Fictional AltHistory #9: Command & Conquer Red Alert Timeline Headcanon

So lately I've been on a Command & Conquer kick, partly thanks to the excellent work done by the OpenRA Team, who have taken the freeware files of the original Command & Conquer (1995), Red Alert (1996) and Dune 2000 (1998) and turned them into a fully functional, modern RTS for modern computers. If you want to relive an RTS classic, then go check them out!

Since I'm absolutely positive that EA will never make a good C&C again.

That said, I once did a fictional AltHistory scenario on the first C&C here, well over a year and a half ago, and I think it's time to revisit the grandfather of all RTS games, this time with it's slightly loopy and campy B-movie quality of it's brother, Red Alert 1.

So, Point of Divergence. Hmmm... This is actually harder than I thought, mostly because RA1 is an alternate history already, asking "what if Albert Einstein built a time machine and erased Hitler from history?" And, considering all the talk about Nazi's today, I'd rather not get into that right now...

Well, the games themselves feature the heroic Allies fighting the brutal Soviets for control of Europe, introducing new technologies and desperate tactics to try to change the tide of battle: attack dogs, flamethrowers, Tesla coils, double barreled Mammoth Tanks, nuclear weapons, invulnerability and teleportation devices... the list goes on. Oh, and Tanya.

But, there is one thing about Red Alert 1 that popped up, but then never came up again...

Who is that handsome guy in the back there? Zoom in!

... damn low resolutions. Find a better picture for this joke!

Ahah! You magnificent bald, goateed bastard Kane, you!

An aborted attempt to tie the Red Alert series to the original Command & Conquer, the Tiberium series.

Now, over the years, a myth, persay, has developed on how this tie together would work. But this scenario never struck me as likely, because it was that a Soviet Victory in the "Second World War" of this timeline was what would lead to the establishment of the Global Defense Initiative and the emergence of the Brotherhood of Nod. But it just doesn't feel right to me, that, the Soviet Union manages to conquer all of Europe but then allows a United Nations organization (which should never have been established in this alternate timeline) to then build a global military force. It just always struck me as wrong that the Soviet's would allow something like that to happen, or that the United Nations would be formed, and then in turn form GDI, after a collapse of the USSR.

No, my headcanon for tying RA1 and C&C1 together involves an Allied Victory.

"But wait!" the C&C fans would begin to bellow. "The Allied Victory is what leads to Red Alert 2, and then to Red Alert 3! So it can't be used for C&C1. How can that work?"

Ah, well here is where it gets weird: I say that Red Alert 1 and 2 are both in the timeline.

Not sure what he's confused about. Most likely why watermarks are hovering all over him.

Okay, let me explain.

So, we start with Einstein going back in time in the late 1940s, killing Hitler, and returning to his time, just to see the Soviets rise up, and try to take over Europe. With the United States still isolationist, it's all up to Europe (including a non-Nazi Germany) to unite and hold back the Soviets, forming the Allies, or, rather, the United Nations. It was only after the USSR tried to develop atomic bombs that the US joined the United Nations, sending men, weapons and supplies to help the beleaguered Allies, and invade Russia itself, and topple Stalin, and the USSR.

After this, the US and her European Allies begin to rebuild, and Michael Romanov is placed in charge of the much smaller Soviet Union. But in the 1970s, with the USSR rebuilt and gearing up for revenge, they launch a multi-pronged attack on the United States, which wasn't the great military power it was in OTL because it only helped at the very end of the previous World War, and then went back to a semi-isolationist stance, content that the damn Commies are contained. But now with the US the prime target of the USSR (with their mind control agents, attack squids, missile launching battleships and flying airships of death), and the Allies (which have dolphins, tanks that turn into trees, weather control superweapons and, of course, Tanya), perhaps because the US didn't come to their immediate aid or because they were afraid of the Soviet Union, wouldn't join until later, at which point the Allies manage to overcome the destruction, and bring down the USSR.

Up until now, this is based on the lore of the first two Red Alert games. Now is where the Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey stuff comes into play.

That noise you hear is Daleks allying with the Brotherhood of Nod and the Soviets.

The expansion for Red Alert 2 featured a campaign by the psychic Yuri trying to take over the world. Now, in the Allied Campaign, at the last mission, there is a... thing that happens, where the screen gets all wobbly, and the "timelines merge" with the ending of Red Alert 2. And with the world now at peace, and the United Nations dominate, all the major powers agree to dismantle, or at least decommission their most advanced weapons, with many of the blueprints being destroyed or locked away. And, with all of Europe, North America and Russia now a war torn ruin, and with no "superpower" to easily fill in the slot, the United Nations forms several unified military commands. One of which, after some name changes (including the catchy Operations Group Echo: Black Ops Nine) becomes the Global Defense Initiative.

"But wait! What about Red Alert 3?"

Simple: it's a branching timeline from the end of Red Alert 2, but it's not the "main" timeline of our history, perhaps  branching after Cherdenko (SPACE!) activates his time machine before Yuri's mind control starts? It's an alternate scenario of the events of Red Alert 2, and therefore not associated with the Tiberium Timeline.

"And Kane? And the Brotherhood of Nod?"

Ahh, well here is where they finally come in: they have always been an enigmatic, mysterious organization, and mentioned all the way back in the 1950s. If I remember correctly, there is even something at the end of the RA1 campaign where someone mentions they didn't find all of Stalin's advisors. It's quite simple to assume that Kane and the Brotherhood went into hiding for the events of RA2, and only emerged afterwards when Tiberium finally arrived on Earth.

This was really the Scrin's way of welcoming Humanity to the spacefaring community. A planet warming gift.

"Then why didn't the Allies/GDI just take the weapons from the previous war and use them?"

Well, what says they didn't? Well, some of the technology, at least. For example, Nod's Stealth tank? What if it's a refinement on the Mirage Tanks of Red Alert 2, just they don't turn into trees now. And the Apocalypse tank could have been used to build the first Mammoth Tanks for GDI. But other technology, like the Iron Curtain, Chronosphere, Weather Control Device, Prism Tanks and others would have degraded, or purposefully/accidently destroyed over the forty some years between the war in Red Alert 2, and the late 1990s/early 2000s that Tiberium Dawn takes place. Even if they had the blueprints, it would take time to rebuild it all, if it wasn't seen as not useful: after all, GDI isn't exactly running on a big budget, and even has its budget cut halfway through the campaign after Nod media manipulation. So I don't see GDI investing in trying to rebuild old technology, most of which may only have limited use on the modern battlefield, after years of rusting in bunkers and warehouses around the world.

So, this does take some leaps of faith and assumptions, but this is how I would tie the two branches of Command & Conquer together. Is it perfect? No: after all, why would the allies give up on, say, Prism tanks after showing their usefulness? Though, there have been efforts to restrict and eliminate certain types of weapon over time, so I could see that happening here as well. But, I think it provides a somewhat satisfactory explanation for the two timelines intersecting.

But what do you think? How do you think the timelines of Command and Conquer being tied together, or if they should at all? If you have a comment or a suggestion, leave a comment below, email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com or look for me on Twitter, @tbguy1992.

