published by HMSO with the simultaneous release of the final six volumes on British Intelligence in the conflict. The unorthodox simultaneous nature of publication is due to the declassification of Ultra, the decryption of German signals communication by British boffins which provided the Allies with a decisive advantage.
December 27: Comet Kohoutek is visible with the naked eye in daytime at its peak brightness and apparent magnitude, leading to much excitement amongst scientists and laymen alike, with a sold out special Christmas cruise of RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 viewing it from the Caribbean.
December 28: The Imperial Japanese Army begins experimental testing of its first domestically developed anti-ballistic missile system, the Mitsubishi Type 72. Japan has previously indicated its inclination for acquiring a production licence for the new United States' MIM-104 'Patriot' Field Army Ballistic Missile Defense System (FABMDS) surface to air missile, the highest performance and newest SAM in the Free World, which is currently in initial production to replace the US Army's MIM-23 HAWK medium range SAMs and the MIM-20 Plato TBMD missile, so that the Type 72 is seen as a higher performance asset with a strategic role.
December 29: American, Soviet, British and French diplomats reach a joint agreement for the staging of an international conference to discuss strategic arms control in August 1974 in Geneva.
December 30: The notorious international terrorist Ilych Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, is ambushed, shot and arrested by Scotland Yard detectives as he attempts to assassinate the head of the British Zionist Federation.
December 31: HMSS Dreadnought begins a long burn en route for Neptune, taking advantage of its position within the solar system to try and join Orion 6 in the mission to explore the final frontier where no man has gone before.

[jemhouston]

It looks like RMS Trafalgar can give the NRSS Seaview a run for its money firepower wise.

I was checking the names of earlier in the post and stumbled upon the Villains Wiki. https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page. I look forward to looking at it.

Nice post.

[Simon Darkshade]

It will be HMS when she commissions, but yes, they are very capable boats. Think of the result of a Seawolf marrying an Oscar II and having the stork bring a little bundle of submersible joy.

[Simon Darkshade]

efore any notes on 1973, to let things sink in a bit and give more than 13 hours for comment, some overall analysis for 1974 and beyond:

- The stock market crash has not lead to a U shaped recession but a more conventional (for postwar DE) V shaped one akin to that of 1960 and 1958 in @
- In a significant part, this is due to the lack of an accompanying oil shock on top of a continued Bretton Woods system and the shorter Vietnam War
- Inflation is seen as *a* problem, relatively speaking, even as it is at 3% vs ~15% in Britain and 4% vs 9% in the USA. In both cases, it is likely to drop to the 1.8-2% mark by the end of 1974
- A flow on effect of this will be a lack of a Steel Crisis, with heavy industries remaining robust in both countries, just as they are in Germany, Japan, France and elsewhere
- Recovery will drive demand and there won't be the same reverberation that was a significant factor in the advent of the 'Rust Belt' and similar entities across the Western world
- Right at a time when energy became a major geopolitical and domestic albatross in @, there is almost the inverse situation with the growth of nuclear (fusion) power and a lack of oil prices being used as an OPEC political instrument; the very different make up of DE OPEC militates against that
- This different situation of the international economy and that of the national economies of the Western world will have downstream effects upon politics, culture, law and order, defence capacity and more broadly, the general mood of the decade as it approaches its halfway mark
- The Middle East is tense in a different way, with less specific tension in some areas being offset by there not having been any 'release valves' in the 1950s and 60s. When states and leaders forget what war is like, it somehow becomes more palatable in a certain sense
- Leading the world in terms of difference is Indochina. Rather than the domino theory seeming to come to fruition, there is a sense that the Communist advance in South East Asia has been decisively halted, at least for now. There is a lack of any major outflow of refugees from Vietnam and elsewhere, which will have 'downstream' consequences on a whole range of issues across many countries
- In turn, the outcome of the Vietnam War means that there won't be a 'Vietnam Syndrome'. The impact upon US defence policy in particular will be interesting, with an end to conscription being unthinkable and a great many projects likely to be viewed in different lights
- Africa is profoundly different, but like the Middle East, the absence of some @ issues, problematic leaders and problems doesn't necessarily make for a utopic outcome. The Congo is the next flashpoint
- The Soviet Union isn't in a period of Brezhevian stagnation, but is shifting gears from the initial 25 years of post WW2 recovery related growth. It does have the advantage of having seemingly solved its major agricultural issues of @ and is dabbling around with some paths not taken. There is some sense that Sergeyev is prepared to 'bend the meaning of socialism' similar to Khruschev, yet not identical; there is a strong iron hand maintained in the red velvet glove
- China, having not been out in the cold/behind the Bamboo Curtain in the same manner as @, isn't positioned to rise in the same manner as on Earth, either in terms of a US embrace against the USSR and an eventual economic opening and growth
- International terrorism just took a little hit
- Arms control, that ever present feature of the second half of the Cold War, is yet to manifest in any meaningful manner; the scope for the Soviet Union catching up with the USA in strategic weapons is minimal
- Technology is pushing ahead of @ by ~10 years in some areas
- As the 1970s progress, the advances in medicine of the last decade will start to be felt in more profound and interesting ways...

