Arsenal 1945 — Omega War

ARQ1 round 2 (rev #2) — the wider shelf: support & infantry weapons new

Bombers / missiles / flying bombs from this answer's note are covered in the ARQ2 round-2 block (§4); fortification doctrine in §5.

ARQ2 round 2 (rev #2) — strategic weapons & flying bombs new

ARQ3 round 2 (rev #2) — exhaustive support-arms sweep new

Items marked std are standard encyclopedic kit verified on general references; load-bearing claims carry citations. Full detail: packet §2 Claims 3.6–3.9 and the §3 support-arms addendum tables.

• US support park: artillery M101 105 / M114 155 / Long Tom / M115 8-in + M7/M12/M40 SP (M40 timing medium); AT 57 mm (fading), 3-in, 90 mm M1/M2 in dual AA/AT employment — the US "88-class" piece (Wikipedia); AA M16 quad-.50, Bofors; T34 Calliope rockets; infantry Garand/BAR/M1919/M2HB/bazooka + M2-2 flamethrower (24,601 by V-J Day) (Wikipedia); VT proximity fuze released for ground artillery Dec 1944 — a standing fire-support multiplier; vehicles jeep/CCKW/DUKW/Weasel/halftracks/ARVs; comms SCR-300/-536 — the deepest tactical radio net of any combatant high/std
• UK/Commonwealth: 25-pdr standard + 5.5-in/7.2-in/Sexton; 6-pdr/17-pdr/Archer/Achilles AT; Bofors + 3.7-in AA; Land Mattress rocket batteries in continuous First Canadian Army service Nov 1944–May 1945, disbanded at war's end — equipment extant, formation revivable (Wikipedia); section verified 10-man Bren gun-group/rifle-group + PIAT/2-in mortar at platoon (battleorder); Universal Carrier, Kangaroo APCs — the war's first dedicated APC fleet, AVRE/Crocodile funnies, Bailey bridging; WS No.19/38 comms high/std
• USSR: ZiS-3 (most-produced field gun of the war) + M-30/ML-20/A-19/D-1 + B-4 203 mm fortification-breaker; AT 45 mm/ZiS-2 + BS-3 ramp (§3); AA 61-K/52-K/DShK + ZSU-37; BM-31-12 "Andryusha" 300 mm — ~1,800 built 1944–45, the building-leveling rocket of the Berlin assault (Wikipedia); PPSh/PPS SMG battalions, SG-43/Maxim, PTRD/PTRS retained, ROKS-3 flame, systematic captured-Panzerfaust reuse + the entire Pf 150 plant and stockpile; Studebaker US6 as the rocket chassis, large lend-lease truck share; comms lend-lease dependence medium elsewhere high/std
• Fortification doctrine (the user's note): the Kursk pattern is the benchmark and it scales — 503,663 AT + 439,348 AP mines laid; 1,500 AT + 1,700 AP mines/km on key axes (4× Moscow-1941 density), multi-belt depth, pakfront AT strongpoints, wire, AT ditches, dug-in armor (Dupuy Institute) high. Equipment that goes with it: mine families both blocs now stock (incl. German Teller/S-mine inventories), detectors, dozers, Bailey/pontoon bridging, AVRE/flail breach kit, ShISBr-style assault engineers (§8B). Premise application [inference]: a stabilizing 1945–46 front mine-saturates fast — fortification is a phase behavior, and breaching is what attacker decks buy to answer it.

ARQ3 round 2c (rev #2) — small arms & grenades exhaustive new

Closes the residual depth gap: rounds 1–2 carried infantry small arms at std encyclopedic depth inside the support-park lists and under-covered grenades (US set never enumerated; Soviet F-1/RG-42 absent; rifle grenades thin). Per-item sweep for the USSR + Western Allies (+ France; re-armed German additions only); satellites/exiles stay at AR-A3 headline depth via pattern statements. Full detail: packet §2 Claim 3.10.

Inference (round 2c): small arms confirm the round-2 asymmetry at the individual-weapon level — the US is the only combatant with a semi-auto rifle as universal standard and holds the ground-level night-fighting counter (Sniperscope) plus a ready select-fire ladder (M2 now, T20E2 on the shelf); the Soviet answer is SMG mass now with the intermediate-cartridge generation (SKS/AS-44/RPD) one step behind the window; Britain upgrades at the margins. Grenade parks are at rough parity — but only the Soviets field hand-thrown shaped-charge AT (RPG-43/-6); the West answers with rifle grenades and the Gammon.

