WitPAE OPORDS

[wg335910]

Please Review. There should be an attached ascii text file with this. just copy it. review it. tel me what you think. Thanks
1.0 Australia

1.1 Situation:
"...Without any inhibitions of any kind I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free from any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United

Kingdom.

We know the problems that the United Kingdom faces. We know the constant threat of invasion. We know the dangers of dispersal of strength, but we know, too,

that Australia can go and Britain can still hold on.

We are, therefore, determined that Australia shall not go, and we shall devote all our energies towards the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its keystone,

which will give to our country some confidence of being able to hold out until the tide of battle swings against our enemy."
Prime Minister John Curtain December 1941

1.2 Mission:
1.2.1 Australia must not surrender to Imperial Japan.

1.3 Execution: (General Operations)
1.3.1 Defend New Guinea
1.3.2 Defend North West Australia
1.3.3 Begin Offensive Operations from Darwin towards Timor
1.3.4 Begin Offensive Operations Along the northern coast of New Guinea
1.3.5 Begin Offensive Operations towards the Phillippines

1.4 Service Support:
1.4.1 General service support will be provided by through ANZAC

1.5 Command and Signal:
1.5.1 HQ Southwest Pacific, Northern New Quinea, and Phillippine Operations
1.5.2 HQ Northwest Australia, ABDA

Review and edit at your liesure. Support all changes either historically or by logistical considerations. Please, do not argue in game software terms. Finally, if you wish

to take an active part in this, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Send your changes, additions, critiques to richard.t.serrano@charter.net.

[stuman]

Nvm

[Nomad]

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[Venividivici10044]

I think the author is suggesting a historical based approach to playing the game. Operational orders issued by a higher command advise strategic goals; the purpose of his post is to obtain feedback on his order set.

[eMonticello]

Since you're interested in creating a theater-level planning document, take a look at...

A review paper on Military Campaign Planning:

http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/research_pubs/p155.pdf

A review of the differences between OPLAN and OPORD:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oplan.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... 1apxaf.htm

The current FM 100-7 with all the annoying military acronyms:

http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/servic ... 100_7a.pdf

(I couldn't find the appendix on the dtic site, but it was available of this one)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... tm#REF70h2

Finally, a source for historical field manuals (not related, but some might find it useful for other projects):

http://www.cgsc.army.mil/carl/contentdm/home.htm

I always thought an OPORD was a tactical document. In any case, you probably need to create an OPLAN before diving into the OPORD.

[JWE]

I like it a lot. I think it’s a good way to play the game if you have teams. My group plays this way all the time, and standard 5pp OpOrds are required from team commanders to subordinate players; they go into the umpire’s scenario binder for later analysis.

It keeps people toeing the mark, and minimizes loose cannon opportunism. Gee, kinda like it was, yeah?

I think wg335910 has the right idea about how to play this game.

[Barb]

I am using two documents currently. One is a "Directive", the second an "Operational plan".

Directive will give you a general line you can follow in say China or Australia.

Operational plan is similar, but it is more detailed and therefore more suited for Campaigns or Operations. It will be attached in following post.

If you are from the Japanese side, you can easily make those templates to look more Japanese by changing pictures and color

[stuman]

Very interesting stuff guys. Thx.

[wg335910]

Thank You for the positive feedback
 
In reading Barbara Tuchman's book "Guns of August", I became fasinated with how the French developed PLAN 17, and how it went to hell so quickly for them. To me the best part of the book is the antagonism between GQG's CinC Joffre and the commander of the 5th Army Lanrezac. In the end, he was relieved of his command, by Joffre. Joffre relieved him not because he was wrong, but because he too annoyingly correct. Between them, It was a battle between the ideal and reality. It is that antagonism that  I am looking to recreate. By having detailed set piece plan, and pouring in the human element into it, as the game progresses, the game itself, becomes unimportant. It is when things start to go wrong and reality begin to sully the reputation of the ideal. That is when everyone involve begins to experience history rather than play a game. 
 
So, as it stands now, I working on this overarching operational order for the game. I am an avionics tech and things were slow on the flightline today. I've had my head in Wikipedia all day looking at Orders of battle for: ADBACOM, Malaya Command, SEAC, USAFFE and SW PACIFIC AREA COMMAND. I tried looking at information for CHINA, but can't seem to get past the fact that Chaing was such a feckless fool. Anyway, as I put things to together. I will be throwing them out for comments and improvements. Also, before I forget, there have been some contributions already. To those of you who have contributed again I say thank you.
 
Finally, the end result of all this will be template that we all can use in the future. The idea of large teams playing this makes me smile. Thank All

[Graymane]

That is more less how I play as well. I can't seem to organize things any other way. I do it by command areas, however. For witp as the allies, I use China, Southeast Asia (basically India and Burma), Southwest Pac, Central Pac, North Pac (Canada and Alaska). I divide the historic South Pac between SW and Central.

For each of those areas, I develop a plan for logistics and defense of key areas. That tells me which and how many bases I need to develop. That tells me how to allocate my LCUs. All of that together helps me figure out how many ships and planes I need.

Then I look at the enemy situation and what he seems to be doing and I allocate more forces based on that.

Then I look at what my goals are for the region and plan operations based on that.

[Graymane]

ORIGINAL: wg335910

Please Review. There should be an attached ascii text file with this. just copy it. review it. tel me what you think. Thanks
1.0 Australia
1.1 Situation:
"...Without any inhibitions of any kind I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free from any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom.

