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September 13, 1985 – Barrel of a Gun

The latest (and maybe the last one!) chapter about the intrigues and maneuvers of KGB Colonel Fabrizio Leonidovich Vianello.
As usual, developed and written by Grognard Emeritus Thomas Gaul!

Time: 9pm, Moscow time, 13 Sept. 1985
Place: Special restaurant of the KGB officer’s club of Dedicated Socialist, soon-to-be-Hero-of-the-Soviet-Union, soon-to-be-KGB- General-presently-KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello

Feet propped up on his table, boots off, head back KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello savored the moment. He had allowed himself a rare luxury (well to others it was rare; to him, as a true son of the Communist system, less so) and richly deserved it. Vodka was, of course, well and good and necessary, but a true French wine (Bordeaux, of course) to wash down the chef prepared gourmet meal, complete with the best prepared steak in Moscow, was a special part of the non-existent heaven of decadent capitalist religions. Of course, such things only existed to dull the minds of the exploited workers of the Capitalists pawns, but, if they did exist, surely this would have to be part of it.

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1985: Under an Iron Sky – Vassalized!

The Vassal module for 1985: Under an Iron Sky is ready and available for download!

Download 1985: Under an Iron Sky Vassal Module

Created by John Rainey with the same graphics used in production print, the module contains ready-to-use setups for the four scenarios and two campaign games of the boxed version. It also adds several handy functions:

  • SAM coverage overlay
  • Air Superiority Areas overlay
  • Automatic “Return to Base” for Air Squadrons
  • Integrated Sequence of Play

No feeble excuse can now save you from the final showdown between NATO and Warsaw Pact. You had a lot of time for visiting Russia, today it’s too late. Russia is visiting you.

“Mind the Gap” Scenario

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August 21, 1985 – Disinformation Technology

Another chapter in the plots and conspiracies of KGB’s Colonel Fabrizio Leonidovich Vianello!
Brought to you by Thomas Gaul, retired KGB (or CIA?) agent and Grognard Emeritus.

Time: 2:24 am Moscow time, August 21, 1985
Place: Kremlin, private office of KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello, extra-top-secret sanctum cubicle of KGB Colonel Vianello

KGB Colonel Vianello suppressed a massive yawn and contemplated his new work with with the self satisfied inner bliss of one who has completed the “perfect” 5-year plan, or in this case the plan to solve the problems of the initial war-plan against the capitalist swine that was NATO. Of course, the initial plan prepared by him and his team had been nearly flawless, but as ever, wreckers and pseudo capitalist leeches, or even worse, personal enemies of the Colonel, had failed to anticipate events correctly, or even actively worked to smear his plan. But what he had now completed would correct those errors of lesser minds.

In preparing to implement the “more correct” correct plan, Colonel Vianello gave to himself the mental congratulations for his justified foresight and genius. Not all his opponents could or should be sent to the gulag and forgotten. All, of course, must be sent to the gulag (for an enemy of his was obviously an enemy to the State) but some should be sent to the gulag and still used for the Glorious Soviet State.

And such had been the fate of former KGB Major Marco Josevich Cimmino. An early “genius” in the field of computers, his future had been bright. Too bright. He had sought to replace the Colonel and his team, claiming his computers would do the job better and more certainly, without the corruption of humans. Him, Colonel Vianello, soon to be hero of the Soviet victory, corrupt!! As if a few richly deserved rubles, dachas and women, were anything other than proper rewards of a grateful Soviet State! The Major had been investigated, found lacking in proper Communist ideology, properly denounced, and the gulag it was.

A rare picture of KGB Major Cimmino in civilian clothes, taken before his downfall.

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1985: Under an Iron Sky – Second Echelon

 

Yes! 1985: Under an Iron Sky is going to have a second print run, code named Second Echelon. 

The only differences from the first print run will be:

  • Rules Booklet updated with the errata included in Living Rules version 15
  • Tables assembled in a single 6-pages booklet, easier to use
  • Box with a “Second Echelon / второй эшелон” label in the lower left corner

Second Echelon should be ready in September and, short of a popular uprising, will be printed in 200 copies only.

As for the First Echelon, we’re not going to use PreOrder or KickStarter. If you want to be sure to grab a copy, you may reserve one simply by stating it in the following BoardGameGeek Thread:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2017223/1985second-echelon-reserve-copy

And now, the eye candy section with some images of the First Echelon! As already said, Second Echelon will have only minor differences.

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August 14, 1985 – Every Party Has Its Price

A new chapter in the story of KGB Colonel Vianello, introducing Gosphaza Barbara – his loyal, virtuous wife.
With war in Central Europe not going as expected, everybody has to review their own survival plans…..

