Book VIII Roadmap and open decisions
Public edition ·
This is the single place for unresolved game-design choices and future theatre scope. Tasks can link here for execution; they must not become a competing canon. No expansion below has a release date or guaranteed force commitment.
Immediate campaign work
- Identify a separately funded, non-Austrian Soviet source for the Bohemian intervention. Resolve its command, field strength, transport, route guards and origin deduction.
- Finalise the Czechoslovak political rupture, Beneš and cabinet narrative, the 11th Division’s children and exact April equipment/serviceability.
- Confirm the German institutional name, commander, Panther refurbishment specification and eventual establishment.
- Set campaign dates and dependencies, especially overlapping northern/southern operations and the proposed summer date.
- Author objective footprints, hold/confirmation periods, deadlines, usable-installation requirements and operational cost thresholds for both factions.
- Validate the enlarged southern grid against real terrain, movement, road/rail capacity, support vulnerability, frontage and mission pacing.
- Complete the shared theatre ledger, verified emblems, air squadrons/bases and national release/transport arrangements.
- Write full result-dependent intro and epilogue clauses and compatible starting-map branches. Then implement linked-world persistence, migration and cinematic selection.
Coalition and alliance proposals
An emergency Allied Defence Council / Combined Allied Command is the proposed NATO-like framework. April liaison and operational agreements can grow into common logistics priorities and a later pact. The name and treaty timing remain proposals; historical NATO is not backdated to 1946. National recruitment, discipline and replacements remain national even when operational control is shared. German security forces remain under occupation authority.
Belgian and Dutch availability, Danish participation, Canadian retention and ANZAC movement require dated commitments. Free Romanian/Bulgarian forces start as recruiting cadres or small contingents; a division requires a real national split, manpower, equipment and an escape route. Czechoslovak forces are already an active southern story question rather than an unrelated future exile army.
Future theatres
| Area | Story and military dependency |
|---|---|
| Austria and the Danube | Preserve its initial obligations; resolve occupation-zone fronts, communications, bridgeheads and how the southern outcome reaches the Danube. |
| Adriatic and northeast Italy | Italian, American and British commitments; Yugoslav alignment, territorial disputes and cross-border logistics. |
| Greece and the Balkans | Distinguish guerrilla war from a conventional offensive; source Bulgarian, Romanian, Soviet, Yugoslav or Albanian participation separately. |
| Turkey and Iran | Straits security, Balkan pressure, eastern Anatolia and the Iranian crisis require their own diplomatic and logistical chain. |
| Scandinavia and Baltic approaches | Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and Danish choices; naval/air access, distance, weather and British/American commitments. |
| Asia | A possible large expansion or sequel; distinct Chinese, Soviet, Japanese-occupation and colonial commitments, not spare European stock. |
| India and the subcontinent | Date-sensitive British withdrawal, partition and national-army decisions; do not assume later states or armies already exist in 1946. |
| Africa and the Americas | Initially rear-area, political, industrial, maritime and transport context; no invented communist-state bloc in South America. |
The roadmap register retains the existing dependencies, sources and acceptance conditions for these areas. Each new front needs a political trigger, a dated force ledger, routes, sustainment and a coherent relationship to prior outcomes.
Equipment progression
The 104-family inventory is a research scope, not 104 completed units or an exhaustive historical catalogue. Distinct variants can require separate models, crew, ammunition and tests. Korean-era structures are comparative research; extending the game calendar or fielding later weapons requires its own decision. Historical identity, plausible adaptation, scenario allocation and implementation acceptance remain separate.
Known contradictions resolved by consolidation
| Earlier record | Current rule |
|---|---|
| July 1945 setting and 11th Armoured slice | War begins 16 April 1946; Helmstedt’s British core is 7th Armoured. |
| Support routinely absorbed into battalions | Independent, movable and attackable support counters. |
| Fighters owned by each ground battalion | Campaign air command allocates finite squadron strength. |
| Full German armoured division at the opening | Security units and cadre first; armoured main body later. |
| Automatic Austrian donor group for Bohemia | Austria retained by default; separate Bohemian source remains open. |
| Fixed later defeat despite earlier player victory | One saved chronological world drives results, maps, forces and narration. |
| 48/52 legacy stock treated as new universal establishments | Preserve old saves; v3 uses its declared establishments. |
| Brunswick as an objective on the current 13×9 board | Off-board context unless the board is explicitly expanded. |
| Commander-level language governing campaign films | Historian for campaign introductions; tactical commander language for mission briefings. |
| A reviewed script implies a completed film or game | Authorship, asset production, implementation, verification and release are separate. |
Unresolved proposals stay in the relevant book and this roadmap. Do not decide them merely to make the consolidation look complete.