NEW YORK

New York, as expected, has suffered greatly in the past 150 years. With NYC nuked, literally millions of panicked people streamed out of the city and stormed upstate. These mobs of refugees totally swamped and buried the once-peaceful northern half of the state under a tidal wave of violence and desperation. Cities and towns burned as hungry people fought each other for food and transport further west. Further west turned out to be almost as bad, as the cities of Upstate New York were mostly smoking craters. In the end, only the strong and lucky survived to rebuild. Along the Hudson River, civilization returned more quickly than expected, leading to a renaissance of culture and security.

1) NUCLEAR TARGETS

New York City, SS-18M2
Buffalo, SS-N-8
Rochester, SS-18M1
Niagara Falls, SS-19
Syracuse, SS-N-17
Utica, SS-17
Yonkers, SS-N-17
Albany, SS-N-17
Yaphanik, SS-18M1b
Plattsburgh, SS-17
Schenectady Army Depot, SS-18M2
Seneca Army Depot, Romulus, SS-N-17
West Point military academy, SS-N-8
Watervliet Army Depot, SS-N-8
Griffiss AFB, Hampstead, SS-17
Robert Moses Hydroelectric dam, Niagara Falls, SS-18M1
Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor, Buchanan, SS-17
Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor, Peekskill, SS-N-17
Fitzpatrick nuclear reactor, Oswego, SS-17

Discretionary nuclear targets:
Fort Drum, SS-17
Troy, SS-N-8
Bronx, SS-19

3) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS

Combination Regional Supply Base Theta and Morrow Air Base: Located near St Lawrence Seaway in northern New York. Vehicles include 2 Pave Low, 4 Pave Hawks, 2 Bell Boeing 609 Tilt Rotor, 2 PBR MK 2 Watercraft with trailers, 4 Armored Hummers, 6 standard V150s and twelve Zodiacs. 24 support peresonel in stasis still sleeping peacefully.
Mars Force NY-M-1: Bolthole location near Utica in northern New York. 14 members, with 2 Armored Hummers (each with twin 50), 2 Armored Land Rovers (1 TOW and 1 M2HB), eight Grizzly Quad Runners, and 3 FAV (w/MAG). The commander of NY-M-1 has Military and Security Override Authority in the area of operations. An emergency cache, which is exclusive to NY-M-1, is located near Elizabethtown. One of the six caches is located near Stark Mountain.
MARS Team M-56: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in central New York. 10 members, with two MPG-90s.
Recon Team R-16: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in northern New York. 4 members, with two Commando Scouts.
Recon Team R-26: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in northern New York. 2 members, with one Commando Scout.
Recon Team R-36: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in central New York. 4 members, with one Commando V-150.
Science Team S-46: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in northern New York. 6 members, with one Commando Ranger.
Omega Team: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in upstate New York near Albany, just off the New York Turnpike. 10 members, with two VBL with 50 cal MG, one VBL with TOW, one Alvis Stalwart with log boom. One of several teams that were 3/4 complete and beginning their first cryo-tests when the war started. These teams never received their final indoctrination or area briefings and the team selection process was skipped. A team with scratch gear, anything the training base had available to equip a team at last notice There are no caches, everything being stowed in one big bolthole which was designed to be a Science-1 or Mars-1 hole.
Unnamed MP bolthole: Somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains near the town of Elizabethtown.

4) NEW YORK CITY

The Big Apple was the premier city in America before the war, the nation's financial center and the home of the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets. As such, it was atomized into quarks by the Soviets. Ten MIRVs popped over Manhattan, ten over Jersey City, six over the Bronx, three over Yonkers, three over Newark, and one each over Elizabeth, Clifton and Paterson. Needless to say, nothing remains of New York City today. It is now a monstrous moonscape of pulverized concrete and melted rocks, a place where radiation is still high enough in spots to kill instantly any who dare to approach. For nearly forty miles in every direction from Manhattan, there is no human life. There are, however, cockroaches and the occasional mutant Blue Undead. The Hudson is still navigable, and ships from the north often pass through the eerie ruins.

