Available at fine electronic retailers!

...$11.95?! Damn...

Well, this thing is promising to give an overview of the Euro Wars, so naturally it would have more besides your standard gear PDF...

Yeah, it clocks in at 92 pages. 24 pages of background and history, the rest gear.

Is this one electronic Only or are we going to see it in print?

Electric only, though some of the gear was in Runner's Black Book 2074.

Are they ever going to get the stuff from the printed Runner's Black book into a PDF format? I know people have been pushing for it but with 5th ed on the horizon ... Anyway, I'll be grabbing this. And can I say about time. I've been seeing the little blurbs for this book forever. I was starting to think it was all just a tease.

I don't know about the RBB stuff making it into PDF. It's been discussed, but one of the reasons they put some minor additional material into the print book was to give it some added value over buying just the PDFs.

Personally, I can see both sides of the coin. But thankfully it's not my call to make

Bull

Well for me the annoyance was that I bought all the PDFs as they came out. If I'd know I'd get all the PDF stuff and more if I waited for the print version, I would have done so. Anyway, old peeve. Lets not go into it.

I'll put up a detailed review later, but for now: Why does CGL hate maps so much?

To quote Mungo at the budget meeting: "Mappz iz prizey."

Come on. It's five hours of Photoshop. I can make these maps myself.

If it's that easy, then make them, put them on a website, and show us how briliant you are. And send them to Jason and suggest that he hires you.

Will he pay me? But a demo piece should be possible. Pre-Euroars Europe and a map with major troop movement of both phases. It really doesn't need brilliance.

Demo File 1 (3 hrs, based off GoogleMaps)

Regarding the thread title, it's "Euro War_ Antiques", right? Also, Retro-Cold War? The Euro Wars are hot wars.

This might be interesting to me, but how well is the known canon represented? Maybe somebody who knows German and has the ebook can tell me, if it matches this description: http://shadowhelix.de/Shadowhelix:Karten/P...riege#Recherche

Right, there is also a map there.

Well, here's my Review. I tried to look for these things. Also, your maps are about what I wanted to make, only fancier with google maps optics. Damn, you beat me to it before I even started

First observations: Aside from SR5, Parazoology 2 and Gun Haven 3, two very old files (Another Rainy Night and Artifacts Unbound) are mentioned as upcoming or partnered releases. This strikes me as bizarre. The writing is okay, if not mind-blowing, but there seem to be many errors from shifting and editing sentences over and over again. Proofing by someone who hasn't seen the document would have caught these, I think. It's average for CGL, though.

As for content: It tries to stay with what's canonically known, and expands a bit, filling in blanks. Unfortunatly, it also gets a couple of things wrong, and others are mixed up. I'll just list what I noticed. Granted, the Eurowars are mangled in canon, and the canon that exists is spread all over the place, but it would help to read up anyway (or ask a German writer for advice; I know that one who knows this part of SR history very well hangs at the writer boards). That's what writing for a legacy heavy system like Shadowrun is like.

