Set in the rarely explored Cold War period of 1975-1985, Wargame European Escalation explores the battles 'that could have been' if history had taken the wrong turn at some point in the conflict. On both sides of the Iron Curtain that tears Germany in two, the two military alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, are on the verge of war. The zeal of a patrol close to the East-German border eventually leads to a firefight with their enemy brothers. Soon the local skirmish pushes the already-tense relationship between NATO and the Warsaw Pact over the edge into all-out war.