Fictional AltHistory #8: Kaiserreich, Part 2

A few months ago I talked about the Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg mod for Darkest Hour, the improved version of Paradox Interactive's Hearts of Iron 2. But soon after I wrote that, other things came up, new games to play, and a dozen other things that prevented me from revisiting this alternate history scenario.

But now that I finally figured out how to get the game to work on my computer again, let's take a look at a few other events in the Kaiserreich backstory that has a major Alternate History twist to it!

POD: Yet Another French Revolution

When you start a game of Kaiserreich, you are presented with a surprise: two France's! No, there wasn't some weird multiverse crisis that somehow resulted in two nations that call themselves the same but are totally different and hate each other. Nope: a left wing revolution resulted in  two nations that call themselves the same but are totally different and hate each other. It's always the commies.

Maybe McCarthy was onto something...

In 1920, after a brief civil war between the establishment and a socialist-syndicalist alliance, the Commune of France was declared in Paris. The leaders of the old Third Republic that didn't join the Commune retreated to Algeria, claiming the French colonies as the true nation of France, and that they were a government in exile. That's something you are going to hear a lot of in this mod...

Plausibility: 8/10. In a very simple overgeneralization: since 1789, the French have a habit of overthrowing ineffectual, corrupt or defeated governments and setting up a new one. Since King Louis XVI lost his head in OTL, there has been five republics, two empires, two monarchies, and a communist commune, not to mention the puppet state set up by the Nazis.

So I can see the French tossing out the Third Republic and starting the Second Commune, or whatever it's called. And at the same time, I can see those that wouldn't agree with the new order hightailing out, even if that means sitting in Algiers fuming at all that you lost and vowing to someday comeback and restore the nation.

And maybe turn the Eiffel Tower into a huge middle finger pointed at Germany.

But, this is the big question: can this syndicalist nation survive as long as it did? That is the bigger, iffier question to me. I'm personally surprised that Germany would allow a proto-communist, left leaning extremists to set up shop that soon become really resentful and angry at losing to Germany, again. But at the same time, the Germany of the post-Weltkreig is just sick and tired of fighting, and desires peace. So maybe the leadership of the new Commune, seeing what happened when the Germans intervened in the Russian Revolution, decided to play nice, at first, and Germany was willing to let them. The lore doesn't go into detail about early Commune-Germany relationships, but I'm sure it's not all sunshine and roses.

POD: And... Britain Too?

In 1925, a coal strike in Britain quickly spiralled into violence, and when the army was sent in to restore order, the army instead revolted. A general strike shut down the nation, and in six weeks, the Royal Family, most of the Royal Navy, some of the Royal Air Force, loyalist military units and whoever did not like the idea of "equality for all" rabble-rousers redistributing their wealth all hightailed it to Canada and the other colonies, waiting for the moment to return. The Trades Union Congress then declared the Union of Britain, another socialist-syndicalists inspired by the French across the channel. The nation isolated itself from the world, content to build socialism in Britain with no one to interfere.

So... alternate history Brexit then?

Plausibility: 5/10. This is, to a degree, odd. The way the lore goes, the Dominions and Colonies of the Empire were mostly okay with the Peace of Honour (what ended the long, drawn out war between Germany and Britain after France fell), but the Home Isles took it really badly, and all it needed was a spark, similar to the miners strike of OTL that Winston Churchill proposed solving with machine guns.

The way the game made it sound, the Peace with Honour wasn't that bad. If anything, it basically restored the status quo, with a few minor changes, like some islands being transferred around. I could see maybe there being some issues with a populace that just fought and starved and struggled for seven years, with millions of casualties and nothing to show for it: not even Ireland was given it's independence in the treaty, so it would seem that Britain at least lost, and would have something to strive to regain in the future (basically like how the Nazi's rose to influence and power in Germany OTL). But without the anger and hate, I don't see it coming to pass.

Or whatever passes as anger over in the UK. Something something football.

The Britain from 1921-25 would be directionless: all the sacrifice, all the fighting, and everything just went back to what it was, just with a lot of men dead. So a minor crisis that a somewhat indifferent government and upper class tried to crush away boiling over, but I don't know if it would be a socialist revolution, or even if it couldn't be suppressed or with some reforms to molify the masses. Maybe a socialism with some nationalism thrown in, but I don't see much of that in the lore of the game. So I'm on the fence of this one.

POD: The Sun Never Sets on the German Empire

Germany managed to win a few colonies in the aftermath of the Weltkrieg. But they gained a lot more with the British Empire collapsed and went socialist. It wouldn't do to have these prime areas of real estate to just become independent, or, worse, becomes part of another empire. Nope: They had to be taken. The colony of Mittelafrika, composed of the old Belgian Congo and former German territories, along with British possessions like Kenya, Tanzania and others, is just one of these new colonies: southern China is the personal fiefdom of the Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft, the German East Asian Company, while many other territories like the Suez Canal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and many other islands and cities are now all part of the great and glorious Kaiserreich.

Plausibility: 1/10. This is perhaps the least plausible part of the entire mod. According to the backstory, even after 1921 Germany was still fighting, sending troops to make sure that Russia's Civil War didn't turn into a Bolshevik victory. But then in 1925, four years later, suddenly Germany is able to basically occupy and bring areas from Africa to South East Asia to a third of China into puppet states and colonies and corporate fiefdoms with, as far as I can tell, little issue and bloodshed?

And a hint of domineering paternalism and subjugation for good effect

The Germany they described in 1921 has just won a Pyrrhic Victory, and was on the verge of economic and social collapse after seven years of the British blockade, total war, and failed harvests. Apparently Admiral von Tripitz, as the new Chancellor, was able to turn it all around starting in 1924, occupy most of Africa and Britain's Asian possessions by 1925, and set up a Chinese empire with the permission of the teetering Qing Dynasty in 1926.

Yes, there would be a vacuum of power if the British Empire collapses, but my guess is that Germany wouldn't be able to simply march in, place their flag where the Union Jack was, and all would be good. I'd see revolutions, strikes, bloody uprisings, syndicalist/socialist/nationalist upheaval that, should the German Empire get involved in, would cause the already war weary people to rise up in their own revolt at sending even more soldiers to die in places far away from home.

Most of the map of Kaiserreich should be a lot of small states in Africa and Asia, former colonies suddenly cast adrift with no one but the strong local warlords to replace it. Maybe Germany, the Ottomans, even the Austrians and Japanese, would get a few possessions. But not as much as we see in game.

"And zis piece is mine, and zis one, and zis one..."

POD: Crouching Russia, Hidden Bolsheviks

Russia in Kaiserreich is, quite simply, a mess. The White's won the civil war with help from Germany, and Alexander Kerensky became President of an unstable, weak, divided, and much smaller Russian Republic, but he's the only person capable of holding everything together. Finland, Ukraine, the United Baltic Duchy, White Ruthenia, a union of Cossack territories, several central Asian countries and a couple Japanese puppet states had all been created from it's territory after the Weltkrieg. Political divisions, communists, and reactionaries besiege the nation from all sides, and it's a question of when, not if, it will all come to a head.

