Welcome to Southern Front Events, and our series, Red Divide. This series is based on the great hypothetical question of “What if?” The Cold War dominated foreign policy for nearly half of the twentieth century, and it has long been popular with both the reenacting community as well as historical community. This can be chalked up to how vague the “conflict” truly was. There is no war to speak of and we have no idea how a conflict would have transpired. Nor what would take place over the due course of what, in all probability, would be a third World War. It is easy to see what makes this time period so appealing, so Southern Front Events sought out to give our own version of “What if?”
Red Divide is not just a series which says “the war is on, go fight.” This is something that is very difficult to just become invested in, and a novelty that has the danger to run its course. The Red Divide series is intent on not just being a game, but a story as well. We seek to start at the beginning, in an event which we hope breathes new life into the Cold War genre and is a fresh take on this hypothetical history. Red Divide wants to fight across Europe, and give the player a different feel to every game. We also want the player to feel as if every game carries consequences, subsequent game play will vary based on the results of the previous series of games. A successful mission or patrol might not just be a fun and rewarding experience in the moment, but also provide a fantastic boost for the player’s faction. This is not just the first event, but all subsequent events as well.
We at Southern Front Events also are aware that these games require some real history to be interspersed with the hypothetical. You will not be getting some delusional scenarios where super columns of T-72’s just decide to drive across the border with West Germany and suddenly Cold War gone hot. The hope is we can harness the chaos that would have been needed to bring the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact into a shooting war. In these ways Red Divide hopes to be unorthodox and make players look at a different view point and break old played out “situations” which people have imagined the Cold War taking place. We want to recognize the stresses, and the difficulties that each of the headlining nations (United States and Soviet Union) would have had to undertake and take this into account for the game planning. Our war begins in 1986, and we recognize the different factors that would both help and hinder a shooting war between the two alliances.
Red Divide and its composing operations do not just wish to be fun games and events. They aspire to be something the player is invested in, and looks forward to. Something that it the first thing they go to mark on their calendar, and something that gets the community to not only talk but to think. To wonder where, and how, the results of an event can lead to the future of the battle and what could be done differently to either capitalize or avert particular events. Red Divide wants to engage the player on a mental and strategic level, as well as the physical gameplay level. This is supremely important to the vision of the series, we don’t want to be just another string of events, we strive to be an experience that can’t be missed.