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At The Bleeding Edge

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This theater book aims to model a theoretical conventional conflict between Russia and the NATO alliance in eastern Europe in the early 2020s. This scenario could be an alternative to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an escalation of said conflict, or a campaign conducted upon its conclusion. A core tenet of this book is the time frame being modelled is only the first 30 days of a potential conflict. The predictability of a NATO-Russia conflict drops quickly as the days move forward. Beyond the first month, much of NATO’s heavy units would become available which would noticeably shift the odds. Russia’s casualty count would rise dramatically over these 30 days, a situation that would make a nuclear exchange more likely. Finally, the first month would be the closest to tactical and operational parity the Russians would likely achieve. Compared to the hordes that Russia could unleash on day one, the EFPs are far smaller, with the possible exception of EFP Poland.

This scenario involves Russia invading one or more Baltic states somewhere from 2020-2025. In response, the Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroups in each of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are the first line of defence along with the armed forces of the host countries. Each of these EFPs are given a distinct army list with their own combat teams, reinforcement lists, and unit statistics. The composition of these lists was determined by the presence and likely rotation of NATO formations through the regions. Every NATO nation involved has been modelled to some degree so long as their contribution is tactically relevant.

In addition to the four EFPs, six of NATO’s largest military powers have been modelled as their own army lists. The nations of Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, and The United States have their own unique sets of combat teams, lists, and units. These army lists include many formations and units not available to the EFPs to which these nations contribute. This allows for players to play nation specific combat teams that include every relevant unit, regardless of deployment schedule but still limited to the availability within the specified time frame. Players can easily combine units and lists between the presented armies such as including US heavy formations in a fight involving EFP Poland, a deployment that likely would fall outside the 30 day window this theater book models. However, scenario play is based on the scenario specified, limiting such combinations to match play.

Being the primary opponent, Russia has its own army list with an extensive collection of combat teams and units. These combat teams represent the reality at the outset of the conflict, not the evolution after several years of attritional fighting. However, due to the nepotistic nature of the Russian Army, the reliability of reinforcements is lower, making extensive use of lists to randomise what units are present.

Each of these armies is given a section of this book detailing their major company sized formations from infantry to armour, recce, and airborne. Reinforcement lists for determining additional forces from outside the immediate chain of command are used in scenario play to help tell the narrative of the game. Platoon formations detail the structure of the disparate forces that may become involved. Extensive unit stats for infantry, transports, AFVs, and more allow nearly any battle to be modelled.

This massive conglomeration of information had to be organized in a manner that was understandable by the players as well as capturing the experience of commanding a tactical combat team within the constraints of the scenario. In furtherance of this goal, every detail, decision, and omission was made with the knowledge that players will inhabit the reality of being a company commander of their chosen combat team with all the choices, limitations and frustrations that entails. Due to the many involved nations and their intermixing in the EFPs, NATO country codes have been utilised for ease of play.

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Pages
732
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
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Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
January 31, 2025
This title was added to our catalog on January 31, 2025.
Publisher
Battlespace Publishing