(Spoiler alert!) Within minutes of starting the game, Kerensky will be dead, allowing a Russian player to guide Russia to it's destiny: wether communist, national populist or something in between.

And time to bring back the armoured trains!

Plausibility: 4/10. There are a few issues with this scenario, namely in the Civil War. According to the backstory, the White's of the Russian Civil War got together in 1919 and agreed to name Kerensky as their unified leader. But the White's of the Civil War are a diverse group, ranging from monarchists wanting to put the Czar back in power to democrats that want to forge a new destiny for Russia (and they, in turn, divided between democratic socialists and lassiez-faire liberals). Agreeing with Kerensky, who had already failed to hold the country together after the February Revolution before Lenin and his Bolsheviks overthrew him in the October Revolution does seem to be a a bit of a stretch. But the idea of a unified White movement isn't totally outlandish, I feel.

Then there is the German intervention. I think the problem with some of the backstory of the mod is that it's acknowledged that Germany had nearly fallen apart after the Weltkrieg, but then the game has Germany intervening around the world within a couple of years. It's seems highly unlikely that Germany would be in shape, or have the political or popular support to go east again. Supplies? Maybe. Volunteers? Alright. But a full fledged army sent in to the quagmire of Russia to prop up a "democratic" Russian regime? That feels like a bit too much, and should have resulted in riots and revolution back in Germany.

But what do you think? Do some good ol' French and English revolutions make sense? If you have a comment or a suggestion, either email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com or look for me on Twitter, @tbguy1992.

Fictional AltHistory #7: Kasierreich Part 1

One of the greatest things about video games, computer games especially, may not be the games themselves, though they may be pretty good. No, one of the best things about computer video games can be the user modifications, or mods.

For years I was on the fence about mods. For one thing, you have the ones for Minecraft that just makes everything ten times more stupidly complicated, but also has things like nuclear reactors. Then there are the ones for, say Fallout: New Vegas that focuses solely on trying to make sure rocks are not hovering a few inches above the ground and you won't see things like old ladies flying through the air.

Okay... so that bullet to the head did a lot more damage than I thought...

But then there is the Paradox Interactive games. Those games are a modders dream: complex yet deep mechanics, easy file manipulation, and, despite the lack of fancy graphics or things, a deep storytelling ability.

For today,  I'm going to take a look at one of those mods (which in itself is played on a modded version of Hearts of Iron 2 called Darkest Hour), the immensely popular Kasierreich. But unlike my usual "What ifs?" when it comes to fictional media, Kasierreich itself is a massive Alternate History, where Germany won World War One (the Weltkrieg ATL), so instead I'm going to look at a few of the bits of AH in the lore, and explain if they are plausible, with a ranking of 1 (totally implausible) to 10 (very implausible) just to make things easier.

 Urge to hum "Die Wacht am Rhein" rising...

POD: No Submarines, No USA

The major point of divergence in the Kaiserreich TL is that German military leaders like General Ludendorff decide not to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917, not wanting to bring the US and it's massive industrial potential and manpower reserves into the fight on the side of it's enemies. This, along with Russia dropping out of the war, gives Germany a huge advantage through 1917 and 1918.

Plausibility: 5/10. German leaders had long considered the sorry state of the US military in the years leading up to the Weltkrieg to mean that the US was virtually defenceless. While the US Navy was getting some new and powerful Dreadnought battleships, the army was tiny, ill-trained and not prepared for the new kind of war taking place in Europe with trenches, poison gas and machine guns. Even though the US was the birthplace of the airplane, the US military didn't even use airplanes until 1907. In OTL, the US had to use French airplanes when they served in France.

So serving alcohol en-route to the Western Front may have been a bad idea.

But Germany knew very well the power of Industry, and the Americans were serving as a major supplier of arms and money of the Allied powers long before FDR called the US the "Arsenal of Democracy." The potential power of the US would be enough to give more level headed leaders of Germany cause to pause. But the men that lead Germany by 1917, like Ludendorff and Hindenburg in a de-facto military dictatorship, were not exactly the kind of men to make such far-reaching decisions. They thought in the present, not the future: they saw the weakness of the US Army now, considered the Americans weak and degenerate, and assumed that it couldn't get stronger, or it would take so long that Germany could still attack Britain and France and smash them before the US could arrive. Germany made the same mistake in 1914 considering the British Army, a small, but professional force that became the basis of the massive British Expeditionary Force that earned the begrudging respect of the Germans, despite the massive casualties. So maybe that lesson would convince the Germans to not do anything to drag the US into the war.

So in the end, I'm going to make this one a coin flip. In hindsight, we know it was a bad idea to have the US enter either WWI or WWII, in both cases because of the actions of dictatorial powers that considered the US military weak at the time, so it will always be weak. But, maybe the three years between 1914 and 1917 would have been enough time to allow the Germans to learn not to mess with enemies that could bring huge resources and manpower to bear on them.

As Josef Stalin would like to tell you from 1943...

POD: No German Offensives in 1918

The second major POD of the Kaiserreich TL, on top of the one I mentioned before, was that Germany decided not to launch attacks in 1918 like OTL's Spring Offensive, instead allowing the occupied territories of the Ukraine and Russia to supply food and raw materials to Germany that the British blockade had cut off since 1914. Without the imminent arrival of millions of Americans to shore up the Allies, the Germans could dig their trenches deeper and prepare for 1919, and let the Allies smash their heads on the vaunted Hindenburg Line time and time again in 1918, like they had been attacking Germany since Day One of the war. Only minor attacks in Greece and Italy were prepared to take pressure off the struggling Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary were planned for 1918, with a grand offensive in 1919 managing to overwhelm the western Entente, forcing France to surrender and Britain to retreat across the English Channel.

Plausibility: 8/10. Where before the Germans may have underestimated the power of the US and the UK, by 1918 they knew the power of the machine gun and artillery for defensive war. In fact, after the failure of the Schlieffen Plan in 1914 on the Battle of the Marne and the inability to get around the Entente in the "Race to the Sea," as early as 1915, except for a few attacks on Ypres (that used poison gas for the first time) or Verdun in 1916, Germany was more willing to stand on the defensive in the West, and trying to defeat Russia in the east, which by 1917 was done.

Welcome to your new home away from home in Northern France!

Germany in 1917-18 was a wounded giant. While it possessed one of the largest armies in the world of the time, the Allied blockade had strangled both it's food imports and it's exports, leaving the Germany economy in a dangerous situation. It's manpower was running low, and while propaganda proclaimed victory was near, the privations of the blockade was doing little to boost morale on the home front. So, allowing a breather in 1918, let the vast resources of Ukraine help alleviate the shortages on the home front, and organize some puppet governments in the East to supply troops and keep the people happy would go a long way to helping Germany in 1919.