Brought to you by Grognard Emeritus Thomas Gaul!

Time: The day after the party, officially proclaimed as “Celebration in Anticipation of the Party’s Elimination of Revisionist Swine”

Place: Summer dacha of KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello, bedroom of Gosphaza Barbara Vianello, wife and partner to KGB Colonel Vianello

Gosphaza Vianello sat wrapped in her Italian sheets, seemingly asleep, but actually wide awake. She had learned many times the value of “pretend” during her time as the Colonel’s wife. As she lay in her Paris bought lingerie, she thought intensely about her next course of action. Her life, perhaps, and certainly her life of ease and luxury, would depend on this decision and, it was difficult to know which way to go.

Her husband, the Gullible One, had passed out at the party, the vodka making a fool of him, as it did most men. She had allowed and even encouraged this, as she knew something he did not. For all that he prided himself on his “secret” smile (which she had deciphered 3 days after first dating him), she knew he would babble like an Italian when drunk enough and he thought himself safe in bed. Like his mistresses who he thought she knew nothing about, his secrets lasted no longer than she wanted them to. Mostly, the mistresses were a useful distraction for him and her when she wanted to take a “treatment” in Spain. Ah, those Spanish “treatments” the massages, the hands, the feet, the back, and then, slowly, the…

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August, 6th 1985 – In the Middle of the Storm

From Thomas Gaul, Grognard Emeritus, another chapter in the world of deception and subterfuge of KGB’s Colonel Fabrizio Leonidovich Vianello!

Time: A couple weeks after the beginning of the war against NATO Neo-Fascist Capitalist exploiters
Place: KGB Colonel Vianello private office, secret KGB location deep within the Kremlin

KGB Colonel Vianello sat deep in contemplation. His keenly honed sense of danger, which had served him so well in the arcane and deeply complicated, interwoven, maneuvers of Party, KGB, and Kremlin politics, was going into overdrive. The meeting of the Committee for Review of Analysation and Planning, headed by General Beriaski, had just been completed and all was in flux.

The war itself was fluid, as all military situations were in the beginning. Some successes, some less than that. The launching of the preemptive strike to deter NATO aggression had struck the Capitalist Swine hard and viciously. The beauty of “The Plan”, his Plan, or at least the parts that had gone well, had been acknowledged by all. Normally, this would be the time when he would be basking in the glow of the accolades, taking credit for the goals reached, pinning the failures on the less talented or less well connected.

And yet, and yet….. There had been an admittedly major shortcoming. The amount of ammo, supplies, oil, replacements, spare parts, etc…. had been vastly underestimated. Reports of glorious Soviet advances had been soured by major and (in KGB Colonel Vianello’s mind) strident and shrieking complaints from the front lines about “running out of essential materials”. Demands had been made for war materials that were simply not available.

Questions were being asked. Worse, investigations were being launched. Talk was that “heads would roll”. Such talk was treasonous but there it was. But, far, far more dangerous was what would actually be found. And, most important of all, who would be blamed.

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June 01, 1985 – a few weeks before the storm

This is a contribution to the “1985: Under an Iron Sky” background by Thomas Gaul, old Grognard and reader of my “The Next War – Operation Attila” AAR. 

Time: June 01, 1985
Place: Deep in the secret bowels of the Krelim, KGB section

Comrade KGB Colonel Vianello signed with the contentment of a well stuff pig. The meal, wine (vodka also, of course), and cigars of the late night repast were the justifiable reward for all the hard work he and his team had put into the war plans for the coming destruction of the Capitalist-Neo-Fascist NATO powers. As such, his team and especially himself had earned this splendid feast. Yes, the workers might have to worry about a poor harvest but, after all, some of the masses were more equal than the other masses and as such should not have to worry about such mundane matters as the price of bread. When victory came, as it must, there would be plenty for all. Just plenty more for him.

All was in readiness. The plans, down to the most minute detail of mis-information given to the corrupt Western media had been prepared. Logistical, propaganda, rail movement plans, strike sights, airdrop zones, training, reserve call-ups, and all the thousand and one details that constituted the greatest military operation in history were all completed. Victory to the Glorious Socialist State was assured!

And, to himself only, Comrade KGB Colonel Vianello allowed himself his secret smile, the one he let no one, not the party elders, not his children, his wife or even his many mistresses see. For, though anything other than complete victory was inconceivable, it was the nature of the KGB to conceive even the inconceivable.
The “plan”, which, of course, would become “his” plan when it overran Europe, with the inevitable errors easily able to be fobbed off on incompetent underlings (some of whom might have to be shot as “wreckers” if it was an especially bad error) was never complete without the secret “out” clause he built into all his plans.

Continue reading June 01, 1985 – a few weeks before the storm