• The status of NATO is confusing me. When was it disbanded? During the border wars ("The initial Belarusian attacks were ... to influence the Baltic states and the Ukraine ... along with proving their former NATO allies were unable to protect them.")? Was it still active during the Eurowars, as the mention of Turkey as a NATO member during the Jihad indicates? Canonically, NATO was dissolved as the UCAS withdrew all American troops from Europe (apparently, it inherited all foreign deployments) in 2032. This is not strictly the PDF's fault, but it doesn't anything to solve this paradox either.
• So Leopold Habsburg, the Emperor of Austria, and his suddenly effective army is back in canon. Unsure how I feel about this, but it amused an Austrian member of my circle of players. Still, I'd have liked if the file had stayed with Shadows of Europe instead, I think, but the thought of Austrian heavy armour divisions relieveing anyone remains amusing. The battle of Carinthia is entirely ignored, though. No trenches and chemical weapons deployed by MET 2000 as well as Euroforce and Jihadis, no blood magic cursed virus weapons from ORO corp (okay, I could do without that) ... at least it is mentioned that the Austrians frequently used Czech, Hungarian and Slovak troops as expendable bullet sponges. No troops employed by house Habsburg mentioned either.
• The Nightwraith strike was American in origin, not British? Or is this just supposed to be a random weird mention? It was said by Plan 9, after all, who knows way too much. And of course, the FMC saves the day on the Spanish front. Everything is better with highly annoying author sues.
• The King's Irish Hussars? 20 years after Northern Ireland had been absorbed into the United Republic of Ireland? Seriously? The regiment was renamed The Queen's Royal Hussars in 1993, and that name also circumvents awkwardness with regards to Norther Ireland, which stopped being a province of the Empire in Shadowrun in 2014.
• Commander von Essen. *cringe* That is just awful. Just pick any military figure you like from Wikipedia, okay? At least then it won't look like dialogue from Indiana Jones 3. Also, German naming convention actually is states and cities, but that's probably too complex or not grand enough and lacks the Great War ring, but seriously. And it's Oberst, not Commander (and usually, Germans have first names, too). Or was the ship to be called Archangel? Because the Church State only commissioned it's missile cruisers in Germany SB (2051). And it's Erzengel [insert name], FYI. That paragraph was entirely messed up anyway. Which base was irradiated? Which ship exploded? What the hell?
• The German capital during the Eurowars was Hannover, not Bonn. This is not Neuromancer!
• British occupation of/massive deployment in the United Netherlands was forgotten, too.
• The Caucus mountains. *facepalm*
• The South Asian leg of the Jihad is nearly completely ignored. Indian nuclear weapons deterred the Alliance to help Pakistan in Kashmere? The same bombs that were dropped on Pakistan? Well, I guess that gives them a certain right to feel upset. But the only non-European leg of the Jihad that gets any mention at certain length is Israel. Granted, it's the Eurowars, but the Jihad in Asia could have been mentioned at least. And that Israel largely owes it's existence to the Palestinians not buying into Jazzir's rhetoric and siding with them rather than the Jihad is conveniently forgotten either, despite other info from the same paragraph being in the file.
• While the warhammer-ish names of the Jihad units are funny, those were Arabs, Persians, Turks and Afghans, not Mountain Men, people who'd would call themselves by different names, speak different languages (that must have been a horrible toll on Jihad command), and had a lot of history to go by. Just because they're all Muslim doesn't mean they're all like the Sunni and Shia militias from south/central Iraq.
• Historicans look to conspiracy theorists to solve who actually killed Mullah Jazzir. Right. You have historical science figured out.

I'm also a bit lost on how CGL handles shadowtalkers. Some characters acting out of character aside, this file has two posters who haven't been used anywhere else, with no introduction, no mention of a newbie invited, nothing. Who the hell is Matt Wrath? Who is Winternaut? And why are they allowed to post on Jackpoint?

Plan 9 is super annoying here. That is him being in character, I suppose, and as such not bad, but does he have to know everything? Never liked him as a know-it-all shadowtalker to begin with, but here it gets detracting from the text as such. Fianchetto never manages to sound like a European politican (no quoting any revered ancient works, for instance; also, he's way too naive and the wrong kind of arrogant) he comes across like a Washington pundit, which is Kay's hat. He was better in previous writings.
Also, I noticed Goat Foot sure has become a radical. Wasn't she supposed to be Islamic Renaissance? You know, moderate muslim feminist kind of thing? Is this author bias or intentional?

Also, if the author considers 1000 troops to liberate an island the size of New Hampshire heavy losses, they might want to look up the losses of American forces attacking Iwo Jima. 1000 is not much for a conventional landing operation against a dug in enemy roughly equivalent in size and capacity. And the Americans had air and sea surpremacy by that point of the Pacific War. Actually, that's pretty badass on part of the French, though I'm fairly sure that was not the author's intent.

The gear part is okay, with a lot of old, some real-world, some derived equipment. A chance to push Runner's Blackbook or This Old Drone in a sidebar is wasted, but at least glancing over, none of the vehicles have terribly oput there stats or anything. The prices I mentioned in another thread already, but meh. Look it up there if you want to.

