Kereguelen
Posts: 1829
Joined: 5/13/2004 Status: offline
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Some comments, as I'm in charge of the Soviet OOB for the AE: quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again In game terms, as in HQ which units can be transferred to or which control and coordinate operations, the USSR did NOT use a Theater Command approach. Not, that is, before 30 July, 1945 (which probably should be the hard code date of Soviet activation in a Soviet passive scenario). Until then, there was NO theater command, anywhere, ever. When it DID form, the Soviet Far East Command formed at Chita. Correct, but Far Eastern Front acted de facto as Theater Command even in 1941 and it acted quite independent from STAVKA. And, as Andy has already explained, we need the Far Eastern Command for the AI. quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again Stock has this completely wrong - locating the Far East command at Vladivostok in 1941 - a place it never was - and at the wrong end of the game (except it may be required). On the other hand, does a unit EVER need to CHANGE HQ to the Soviet command? What the Soviets DID have was "Front" commands - and something special as well for a place too far from one of those. There were two different Fronts in the Far East: Trans Baikal (location uncertain in 1941, but likely near Lake Baikal) and Far Eastern (Location Khabarovsk). This is a very interesting statement: I never found any source that stated where Far Eastern Front HQ was located. I always suspected that it was located at Khabarovsk but had no proof for this (and thus left it at Vladivostok). Can you name any good source for this? This would be really welcome! Trans Baikal MD HQ was either at Ulan-Ude or at Chita in 1941. Sources disagree about its actual location. Have placed it at Ulan-Ude. quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again In addition, there was the Coastal Group of Forces for the Kamchatka Penninsula - because it was "too far from the Front HQ or the Soviet Far East Fleet" - and this was a NAVAL command that included all forces, regardless of service. This is wrong. Coastal Group was located at Vladivostok and later (in 1945) became 1st Far Eastern Front. It originally had 1st Red Banner and 25th Army under command. The region around Vladivostok is the 'Primorskiy' (= Coastal) region. But I don't know exactly when Coastal Group HQ was formed (probably somewhen between July 1943 and January 1944). quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again It is not easy to know what to do about this because of game code issues: the code is not likely to be changed even for AE - and the Soviets really should NOT be treated as if there is a unified command for the entire on map area. Nor indeed can any single HQ have the command radius required to cover the vast front and do justice to the problem the Soviet defense (or offense) poses: protect Amur Province and protect the vital Land LOC back to Central Asia. The real Soviet solution - with two HQ - one east and west - and a HQ for support purposes (for land ops) at Khabarovsk makes more sense. Transbaikal Front is an Army-level command under Far Eastern Command in the AE. It starts with 17th and 36th Armies under command. quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again Lacking naval units as designed, there was no need for naval HQ. Now this has changed, we should indeed have two Naval HQ - a main one (Soviet Far East Fleet) and a secondary one (the Coastal Group of Forces). We can do that - but does code use Soviet naval HQ? If not - should they be air HQ in game terms (so at least they control some operations)? Or even land HQ (since a local HQ to protect Vladivostok and Kamchatka makes sense in game terms)? Soviet Pacific Fleet HQ is in the game. quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again We could make the Soviet Command be located "off the map" (at Krasnyarsk) - since all units assigned to it arrive assigned to it - and no other unit should ever be assigned to it. Then we could make two Front commands (and two naval commands which might be naval, air or land, depending on wether or not code will use a Soviet naval HQ) - NONE of which have the reach of a strategic HQ - but say one hex less (8???). This problem is complex, technical, and structural to WITP - and reality must compromise with what will work with code. Suggestions for WITP as it is are solicited. And we should notify AE developers in case they want to do something to mitigate it. There are many more Soviet HQ's in the AE than in WITP. And HQ's will have some additional functions in the AE (we're still working on this aspect). K
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