[Simon Darkshade]

December 1973 Notes

- The Adelaide tank factory is built on the site of the Wingfield Rubbish Dump/Landfill and is quite well positioned for either sea or train transport of tanks with only a modicum of changes to some rail lines. It is built in Adelaide to take advantage of the available power generated by SA's nuclear plants, following on from a continued period of industrial growth under Sir Thomas Playford, as well as to distribute facilities away from Sydney and Melbourne. On a broader level, it shows a great degree of difference in Australia's defence industrial capacity, and in turn Commonwealth integration thereof; and some different diversification of the Australian economy
- Buckaroo Banzai is joined by Ramírez ("I'm not Spanish, I'm Egyptian!"), Tomasz Wiseau (who bears a purely coincidental resemblance in name and appearance to the director of The Room) and Dr. Insano, a character from the defunct YouTube comedy series The Spoony Experiment
- New Zealand, that great opponent of all things nuclear in other universes, has its electricity capacity significantly increased by a single plant. The consequences on what it is capable of will be interesting
- The BAOR is larger than @, consisting of 6 forward deployed divisions of I and II Corps, plus corps level troops in brigades and field forces and Army level assets; III and IV Corps in Britain; and the Canadian I Corps. There is some consideration being given to forward deploying a division from the British based corps to the Continent, or alternately to increasing the forward deployed 'POMCUS' divisional equipment sets in the Low Countries and Western Germany. Many of the infantry battalions and armoured regiments of the BAOR have been or are in the process of converting to 'tank heavy' or 'infantry heavy' Battle Groups, whilst others (usually in divisions used in reserve) maintain a different structure that suits their purpose; in each case, they are fielding attachments of the new weapons systems so that each Regiment or Battalion has substantially increased firepower and staying power
- Japan's curious KFC at Christmas tradition starts a year earlier, whilst the descendants of Asterix and Obelix continue to love wild boar
- An effective cure for paraplegia will have a few consequences down the line, as well as improving the lives of many ordinary people
- Dr. Emmett Brown got a little excited when the first experimental fusion reactor hit 1.21 gigawatts
- Bernard Giles gets caught and fried in short order
- JFK gets a Nobel Peace Prize for a variety of reasons, all of which are cumulatively a bit controversial
- The little snippet about the American cost of living is an indicator that things are on a different trajectory
- British firms start working on a secret speeder/hoverbike for some reason
- Canada has a very decent sovereign wealth fund, yielding quite the useful annual return for funding some budget areas. The other interesting tidbit is the Canadian currency...
- The Trafalgars are exceptionally powerful and expensive SSNs with a multi-faceted role in various warplans; alongside the R and S class boats, they represent quite the British edge against the Soviets
- Sea World gets some extra killer whales early on, being delivered by a very, very big flying boat: the successor to the Saro Queen, being about 1.5 times the size and capable of carrying 2500 passengers or a lot of cargo
- The reenactment of the Boston Tea Party is a historical event, just without the terrible waste of perfectly good tea
- Older trees are being found in some areas, with others having ice sheets at that time...
- The real substance of Barton's address can be found in the implications of 'help at home'
- A number of new US Army projects begin, ranging from the conventional (a new version of the M109) to the imposing (a 1980s MBT carrying on the M-70 that will bear some resemblance to the Abrams) and the very different indeed (double barreled SP howitzer). This 'hides' the significant news of 4 newly activated/reactivated divisions and the broader shape of the US Army, with some units being easily understood, some new (mechanised cavalry being equipped with some different weapons systems for potential deployment in the ME as well as Europe) and others being very different indeed (a Ranger division of multiple regiments, a Commando division separate from the Rangers and Green Berets and actual artilllery divisions as postulated by military journals in the 1960s and 70s)
- The Prime Minister of Spain is another emerging 'interesting' type; the idea of national leaders with their own weapons was inspired by an old picture of Lincoln shooting first, taking out Booth with an over the shoulder revolver snap shot
- Operation Fateful Lightning, whose name speaks volumes, was commanded by a General Joshua Chamberlain
- Pharoah Tutankhensetamun is from a children's animated show from ~ 2003 named Tutenstein
- The Soviets fiddling about with giant spiders, ants, radscorpions, mutated wasps and other nasties is one way they seek to redress the strategic balance, as well as showcasing the sheer nuttiness of Lysenko and Co
- The Father Christmas Letters are less of a fiction here
- Holding a Christmas feast in the Crystal Palace is a nice way of showing that it is not just still around, but frequently used (the size of the interior lends it towards some events), whilst the cost of decent Christmas hampers would be quite considerable, but not for the world's wealthiest monarchy
- Ultra is officially declassified earlier, along with an expedited completion of the Official History of the Second World War
- Comet Kohoutek ends up as less of a fizzle
- Japan tries to make its own ABM, whilst hedging its bets with the (earlier) Patriot, which in turn is based on its hotter earlier version
- Some sense of arms control is seen as in the interests of the superpowers and Great Powers, but the devil is in the detail
- Carlos gets captured, and not by a country that only has life imprisonment
- Dreadnought heads on out to Neptune, behind Orion 6 and with a little hat tip to Star Wars in the wording