As for the actual attacks, the way the Kaiserreich Wiki describes it, I'd say the Germans would have had a great chance at success. The Entente attacks, focused on no less than five points of the line (it didn't say where) were a categorical failure. Only the British attacks on Lille were anywhere close to a success, and even then it was costly. Over 800,000 Entente troops were killed or wounded. The Germans however used the tactics, like infiltration, artillery support and mobile reserves stationed close to the front lines that they first used in Riga in 1917 and perfected in Greece in 1918, that were vastly superior to the massed front attacks such as at the Somme and Verdun earlier in the war. The Germans smashed the French, already on the brink of a second mutiny, and forced the British to retreat toward the the Channel Ports, where the British and French Navy helped hundreds of thousands of British troops to retreat back home, though in a very organized manner and not at all like the Dunkirk evacuation of OTL. Simultaneous attacks on the Italian lines forced the Italians into a route, and the Austro-German troops besieged Venice. By May Paris was surrounded, and in August Rome was captured. Italy capitulated, and France gave up in October as Germans invaded from the South as well. Only the UK and Germany now stood facing each other.

Kinda like this. Just with more artillery and fewer pints of beer.

POD: War at Sea

For the next two years, the only land battles occurred in the Middle East. The British, in comparison to the Western Front, had enormous success in the Middle East: Capturing Jerusalem, Palestine and Mesopotamia. But with German reinforcements, the Ottomans pushed the British back, who eventually stood their ground at the Suez Canal, and dug in. German and Ottoman attacks came to nothing, turning the area into a new, brutal trench warfare. German troops were sent to Russia to crush the Bolsheviks (even though Lenin was allowed back to Russia thanks to Germany), and prop up Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government so long as they agreed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which they did.

But the big news was at sea. The German High Seas Fleet became more assertive as the British Royal Navy had to suddenly cover a huge amount of water to keep the blockade functional, and began to attack targets of opportunity, and began to attack convoy's in the Atlantic. As Attrition began to take it's toll on the Royal Navy, they stripped escorts from the convoy's that was Britain's only life-line to the outside world, allowing the submarines to once again sink ships at will. The British, desperate for any form of success, sent a small force to bombard the Baltic coast, and the HSF returned to the North Sea, where the British were waiting nearing the Faroe Islands. On March 15, 1920, a huge naval battle that dwarfed Jutland four years before took place near Rockwell. The battle was a marginal British victory, but the cost in ships and lives was high, and eventually both sides retreated, and only small skirmishes between small ships occurred for the rest of the war.

It was as big of a let down as this!

Plausibility: 4/10. The biggest problem I have with this is how the Germans would even be able to get past the blockade in 1919 to inflict the damages that would make the British panic enough to try to attack the Baltic. If anything, there would be a big battle in 1919 as the Germans tried to break out... and it would have been, like Jutland, an inconclusive Battle. The Germans may sink more ships, but they still wouldn't be able to get out of the North Sea, so British strategic superiority would not be challenged. This would be the point when an un-restricted submarine warfare campaign would have broken England: Even if the US entered the war, would they try to invade Europe, even with the UK as a spring board? I'd say no: when the Allies did it in World War II, it was only because the Germans had nearly bleed themselves white facing the Soviets, the Strategic Bombing campaigns, along with the ever present Italian campaign and a lot of misdirection that kept Nazi's away from the right beachheads. In this TL, Germany has no Soviets, no strategic bombing, no Italian campaign, and a pretty good idea of what the Entente would want to do. So Germany could have unleashed the U-Boats, and there would be nothing the UK could do but try to stop them, and nothing the US could do but an ineffectual declaration of war.

POD: The Peace With Honour

By 1921, tired of war, both sides eventually negotiated the "Peace With Honour" between Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire on one side and Britain, her Dominions, Portugal and Japan on the other. Britain would recognize the gains made by Germany and return all German colonies along with Cyprus, and Germany would respect the rest of the British and Japanese Empires.

Because we all know how well German guarantees of borders work...

Plausibility: 9/10: More often than not in history, when a nation that's a great land power fights a nation that has superiority of the seas, you'll see the naval power winning, as they can reinforce their troops that they land to take on the land power, and maintain their supply lines better than a land power who doesn't have as strong a maritime tradition tries to go to sea. In this case, Britain is the sea power, and Germany is the land power. And, as always, the biggest problem when you fight England in a war is the fact that the only way to fully knock them out is to be able to invade them. However, in almost every case since the defeat of the Spanish Armada, England/Britain/United Kingdom had the larger navy. And you can't cross the English Channel or the North Sea without a strong navy to counter the Royal Navy. As one Admiral told the House of Commons during the Napoleonic Wars: "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea." That statement will still hold true in 1921, even after the Battle of Rockwell in ATL.

But after seven years of war, the death of millions, the gutting of an entire generation of Britons, it's hard to see how the government of the UK could continue the war. If they didn't end it, they would be forced from office by a government that would end it. Germany, while also suffering from the same societal and population pressures, was a more authoritarian society that had, in 1919, won a great victory and drove not only Russia, Italy and France from the war, but forced all British soldiers back to their little island. In 1918, the war only ended because the German generals basically said that they couldn't fight anymore, and that the Kaiser should abdicate, and the navy was in mutiny. None of those points are feasible here. The Germans knew they were in no shape to invade England, so it would be best to try to sign what is basically a draw. If the British people supported it, the war could have lasted indefinitely, but I just don't see them wanting to do so. So this "Peace With Honour" is about the best either side would get.

And it sets the stage for this! Go Canada go!

You can see Part Two here!

But what do you think? Could Germany have really gone "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles?" Or if you have a topic or idea you would like me to talk about, please leave comments below, email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com, or tell me on Twitter @tbguy1992.

Fictional AltHistory #6: Fallout, Part Four

... Why haven't I done something with New Vegas yet?

Fallout New Vegas is still my favorite Fallout game, with a myriad of reasons: great story, interesting characters, a believable, lived in world, a clash of ideology and civilization...

What? There isn't even a Blue Moon here. 1/10 IGN.

Maybe that's part of the reason I haven't done New Vegas yet, because there were so many options and possible outcomes in game that I, as a person who likes to throw out random ideas and make hypotheticals for video games and history, was undercut. When you have at least four major endings (12 if you factor in Karma, and then dozens of variables based on every single thing you did in game, then, yeah...)

But then I thought: who's the most important character in the game?

He did save your life, but no.

Dawwwnope, snarky no, snarky no, super mutant no, snarky no, beep beep (translation: no), snarky no, and snarky no. 

No. Watch out for knives.

Nope. And EMOTION DAMNIT!

Uh-uh. But thank you, thank you very much.

Yes Man! No, wait... no. Not him.

HOLY CRAP, GET ME MY MINI NUKE LAUNCHER! WHAT?!?! HE JUST STOOD THERE AND TOOK A NUKE TO THE FACE?!?!

*Sighs* YES. HIM. GOD.