The Nonnewaug: A tribe of Amerinds living in the northwestern suburbs of the ruins of New York City. They have, at best, 1,000 people in the tribe, about 60% of whom are combatants. The Nonnewaug use mostly 19th century-style firearms, and some older military weapons, with very little heavy stuff apart from a platoon or two of mortars and an ancient M60 LMG. Both food and water are in good supply.

5) THE CHAMPLAIN NATION

This nation has grown up around the wide and cold waters of Lake Champlain and the long Hudson River valley. With humble beginnings as a loose association of small towns pooling their food and guns, the Nation has slowly but steadily matured into a regional empire. Citizens of this nation refer to themselves as "Champlainers" or more commonly "Champs", and they are fiercely proud of their success. Currently the Nation's influence extends from the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the north to the ruins of New York City in the south, following the courses of the Richelieu and Hudson Rivers. Areas of population and commerce are centered around the shores of Lake Champlain, with smaller communities along the rivers north and south. Total population of the Nation is about 500,000 people and technology is currently around the early 1900s. In the river valleys, fertile lowlands and a high water table have allowed farms to survive and prosper. The Adirondacks and Catskills still offer good fishing and hunting opportunities, which ensures that no one starves. The capitol is at Glens Falls, which is the largest city in the Nation. For this document, the southern part of Quebec and a bit of the western border of Vermont will be included in this section on New York.

Government: The government of the Champlain Nation is based on the old New York State assembly, elected by the landowners and merchants and led by a President. Glen Falls is the capitol, with all important political institutions based here. The rank and file governmental officials wear red armbands, while the upper echelon senators wear red and black bands. The President wears red and black with a bright blue sash when giving public speeches or when traveling.

President Michael Evans: The current President of the Nation, having been elected three years ago by a landslide. Evans is easily recognizable with his exceptionally long hair and trademark white-streaked beard. He is a fanatical defender of the middle class who has done much to increase standards of living within the Nation. The capitol building is in the center of town, formerly the city hall of Glen Falls. Electricity powers lights and machines inside and it is a marvel of recovered and restored 20th century technology.

Relations with neighbors: Due to a relative isolation from other empires in the nation, the Champlainers have been at peace for the better part of the last century. This lack of extreme threat, combined with a higher standard of living brought on by a good economy, sufficient agriculture and good government, have made this area very pleasant to live and work in. Contact with the USA in northern Virginia is occasionally made, and a few Soviets have been met in the southern reaches, but currently no trade agreements or treaties exist between the Champlainers and any other nation state.

The Champlain Army: Without an active external threat, the armed forces of the Champlain Nation have necessarily been reduced over the years. The cost of maintaining a large standing army without any enemies to speak of was deemed to be too high. Over the years, the army morphed into a series of town militias linked by a "Central Command" in Glens Falls. Equipment is late 1800s for the most part, and training and upkeep are at frighteningly low levels. The militia is voluntary, and in many towns there are barely enough young men in the service to make an effective fighting force. Weapons often rust in isolated armories, unused for decades, and even "borrowed" by local citizens for hunting. In some towns there is more pride and sense of duty and the militia is more effective, but the norm is pretty sad. Perhaps the main problem is the culture of peace that has developed over the last few generations, which has relegated the conduct of war and defense to something that only "savages" do. If faced with any sort of organized threat, the Champlain Nation would be overrun in short order.

The towns of the Nation: Each of the following towns has its own unique flavor and identity, though they are all linked by a common desire to see the Champlain Nation thrive and grow. Nearly everyone lives either on the river or within a few dozen miles of it. Area of direct control can be said to a continuous strip about twenty miles wide running north to south. The largest towns are listed below.

Tracy, Quebec: The northernmost outpost of the Nation, situated on the banks of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. All traffic starting up the Richelieu River must be inspected and taxed here. The townspeople mostly speak French and it is often hard to find a reference to the far away Champlain Nation heartland.