This gets 6/10. Mostly usable, some canon issues, missed opportunities and a few things that annoy me. -1 for lack of maps. And really, it's not rocket science. Still, you get some decent gear and a fairly decent text for your money. $11 is a bit high for a PDF, but it does have a shitload of artwork (making the lack of maps all the more painful, but meh).

In this business very few are paid until they have showed what they can do, be that writing, art, editing, proofreading or anything else.

Matt Wrath is a new poster. You'll see more of him in SR5.

As per Fastjacks request at the end of STorm Front, Jackpoint is bringing in some new blood for Shadowrun 5, and Matt and I think Winternaut are two of the first additions.

Wrath is also one of the NPCs that will be popping up in Season 5 of Missions.

Most of the equipment and tactics used were developed for when the Cold War heated up.

As no Nukes impacted, it was quite cold compared to what was expected.

Well, except for Israel and Pakistan. And the Russians lost their modern subs in the Baltic Sea. The nukes only went off shortly before SoE (the radioactive tide in Pomorya). But yes.


I see. They appeared pretty suddenly, so I was a bit surprised. Before, all 'talkers were introduced by an Admin. Now, it seemed they were just regular guys nobody had ever heared about, like on old Shadowland.

Just be glad I wasn't the one writing it or you'd see some really weird Shadowtalkers.

your kind of weird would fly with that crowd.

It would fly with me.

*facepalm*

*nods*
same here . .

In all seriousness, shoot Jason an email and tell him so. We could use another map guy.

Okay, so, judging from the preview, the fluff section is based more around current RL political developments and russophobia than previously established SR fluff. And the German Shattenkatalogs have the Euro-Wars era weaponry. I think I'll pass.

Why introduce him in a SR4 book, then? Couldn't their roles be filled by established shadowtalkers?

Thanks for the review. So basically, I will have to get this when I'm ready to finish the map project but mainly because of the added detail, it is not the canon reconciliation I had hoped for. I'm a bit worried by the mention of Essen, if I remember correctly the German front never moved beyond Brandenburg and Saxony.

Regarding the maps: These are just drafts but if you want a rough overview of the Euro Wars to accompany the PDF, you can have a look at them:

http://shadowhelix.pegasus.de/Datei:Karte_...urokriege_I.png

http://shadowhelix.pegasus.de/Datei:Karte_...rokriege_II.png

Attacking Southern Europe through Sicily and Sardinia is an assumption I made, though it is stated that Alliance forces crossed the Mediterranean. The rest is based on some reference: bombarding of Cyprus, Invasion of Stavropol, annexation of Moldovia etc. Also note the short lived Danube Union in Eastern Europe.

*shrug* Don't ask me. I used him in Rigger 4 because personally because I find him a blast to write for, but that's also non canon so it doesn't really matter. He has some... Unique speech patterns and viewpoints. I threw him in mostly to tease Season 5.

Bull

Okay, I'll work up some demo pieces and send them.


It's the Russian Nationalist story American gamers love so much, basically, but that's legacy in Shadowrun, too.


In the PDF, they focus on Sicily, and then move onto Naples, where they are eventually turned back.

Also, forgot to put in one criticism: The Caucus Mountains, being invaded by the Jihadis. Uhm, yes. Geography fail.

It was presented times more gracefully and logically in the previous supplements (some of which this supplement directly contradicts).

I wouldn't say they invaded, rather they are already there. With the significant Muslim populations of Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Chechnya potential Alliance allies control a trans-Caucasian corridor towards Stavropol right from the beginning of the second phase. Shadows of Asia describes the battle as an "onslaught of overwhelming Alliance for Allah forces at Stavropol", so I assumed that the Alliance send reinforcements to Stravropol to assist their local allies. The arrow should probably fork instead of going right through Georgia but the map was too small. (And I limited the size for some reason I have forgotten.)

