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#1
03-05-2011, 12:18 AM
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GDW has 47th ID taking over the Alaska garrison mission, so there's no real loss in effectiveness, and actually additional firepower. The problem with GDW's take on Alaska is that 6th ID + the AK ARNG (or 47th ID plus same) is an adequate garrison for the threat as it really existed -- the Soviets lacked the power projection to put anyone on the ground in serious numbers up here, so operations would probably have consisted of nuisance raiding and SOF missions on both sides of the border. I'm sure the Soviets would have made a stab at taking out the pipeline with SOF before they were just able to nuke it, but they just didn't have the means to put the troops shown in T2K on the ground. But, in an alternate universe where the Soviets had the means to put a couple combined arms armies across the Bering Strait, 6th ID + 47th ID + the two brigades of the GDW AK ARNG aren't an adequate garrison. I'd expect for the actual threat environment depicted, that at least another army division, or possibly one of the two MarDivs sent to Korea would have been parked in Alaska, probably with at least the Canadian brigade group that was supposed to head to Korea mentioned in some of the GDW stuff forward deployed into Alaska as well, or at least staged as a theater reserve in the Yukon at Whitehorse or maybe closer to the border. (And then there is the whole mess of how the invasion is described -- it sounds like the .sovs came across the Straits and just drove overland from somewhere around Nome on to Fairbanks. Then turned south to take Anchorage. And then somehow miracled themselves down into the panhandle to take Juneau and Haines -- if only to explain how Soviet troops make it to Whitehorse. No part of that makes any degree of sense. Just the Nome to Fairbanks part is 837 kilometers, straight line distance, across nothing. No infrastructure and no roads. Even with the sexy hover mobile brigades involved there's just no way to get an armored force across that distance in the summer, and trying to make that movement in the winter would make the worst days of the Eastern Front look like a slightly chilly spring afternoon. The rest of it is equally boggling -- a post-nuclear campaign waged across a maneuver area around the same size as the central European front from French-German border to the deepest penetrations of NATO forces into Soviet territory.) [/soap box mode] 
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#2
03-05-2011, 06:58 AM
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LOL!
GDW's take on the AK invasion certainly didn't involve anybody taking the time to look at a terrain map of the area involved. The only Soviet options that ever made any sense was taking out either end of the pipeline, and the Soviet Pacific Fleet never had the power projection to actually try it. It would have been a Spetsnaz/Airborne show and would have been more of a raid than anything else, and it would have been more easily accompished by tossing a few dozen SSMs/ASMs into the area; or even just park a SSN or two with orders to sink tankers. From a story line, its intresting, but from a realistic approach, it would never have happened. With the job of securing the pipeline, hunting down the Soviet recon/raiding party...I think the 6th LID would have been kept in AK, at least until the 47th ID was up to speed and deployed. Even then I can see 6th LID moved up to the north and west coasts with the 47th securing the major cities in the south. Can't say that I would agree with deploying a Marine Division, the situation in Korea would have almost certainly required their deployment there. Most likely one of the NG Infantry Brigades could be moved into the state, if needed. Korea is the big question mark of the game...from the Vehicle Guides we know that the US units committed took brutal losses. But never so much of a hint of canon material to explain what happened. Someday, in my overflowing free time, have to sit down and start writing something.... 
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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#3
03-05-2011, 12:36 PM
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Yeah Korea has been a one of those things that make you go hmmm! We know that some units of the 8th U. S. Army made contact with the units of the Chinese Army before they totally collapse, and then they had to fall back into Korea.
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#4
03-05-2011, 04:57 PM
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I suspect attrition in Korea is more due to being on the receiving end of the Soviet "China pattern" nuclear attack, rather than it being a meat grinder.
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#5
03-05-2011, 07:19 PM
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Quite possibly right there. North Korea could have attacked southward when the world's attention was focused on China and Europe. There's the rumour of NK nukes, if they were a reality they'd give the south a real pasting without the need for the Soviets to throw a few of their own.
The NK military could then go in and give the few southern units (Korean, US, etc) a real bloody nose. Units from the few countries not entangled elsewhere would be rushed in and the north pushed back at great cost (worse than in the 50's - at least there wasn't a world wide war going on at the time, soaking up the bulk of military strength). Eventually things settle down in Korea to the point where the Soviets feel it's stable enough to use the area as a resting point for some of their more battered units (this could explain the poor state of Soviet units in the area). Haven't checked the sources in writing this so probably doesn't fit too well with the books, but as a first draft....
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#6
03-05-2011, 10:00 PM
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Re-read the US Vehicle guide for the units of the 8th U.S. Army Divisions and the 163rd ACR. It one of the reason why the 5th and 6th Marine Division were hurriedly trained and sent to help the 4th Marine Expeditionary Force later to become the II Marine Amphibious Corps. Also part of the reason why the 26th Light Infantry from MA finds it's way to Korea instead of elsewhere.
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#7
03-06-2011, 02:15 PM
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The retreat back to Hong Kong doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense to me - that's a distance of thousands of miles. If the 6th Division was in contact with US forces wouldn't it make more sense for it to fall back into Korea with the Americans rather than strike out to Hong Kong on its own?
__________________
Author of the unofficial and strictly non canon Alternative Survivor’s Guide to the United Kingdom
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#8
03-06-2011, 03:28 PM
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Contact could mean simply throwing a note tied to a rock over the heads of interposed enemy soldiers. It doesn't have to mean there's a clear corridor they can drive their entire unit through.
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#9
03-06-2011, 05:26 PM
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#10
03-06-2011, 05:49 PM
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Back in the early 80's when the game was written, they didn't have access to the internet and accurate books. Even so, they did a damn fine job with what was available to great a fictional world in which we get to play a game.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem Last edited by Legbreaker; 03-06-2011 at 06:12 PM.
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#11
03-06-2011, 05:59 PM
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