The rotation is documented machinery already draining the European roster in mid-1945. high new — scope-note addendum

• The points system (Adjusted Service Rating, 12 May 1945) sorted every soldier: occupation, Pacific, or home (National WWII Museum, Wikipedia).
• ~1 million soldiers earmarked Category II for the Pacific, including 13 infantry + 2 armored divisions: 400,000 direct from Europe (arriving Sept 1945–Jan 1946) and 400,000 more via eight weeks of US retraining (arriving by April 1946) (Wikipedia).
• First Army HQ was Downfall-bound (15 divisions planned for Operation Coronet) (Wikipedia).
• Eighth Air Force HQ stood up on Okinawa 16 July 1945 (personnel from XX Bomber Command; Doolittle assumed command 19 July; first B-29 received 8 Aug 1945) — Europe's premier strategic air force was being converted to a bomber never based in Europe (Dec 1943 decision) (Wikipedia, B-29).
• Redeployment was already documented as degrading combat effectiveness — high-point veterans leaving units even as the units shipped (Wikipedia).

Inference & downstream implication (recorded, not designed here): Unthinkable's 47-division attack assumption sits inside an army already flowing east — the US roster carries historically grounded "Pacific-earmarked" pressure the campaign layer can use: formations/air groups the war either keeps (at political cost) or loses on a timetable, feeding the user's war-morale / sue-for-peace framing. Flagged for the campaign design pass. Impact on prior research: the approved premise narration already says "the greatest army America ever raised begins to leave Europe" — ARQ4b deepens that line with the documented machinery; nothing contradicts.

ARQ4 round 2 (rev #2) — captured pools & production-restart reality new

Asymmetric answer [inference]: Panther/Hetzer/Pz IV-class equipment scales (stocks + three documented lines + the French battalion precedent); Tiger-class does not (no plant, 3-digit lifetime production); Elefant is anecdote; French 1940 stock is one flavor squadron. This evidence base drives the §8C historical-accuracy position.

Reworked (rev #2): what "phase" means — a two-axis model answers rework-bands

Your note was right: SD2's phases exist "to ensure that battles don't start off with strong weapons right off the bat" — they are match-time windows, not calendar years. The rev-1 table conflated two different axes. Reworked definition:

A phase is an in-match escalation window. SD2-verified mechanics: Phase A and B are 10-minute timed windows, C runs to match end; cards are slotted per phase; income presets trade early weight against late weight. The function is pacing: recon and infantry fight before the heavy metal arrives — in every match, at every campaign date.

Worked example: a T-54 is an E2 item — before the campaign reaches E2 it cannot appear in any deck; after unlock it is still only a Phase-C card. An SU-76M is E0 and slots A–C forever. The rev-1 "Early/Mid/Late" table was really the era-band axis and is renamed accordingly (packet §4). synthesis on verified SD2 mechanics

8.1b Support-air deepening (rev #2) — transports, paradrop, gliders, liaison, night new · answers deepen-air

Role-level per your note's scope; squadron OOBs deliberately not taken (the To&E-style depth waits for the divisions cycle).

• US: C-47 Skytrain mass (836 at Varsity alone); C-46 Commando (72 at Varsity — 19 shot down; Ridgway banned it from further paradrops: unvented wings, no self-sealing tanks); C-54 strategic transport; Waco CG-4A glider (900+ at Varsity); L-4/L-5 artillery-spotting & liaison (3,590 L-5s delivered to Sept 1945 — FAC, wire-laying, para-cargo); P-61 Black Widow night fighter (two ETO squadrons, 53 kills + 9 V-1s); F-5/F-6 photo-recon (Wikipedia Varsity, C-46, L-5, P-61) high
• UK/Commonwealth: Dakota fleet (752 at Varsity) + 42 C-54s; Stirling/Halifax as glider tugs and special-duty supply-droppers; Horsa (28 troops / jeep + AT gun) and Hamilcar (7-ton — Tetrarch/Locust capable) gliders, 420 at Varsity; Auster AOP flown by Royal Artillery officers for fire direction (Normandy→Germany); Mosquito PR + NF.30 night fighters (Wikipedia Auster, Air observation post) high
• USSR: Li-2 (licence DC-3, ~3,000 by 1945) + lend-lease C-47s — transport/supply-drop/night-bomber workhorse; Po-2 ubiquitous liaison/night-harassment; the airborne arm is elite foot infantry, not a delivery capability — corps converted to Guards Rifle 1942–44 and fought as line infantry; no meaningful glider fleet by 1945. Soviet "air assault" in window = small Li-2 drops at best flagged inference (Wikipedia Li-2, Soviet Airborne Forces) high (facts)
• France: C-47s; AAC.1 Toucan (French-built Ju 52) entering production at war's end medium
• Re-armed Germans: Ju 52 stocks in collected/satellite hands — token transport at most, consistent with the token-squadron cap flagged inference
• Supply drop as a card-able capability: Stirling/Halifax SD flights + the C-47 fleet (West); Li-2/Po-2 partisan-supply tradition (USSR) synthesis