Swanton, Vermont: A river town, known mostly for growing corn for the legal trade and dope for the black market. The distance from the capitol at Glens Falls makes the latter the more profitable enterprise.

The ruins of Burlington, Vermont: This hulking ruin is avoided, as the radiation and the Blue Undead make scavenging suicide. (see Vermont for more info)

The ruins of Plattsburgh: The city of Plattsburgh was nuked during the war, the spillover effects demolishing the nearby Plattsburgh Air Force Base as well. The AFB is completely unapproachable due to high radiation count.

Port Kent: The main activity in this river town is building lake-going ships for trade merchants. The level of technology and sophistication has increased over the years and now these sailing cutters and ferries are as stout and sturdy as you will find anywhere. The frequent storms in the winter rarely sink these "modern" vessels anymore, a testament to their quality hulls. There is some talk of maybe one day producing ocean-going ships to sail the Atlantic. The problem is finding a shipyard close enough to the ocean to make it possible (see Newburgh below).

Essex: A well-managed and thriving river community home to some 3,000 people, run by a Town Council and an elected mayor. Essex has an excellent reputation within the Champlain Nation for quality products and honest trade deals. They have a coal-fired power plant that powers several large factories, as well as civic buildings. Essex is also known for a yummy variety of squash that has become one of the hottest trade items in the Hudson Valley.

The Champlain Canal: This shipping canal has remained the vital link between the two rivers, connecting Lake Champlain with the Atlantic Ocean. It has silted-in a bit over the years, but is still open for traffic. Vessels of all sizes routinely travel through the canal, and guideposts and distance markers have been set up to aid the pilots. The town of Whitehall is at the northern end of the Champlain Canal, with the large city of Glens Falls at the southern terminus.

Glens Falls: The capitol of the Champlain Nation, a prosperous city, with lots of political intrigue. The security of location provides growth and the ancillary people to maintain a thriving population now approaching 15,000 in the county. Internal security in the city is several units composed of groups of young militiamen. Most of them are between 16 and 18 years old and many are still too small to lift an ammunition box. The trade market in Glens Falls is the best place to buy virtually anything. It is a combination of several city blocks jammed with stalls and stores, accessible by winding alleys and convoluted passageways. Anything you can name is for sale, including food delicacies and treasures looted from rich people. The Champlain Clothing Company has its factory on the city's south side, combining a group of cottage industries and cheap labor to corner the market on finished textiles. Finished clothing with "Made in Glens Falls" tags are highly sought after.

The French: Glens Falls, and the Nation as a whole, is home to a sizable French-speaking population. These are descendents of refugees from Quebec, who came down the valley following the war. The "Frenchmen", as they are called, here are businessmen, first, last and always. Samuel Gerard is the primary French leader in Glens Falls, running a river barge conglomerate, his own shipbuilding company, plus a number of shady businesses dealing in black market goods. He heads sort of a family empire, in many ways more powerful than the official government, especially in Glens Falls. He has a son named Jacques who is his first assistant and runs the day-to-day details of the family business. As Samuel is now 68-years old, his son will soon be the head of the family.

The ruins of Albany: The entire Schenectady-Albany-Troy area was pounded into dust by no less than fifteen warheads. The devastation was 100% complete and the fires raged for weeks through the fields and forests. Massive amounts of rubble blocked the Mohawk River, forcing it back into a large lake that formed, inundating much of the ruins before it pushed its way around. The Hudson River was not blocked as much, however, and while the course has widened with years of flooding, the river is still navigable through the region. Passengers on boats are advised to stay below decks when passing through the ruins as the radiation is still detectable.

Catskill: A large river town with perhaps the most effective militia in the Nation outside of the capitol. Some 250 young men take extreme pride in serving, parading three times a year through the town and wearing their uniforms daily. There have been efforts over the years to have the Catskill militiamen train other towns' militias, but those efforts have usually been met with resistance from pacifist townspeople who are afraid that an active militia might try and fight someone and get their sons killed. The Champlain Nation Army command structure is working on a plan to rotate units from other towns to Catskill for training.