Almost the entire plot revolves around Mr. Robert House, the pre-war billionaire who was founder and owner of RobCo, the company that made robots, Pipboys and a lot of the other bits of tech in the Fallout universe. After building and putting himself in cryostasis before the bombs dropped, with a massive army of securitrons and lasers to shoot down the nukes targets on his hometown of Las Vegas, he was prepared to ride out the nuclear storm to follow. While he was able to stop most of the destruction of Vegas, the software wasn't quite up to the task (that's where the Platinum Chip the Courier is shot in the head over at the start of the game comes in), and he went into a coma. After a hundred some years, he finally comes to, gets three tribes nearby to clean up their act, take over old casinos and modernize them, activates securitrons, builds a wall around New Vegas, then waits for the NCR to come from the West. The NCR begins to fight with Caesar's Legion over Hoover Dam, which NCR controls and has to give power to Vegas in return, while Mr. House continues to plot to keep the Legion on the other side of the Colorado, kick NCR out of the Mojave, and turn New Vegas into a major power.

So, what happens if Mr. House somehow did not survive the Great War?

Point of Divergence

On October 23, 2077, as the bombs fall around the world, Mr. House activates his laser defense on top of the Lucky 38 casino to try to shoot down the 87 missiles targeted on Vegas. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stop all the bombs, and one of them lands right on top of the Lucky 38 as his lasers where destroying the other bombs. The blast destroyed the hotel, collapsed the building on the bunker Mr. House had built, severely compromising the longevity device he built. The EMP blast from the explosion also destroyed huge parts of the computer mainframe, wiping the digital storage on the miles of magnetic tapes he had. The shock from the system overload, collapsing building and failure of the software network resulted in a massive stroke and heart attack, and Mr. House died a couple of hours after the last bombs fell. Only a few securitrons survived, but without orders and degrading circuitry, they eventually became just like any other robot in the wasteland: directionless, dangerous and unstable.

Uhhh, you okay there buddy?

The few bombs that did go off in the Vegas and Mojave area was enough to result in massive depopulation, and the few survivors fled the arid desert to find safer locations to get food. Water, thanks to the intact Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, wasn't the issue, but without much arable land, all the water in the world would be little use. It would be decades after the nuclear winter and early years of death and destruction before people would return, forming tribes on the outskirts of the city that over the years would try to get in closer to the center of the city, to the ruins of the casinos on Freemont Street and the Strip despite the lingering radiation from the bomb that destroyed the Lucky 38.

Those tribes, ranging from opportunistic raiders to cannibals to small farming groups would fight amongst each other for decades, with none able to get a leg up on the other. Small trading towns would be created though as settlers trying to flee the oppressive burden of taxes and civilization out west tried to find more open spaces to settle. When the survivors of Vault 34 took over Nellis Air Force Base, very little changed as their xenophobic Vault Dwellers had little incentive to ally with any of the tribes around Vegas, and jealously guarded their independence. Another group that would make their way to the Mojave was the Great Khans, broken by the New California Republic after Bitter Springs and other battles. Reduced in numbers, they left California to Nevada, hoping to find a new place to live. They began to make ties with the other tribes in the region, fighting wars, signing peace, trading and scavenging like any other tribe in the area. When the Brotherhood-NCR war ended in the later's favour, the Brotherhood also encamped to the Mojave, forming another isolated, but powerful, group that became more closed minded and brutal in their goal of tech hoarding.

The Brotherhood of Steel: Keeping advanced tech out of dirty wastelander hands and sometimes helping the good guys since 2077.

However, to the East and West, new threats to the quiet Mojave were encroaching: the NCR to the west, and the Casear's Legion from the East. The NCR first moved into the area with their army and hundreds of settlers around 2265 or so. The first group in the Mojave to realize the threat the NCR posed was the Great Khans. They arranged a ceasefire with the other tribes, trying to convince them that the NCR meant nothing but death and slaughter. But if they were to work together, they might not only be able to blunt the NCR, but force them out. While some tribes were hesitant to work with the Great Khans, the stories of NCR atrocities, and then as the Casear's Legion showed the horrors what Caesar and his Legions in Arizona had done (some embellished by the Great Khans) gradually convinced them that maybe the Khans were the lesser of three evils. The New Vegas Alliance, formed in 2270, became a major power in the region, one that could, theoretically at least, resist the NCR and stand up to the Legion. Caesar, however, tried to win the tribes to his side, and he believed the best way to do that was a dual pronged campaign of force and diplomacy: try to convince them to break apart and join his Legions, and attacking NCR outposts to show that they could drive back the Californians.

The NCR, having colonized different towns along the southern end of the NCR like Goodsprings, Nipton and Searchlight Airport, realized that Caesar's Legion was the bigger threat, especially as the Legion kept attacking them. Furious at the high death tolls, and wanting both the area of New Vegas and the Hoover Dam, the NCR began to mobilize, while also trying to bring the New Vegas Alliance to at least support them for now. But the NVA would not be swayed, and instead sat on the sidelines. It was more to ensure the unity of the alliance, where different people and different tribes were thinking of joining one side or the other. The best thing to do was to do nothing, so the thought was.

So... basically like the US Congress?

In 2276, after years of low-level warfare, Caesar's Legion at last attacked the NCR at Nipton. The NCR, using their tech advantage, was able to hold the line and even push north toward Hoover Dam. The cost, however, was high: hundreds of NCR soldiers died in the brutal fighting, Legion assaults and commando-style attacks. The NCR Rangers and Desert Rangers of Nevada unified around the same time, seeing the Legion as the biggest threat as well, not to mention the Ranger's mutual hatred of slavery, which was about the only thing the Legion ran on.

The 2278 Battle of Hoover Dam saw the Legion, suffering from shortage of manpower as brutal mass wave attacks that worked so well against smaller tribes in Arizona and New Mexico failed against the superior firepower of the NCR soldiers with assault rifles, machine guns, artillery, Mini Nukes and men wearing scavenged suits of power armour that they got from the Brotherhood and Enclave. The Legate Malpais was punished for his failures: covered in pitch, set on fire, and thrown down the Grand Canyon. But the rumors of the Burned Man continued to filter out...

But the Legion was desperate. To prevent the NCR from crossing the Colorado River, Caesar gave the order to demolish Hoover Dam. Explosives placed throughout the dam were set off when a large portion of the NCR Army was on the structure, resulting in thousands of casualties as the concrete crumbled, the water flooded turbine rooms and offices, and made the entire structure collapse. Lake Mead was no more, a tidal wave destroyed dozens of communities and homesteads down the river, and thousands more died.

Still wouldn't be as bad as Hurricane Katrina...

But the NCR had been stopped. President Aaron Kimball, the biggest promoter of the Mojave expedition, is impeached from office. The NCR retreated back West. But the Legion was battered after two long years of war, bloodied, but triumphant. The death of Caesar from a brain tumour in 2281 as he was trying to rebuild the Legion was the death kneel of the Army of the East. Within ten years, Caesar's Legion collapsed, with Legate Lanius, only know brutality and violence to solve any issue, was unable to hold the Legion together, and soon it splinted back into the ancient tribes that the Legion had been formed from. The only winners of the NCR-Legion war was those that didn't fight, the New Vegas Alliance. Although they no longer had access to the clean water of Lake Mead or the power from Hoover Dam, the New Vegas Alliance no longer had to deal with either the NCR or the Legion. While fighting with words between the members of the alliance would continue, they continued to remain allies, welcoming the NCR settlers that didn't return back to California and the runaway slaves from the Legion. The New Vegas Alliance, while not a unified government or even all that peaceful, still provide some protection and safety to those that live and travel in the Mojave.