Squad/team card types mirroring 1945 practice — names + historical basis only. To&E counts and per-division card counts are deferred to the historical-divisions cycle, exactly as your evidence-matrix note scoped it. Organizations verified via battleorder.org / bayonetstrength.uk; ShISBr via Wikipedia "Assault Engineering Brigades". Genre calibration (E4, this sweep): SD2's nine deck tabs (logistics/recon/infantry/tank/ support/AT/AA/artillery/air) and CoH3's roster pattern — calibration only, never service evidence. The cross-check added four classes the draft under-weighted: snipers, command/logistics cards, recovery vehicles, SPAAGs.

VDV note: Soviet "airborne" cards are elite Guards rifle infantry — the delivery capability does not exist at scale in window (§8.1b). types high · all counts deferred

8B.1 Variants & upgrades catalog (rev #2 addendum — requested deep E4 pass) new

How the genre models variants (E4 calibration only): (1) separate-card variants — SD2's Firefly is its own card beside the Sherman V; (2) per-squad munitions upgrades — CoH3's BAR package, then a second BAR per squad; (3) configuration trade-offs — SD2/WARNO veterancy buys quality at the cost of availability (e.g. 4/8/16 rookie vs 2/4/6 elite per phase), transport choice nested in the infantry card, phase slotting per card. Recommendation: major kit = separate cards; ammo/weapon packages = munitions upgrades; veterancy/transport/phase = configuration.

Night-war design note [synthesis]: this pass surfaces a coherent night layer — German IR (Vampir/Sperber/Uhu) vs Allied radar night fighters (P-61, NF.30) vs Soviet Po-2 night harassment — a Phase-C/weather design input the divisions cycle should keep visible. Round-2c addendum: the symmetry now runs to ground level — the US M3 carbine + M1/M2 IR Sniperscope (§5 round 2c) is the Allied infrared answer to the Vampir, combat-proven on Okinawa (~30% of Japanese rifle/carbine-fire casualties) and in production at two plants when the contracts were cut. Small-arms IR is a both-blocs capability in window, not a German monopoly.

Answers the ARQ2 note ("How much 'fun' should we have… wonder-weapon tier? One per deck?") and the canonical-gate request ("explore historical accuracy vs rule of cool. Push back as needed…").

The three-zone dial (proposed design rule)

Every roster item sits in exactly one zone, and copy never blends them:

1. Baseline (historically grounded): documented stocks, lines, or dates put it in the window at the stated scale — the approved tier system doing its job.
2. Stretch (flagged): documented capacity + a mobilization-acceleration argument (Centurion ramp acceleration, ARL 44 early turrets, T29 production resumed). Already covered by AR-A4 flags.
3. What-if (explicit fiction levers): campaign-level toggles the player consciously enables — e.g. "forced Allied restart of German production" (your Tiger scenario), Wasserfall-class paper SAMs. Never on by default; UI-labeled as counterfactual.

Pushback verdicts on the named wants (evidence: §6 round 2)

Wonder-weapon proposal (Option C recommended)

Option C — dedicated wonder slot: exactly one wonder card per deck, Phase-C only, high activation cost, every card a named, documented artifact. Candidate pool from evidence: T28 "Doom Turtle", Tortoise, the actual Super Pershing one-off, IS-7 sketch, JB-2 barrage / captured V-2 strike (off-map), Maus salvage (Soviet trophy), Elefant — the Berlin pair. Alternatives: Option A — no wonder tier (paper stays opt-in flagged); Option B — status quo (paper tier opt-in, no slot mechanic). Rationale for C: it concentrates rule-of-cool into one auditable slot instead of diluting tier honesty across the roster; SD2/WARNO precedent shows one-off prestige cards read as identity, not imbalance.