Poughkeepsie: Now home to some 4,500 people. It is run by "Emperor" Brian Williams, an elected Champlain official. Some years ago, Williams fell sick to a bout of flu which laid him up for a month. While he recovered, he was never the same and began to run the town like a monarchy. So much so that in a few years he had taken the title of Emperor and was calling everyone his "loyal subjects". He is an efficient organizer, pays his taxes to the Champlainer capitol on time, and is very good to his people, so the citizens of Poughkeepsie just play along, even taking some pride in their status. President Evans in Glens Falls is not as amused.

Newburgh: A river trading center nestled in a protected section of the old urban ruins. As the closest port to the mouth of the Hudson River, Newburgh has been suggested as the best place to build a shipyard to produce ocean-going vessels. Currently, officials from the government and the shipping industry are talking with the people of Newburgh about this project. As it would be an economic boon to the town, the Newburghers are sure to support it. It is a forgone conclusion that Gerard's ship building company from Glens Falls will run the show down here.

Indian Point 3 Nuclear Reactor: The Champlain Nation's best hope for the future right now might be the old Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor in Westchester County near Peekskill. The plant had been quickly taken offline once the nukes started to fly, and the SLBM targeted here was damaged by EMP and fell into Canada. For some 120 years the plant sat relatively intact but empty, slowly being broken down by the elements and wandering looters. The Champlainers took a look at the plant when they first came through this area, but at the time wrote it off as hopelessly damaged by the weather and time. About 30 years ago, however, their science had advanced enough to the point where they could consider investigating the plant again. It turned out that Indian Point 3 was not in as bad a condition as they first thought. While they are a long, long way from being able to bring it back on line, they have done a good job of cleaning up the facility and repairing what burst pipes and broken conduits they could find. The plant still needs some major repairs to the turbines and generators, and nearly all the control circuitry will have to be replaced, but if someone with a better understanding of the process and the tools to do it were to come along.

The ruins of New York City: The access to the Atlantic Ocean from the Hudson River is still used frequently. The scenic trip past the legendary ruins is something everyone has to do once in their lives just to understand what horrors the ancients wrought upon themselves.

The Adirondacks: Once a popular vacation area, the war brought disease and rioting to normally peaceful towns and resorts. Now the forest is busy taking the towns, the roads and everything else man-made back into itself. Many of the larger towns in the Adirondacks region, such as Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, are hard to find through the trees, uninhabited except for a few transient families combing the ruins for salvage. The flu came back through this area last winter, further weakening the scattered populations of hunters and gatherers. Limited Champlain Nation influence extends through this area, with trade caravans visiting the few communities in the eastern fringe of the forests.

7) CENTRAL NEW YORK

Fort Drum Military Reservation: Nuked and abandoned for over a century. A rumor amongst the locals is that the ruined place is haunted, a place of death, shunned even by animals.

Site-C: Located 5 miles northeast of Antwerp on the northern point of Fort Drum (literally a half mile inside the former fence line) this Regional Snake Eater Command Base rode out the war and ensuing chaos wholly intact and active. As this installation is a SE RCB, it is equipped with a double complement (four 12 man Green Beret Teams, two 6 person support staffs and ten specialist Aircrew). The compound consists of two Tube/Bunkers a quarter mile apart and a Special Hanger for the two Cobras and two Huey Hog/Transport slicks. Equipment is standard and the specialist equipment consists of Snow Cats, Skidoos, and Ultralights. There is also a special series of pressurized subterranean Aviation Gas tanks on site. Base complement still sleeping and facility is set to wake up when the Morrow Air Base to the north is awakened.

The ruins of Syracuse: In 1989, three SS-N-17 MIRVs fell from the sky over Syracuse. The warheads detonated in a pattern above the downtown area, instantly killing nearly everyone in the city. Wind-driven fires consumed most everything within the blast zone and raged through the nearby fields and forests. The area of total destruction extends to the city limits. Virtually no humans live for many miles in any direction, save the occasional hunter camp.