[Simon Darkshade]

Looking ahead to 1974:

- The world bounces back from the 1973 recession
- Britain, Canada and the USA start to deal with the beginnings of an energy glut
- Some things begin to shift in Africa on at least four fronts
- A variety of new ships, aircraft, weapons, television programmes, films and books make an appearence
- Japan continues to streak forward, surpassing other nations as its economy grows. A partial constraint upon this will be its defence budget and armed forces, eventually
- In South East Asia, we see what I like to characterise as the opposite of an earthquake, or video footage of a rock being chucked into a pond rolled in reverse, with the removal of the ripples of Vietnam. This is firstly felt in Cambodia, then Thailand, Burma and Malaya and most notably in Indonesia, which is inching towards 'coming in from the cold' to a certain extent
- Patty Hearst has a different period of captivity, before someone, ahem, ensures that she is 'returned to sender'
- Some familiar notes from our own 1970s crop up, in the form of some cricketing names, Dungeons & Dragons, certain films, novels and even some versions of popular music
- On the British political front, some clear air starts to emerge between the Labour Government and Conservatives on immigration, although the positions of each party are quite distinct from those adopted by their Earthly equivalents. This isn't meant to provide any commentary on contemporary matters on Earth, but rather to reflect where an opposition party might go to distinguish itself from a 4th term government when the major grounds of economics, defence, foreign policy, industry, the welfare state and social policy have a great deal of consensus
- The canals of Venice get drained and cleaned (having not happened in 1956 due to the rather large events happening that year)
- Persia starts to hit its straps, not entirely due to oil revenues. Like its neighbour in Afghanistan, there is something of a liberal mood in the air, for now
- We delve into some statistics, which is one of my little areas, looking at crime rates, sickness/mortality, job data and a bit more on both sides of the Atlantic
- The different path and trajectory being enjoyed by the Soviet Union continues to come to the fore, with a clearer distinction from the Brezhnevian Stagnation of the @ 1970s coming through each year. This isn't to say that it is not a repressive dictatorship, but rather that the inner picture aligns more with concerned estimations from the West as to their staying power and capabilities
- South American continues to both develop positively and simmer threateningly, providing one of several areas of tension to keep readers guessing as to what might be the Spark for something
- The 1974 Soccer World Cup has some different competitors and a fair bit of excitement
- Some positive moves on environmental protection and other measures start to compound; just as compound interest is a powerful force in other respects, so it is here
- A few interesting talking vehicles do their bit
- An @ PM has some success in yachting, in a bit of crossover with another pollie known for having a long swim
- An extremely articulate politician from Singapore starts to make a name for himself in the Imperial House of Commons
- Reagan doesn't end the policy of what amounted to a 'semi-detente' (primarily in Europe) that existed under JFK, but things start to cool down, driven by some Soviet mistakes and policies
- Israel and the Arabs continue to bristle a bit. As I put it in a story that I'm not sure will end up being completed (due to a lack of a distinctive hook and theme at this time), one of the problems is that neither the Israelis or the Arabs have had experience of a real war in their neighbourhood since 1956 (and even that was a bit of a 'curbstomp' rather than a risky conflict) and a lot of lessons get forgotten in almost a generation; expeditionary war in Malaya and Vietnam isn't the same as the Middle East. Weighed up against this is the wishes of certain Western superpowers for any disagreements to be kept low level and non-military, particularly in light of disturbing recovery from the sharp recession of the previous year

[Jotun]

Don't you DARE have England win the FIFA World Cup again

[Simon Darkshade]

Never fear; that is being saved up for a World Cup being played in the USA at some point in the 80s.

Unless it hasn’t been obvious, I’m not really into soccer at all; as a code of football, it only ranks above gridiron for my tastes. I have no driving motivations for England to win anything, rest assured, although they do qualify.

I am thinking of having a different process of a Group Stage, Second Round and then two Semi Finals before the Final. I’m tossing up between Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany for the whole thing, and just need a fourth team to play around with. It might be Brazil, or it might be someone else.

I’ll have to dig out my good old dice emulator and roll for who makes the 16, 8, 4 etc.

[Simon Darkshade]

1974 World Cup Qualifiers: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, USA, India, Australia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Austria-Hungary, USSR, England

Final 8: Brazil, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Poland, England, Soviet Union, Argentina

Group A: Germany, Brazil, England, USSR

Germany d USSR 3-1
Brazil d England 2-1
Brazil d USSR 4-0
Germany d England 5-2
England d USSR 4-3
Germany d Brazil 1-0

Group B: Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Argentina

Netherlands d Argentina 5-1
Sweden d Poland 2-0
Sweden d Argentina 2-1
Netherlands d Poland 3-0
Argentina drew Poland 1-1
Netherlands d Sweden 2-1

Semi Finals: Netherlands vs Brazil; Germany vs Sweden