Divisions 1945 — Omega War

Method: all evidence gathered via main-session web search/fetch on 2026-06-11 (research subagents have no web access — constraint carried from the audience, fantasy, and arsenal cycles). Stopping rule (exhaustive) honored: 14 search batches (54 queries + 1 verification fetch); the final batch produced only granularity on already-mapped angles — no novel formation classes, factions, or evidence categories. Confidence tags: [high] multi-source/encyclopedia-verified · [medium] single/secondary capture · [carried] reused from approved artifacts · inference labeled.

• The Aug-1945 standing board is documented on both sides — army level everywhere, division level for most of the West. US Third + Seventh Armies designated occupation forces 15 June 1945 under USFET; Berlin sequence 2nd Armored → 82nd Airborne (2 Aug); BAOR formed 25 Aug 1945 (I/VIII/XXX Corps Districts + Berlin); 25,000-man Canadian Army Occupation Force; French First Army (~10 divisions in Germany at VE Day). Soviet side: GSOFG (Zhukov, Wünsdorf, 9 June 1945) with its army set and HQ towns verified; Northern Group in Poland (300–400k, 30 rifle divisions); Central Group in Austria/Hungary. The Unthinkable force concept is now split by support level: the 47-division attack, ~100-division Allied pool, German-remobilization lever, and Soviet numerical superiority are directly supported; the exact 64 US / 35 British+Dominion / 4 Polish allocation remains a secondary-source breakdown.
• All five fronts populate, and the two genuinely hot edges are documented: XXII Corps' 266-mile corps-thin line in western Bohemia and the Morgan Line, where the 88th Infantry Division faces a Yugoslav Army of ~800,000. The USSR has troops on Norwegian soil (Finnmark) until 25 Sept 1945.
• Division anatomy lands as schema inputs, discharging the arsenal To&E deferral: US ID ~14,000 / US AD (light) 10,937 / UK armd 14,964 (338 tanks) / UK ID 18,347 / Soviet RD 9,435 vs Guards 10,670 (organic SU-76) / tank corps ≈168 tanks·13 rifle cos / mech corps ≈175 tanks·33 rifle cos / VG 10,000 (6 line bns) / Panzer-Division 45 at 1:5 panzer:panzergrenadier / 2e DB 14,454 US-pattern.
• Shortlists have real identity: 1st ID (the division that stays), 2nd Armored (first into Berlin), 82nd Airborne, 7th Armoured (Berlin parade), 11th Armoured (Comet) — vs 8th Guards (Chuikov), 2nd GTA (first into Berlin; the IS-3 parade), 1st GTA (Katukov), Kantemirovskaya — plus Polish II Corps (110k) and 1st Polish Armoured (the Maczków enclave) carrying the exile spotlight.
• Roster dynamics are asymmetric and dated — the US drains (points 85→50; 8M→684k by mid-1947; Constabulary 1 July 1946), the UK demobilizes by name and date (Guards Armoured → infantry 12 June 1945; 1st Airborne disbanded 15 Nov; 6th Airborne to Palestine Sept), the USSR thins but hardens (demob law 23 June 1945; corps→divisions from July 1945), the Polish People's Army grows (370k→440k), France is still standing divisions up. That asymmetry is the campaign clock.
• Escalation evidence converges on echelons, not dates (forward detachments, desant, kampfgruppen, combat commands) — and the genre's own spread (SD2 time-phases [carried] vs WARNO economy-only, verified this sweep as genre calibration, closing arsenal gap 7 only for WARNO deck mechanics) leaves room for Omega War's commitment-band model (§9).
• Refit gives Pillar 1 four faction grammars: US individual replacement (body persists, blood churns) · Soviet cadre rebuild (phoenix divisions, 2–5 formations) · British cannibalization (59th Staffordshire dies so others live) · German doctrinal rebirth (50 VG refits + 30 new for the Ardennes).

