The Reckoning: The Day Australia Fell (Unforseen Book 1)

I recently finished reading the electronic copy of "The Reckoning: The Day Australia Fell" by Keith McArdle.

The story is about the Indonesian invasion of Australia, and the activities of various groups of Aussies that resist the occupation.

" Australia has been invaded. While the outnumbered Australian Defence Force fights on the ground, in the air and at sea, this quickly becomes a war involving ordinary people. Ben, an IT consultant has never fought a day in his life. Will he survive? Grant, a security guard at Sydney's International Airport, finds himself captured and living in the filth and squalor of one of the concentration camps dotted around Australia. Knowing death awaits him if he stays, he plans a daring escape. This is a dark day in Australia's history. This is terror, loneliness, starvation and adrenaline all mixed together in a sour cocktail. This is the day Australia fell."

The book was a great read - I finished it in a day, which is something very rare for me these days. It was action packed and fast paced reading, and a whole lot of fun.

I did feel the ending was a bit rushed, but I won't go in to that here in case someone is wanting to read the book themselves.

Given the ending to the story, I was surprised to see that this is book one in a series, so I will be waiting for the new book with anticipation. According to Mr McArdle's web site, he has written 36% of the second book, as at the time I have made this blog post.

I think part of what makes the story so good is that Keith McArdle is ex Australian Military - from what I can tell via a search on the web he was a Rifleman in the Australian army before transferring to  the RAAF. He is currently a paramedic in Queensland.

This gives him a bit on an insight to base the characters on, as well as his own background to draw upon, including having served in Afghanistan.

I liked the book enough that I am tempted to buy a physical copy to go with my electronic copy, as I do prefer actual books to ones stored on a device.. besides, they look better on the book shelf.

Anyone wanted to visit Keith McArdle's web site can do so here: http://www.keithmcardle.com/

Those wanting the book can buy it from Amazon (paper back and kindle) if they can't find it anywhere else: http://www.amazon.com/the Reckoning


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Interestingly enough, I planned to do a wargame about ten years ago for Australia vs Indonesia, but the lack of miniatures put an end to it.  At the time I was able to get 28mm Australians, but no one makes Indonesians.
Eureka, who makes the Aussies, makes "Musorians", but they look more like African rebels than Indonesians.

 Reading this novel has sparked up the interest again.

With the demise of the Eureka 100/300 clubs I can no longer submit miniature requests to try and get some made, but I could always look at other countries to invade Australia to play out this war.

  I could use China as the enemy (Rebel Miniatures make some, as do QRF) but at this stage no one seems to make command figures for them.

Given that Mr Putin recently came to Australia with some of the Russian Navy in tow in case he was 'shirt fronted', I could feasibly use Russia as the invading nation. Eureka makes enough Modern Russians to play out this scenario.

It is something worth thinking about, especially as Khurasan doesn't look like adding to their North Korean range due to lack of sales. Maybe if they made some command figures they would sell more?

Modern "What if" Conflicts?

In anticipation of my Airwar: C21 rules and some planes arriving I am thinking about modern conflicts and how to justify coming up with situations where modern jets would be used against each other.

There are plenty of countries that could go to war, but the main problem I seem to face is the use of nuclear weapons.

So how to justify a conflict where nukes wont be used?

"Nuke - just don't do it" - maybe the threat of a world wide nuclear war is enough deterrent to prevent a nuclear war. Maybe a bit over simplified but it could work.

Russia - if the state of their navy is anything to go by maybe Russian nukes/deployment systems are so poorly maintained that whilst the threat is there, they can't be used.

North Korea - just write a bit of back ground with a) they didn't actually develop nuclear weapons and it was all a sham, or b) due to lack of funds and resources (inc. a starving population) they weren't able to produce nuclear weapons.

China - apparently they have a 'do not use first policy'. This can be very useful as it means they 'pwomise' they will not use nukes unless they are used on them first.

The West - well, being the 'good guys' the West will never use them on others first.

African Nations - well, considering most of these nations don't really have much of an airforce compared to bigger nations would it really be fun to have an airwar that could end in the first game of a campaign?



With these points in mind, I am tempted to work on some following conflict ideas:

Indonesia vs Australia (and allies). The allies would be needed due to the small size of Australia's air force.

Russia:
             conflict against former Soviet states escalates bringing the west into conflict with Russia.

            vs Japan (over the northern Island chains). Can escalate including Western Forces.
           Also as per the background of the novel "Fortunes of War"

            War against the West due to invasions in Europe (Red Storm Rising novel)

North Korea:
                     stock standard 2nd Korea War (Red Phoenix novel)
                                     
                    vs Japan over years of tension, including kidnapping of Japanese citizens

China:
           vs Vietnam - escalates bringing the west in (Red Dragon Rising novels)

          vs Japan/Allies - over resources and control of southern Island, as per events last year.


Other Nations?

 I haven't read the book, but apparently Larry Bond wrote a novel with France fighting against the U.S. which would be interesting to read.

To make a game interesting I think major powers are needed, or at least countries that have a decent sized air force.

 I will do some research to see if African and South American Nations could come into contention. After seeing how some middle eastern nations didn't really put up much of a fight with their air force over the years, I don't think a middle eastern setting would be very rewarding.