1st US Army / XII Corps

[Webstral]

During the recovery period though, I rather doubt much effort would be put into maintaining the largely irrelevant units.

I concur completely. I've been thinking about events in New Mexico as they tie into the rest of the Southwest. Specifically, I foresee that many of the various specialized units and functions of the USAF in New Mexico will go by the wayside. Part of the reason is the obvious: the bases are overrrun by Mexican forces and the hordes streaming out of Albuquerque. Part of the reason is that many of the Air Force functions become moot after the Exchange. Relatively young and fit people who can march and use a rifle are needed at the front. During the course of the underdocumented fighting in southern New Mexico and the almost undocumented collapse of Albuquerque, the USAF presence in New Mexico is virtually wiped out. Cannon AFB survives and is an important bastion of MilGov power. Holloman AFB is destroyed during the 1998 campaign season, while Kirtland meets a fate remarkably like that of Luke AFB for about the same reasons.

The survivors of the significant USAF presence in New Mexico end up in a few locations. Some attach themselves to the so-called School Brigade as the brigade withdraws north. Some make their way west to Fort Huachuca. Some make their way east to Cannon AFB. Some never rejoin a larger unit and find their way among the surviving communities of central and northern New Mexico. A large of portion of this group end up being included in the defense force of Santa Fe, where the surviving government of the State of New Mexico still exists. Few of these people are doing the jobs for which they were trained, and fewer still are doing anything that could be called specific Air Force jobs.

Webstral

[Legbreaker]

Getting back to the orginal question, I believe we're talking about the years 2000-2001

[Webstral]

Of course the target list only shows those places which received 0.5 megatons or greater...
The Soviets had numerous sub launched and ICBMs with less than 500 kiloton warheads (how many and which models I'll leave to others to post). Therefore is is quite conceivable all branches of the US military was effectively decapitated in the exchanges (just like the civilian government).

It's true that Howling Wilderness claims "...With certain exceptions, only places that received .5 megaton or more are covered here (others are covered in the individual area discussions later in this book)" (Wiseman, 1988, p. 10). However, we really don't see much in the way of discussion of smaller nukes not on the master roster. I think there's some reason to believe that tactical nuclear weapons may have been used in the Pacific Northwest. Otherwise, though, there is scant evidence to support an assertion that all branches of the [US] military were effectively decapitated by nuclear strikes beneath the arbitrary reporting threshold of .5Mt, small-to-mid-size warheads launched by SLBM notwithstanding. Of course, everyone has to run their own game they way they want.

Various modules, including The Last Submarine, refer to ongoing production in 1998. Clearly, said production amounts to a fraction of the pre-Exchange totals. However, the Exchange didn't destroy civilization outright. One might say that modern society was dealt a mortal wound by the surgical strikes of 1997, and that the dying civilization continued to thrash about for a while. Where stocks of materials and power existed, production of ammunition, etc. might have continued.

This is why I have maintained that 1999 was the year of decision. The consumable leftovers of the modern world would have been consumed in 1998. The world would have struggled with the transition. By 1999, the new reality is driving the patterns of the world: spring planting in the US preceding congressional assembly, light infantry operations in Europe, and so forth. Most of the post-Exchange dying would have occurred during the previous twelve months, leaving the world in its new paradigm. Things are still winding down, of course, but the world has assumed many of its new dimensions. At this point, resupply from overseas becomes an inconsequential factor for the Americans.

Webstral





References

Wiseman, Loren K. (1988) Howling Wilderness. Bloomington, IL: GDW.

[Legbreaker]

True, the nukes alone didn't do it, but the following panic and riots certainly would have been major contributors. We have evidence in at least one of the modules (Last Sub springs to mind) that military installations were overrun by starving hordes. I can't imagine that this one instance was the only one across the entire country. Just the rumour of stockpiles of food and other supplies would be enough to turn a hungry crowd into a ravening horde with the ability to destroy anything and anyone that was between them and the possibilty of a meal.
The mere mention of a General or other entity having a cache of food stuffs for personal use would almost certainly result, given the conditions existant after the nukes, in death and destruction.

[HorseSoldier]

I'd think military installations in the Northeast would have all been overrun as described -- really, the population density in that part of the country along the coast would translate into a mass die off, taking any semblance of government or military control with it, in my opinion. Even places further inland with lower population levels were probably decimated by the footprint of starving maruader/refugees out of the big cities.

In other parts of the country where people aren't packed so tight, I'd think it would not necessarily play out the same way, especially not on the posts where training units were cranking out replacement personnel and would have large bodies of troops suited to holding a perimeter against lightly armed opposition.