I wish there had been a few more Russian rifles like the OTs-14 Groza, the SVU, the SVD dragunov or the AS VAL and less of things we are likely to never see or use like tanks and missiles and rockets that are no longer manufactured. I really didn't get the point of including things like the Abrams when all the shadowtalk says the things are all gone with only maybe a shell or two lying around. The helicopters are nice though and you might actually use them in game.
The various jets were wasted as they are old tech that is priced way too high compared to more modern aircraft to actually be used. Compare the SU-35 E at 6.8 million to the SU-41 in Unfriendly Skies at 1.95 million. You could buy 3 SU-41s for the price of 1 SU-35 E and not have to deal with Obsolete issue.
It isn't all doom and gloom though. It was nice to see stats for the Nightwraiths and I got a kick out of seeing that the Alliance for Allah were generally equipped with rifles from the 1950s and 70s (G-3 and AK/RPK-74). Real antiques by the mid 2030s I imagine. I also found a certain irony in the Russians having to face weapons they equipped the middle east with in a battle in their own back yard.
I'll also echo the lack of maps. I saw this as an ideal product to include troop movement style maps. Instead there were lists of what units were involved. Not really all that enlightening when you don't have any real background on the units or leaders involved. I was kind of disappointed overall as I've been waiting for this book for ever.

Even less enlightening if you have minimal background. For instance, Border Guards are subordinated to the UGB, not the MVD or the MO.

The whole Eurowars story has a certain campy 80s feeling to it, if them Ruskis are made to look accordingly that totally fits

But here is one thing that struck me as wrong in the preview:
The overall levels of defense spending declined for most of Western Europe prior to the invasion of Poland, with the limited rearmament programs largely seen as replacements for existing ability and local work programs intended for the funding nation to recoup nearly as much in taxes and export duties as they spent upgrading their capabilities. The German army was slowly dismantled...

NATO forces would have had a hard time slowing a Russian invasion even at their peak strength, with reduced troop strength it becomes REALLY hard to explain how the Eurowars happened as they did...

This file is more like a Tom Clancy product, really, which is more a 2000s Age of Neocons kind of feel. Or any of those identical Medal of Duty - Black Battlefield Commando games.


The PDF lists a combination of industrial capacity, incompetent Russian commanders, and (megacorp sponsored) mercenaries as the reason. At peak strength, NATO troops were intended to hold the Russians until American help arrived (there's a Guido Knopp movie playing the war through, according to plans from both sides). Of cours,e at the peak of the Cold War, the Russians had a much larger army than they have now, which is apparently the base for the Eurowars. By and large, the Eurowars follow the outline of the Knopp movie; they just don't end in a nuclear exchange thanks to the Nightwraith strikes (which are hinted at being American in origin - the FMC maybe? ).

...and I think Red Storm Rising is the quintessential "Cold War turning hot" novel (key word "novel", not "historical treatise")


...and with the US turning to "splendid isolation", the whole POMCUS reinforcement were gone, which reduces the defending troops even more.


Pah, the FMC would not need bombers. They have patriotic awesomeness and Purity of Heart +5...

The FMC was founded when the southern states seceded in 2034. For one that's cutting it awfully close with their involvement in the Euro Wars but it also means they could not have been responsible for the Nightwraith strike.

This. Can you imagine an 80ies or 90ies piece on how Russia used Gazprom to build an army and leverage influence? This is very clearly a product of the times.


On the contrary: they could've been involved with USAF strike somehow.

As former marines? Regardless not involved as a mercenary outfit is what I meant.

How definitive is the claim of US-American responsibility in Euro War Antiques, anyway?

Something else I noticed the preview doesn't mention the uprising of the Yakutian Awakened though that was one of the main reasons for the war. But this was already changed in the Sixth World Almanac where the Awakened rebelled after Russia started the war

Oh, by the way. From Shadows of Asia, in the Russia Timeline on page 122 "Alliance for Allah forces drive north through Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Russia redeploys forces in Eastern Europe southward into the Caucasus Mountains.".

That and the narrative that Russian Nationalists™ take over and punish Europe's unmanly lack of interest in military spending by rampaging over Europe because reasons. It's basically the plot framework of EndWar, the way it is narrated in the document, and makes hardly any mention of Yakutia (only in passing, later, during the Jihad, it is mentioned that Russia was caught unaware because many troops were being relocated to the Siberian containment zone). EWA-Russia attacks because it conquered Belarus and that worked, it annoyed it's citizens by taking away liberties they had enjoyed after the fall fo the Soviet Union, and felt the only viable way to stabilise the country was to wantonly attack other nuclear powers because what can go wrong.


