So, first off, sorry about the late post this time. I meant to post late last week but between my day job and my second job with EpochXperience, it's been a busy time for this blogger. I still miss you guys and will do my best to get one to two posts a month out there. That said, let's get started.
One thing I am looking to do is put more Fistful of TOWs 3 orbats out there. I really want to make these available for folks as they seem to be rather popular with people. One thing I want to do now is to work on a formation near and dear to Twilight: 2000 fans, I'm going to do the 5th Infantry Division ca. 1997. Doing it in 2000 is a bit of guesswork based on "Death of a Division." It's doable, but I'd rather leave that to a later project, no?
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| Taken from the Free League Website |
The 5th Division, in real life, the division was assigned to US III Corps, and was supposed to be part of the US force designated to reinforce NORTHAG. The division had two active brigades, as well as a roundout brigade, the 256th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) of the Louisiana National Guard. The division in case of war, was supposed to fly over on civilian air transport (read: airliners), collect their pre-positioned equipment in Germany, and then go fight the Soviets presumably invading West Germany.
In Twilight: 2000, obviously things didn't go that way. The division according to the 1st Edition Army Vehicle Guide deployed by air and sea (um huh?) to West Germany in December of 1996. It went into action as part of III Corps but then was transferred to Panzergruppe Obendorf. Most Twilight: 2000 fans are pretty familiar with the rest of the division's war record. But suffice it to say, the 5th had an eclectic mix of gear as it was made up of active and reserve units.
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Shoulder Patch of the 5th Infantry Division, Taken from Wikipedia
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Now, there's some good information on the 5th. We have three sources to figure out the TOE for the division. One is of course, the venerable US Army Vehicle Guide.
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Ol' Reliable Itself - Taken from Amazon.com
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Another pair of items I have available are two books I am sure played a role in the research of the US Army Vehicle Guide. One is Armies of NATO's Central Front by David C. Isby and Charles Kemps. I was lucky to get a copy cheap, but I assure you, it's hard to find, but worth the price.
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Taken from Abe Books.com
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Another complementary work is Gordon Rottman's work on the US Army in the 1980s, which had a very helpful battalion-level breakdown of the divisions and independent brigades of the US Army ca. 1987. Granted, I suspect some of the battalions would have realigned again sometime between then and the Twilight War, but hey, might as well go with it.
A final source is a friend of mine's. Chico and I did a lot of work for the late and lamented DC Working Group. I enjoyed the work we put out and one of those items was a battalion-level breakdown of the various battalions of EVERY division in the US Army at the beginning of the Twilight War. Our work can be found at the following links:
We did a lot of research on these, so I am going to borrow from all three of these elements to come up with a 5th Division that well, works.
So...without further ado...here's the 5th Division.
5th Infantry Division (Mechanized), December 1996
Quality: Good/Excellent
Artillery Accuracy and Response: 2+ for both
Combat Formations
4-12th Cavalry (Divisional Cavalry Squadron)
Base Troops:
2 recon M3 Bradley CFV (NBC Recon Platoon)
2 Cav Troops, each with:
1 M-106 4.2" Mortar Carrier
4 recon M-3 Bradley CFV
2 Air Cav Troops, each with:
2 OH-58
1 AH-1V
Armored Battalions (1-70th, 3-70th, 2-77th, 3-77th, and 1-156th (LANG))
Base Troops:
1 recon M3 Bradley CFV (Scout Platoon)
1 M-106 4.2" Mortar Carrier
1 Stinger Base + HMMWV (ADA Platoon)
4 Tank Companies, each with:
3 M1A1 MBT
Mechanized Battalions (1-61st, 3-6th, 4-6th, 2-156th (LANG), and 3-156th (LANG))
Base Troops:
1 recon M-3 Bradley CFV
1 M-106 4.2" Mortar Carrier
1 Stinger Base + 1 HMMWV
AT Company:
3 M901 ITVs
4 Mechanized Infantry Companies, each with:
4 M2A2 Bradleys + 4 Infantry Stands with Javelin ATGM
Engineer Battalion (7th Combat Engineers)
1 M9 Dozer
2 M-60 AVLB
2 M-728 CEV
3 Medium Trucks with Bridge Sections
Attack Helicopter Battalion (1-5th)
6 AH-1V
3 OH-58
Artillery Support Groups
Tube Artillery Battalions (4-1st, 5-1st. and 1-141st Artillery (LANG))
6 M-109A3 SP 155mm How
MLRS Battery (C Battery, 21st Artillery Regiment)
2 M-270 MLRS
Well, that's it for now, We'll be back later with more Twilight: 2000 wargaming related content soon!
Thanks for doing all the research.
ReplyDeletehttp://perso.numericable.fr/~yvesjbel/polk_org1.html
ReplyDeleteNice job. 5ID represent!
ReplyDeleteExcellent work! I do have some questions...what is the AH-1V? I would have thought that the 5th would have been flying AH-64s. Next, where are the LAV-25s? Despite the Army never adopting it in the real world, they're quite common PC vehicles in game to the point that they're part of the color fiction.
ReplyDeleteThe 5th was towards the bottom of the equipment priority barrel. Hence they still had AH-1s. As for the LAV-25s, well, they didn't start the war with them. The US Army Vehicle Guide has the LAVs being scout vehicles for NG outfits, but I suspect the 256th being a roundout Brigade, had a higher priority for equipment than most NG outfits.
DeleteGreat stuff Jason
ReplyDeleteCherrs
Matt
French Wargame Holidays
Hey Dan, thanks for accepting my request to share your division and brigade lists. They should be a really handy reference the campaign I'm planning on starting. My plan to start off that campaign was to give the players the "Death of a Division" handout, let them pick the battalion they are part off; and then for session zero let them play part of the last battle of that battalion with GDW's The Last Battle wargame rules. Then, depending on whether they break the soviet advance or get overrun, they can start their Twilight 2000 RPG campaign trying to commandeer vehicles or recruit survivors from that battle, or on the run with only the gear on their bodies.
ReplyDeleteSo, before I found your post here, I was referring to this expanded version of the handout: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5333111ae4b09574e43ca618/t/551d5a7fe4b036c4fd0b5635/1427987071504/Death+of+a+Division.pdf
It has a different list of battalions, and I was wondering at the discrepancies. The PDF appears to mostly extrapolate the composition of the 5th Division from the text of "Death of a Division." Is it different because yours is taken from the real world elements of the 5th, or were there other Twilight 2000 supplements that show that your list is what the 5th was made of right before it was deployed to Europe?
I'm also a little confused by the list of assets you have for the battalions. From what I can google, a US tank company had 3 platoons of 4 tanks, plus a command section with 2 more tanks and other assets. And an artillery battalion had 6 batteries of 8 self propelled howitzers. Are the numbers you are giving supposed to be of platoons and batteries rather than individual vehicles, or is the reduced number supposed to reflect attrition of the Twilight War?
Thank!
Hi Tyrant, Jason here. Dan has his own site :-) Anyhow, I wrote the orbats for a game called Fistful of TOWs 3 where 1 tank or infantry stand equals a platoon/battery of artillery. Hope that helps explain that.
ReplyDeleteAs for different battalions, I used the battalions present in the Division as of the US Army Osprey that was published in the 80s. Battalions changed every so often. I also used Dan's information to supplement my efforts.
Keep in mind, battalions were going to get merged, disbanded, moved around, and the like in the winter of 1997-98. I like your apporach to Kalisz and I would stick with it.