Oh, and Mojave Express is eventually taken over by a man that most people only knew as the Courier, who eventually would become a major leader in the New Vegas Alliance as well.

Conclusion

So this is perhaps the least depressing Fallout alternate history I've written! 

Mr. House, if you agree with him or not, was one of the most important parts of the mythos and in-game story of New Vegas, so removing him from the equation is tantamount to completely rewriting the entire game. The NCR and the Legion would still be threats, and they both would clash in the Mojave. In the long run, the NCR would win, with or without Mr. House in charge of Vegas. The resources, the manpower, the technology and the strategic situation favours them. However, it's a democracy, and as democratic societies have shown: when the bodies pile up and the war is on the verge of being lost, either perceived or for real, then the people will demand an end to it. That's what would happen in the Mojave to the NCR. The locals, allied together to at least keep outsiders out if not to work together within, would be enough of a hassle and trouble for the NCR or Legion, if they regroup, to knock them out.

But what do you think? What would would have happened had Mr. House had a very rough Kick In The Head? Or if you have a topic or idea you would like me to talk about, please leave comments below, email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com, or tell me on Twitter @tbguy1992.

Fictional AltHistory #5: C&C: What if Tiberium Landed in Our World?

For those of you who know me very well (or have seen my avatar on Twitter), you will know I'm a huge fan of Command & Conquer. One of the first major franchises of the RTS genre, C&C had reached stellar heights, releasing hit game after game, until EA took over, released two pretty good games, canceled a few other promising ones, then absolutely bombed the franchise with *shudders* Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight and a free to play Generals that was ultimately canceled three years ago, and not a single word has been heard since.

But, at least there are three universes, eight great games, and a lot of expansions and mods to keep us all happy.

And yes, I said eight. C&C4 will never count.

Honestly, this picture was the only good that came out of C&C4

Eventually, over the next while, I want to go and try to make at least one AltHistory scenario with each of the major games of the series, similar to what I've done already with Fallout (Part 1 here). So, let's start with a simple one: what if Tiberium, instead of landing in a world as we see in the game, instead comes and lands on our current world?

So, first of all: no Brotherhood of Nod. We can go on all day about how Kane is an alien or a clone or the biblical Cane that is doomed to walk the earth forever, but since this is our world we are talking about, we can say that the Brotherhood does not exist.

I'm sorry Kane! It's not that I don't like you, with your bald head and menacing goatee and whole "come back from the dead thing," but... *shot*

The first meteorite with Tiberium lands in the Tiber River valley of Italy, hence the name, sometime in 1995. Scientists around the world are rather fascinated by the new discovery, but after people began to die after coming near or touching the crystals that began to form, it would take months of effort to eventually even get a sample to study. Over the next few years, more meteors hit the earth, spreading more Tiberium across the world. By 2000, there are dozens of impact sights, all having turned into large, green, crystallized expanses.

It was about this time that the first scientific studies of Tiberium are complete, and the results are released to the world. It has been found that the green crystal, while poisonous, radioactive, and has a habit of fusing to skin and mutating it's new host to create more Tiberium (leading to some horrifying animal and human mutations to those effected), is actually full of minerals that made it easily harvestable. Depending on where the Tiberium landed, it would absorb any and all minerals from the soil, sending roots deep into the Earth to extract and mutate into more Tiberium. It could, theoretically, be refined into whatever substance is required, while also providing a powerful energy source, many times more efficient and powerful than oil or nuclear power. However, more research would be needed before harvesting this new god-send material would take place.

During this time, efforts to contain or extract Tiberium begin, especially as it begins to encroach on major population centres. The entire city of Rome has to begin to evacuate, with the Italian government relocating to Naples, and the Papacy to France. Dynamite and fire are seen as the best way to slow the spread of Tiberium, but it only slows it. In many cases, within a week after a clearing operation has taken place, the Tiberium had already grown back, as the roots of the crystal were untouched. Efforts to literally dig Tiberium pods and root systems out are quickly seen as impractical and too expensive.

And honestly, who would want to get rid of these cute little green crystals?

By 2003, with most of the world's scientific community focused on unlocking the secrets of Tiberium, rudimentary extraction and refining techniques begin. Within months, Tiberium is made one of the major trading indexes in the world, rivalling gold and oil as the most valuable resource on earth. Eventually efforts to destroy or slow Tiberium growth changes to simply try to harvest as much of the crystal as possible.

But as more and more Tiberium is produced, and the infrastructure of the world begins to change, massive economic, social, and political shifts take place. With the massive infusion of wealth as the mineral is harvested and refined, subsaharan Africa experiences a major economic boom, as does areas like China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the deserts of Australia. New technologies, like Tiberium power plants and new production methods that makes Tiberium useful and, more importantly, non-leathal, are put into effect. But as Tiberium is easier to extract and refine than oil, and all over the world and growing larger and larger, soon nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East, Russia, Canada, and Venezuela that were dependent on exploiting their oil reserves are left with an overabundance in product, but fewer and fewer people to sell it to.

Unemployment in these countries reaches reach record highs, and only Canada, with help from their largest trading partner in the US and a more diverse economy, is able to avoid falling into chaos. Even Vladimir Putin (yes, he'll still be in power) wouldn't be able to reform Russia's economy before the government has to stop paying it's debts, and faces political and economic instability, that leads Putin into a series of dangerous geopolitical moves to try to shore up support at home. The invasion of Ukraine in 2013 is too much, and soon Putin is assassinated, and Russia falls to pieces. Hugo Chavez is thrown out of office by a coup in Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia, without oil money to support the regime (and the withdrawal of US support for a hardline, Islamist autocratic government) succumbs to warlordism and the rise of Islamic terrorist groups trying to carve their own section of the desert for themselves.

And for the hell of it: EVERYONE GETS DOUBLE BARELL TANKS!!

But even in nations like the US, the European Union and China that have large Tiberium deposits and can exploit it to their hearts content, the growth of Tiberium still presents huge problems. People have to be evacuated from areas quickly as Tiberium spreads unchecked. Most of the Midwest is turned into a alien, shimmering green wasteland, and masses of refugees are seen crossing the US for the first time since the Great Depression. The first recorded "Tiberium Storm" took place in North Texas in 2017, and soon the massive lightning storms that could knock out planes and electronics and spread even more tiberium were a common occurrence around the world.

