Historical Theatre of Operation: Locations

[Pyros]

Stephane,

Tell me the truth...

Are you a professional Vietnam researcher?? LOL

With the progress that Boonierat is making on the historical research, soon we will enter to one of the most critical activities for the campaign...
We will choose/connect the battles/operations/locations with the evolution of the core army and we will create the Theatres of Operations.

The trick is to make a smooth evolution from smaller (core force) missions to a progressive increase.
In case of "MUST HAVE" big battle in early stages we should use AUX forces.

cheers,
Pyros

[Boonierat]

Pyros said:
Stephane,

Tell me the truth...

Are you a professional Vietnam researcher?? LOL

Actually I've been working on a comprehensive list of all US and allied operations in Vietnam for several years now, and I just extracted infos concerning the Cav (it needed a bit of editing though, hence the time it took to post it here)

As you can deduce from the Ops list, combat operations in Vietnam tended to decrease after 1969 as well as combat intensity, and we might encounter some problems towards the end of the campaign between 1970 and 1972 as there were fewer and fewer encounters with the enemy, unless we decide to end the campaign earlier.

[Pyros]

So, lets give the player the ability to re-write history!

At that point we are going to add the alternate history part of the campaign.
In addition we are going to allow the player to spent 100s of replacement points in order to buy new units of his choice (even tanks) and we are going to design several "what if scenarios"...
We may even oppose US forces with Chinesse or Soviet attachments!

cheers,

p.s but for the moment we should concentrate our efforts to making the connection between the evolution of the core force in relation with the definition of the theatres of Operations.
So, lets start by defining CHAPTERS (choosing specific battles of high interest).

[Boonierat]

Pyros said:
p.s but for the moment we should concentrate our efforts to making the connection between the evolution of the core force in relation with the definition of the theatres of Operations.
So, lets start by defining CHAPTERS (choosing specific battles of high interest).

Here's the official campaign denomination, might be an idea:

Advisory 15 March 1962 - 7 March 1965
Defense 8 March 1965 - 24 December 1965
Counteroffensive 25 December 1965 - 30 June 1966
Counteroffensive, Phase II 1 July 1966 - 31 May 1967
Counteroffensive, Phase III 1 June 1967 - 29 January 1968
Tet Counteroffensive 30 January 1968- 1 April 1968
Counteroffensive, Phase IV 2 April 1968 - 30 June 1968
Counteroffensive, Phase V 1 July 1968- 1 November 1968
Counteroffensive, Phase VI 2 November 1968 - 22 February 1969
Tet 69/Counteroffensive 23 February 1969 - 8 June 1969
Summer-Fall 1969 9 June 1969 - 31 October 1969
Winter-Spring 1970 1 November 1969 - 30 April 1970
Sanctuary Counteroffensive 1 May 1970 - 30 June 1970
Counteroffensive, Phase VII 1 July 1970 - 30 June 1971
Consolidation I 1 July 1971 - 30 November 1971
Consolidation II 1 December 1971 - 29 March 1972
Cease-Fire 30 March 1972 - 28 January 1973

Else I can make a simplified 1st Cav campaign chronology to show the various phases of its Vietnam service.

[Boonierat]

Some ideas for the Chapters:

-Steming the NVA: The Ia Drang valley Campaign (Sep-Dec. 1965)
-The coastal campaign: The 1st Cav in Binh Dinh province (Jan-Mar. 1966)
-Battles on two fronts: Screening the cambodian border and rooting the NVA out of Binh Dinh (Mar.-Oct.1966)
-Pacification: Taming Binh Dinh once and for all (Oct.66-Jan 1968)
-Cavalry to the rescue! Northern I Corps Tet Offensive campaign (Hue - Quang Tri - Khe Sanh - A Shau Jan.-Oct 68)
-The Cav moves South: Screening Saigon (Oct.68-May 70)
-Into the Unknown: Cambodia incursion (May-June 70)
-Stand Down and Redeployement: The final years (July 70-June 72)

[Pyros]

Boonierat said:
Some ideas for the Chapters:

-Steming the NVA: The Ia Drang valley Campaign (Sep-Dec. 1965)
-The coastal campaign: The 1st Cav in Binh Dinh province (Jan-Mar. 1966)
-Battles on two fronts: Screening the cambodian border and rooting the NVA out of Binh Dinh (Mar.-Oct.1966)
-Pacification: Taming Binh Dinh once and for all (Oct.66-Jan 1968)
-Cavalry to the rescue! Northern I Corps Tet Offensive campaign (Hue - Quang Tri - Khe Sanh - A Shau Jan.-Oct 68)
-The Cav moves South: Screening Saigon (Oct.68-May 70)
-Into the Unknown: Cambodia incursion (May-June 70)
-Stand Down and Redeployement: The final years (July 70-June 72)

These are great for ToOs
The chapters will be included in the ToOs.
The only difference should be that instead ending with "the final years" we will continue with the Alternate history!

Stephane by using the ToOs could you please create Chapters (Chapter include a mission type).
So for example in the first ToO: -Steming the NVA: The Ia Drang valley Campaign (Sep-Dec. 1965)

How many and what kind of chapters, may we include?
You should consider that the core force during this ToO will have the size of 2-3 platoons; we may use several AUX elements, but with such a small core force we should be able to play some special missions like the one you have suggested (for the crushed helicopter)

cheers,

[Pyros]

Stephane (or anyone else who is interested),

Could you please make a selection of 10 historical battles/operations of the 1st CAV division in order to form the historical ToOs?

If you could add some description/location and little info for each battle/operation it would be great!

I hope next week we could make an early selection of the historical battles/operations for the campaign and then we may use this selection as the backbone of the campaign.
Then we will add other fictional battle in between and we should start the designing of the appropriate chapters.

In each ToO, we will include 1-3 Historical chapters (probably connected) and a couple of fictional chapters for mission diversity.

So,
1. First we choose the Historical battles/operations and this way we define the campaign ToOs.
2. We design/define the historical chapters (inside the ToOs) and we try to add a couple (or more) fictional chapters in a novel type of history (we have to respect campaign connectivity)
3 Then, we should describe exactly the type of mission in each chapter.
4. Then, according to the number of ToOs and the nature of historical chapters we should decide the evolution of the core force (very difficult and critical activity).
As a general rule you should respect that the early missions should be design for a light core force, while the late missions should be designed for a quite big core force.
Of course we may achieve equilibrium and balance in the early missions by adding AUX friendly units.

Critical activity
But for the moment we should focus on the formation of the ToOs and then in the writing of exciting campaign scenery with a lot of "up and down".

Cheers,
Pyros

p.s I think you may find in the 1st CAV DIV thread a lot of historical info for the dates and types of battles/missions.

[Pyros]

Stephane,

This is exactly what I have in mind!
At the same time with you I have posted this list in the script thread...LOL

Anyway, could you please take this list and create unities (ToOs...look in the terminology thread) by including historical missions on each ToOs?

Maybe we will have to merge or split any of these predefined ToOs.

cheers,

[Boonierat]

Sure, which list? the campaign designation one?