[Legbreaker]

Training facilities however aren't usually command centres. My limited understanding is that most of the command centres are relatively close to urban areas, thereby exposing themselves to the hungry hordes.
There are of course exceptions, but who's to say these didn't receive a sub 500 Kt nuke Even if they did survive there wouldn't be an awful lot of them left and it's unlikely they'd have the resources to make any significant impact.

[Dog 6]

my !st Army

My 1st ARMY as of 6/1/2003


1ST ARMY HQ: 1800 men Atlanta

3rd Infantry Regiment: 600 men , 37 M-2A2, 4 IPM1 , 4 105 mm How. D.C.

1st Aviation Brigade: 3000 men 28 UH-1, 2 CH-54, 8 UH-60 , 16 OH-58, 7 AH-1 , 11 CH-47, 4 OH 6 Units can be found all over the East cost




12th Corp HQ: 1900 men 1 M-60A3 Trenton

12th Engineer Brigade : 1200 men 3 M-728 CEV Fort Dix

12th supply Brigade : 3800 men Trenton units can be found all over 12th Corp A.O.

12th Transportation Brigade: 3000 men, 600 Trucks , 190 Tankers units can be found all over 12th Corp A.O.

12th Artillery Brigade: 2600 men, 43 105 mm How. 14 155 mm How.
units can be found all over 12th Corp A.O. HQ 200 men in Trenton

43rd MP Brigade: 2000 men 22 M-113, 8 105 mm How, 21 Peacekeeper, 19 LAV 150 Massachusetts

78th Reserve Infantry Division: 4200 men, 6 M-48A5's, 15 M-113's, 22 105 mm How. Fort Dix

42nd Mechanized Division : 6000 men, 81 M-60A4 , 145 M-113, 31 M-109 New York

190th Mechanized Brigade: 3000 men 33 M-60A3, 129 M-113 , 17 M-109 , 22 M901 Maine

2nd provisional Marine Regiment : 900 men Toms River

13th Corps HQ : 2900 men 1 IPM-1 Atlanta

13th Engineer Brigade : 4000 men 1 M-728 CEV
units can be found all over 13th Corp A.O.

13th supply Brigade: 5000 men Atlanta

13th Transportation Brigade: 4200 men 900 Trucks , 290 Tankers
units can be found all over 13th Corp A.O.

13th MP Brigade: 3900 men 9 Peacekeeper, 31 M-706, 42 M750 units can be found all over 13th Corp A.O. HQ 300 men in Atlanta

13th Artillery Brigade: 3100 men 31 105 mm How, 41 155mm How
units can be found all over 13th Corp A.O.

108th Reserve Infantry Division: 5500 men, 18 M-48A5, 33 M-113, 44 105 mm How HQ Savannah units can be found all over 13th Corp A.O.

18th Motorized Infantry Division: 9000 men, 152 M-8, 337 LAV 25, 57 155 mm How, 4 LARS Florida

198th Mechanized Brigade: 3500 men 190 APC/IFV , 49 tanks (M-48A5/ M-60A3/4/5, M-1A1/2) 21 M-109, 8 M901 Fort Benning

5th provisional Marine Regiment :1700 men , 3 M-60A1 Savannah


enjoy

[Legbreaker]

It's obviously not very T2Kish, but not a bad job pulling it all together.
Gives a good idea of what could have been.

[Dog 6]

It's obviously not very T2Kish, but not a bad job pulling it all together.
Gives a good idea of what could have been.

its my game. its not canon

[Legbreaker]

Exactly! And you (as well as everyone else) have every right to do whatever you want in your game.
Personally I wouldn't use it as is for the 1st Army, but it's a damn fine base to work from if I were looking at another collection of units. Plenty of thought and good work in there.

[Dog 6]

thanks. I don't have a civ gov, my starting army is more then 2 time the size of canon's. and my ABM's shot down a ton of nukes....

[Abbott Shaull]

Leg I am starting to think if someone said they totally agreed with you and you had done an outstanding job of posting information your would find something about your own post to nag about...

JMHO...

[Webstral]

The interaction ends when everyone agrees. As long as there is a bone of contention, the interaction continues. I have several friends whose wives operate on the same principle because some interaction--any interaction--is better than no interaction.

[Abbott Shaull]

Now you know how I feel most of the time reading some of the replies...

And I thought my wife could be bad it at times...

[Webstral]

I'm lucky. My wife prefers silence to squabbling--genuinely prefers silence (as opposed to the ones who fervently claim to hate sniping, squabbling, and nitpicking, yet never miss an opportunity to engage in those forms of interaction).

Webstral