Social unrest continues to grow as more and more people are forced from their homes and into refugee camps and into increasingly overcrowded cities, many of which are only expanding thanks to new construction techniques using Tiberium. The companies and nations that embraced (carefully, and in a specially designed hazmat suit) Tiberium early grow rich, while those that didn't have a meteorite land on their land suffer. Businesses that invested in Tiberium mining and extraction soon become massive monopolies, with such resources that even the US government, suffering from high unemployment, unrest, and social discord are unable to break up. By 2017, and the election of President Donald Trump, one of the early adopters of Tiberium extraction and on his way to being the first person to be worth $200 billion (and who most likely bought the election), Tiberium interests came to dominate the US, which was already on it's way to losing super power status due to the crisis at home.

And J.K. Simmons never became President. And he had such a great campaign...

The United Nations has been trying almost since Tiberium came to Earth to try to establish something to try to combat it, and won a success in 2009 when the first United Nations Agency for Tiberium Containment and Mitigation (UNATCM) was established to pool the scientific knowledge to try to stop the spread of Tiberium, and keep statistics of the world's descent. By 2020, over 40% of the world's surface had some form of Tiberium on it, and of the estimated 6 billion people on earth in 2000, over one billion people had died in 20 years from Tiberium poisoning, failing healthcare, war, famine, and civil unrest. Half a billion other people were forced to flee their homes. But it was guessed that about 75 million people around the world had not been killed by Tiberium, but mutated by it, and were still able to live in Tiberium infested areas, or even thriving. These people called themselves the Tiberittes (or more often, The Forgotten), but more derogatory terms emerged: Shiners, Crystalhuggers, Mutants. They were forced into areas of the world with dangerous levels of Tiberium to eke out a living, but the hardy Tiberittes managed to make a living.

Entire nations, like Italy, the former Yugoslavia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Asia, and half of Brazil are totally depopulated and exist in name only, or as small refugee colonies in other nations. Tensions between the refugees and those hosting them boil over many times. Riots in Germany and France by Italian and Spanish refugees, rampant shootings in the US between the "Tiberplaced," the locals, and the federal and state governments, and the "Shoot first" policy of China to keep out the displaced leads to infighting, war between weakened nations, and terrorism reaching a scale that even the Global War on Terror that President George Bush started in 2001 after September 11 couldn't stop. (By the way: the War on Terror ended in 2005 when Congress ordered the military home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help with Tiberium containment and evacuation). The succession of a new Coalition of American States in the US South in 2027, sponsored by Tiberium barons in the area, was uncontested by the US. Soon after, the US broke into other nations, and soon war broke out as refugees and land disputes between heavily armed former American nations went back and forth.

The European Union on the other hand finally went the other way, with a new, centralized union being Established, with London as the capital. The lack of Tiberium in the UK made the nation a beacon of hope in the world. Japan was also lucky, as was some of the islands of Indonesia, Madagascar, and Newfoundland. Tiberium was also found to not be able to grow in cold areas, so northern Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, and Antartica became major refugee locations, with new cities using new technologies to try to house, clothe and feed the masses. Massive floating cities were also built, though the sinking of New Paris in 2025 with 29,000 deaths put a damper on that project. Eventually, even though it was ill-advised, many refugees began to settle in areas with dangerous Tiberium infestation, if just because there was no where else to go. A more successful attempt to save humanity was the creation of off world colonies, namely on the Moon and Mars, as well as space stations that could hold thousands of people. But only a few chosen select were allowed to go here.

So... can we say that Tiberium is basically the new Roman Empire?

By 2030, it was finally discovered that sonic energy at a certain level could halt the growth of Tiberium, but not push it back. The wealthy and prosperous "Blue Zones" in northern latitudes and island nations, and they began to refuse refugees, turning into massive gated communities, with advanced technology and powerful armed forces, with 20% of the worlds population in 20% of the world's land. By this point, huge areas of the world are devastated by Tiberium, and divided into Yellow Zones (War torn areas with a lot of Tiberium, but over 80% of the world's population in only 50% of the world's land) and Red zones (areas only Tiberittes could live in, totalling over 30% of the planets surface), . Since the report in 2020, UNATCM believed that another billion people had died, with a full billion people displaced. Most nations that existed in 2000 were gone: Russia, the US, China, Germany, Australia (fully abandoned to Tiberium and Tiberittes) and many others, replaced with smaller countries that were fighting amongst each other. The UN itself was disbanded in 2033, though UNATCM continued to monitor the world situation until it was forced to close in 2045.

However, by 2060, even the Blue Zones was having tiberium encroaching on it: the sonic barriers was only enough to slow the growth of Tiberium, but not enough to stop it, and soon Tiberium was able to adapt enough to get around the sonic fences, and even growing over water. By 2100, the only humans alive were those that mutated to survive the hostile conditions, or those that lived off world. All of Earth was Tiberium.

And then the Scrin came...

Want to know how you'll have a bad day? These guys showing up.

And on that downer note... I think that's enough depressing cycle of video game Alternate History for today. And maybe the next Alt History will be less depressing! Maybe....

But what do you think? What would a world be like that is given an alien substance that could kill you or make you rich? Or if you have a topic or idea you would like me to talk about, please leave comments below, email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com, or tell me on Twitter @tbguy1992.

Fictional AltHistory #4: Five Fallout Things That May be AltHistory

I can't keep my mind off of Fallout right now. I have no idea why.

Okay, maybe I do. Because I'm playing Fallout 4 still, and still working on my Fallout fanfic. So, yeah, that makes sense.

I was going to do something about Star Wars again, like what if it was never made, but, well, it will need more research before I feel comfortable trying to write that. So, Fallout it is!

This time, instead of a scenario based on the games, I want to try to pick a few things in the backstory that I think are different, even if it's not implied in the Fallout Bibles, the games, or any other material. Just a quick run down of a few points that I feel would make sense in regard to the games and the lore. Basically, none of these points are canon, and more just "head canon," things that make more sense to me.

Please remember to take your blue and yellow vault suit and please proceed to the orientation session in the atrium

And after this I'll stop talking about Fallout. Maybe. If you want a refresher, and don't have hundreds of hours to play the games through, check out the wiki!

1: The USSR and China Switch Places: This is a fairly simple point, and I think a few things in the game would back this up. In our timeline, the USSR utterly and totally collapsed in 1991 after Premier Gorbachov's reforms failed, but the People's Republic of China managed to allow a more capitalist and market oriented economy without sacrificing the Communist Party after Mao died and his hardliner supporters were eased out of power. Or shot. However, I think in Fallout, the reverse happened: the USSR managed to reform into a more capitalist economy and eased tensions with the USA to the point where they became unofficial allies, but China remained the hardliner, command driven market right up until the bombs fell in 2077.

Go forth and destroy the capitalist pigdogs! Giant Mao will protect you as long as you have a lot of red flags!

In Fallout 1, one of the pre-made characters you can select is Natalia Dubrovhsky, the descendent of a Soviet diplomat that served in a consulate in Los Angeles. Even in the OTL Cold War, the Soviets never had consulates in major cities, just the Embassy in Washington, D.C., so I'd think that relations between the US and the Soviet Union would have to get a lot better before that takes place. I wouldn't even know where to place the POD where the USSR becomes more moderate and the Chinese more hardline. At the very earliest, after the first Sino-Soviet War in the late 1960s, but even right up until the 2020s or later is a possibility.

