The Dogs Of War - Strategic Overview

Development of The Dogs of War continues.....today, three hours on Skype with Anthony Morphet and Ulf Krahn.

As usual in the first phases, most of the discussion covered the details about NATO response time to a possible Warsaw Pact attack. My personal opinion on NATO's capabilities to react quickly are quite pessimistic, particularly for some countries, while Anthony and Ulf have a more "neutral" point of view.

The global scenario postulates that NATO political branch (i.e., the single governments of NATO countries) recognizes that war is unavoidable 48 hours before Warsaw Pact forces cross the Inner German Border, thus giving the following general schedule:

• At H-48, NATO issues a SIMPLE ALERT order. Troops assemble and equip at barracks and then moves into hides (waiting / regrouping areas near the barracks).
• At H-24, NATO issues a GENERAL ALERT order. Troops move to predefined battle positions, most countries start mobilizing, reinforcements begin moving out. 

On the Warsaw Pact side, the following reorganization will take place before starting the hostilities:

1. Group of Soviet Forces in Germany becomes Western Theater HQ, in command for all operations from Baltic coast to Northern Italy.
2. Three Front HQ are created, using the command staff from the already existing Northern Group of Forces, Central Group of Forces and Southern Group of Forces.
3. Northern Front directs operations from Baltic Coast to Kassel
4. Central Front directs operations from Kassel to Wurzburg
5. Southern Front directs operations from Wurzburg to Austria / Italy

The scenario considers the Hannover - Kassel sector as the Warsaw Pact's main thrust, so the area covered by The Dogs of War will be critical for deciding the war. Without too many details, here's a summary of Warsaw Pact plan for Northern and Central Fronts.

Warsaw Pact Plan - Click for details

Other important changes from Less Than 60 Miles should be:

• NATO Command Chain will be fully represented. This means that each NATO Corps will be a separate entity with its own HQ, Command Points and EW Points. This allows Warsaw Pact to exploit the old, effective strategy of attacking along the boundaries of the enemy formations.
• An optional rule will allow to use artillery in a more abstract way, assigning artillery battalions to a specific HQ and keeping them off-map.