Shadowtalk, but by Plan 9, who knows everything in this document and is the most knowledgable shadowposter since Attitude anyway.


Okay, my bad. I meant they call the Caucasus "Caucus" mountains throughout the document. Unless his is an anglicised version of the name I'm not familiar with, it's yet another instance of geographic failure.


I don't know about the UCAS, but the USA uses mercenaries like relatively frequently. Then again, the UCAS supposedly has a rather crappy army and a budget that has been thoroughly norquisted ... though this seems to have been retconned out.

Russian Nationalists are a well-established element of the setting. SoA actually goes into a huge rant how bigotry and xenophobia are bred into each Russian. (I find this Yankee nigga bullshit immensely offensive ).

Hahahaha, seriously? Glorious CGL editing, minding that "caucus" is a word in its own right. Dragon hordes, dragon hordes everywhere.

Not that using mercenaries is against the international laws...

Given that the UN convention against mercenaries has around two dozen signatories and there is little sign that any of the real world powers considers signing away that option, it really isn't.
And that is just IRL, the SR universe postulates wanton deregulation of corporate activity even before 2012, sounds probable that this also included "free enterprise" in war zones...


But really, dumb Russians and MET2000 (et. al.) are all that supposedly bogged down any advances? That really sounds a tad underwhelming.

More a feel after reading this then any single piece of info. Corporate responsibility or at least backing in the night wraith strike. A return to stability and profit as a motivator.

I feel you. Once you read more closely into it, there is things like the Border Wars were a secret Russian plot. This is somewhat comical if you know the history behind this. The Border Wars are an invention of the first generation of German Shadowrun writers, you know the people who brought you the Great Jihad. I strongly suspect, no, I'm almost certain, it was just an excuse to use the chain of adjectives "Russian-Baltic-Polish-Ukrainian". Anyway, Russia _lost_ this war according to the first inception. In Shadows of Europe the cause of the war is then given as Belarusian aggression, though Russia is accorded some blame for further escalation after the initial conflict ends. Belarus as the aggressor is still true in the Almanac, which has a textbook chapter on the Border Wars. And now it was the Russians all along, working in secret no less?

If one is to trust Wikipedia, Caucas is a synonym. Also Wikipedia recognises that there might be an issue and graciously links to Caucasus from the caucus article. But who knows maybe the Euro Wars have a little known political angle to them...

Mind you, the whole thing starts with this:

We'll just blame it on the elves.

Fuchi had this base full of Stealth Bombers in Latvia. I always took this as Fuchi being behind the strike, possibly by C5 mandate to prevent an all-out nuclear exchange between Russia and the Europowers. The comment in EWA, though, seems like an obvious retcon:




Dragon hordes in the Caucus region?

I thought the Dragons woke up after the War?

Do you remember where this is written?

To be fair, that doesn't mean the US were behind the strike. Maybe this guy was a mercenary. Though admittedly it's hard to think of a different implication. Is mentioning Winternight meant to somehow link this to the Unity Coalition and New Revolution?

Anyway, I think it's easy enough to ignore as an explanation. Unless you like this particular solution for the Nightwraith mystery.

Funny enough given that the Caucasus was once called Dragon Mountains and you could describe some politicians as dragons. The phrase should work out in all mis- or correctly spelled combinations...

No. The sighting of the first dragon signifies the beginning of the Sixth World. That's 2011. Remember?

Well, according to this, as I read it, Russians were just using Belarus as a proxy.
That said, there's even a bit of fluff where "Polish troops enter Belarus to protect refugees and bring order to destabilized country, occupying Hrodna (Grodno) and Brest (Brześć)" (can't really find the original source now).


Also, as for the ranger interview: it's an eyewitness account retold by a shadowtalker. I wouldn't base any far-going conclusions on such evidence.