The Dogs of War development continues.....here's some key points:
- OOB for both NATO and Warsaw Pact is complete, with some points still to verify
- Discussion on equipment / units values is finally over, probably by exhaustion
- A VASSAL module for playtest is more or less 50% ready
Setting up units on VASSAL also allowed me to better evaluate the strong and weak points of NATO deployment in BAOR sector. The result wasn't a complete surprise, but I must say it looks worse than I imagined.
In short, the area covered by The Dogs of War will include four different NATO Corps, as represented in the excellent Area Of Responsibility map prepared by Tony (and including his exact assignment in 1989!):
- West German I Corps (NORTHAG)
- British Army Of the Rhine (NORTHAG)
- Belgian I Corps (NORTHAG)
- West German III Corps (CENTAG)
This is all safe and sound, except that Belgian I Corps is not there. Most of Belgian units were relocated in Belgium or along the Rhine river during the early '80s, leaving in place only a single brigade and a battalion of covering forces. This leaves a gap 40 km wide between BAOR and WG III Corps, with practically no units stationed there during peacetime.
The distance that must be covered by the Belgian forces could be handled if NATO had sufficient advanced warning, but it would be a critical problem in a surprise attack scenario. In that case, NATO should quickly adopt emergency countermeasures, like moving the WG III Corps boundary further North and use part of 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division as a covering force in order to gain time.
Well, I presume we'll discover soon how dire the situation is :)
Looking good.
ReplyDeleteVery interested in seeing this and other scenarios play out. By all means, sir, please continue.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually much worse as NATO at the instigation of the W Germans, adopted what was euphemistically called "Forward Defence" I was with HQ 4th(UK) Div and the British planned their main line of defence on the River Leinne using two Divs with the (I think) 2nd UK Div(-) providing the covering force. There was a lot of constipation Freudian slip, constination about the the Belgium Corps mainly its small numbers and the distance it had to travel. That said, having also served in BRIXMIS, the I think it would be e difficult for the Soviets to achieve complete surprise although they did practise so called standing starts.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually much worse as NATO at the instigation of the W Germans, adopted what was euphemistically called "Forward Defence" I was with HQ 4th(UK) Div and the British planned their main line of defence on the River Leinne using two Divs with the (I think) 2nd UK Div(-) providing the covering force. There was a lot of constipation Freudian slip, constination about the the Belgium Corps mainly its small numbers and the distance it had to travel. That said, having also served in BRIXMIS, the I think it would be e difficult for the Soviets to achieve complete surprise although they did practise so called standing starts.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion about the possible surprise level will never end, and of course we'll never have a certain proof...All I can say is no military structure in history has ever considered "probable" to be taken by complete surprise. Despite that, complete or almost complete surprise happens regularly in history....in recent history only, with different levels of surprise: Tsushima, Tannemberg, Ardennes 1940, Ardennes 1944, Korea 1950, Korea Yalu river, Tet Offensive, Six Days war, Yom Kippur war, Kuwait invasion....there's probably more :)
DeleteThe Kuwait one is the most interesting and pertinent case: US military perfectly knew about Iraqi preparations and warned the civilian branch more than once, but despite that nothing was done except a couple of badly managed diplomatic approaches. This is exactly the kind of scenario I think would have happened in a NATO - WP conflict.
Another good counter-argument against the "no surprise possible" faction is the Warsaw Pact Czechoslovakia invasion in 1968. WP mobilized 500,000 troops and executed military exercises for weeks before invading. Despite being aware of this NATO did absolutely nothing, and that's the point: What if the mobilization and maneuvers for invading Czechoslovakia had actually been a Maskirovka to hide an imminent attack against NATO? NATO would have done, well, nothing.
What would the OB for the GSFG look like?
ReplyDeleteOscar, you may get a quite precise idea by looking at this previous post, covering the strategic situation:
Deletehttps://warwithoutkia.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-dogs-of-war-strategic-overview.html
One suggestion about development of vassal module: "embedded" attrition points on the counter units are displayed on center height right, it's overlaping the command range of the HQs counters. I think problem is avoided on the left from my point of view.
ReplyDeleteHi Fabrizio,
ReplyDeleteI have a question on this. I would think that - having already published Under an Iron Sky - you could have used that OOB in Dogs of War (and Less than 60 Miles) too. Is it not so?
That's not right.
ReplyDeleteThe Belgians had up to the end of the 80s a full division (16Div of 1BE Corps, consisting of 1 mech Bde and 1 tank Bde) as far East as Soest and a highly mobile Recce Bde (2 Recce Bn and I Tk Bn) at Arolsen.
I know that is correct because I was part of it.
Karl Moens, 1Lt reserve (Hon, Rtd)