The "Herkimer Monster": The famous Herkimer diamond mine in Herkimer County has been avoided for the last century by the locals. Reports of a huge multi-armed monster lurking in the depths of the mine have been passed around for as long as people can remember.

Elmira: Following the end of the nuclear autumn, a unique settlement sprung up around Elmira-Corning Regional Airport. The airport has become the home base of a large group of "Ballooners". Much like the founding group of Ballooners in Wyoming (see that state), this group was formed by a batch of lighter-than-air pilots who were having a rally near Elmira when the bombs began to fall and managed to survive WWIII. They found that by having the only aircraft still in flying condition they could become profitable traders in the harsh new world. They fortified the airport and gathering weapons, spare parts and followers. Over the next 130 years, the ballooners suffered hard times and boon times, and currently are on the upswing. For the most part, Ballooners are friendly traders, but if they are attacked or find that they have been cheated, the offending community or group can expect to be bombed from the air. The airfield is still in excellent condition and it is well-defended. It carries on trade with numerous local communities, who have become dependant on the Ballooners themselves. Trucks and wagons come and go everyday as the airport trades technological goods for foodstuffs. There has been contact over the years with the "Western Ballooners" as they are called, but the sheer distance has kept the two societies evolving separately.

Binghamton: The largest pocket of civilization in the region and the home to some 4,000 people. Binghamton has maintained a trickle of natural gas production over the years, which provides for some basic electricity and water pumping. This gas supply is heavily guarded by the "Bearcats"--a combination of a strong municipal militia recently augmented by ten Soviet mercenaries from Pennsylvania. The gas will be tapped out in another few decades or so, but for now it keeps the city alive and worth living in as well as giving them something of value to trade. The I-81 bridge across the Chenango River collapsed several years ago, but a plank and rope bridge has been fashioned using the existing pillars to allow for people to cross.

Griffiss Air Force Base: The SS-17 aimed here fell short, atomizing a rural area in Lewis County. For about ten years, Griffiss operated as a functional military airbase, one of the very few on the east coast. Over time, however, the lack of food and the failing command structure led to the decline and eventual abandonment of the airbase. Over the next century, several groups of people occupied the area, with the Ballooners staying the longest. For the last thirty years or so, Griffiss has been the home of just a small group of farmers and hunters.

The lost treasure: 150 years ago, in the hours before the mobs came, much of the fissionable materials from the AEC laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tennessee were crated up and shipped by air north here to Griffiss AFB where they remained for some years. When the airbase personnel finally abandoned the site, the location of the material was lost to history.

Ithaca: A small farming enclave centered on the Cornell University campus, led by "Commander" Mathew Fox. Commander Fox is an interesting character. He was part of a Morrow Project Medical Team, and was frozen in Missouri in 1984. He woke up four years ago to a country devastated by the nuclear war. His team was all dead in cyrosleep, victims of faulty cyrotubes. Fox then wandered around with no sense of purpose and just sort of ended up in New York. Very soon, he had used his project skills to work his way into a position of power within the struggling settlement in Ithaca. Ithaca had been suffering greatly from poor crops and marauder raids for nearly a decade before Fox arrived, but he was able to whip them into shape and protect what was left. His medical training, as well as a background in farming, allowed him to stabilize their food and health situation and then allow for steady growth. Fox now runs the settlement as Mayor, which has absorbed most of the remaining population of the county, with the help of a council of academics. He has set up a hygiene program and reorganized food production to meet demands. In most ways, he is doing what the Morrow Project trained him to do, just not where he was originally assigned.

Seneca Army Depot: There are rumors that there are mysterious, green-garbed soldiers occupying this nuked military weapons depot near Romulus. One of the three MIRV nukes was a fizzle that barely broke 1 kiloton, so a portion of the sprawling depot would probably have survived. Those rumors are partially true, but no one has been there for over a century.

