Jack of Harts

Centralia and Montanya are two other fictional nations America fights around. The Marine Corps go into war-torn Centralia to protect them from evil Montanyan aggression on a regular basis. Some scenarios say it is after a long Centralian civil war where a Montanyan-supported revolutionary force continues disrupting Centralia. Some scenarios deal with an outright invasion of Centralia by Montanyan regular forces. All major scenarios I have tracked down detail joint operations between the Marine Corps and other services or other national armed forces. Rather than focusing on brute firepower, those scenarios focus on using non-standard informational and communications capabilities to disrupt, demoralize, counteract, or otherwise reduce enemy operations and abilities. Whatever the exact scenario, all Marines recognize the long and sordid tale of Centralia and Montanya.

The most famous fictional American battleground in the civilian world is the People’s Republic of Pineland. Physically located in North Caroline, it is constantly under attack from the evil North Atlantica. Pineland has a flag, a motto, a real fictional history, and money. The locals see this happen every year, local law enforcement actively participates, and you can buy Pineland clothing and patches in real life. This created a deadly scenario when a law enforcement officer unaware of the game caught some soldiers being sneaky. They tried to bribe him with Pineland money, which he didn’t recognize, and the situation escalated until he shot two soldiers dead. Local law enforcement now wears special patches or insignia during the scenarios to tell soldiers this is an officer they can be in character with. Another example of America’s training scenarios influencing the real world.

In the third Pineland exercise, you are a Federal operations team operating outside official orders to research and uncover Atlantican fifth column activists. The primary mission is to differentiate between the true Atlantican activists and the useful idiots who do their bidding. The primary environmental obstacle is the local political and law enforcement machine. They have been infiltrated by the Atlantican fifth column, and are not to be trusted, though there are some loyal to Pineland. Other obstacles are protests for and against local government policy, a government autonomous zone, and a jail reportedly holding political enemies of the local political machine.