[CaptainCrunch]

If I was to play this out, and this is probably incorrect at best.

But if you were going to have a war, you would have the Eastern powers of Russia, China, India on one side. You would have the Western nuclear powers and Pakistan on the other side. You would have a third side in the Middle East and Isis in the middle.

If the Eastern powers were the aggressors.

1) China would surge their submarines and navy to protect their backdoor, they would have to patrol the China seas and the Sea of Japan.

While the Chinese navy is improved they still lag behind the American's The Russian Pacific Navy isn't huge, and most of their submarines are of the SSBN platform, however they do have quite a few of the Oscar class upgrades which were designed around carrying large complements of advanced anti-shipping missiles, they would be tasked with attacking American carrier groups. On top of that the Russians would use their naval aviation to go after convoys. Russia would have to threaten Japan to prevent its usage. China would threaten Taiwan to prevent its usage.

If things escalated this would be a nuclear flashpoint if American Navy Assets gain a foothold and create a naval interdiction against China.

China would also heavily support a North Korean attack on South Korea to pin down American ground assets. I don't doubt that North Korea would fire ballistic missiles at Japan as well.

China would probably also be tasked with eliminating Pakistan as a threat and a airbase for the allies.

2) India and Pakistan would go to war, and this would be a major nuclear flashpoint as they try to settle an age old grudge.

3) In Europe. the Russians would mass their Western Assets, which I believe would be 5 armies with a few thousand main battle tanks a massive amount of artillary, a few thousand strike planes and a short logistical line. Russian doctine would basically call for the nuking of allied logistics centers, ports, key strategic road routes. Russia would rather strip down and decapitate the Nato alliance and then fight a mobility war against a confused and under supplied enemy then slug through Europe.

4) In the Atlantic, The Russians would surge their submarine force and naval aviation and go after convoys. The smart move would be to remove Iceland and Greenland from the map completely so that the American's couldn't extend their air patrols and cut off Soviet Naval Aviation attacks against the convoys, this would also degrade the ability for Nato to go after Russian subs before they get into the deep waters in the Atlantic.

5) The nuclear conversation - Basically the Russians if they went this route would put in a call to the existing president and basically state that if a nuke goes off on Russian home soil, that the Russians would respond with strategic city busting nukes across Europe and the states. America could try a quick strike but detection is to good now and at the first sign of launches from American subs or American silos the Russians would got after American cities.

If the West started this, the scenario would be basically the same except that the allies would probably attack China first by attacking through Korea, with holding actions from india and probably a minor amphibious and air assault out of Taiwan. In Europe the American's would not have the strength to attack into greater Russia, but would threaten it to hold the Russians from re-enforcing their allies.