Site-P: Located on the southern corner of the Seneca Army Depot, this full-size Snake-Eater base (24 Green Berets and 6 staff) survived the nuking of that Depot intact. The support staff awoke 120 years ago and before awaking the teams, ventured outside to recon the damage. What they found shocked them as the entire area was burnt and dead. They did verify that about 20% of the southern bunkers survived the attack or were not too radioactive to utilize. They had a brief encounter with a large marauder band and lost two men. The 4 surviving staff then retreated back inside the base and decided to go back into stasis to await the command wake-up signal. Anyone traveling to this area might be lucky enough to come across a curious message carved into an intact concrete wall, a cryptic clue from the last of the support staff before they went back into stasis. It reads, "To Wake The Sleepers 3-7-2-8-5-7-8-4-2-3-4 repeating 92-point-1753 GHz".

8) WESTERN NEW YORK

Western New York state was hit hard during the war. Most of the large cities were nuked and a large percentage of the population died within a few months. Only in the hilly rural area are there settlements now, usually along rivers or in fertile cropland areas.

The ruins of Buffalo: Nuked, this city is just a radioactive heap. The entire area west of the I-290 loop is a tangled mass of rubble and poisonous pools of chemicals where no one dares to live. The far eastern suburbs are roamed by a group of thirty bandits from Ontario under the sadistic leadership of Guy LeBeauff. They are currently holed up in the old Eastern Hills Mall, which they have filled with the choicest loot from the city and waylaid from travelers passing through the area. They also take pleasure in hunting the few remaining scavengers and the occasional Blue Undead in the area.

The ruins of Niagara Falls: Blasted by seven nuclear warheads, including a massive 25 megaton SS-18M1 on the hydroelectric dam, Niagara Falls is now nothing more than a barren field of overgrown rubble. The Niagara River has flooded over much of the ruins, flowing around the large blockage caused by the hit on the dam. Radiation levels are still high enough to kill if you spend more than a few hours in the area.

The ruins of Rochester: The 25 megaton ICBM targeted on Rochester exploded over the downtown area, sending a huge pressure wave out to flatten the city to the furthest suburbs. 200,000 people died that first night, countless more over the next week. Nearly every single building in the city was scraped off the earth, pulverized and dropped back down as melted rubble. 150 years later, Lake Ontario has creeped in and filled the crater, flooding out a good sized portion of the ruins. The Shipmen on Lake Ontario usually avoid the ruins, though they have been known to stop here to ride out sudden storms. In these cases, the sailors always stay aboard their ships.

The Port Rowan: Currently in Rochester's harbor is the Shipman merchantman the Port Rowan. This steel-hulled ship is a medium-sized oil tanker, built in Finland in 1981 and owned by a Quebec shipping company before the war. Found wandering in Lake Ontario at the end of the nuclear autumn, the ship was taken in by the Shipmen in their formative years and refurbished as a mobile trading bazaar. The boilers have long ago been converted to run on coal and huge sails rigged on the wide deck. The Port Rowan's single working drive shaft finally blew out it's last bearings last week, stranding the ship off Rochester. The crew is waiting for other Shipmen to come to their aid, holed up aboard casting fearful glances towards the ruins. They would be most glad if someone would help them sooner.

Yorkshire: This small town has seen numerous ups and downs over the years. The citizens recently came up with an interesting solution to a nagging bandit problem. They have hired the bandits as mercenaries and have begun using them to take over some of the other villages to the south. This band of bandits turned mercenaries is 50 strong and led by a fifteen-year old boy named "Smokey Joe". Smokey Joe has survived by his cunning and woodsmanship and, despite his age, is followed religiously by the older members of his gang. They have also been given power of "tax enforcement" on the surrounding villages and farms. They are often brutal in performing their duties and few towns miss their quota.

People who have contributed to this entry:
John Raner
Kurt Feltenberger
Ken Portz
James Barnwell
Karl Zohler