2: Canada and The US Fought a Major War: I always had one major sticking point with the Fallout timeline, and it involves my home and native land, the True North strong and free. In the timeline, the first mention of the Annexation is 2066, when it's said that increasing tensions as Americans march and fly to reinforce Alaska from the Chinese threat sets the stage for the Annexation in 2076. Okay... but then in 2069, more and more resources are being demanded, and Canada resents that, especially "the vast timberlands." What is the US doing with all the Canadian trees? Biofuel? Construction boom? Just spite? And also this line: "Many Americans refer to Canada as Little America, and Canadian protests are unheard." So... is the annexation already begun by now, or is it just Manifest Destiny rearing it's head?

And unfortunately it couldn't be resolved with a Hockey game. 

But finally in 2072, sabotage of the Alaska Pipeline gives the US the excuse it needs to invade and annex Canada. So, was Canada being quietly taken over before this, or is this the start date? But finally in 2076, it's said that the Canadian annexation is complete, but that protests and riots still occur, and the military shoots on sight, and the atrocities make their way back home. You see it in the intro to the first game, as soldiers in power armor shoot someone to "keep the peace" in Canada. So what happened between 2072 and 2076? There is no real confirmation about it, but my guess is that the Canadians fought back against the US, despite their lack of power armor, the destruction of the government, etc. etc. Mostly likely the bloody occupation and repression of a resistance/freedom fighter/terrorist movement is still going on as the bombs fall. So, I say there was the "Canadian Resistance" taking place between 2072 and 2076, and possibly longer.

3: Jet Was a Pre War Drug, Just Rediscovered: There is a lot of controversy over this point, especially considering that within some of the games it's kind of all over the place. It's said that Byron, a child prodigy and possible companion in FO2 found Jet when you take vats of... uh... Brahmin dung and cook it. But then Mrs. Bishop, also in Fallout 2, says her husband got her high on it years before. And in FO3, New Vegas, and 4, it can be found in places that were closed when the bombs fells, such as Vaults (Vault 95 especially). It could be handwaved away as a game thing, but no, I'm not buying it this time.

Plothole? Nah, just a minor bump in the road. Nothing a lot of BS can't fix!

What's so hard to say that maybe a limited run of Jet was made before the war? If anything, if the effects are similar to the old world drug, it would give the name to the post-apoc version. After all, Jet is named after flying and that... and they don't have much in the way of aircraft after 2077, except for airships and that. So why would they name it after something that had already been gone for over 100 years, and most likely only a few ghouls ever knew what it was like to fly?

4: The Pip-Boys are Glorified, Bulky Apple Watches: Okay, okay, nitpicking here. But, here's the thing: the Pip-Boy 2000 and 3000 models that have been seen in all the Fallout games are, really, just wrist mounted computers. They should not be able to allow you to focus your attacks like in FO3, NV and 4 (with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS), and it shouldn't be able to accuratly monitor your body to determine what limbs are crippled and that, and unless your player character is not only a world class hoarder, but also a diligent record keeper, it really shouldn't be able to keep track of every Fat Man, 10mm pistol, 5.56 round, tin can and Wonderglue you pick up in the wasteland.

Then again, you shouldn't be able to carry nearly 400 pounds of stuff on your person, including possibly THOUSANDS of bullets and a dozen different guns...

Your not playing a Bethesda RPG right when you aren't overloaded after you pick up a flower.

Yeah, I'm really nitpicking. All of this stuff is in for gameplay reasons, and not story lore. But, you know, at least keep it in mind that not everything you see in a game, such as VATS, or a level 100 door that is half broken and falling off the hinges, or a door that is just like any door, but you absolutely need the key to continue on because you can't just lock pick it... it's really just gameplay.

But I wish we had a chance to just shoot the locks off. Would save a lot of time.

5: Vault-Tec Started the Great War: This really is not as crazy as it may sound, as when Interplay, the original producers of Fallout, were considering making a movie, this was the plot. But that movie was never made, and all we got is the film treatment.

The scenario I have in mind is basically that, after Anchorage is reclaimed in 2076, the US invasion of China bogs down, and the war basically turned into a stalemate as oil and uranium resources fully dried up, civil unrest is reaching all time highs in the US (and theoretically China as well), this basically means that the Resource Wars that have been fought for over two decades is now over. With fission powered cars and robots finally starting to be mass produced, millions of lives lost in war, disease and civil unrest, maybe the US and China have decided to end the war.

When Vault-Tec, with their contacts in the Enclave, hear of this, they are outraged. They just spent decades, trillions of dollars, innumerable work hours and resources to build 122 Vaults, most with a specialized social experiment to test the human condition. And now... for possibly nothing. If the war ends, that means the government bonds would dry up, the Vaults would loose their reported function of keeping segments of the American people alive, and the experiments would fall apart, not to mention the possibility of the true purpose being revealed. That is perhaps the scariest thought in the minds of the head of Vault-Tec: if the true purpose is revealed, they would all face the wrath of the American people, and the Enclave wouldn't be able to help them.

Behind their smiling, thumbs up mascot lies a deranged, Machiavellian, insane mastermind... 

So, with the help of the Enclave, Vault-Tec get's their hands on a nuclear weapon or two and fire them on the US and China, the biggest powers. With tensions still high even as the peace process is beginning, both superpowers take the bait, and soon the bombs are flying, and the Great War begins.

Vault-Tec, however, is prepared. Hours before the stolen nukes are launched, they warn the overseers and support staff of the Vaults, and tell them to report to their stations and be ready for those selected for their vaults. This is why in FO4, the Overseer and science staff are already there to welcome you to Vault 111, even as the bombs and missiles rain down on Boston. It's even implied on the terminals in 111 and in 81 that the Overseer and most of the security and science staff was notified hours before the sirens went off.

So, Vault-Tec got the war, the Vaults were sealed, the experiments could begin. But maybe it worked too well. It's implied that the instructions for Vault 111, for instance, was that Vault-Tec HQ would give the all clear six months after the bombs fell, and the staff could come and go at their pleasure. But that signal never comes. Maybe the nuclear war was so destructive that it actually resulted in Vault-Tec loosing contact with most of their vaults and experiments, so to them, it still failed. After all, what good is science if it can't be monitored?


So there are the five possible AH things just in the lore of Fallout. There could be other ones, of course, but these are the five big things that I've been thinking about a lot, especially as I'm writing a Fallout fanfic that requires a lot of research, and in some cases the info just isn't there. So, I do the next best thing: I make it up.

Anyway, that's enough Fallout for now. Maybe I'll come back later, when I get the fanfic done. But for now... back to Fallout 4!

GODDAMNIT PRESTON, ANOTHER SETTLEMENT NEEDS MY HELP??!?!?

But what do you think? Is anything I just said go against your head-canon with Fallout? Or if you have a topic or idea you would like me to talk about, please leave comments below, email me at tbguy1992@gmail.com, or tell me on Twitter @tbguy1992.