We know the problems that the United Kingdom faces. We know the constant threat of invasion. We know the dangers of dispersal of strength, but we know, too,

that Australia can go and Britain can still hold on.

We are, therefore, determined that Australia shall not go, and we shall devote all our energies towards the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its keystone,

which will give to our country some confidence of being able to hold out until the tide of battle swings against our enemy."
Prime Minister John Curtain December 1941

Nice, but need more operational level facts such as relative strengths/weaknesses of the enemy and you. Also useful are trigger points and times for various important events.

1.2 Mission:
1.2.1 Australia must not surrender to Imperial Japan.

This is where a higher level planning document or strategy comes into play. What you describe is a goal, not really a mission. A mission would be something like clear Japanese forces from Timor or build Port Moresby into a level x/y base able to defend against a corp level attack. They can be focused on higher or lower level things, but they are all task-based!

1.3 Execution: (General Operations)
1.3.1 Defend New Guinea
1.3.2 Defend North West Australia
1.3.3 Begin Offensive Operations from Darwin towards Timor
1.3.4 Begin Offensive Operations Along the northern coast of New Guinea
1.3.5 Begin Offensive Operations towards the Phillippines

When I think of execution, I'm thinking in terms of phases. If my mission was to defend and build Port Moresby into a major base, the execution plan would be the phases and steps required to get units there. Support units, combat units, supplies, air cover, naval support, etc. i.e., Phase 1: land XYZ division with adequate supplies. Phase 2: land ENG units A, B, and C and begin building AF to level X. The best thing to build from this is a matrix with a timeline/events on one axis and your major commands on the other. The cells of the matrix tell you what to do (send supply TF from Brisbane, move 3 bomber squadron to Townsville, etc).

1.4 Service Support:
1.4.1 General service support will be provided by through ANZAC

I would use this to manage transport fleet allocations and plan on convoys of fuel/supplies to your units.

1.5 Command and Signal:
1.5.1 HQ Southwest Pacific, Northern New Quinea, and Phillippine Operations
1.5.2 HQ Northwest Australia, ABDA

For this, I would be more specific and say where these units are going to be located and why? I would probably add base forces and support forces such as naval support and air support to this list.

Review and edit at your liesure. Support all changes either historically or by logistical considerations. Please, do not argue in game software terms. Finally, if you wish

to take an active part in this, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Send your changes, additions, critiques to richard.t.serrano@charter.net.

Hi. I think you need to specify what your strategic vision is and what your goals are.

[eMonticello]

Here's a theater map I found which delineates the commands that I found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... he_Pacific

[wg335910]

Yes, I certainly agree with your critique. What I put up was a very crude example of where I want to go. Saturday, I will be putting up a very detailed OOB. I'm thinking that once I get that done. I'll start writing basic OPORD's for it. Standard: Situation, Mission, Execution, Command & Signal, and Service support stuff. I think the fun part will be arguing over premises for initial HQs. For example, Do I try to hang to ADBACOM or do I accept defeat in Malaya and go straight to SEAC HQ. Again Thanks.

[Graymane]

Well, it depends on how much "role-playing" you want to do. You can either approach this as a game and try to beat it or pretend you don't know what happened and try to do better than historically. There is no right answer and I've played both ways and everywhere in between [:)] I think you are off to a great start though and I think you'll find it fun.

I think the first thing to do before writing an OPORD is to evaluate the entire situation and choose a strategic vision. The strategic vision should show how you are going to beat the Japanese. If you do X, Y and Z then you will win. The vision drives and informs everything else. When you have to decide what to do with a unit, the vision helps you make the decision. Examples are the Anaconda Plan by the North against the South. Compare that to the South who had great leaders and soldiers but no strategic vision at any level.

For the PTO, your strategic vision might be to destroy Japanese naval effectiveness. Another might be to destroy Japanese industry and will-to-fight. Either one of those could easily lead to the defeat of Japan. Those two visions will offer different approaches and missions and force allocations.

Once I have that level of vision, then I do it by the areas of operation I use on the map. So given the strategic vision I picked for this game, what is my plan for SE Asia? China? etc.

[wg335910]

Thank You For the Encouragement
 
Once everything is in place, my grand strategy will be relatively simple. Hold Wake Island at all costs. From there, use it as a springboard towards the Ryukus Islands via Marcus Island and the Bonin Islands. Once the Japanese comit to stopping me. An offensive out of Darwin towards Singapore via Timor can begin. All other operations will be a means to that end. Simply, the Marshalls and the Gilberts campaigns will be to secure my flank for operations against Marcus Island. The Mariannas will be to secure my flank towards the Bonins Islands. My northern New Guinea campaign will be to secure my flank for my advance towards Timor. As for Malaya, Burma, India, and China it will be simply a giant holding action. The tricky part will be in the beginning. The way I see it. Singapore and the Philippines are a write off. Everything that can get away needs to evacuate. The Malaya Command needs to pack its bags and head for either Calcutta or Darwin. The same with the Dutch East Indies Army and USAFFE. For obvious reasons, I would like to see most of those two commands end up in Darwin.
Anyway, once everything is written and the program is run a few times. Of which, I may need some of the more experienced gamers to help me along. I envision  team play where, the more experienced players can run the Wake Island and Darwin campaigns; and players new to the game, like me, can run the Solomons, New Guinea, SEAC and China campaigns. Also, I see auxillary roles for game masters, statisticians, and Logisticians. I believe it would be a really cool way to play this game. And finally, imagine a game where both side are scripted. What Fun.
 
In any case, as always, any and all comments, critiques and assistance would be greatly appreciated. Again, Thank You