Round-2 status (rev #2): gap 5 (air) substantially closed at role level (§8.1b; squadron OOBs deliberately not taken — your note scoped role level); gap 6 partially closed (French air typed + AAC.1 note; USN Atlantic still medium); gap 1 (German depot totals) still open — round 2 added restart-precedent evidence but no inventory count. New round-2 gaps, all tagged medium: 9. M40 155 mm GMC ETO timing · 10. ZSU-37 production counts · 11. AAC.1 Toucan 1945 production state · 12. PaK 43 / heavy-AT stock levels for re-armed Germans · 13. Soviet captured-Panzerfaust issue scale (practice documented, quantities not).

Round-2 search log (rev #2, 2026-06-10, main session) new

26 searches across tracks T1–T6; stopping rule per track: stop when 2 consecutive searches add no new items, soft cap 8–10/track. T1 ground exhaustive (10): M18/M20 recoilless · Super Bazooka · Land Mattress · SKS · BS-3 · BM-31-12 · 90 mm dual-role · M2-2 flamethrower · Panzerfaust 150/250 · Kursk mine-density doctrine (final pair verification-only → dry; standard park items carried on general references). T2 strategic (5): JB-2 · B-32 · Backfire/R-1 · Bat/Azon · Wasserfall (dry — Soviet-heavies absence date-derived). T3 captured pools (4): 503e RCC Panthers · Kassel + Nibelungenwerk plant states · Char B1 13e Dragons · Tiger II/Elefant survivors (dry — 38(t)/ satellite angles already held). T4 air (4): C-46/C-54 + Varsity · glider states · Li-2 + VDV-as-infantry · L-4/L-5/Auster/P-61 (dry at role level). T5 taxonomy (3 + 2 E4): US squad · ShISBr · British section · SD2 tabs · CoH3 roster cross-check. T6 phase/wonder (0): synthesis on rev-1-verified SD2 mechanics. Dead ends: none new; gap 1 re-confirmed open.

Round 2b (rev #2 addendum — user-requested variants/upgrades deep pass; 8 searches): M19/M37/M41 Light Combat Team · M45/Jumbo/Calliope · Sherman Tulip + Churchill funnies · Tempest II + Spitfire F.21 · SU-100 + T-44-100 (negative: postwar) · StG 44 Vampir + Panther Sperber/Uhu IR · CoH3 upgrade/veterancy mechanics (E4) · SD2/WARNO transport/veterancy/availability (E4). Outcome: §8B.1 catalog; SU-100 added to §6.2 (round-1 omission); T-44-100 tagged paper-edge.

Round 2c (rev #2 addendum 2 — dedicated small-arms & grenades sweep, track T7; 15 searches; sub-track soft cap 8–10, stop when 2 consecutive add nothing): US (5): M3/T3 carbine + Sniperscope Okinawa · T20E2 limited procurement · M9A1/M7 + Mk 2 rifle-grenade set · M2 carbine/M3A1/Johnson LMG · Mk 3/M15/AN-M8/M18 set (verification-only). UK (3): Patchett trials 44–45 · Inglis Hi-Power + No.5 Jungle Carbine · Gammon/Hawkins/No.69/No.77. USSR (5): AS-44 Tula batch + district trials · M44 carbine · DPM 1944 (follow-up) · F-1/RG-42/RPG-43/RPG-6 (date conflict → gap 15) · RPD m.1944. France (1): MAS-44 ([verify] resolved — navy adoption, 6,200). Re-armed Germans (1): StG 45(M)/Gerät 06H + MG 45 (both paper). Satellites/exiles: pattern statements only (AR-A3). Stopping: every sub-track closed under cap with all named candidates swept; grenade-set closers returned [std] verification without novel classes — sweep declared dry. New gaps, all tagged medium: 14. small-arms issue-scale granularity (theater distribution Aug 45) · 15. RPG-6 1945 status conflict (one capture: withdrawn Apr 45; encyclopedic: serves into the 1950s — roster impact nil) · 16. MG 45 build count. Outcome: §5 round-2c block; packet Claim 3.10 + infantry/grenade table rows; §8B.1 IR-symmetry addendum.