2b. Visual Summary — Five-Front Board

2c. Visual Summary — 1945-46 Roster Timeline

3.1 Front 1 — Central Germany (zonal line) — base game

3.2 Front 2 — North German Plain & Baltic — DLC #1

3.3 Front 3 — Czechoslovakia–Austria–Hungary — DLC #2

3.4 Front 4 — Balkans–Adriatic — DLC #3

3.5 Front 5 — Scandinavia — DLC #4

Inference (DRQ1): the five-front board is live everywhere in August 1945 — every front has both blocs in contact or short-march proximity (Bohemia and the Morgan Line are the hot edges; Norway has Soviet troops in-country). The approved front ladder is not a counterfactual map; it is the actual disposition. inference

All counts are schema inputs (DR-A4) discharging the arsenal's explicit To&E / per-division-card-count deferral (§4A gate record). Paper establishment vs field reality recorded where sources support it.

Card-class mapping (schema input): the accepted §4A taxonomy holds without amendment — every pattern decomposes into the accepted card classes plus arsenal §3 vehicle cards. What DRQ2 adds is proportion data: a tank-corps deck is tank-card-heavy with thin infantry availability; a mech-corps deck doubles the infantry slots; a VG deck gets 6 line-squad availability units vs 9 for a 1944-pattern US/UK infantry deck; a UK armoured deck pairs each tank card with an infantry card; Guards rifle decks carry the SU-76 card organically, standard rifle decks don't (in-window). inference, grounded in Claims 2.1–2.9

WARNO-roster style: name · identity hook · roster clock (DRQ4) · equipment via arsenal §3 tiers [carried]. These are candidates with evidence — the actual game roster is the inserted follow-up cycle's job (route record, §1).

5.1 United States — the drawdown faction

Sources for the U.S. shortlist: 1st Infantry Division; Berlin sequence source; 82nd Airborne Division Museum; CMH: U.S. Constabulary; 86th Infantry Division; 97th Infantry Division; carried equipment hooks in research/arsenal-1945.md.

5.2 UK / Commonwealth — the demobilization faction

Sources for the UK/Commonwealth shortlist: National Army Museum Berlin parade programme; British Army of the Rhine; Guards Armoured Division; Guards post-war history; 1st Airborne Division; 6th Airborne Division in Palestine; Canada DND CAOF report; 4th Indian Division.

5.3 USSR — the consolidation faction

Sources for the Soviet shortlist: 8th Guards Army; 2nd Guards Tank Army; 1st Guards Tank Army overview; 3rd Shock Army; 4th Guards Tank Division / Kantemirovskaya; 2nd Guards Tatsinskaya Tank Corps; AUSA LWP-14 on 6th Guards Tank Army; 1st Guards Breakthrough Artillery Division.

5.4 Poland (People's Army) · Western exiles · Re-armed Germans · Satellites

Sources for combined factions: Polish Land Forces strength capture; Second Polish Corps; 1st Polish Armoured Division; Maczek virtual museum; 1st Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade; Disarmed Enemy Forces; FRUS Control Council record; Bulgarian First Army; Tudor Vladimirescu Division; Yugoslav Army aggregate.

6.1 Claims

6.2 The timetable (who stays / leaves / arrives)

Inference (DRQ4): the timetable hands the campaign a ready-made tension curve per faction — US decks degrade or leave on a points clock unless the war freezes it (the ARQ4b war-morale lever [carried]); UK decks lose named formations on dates; Soviet decks consolidate upward; the Polish People's Army is the one expanding roster; re-armed Germans are a mid-window unlock by the documented re-arm lag. inference

7.1 Historical doctrine

7.2 Genre mechanization E4 — calibration only, never service evidence

Inference (DRQ5): history's escalation unit is the echelon/task group, not the calendar year — a division arrives as recon/forward detachment, then first echelon, then committed reserves. That maps onto an in-match A/B/C reading as commitment stages (matching the arsenal ARQ5 round-2 rework: "phases gate strength off the start, not by year") and leaves campaign-date material to the orthogonal era-band axis. This is the evidence base §9 builds on. inference

Inference (DRQ6): "a division persists and evolves" had four distinct historical grammars — US (continuous body, churning blood), Soviet (phoenix cadre), British (triage between formations), German (doctrinal rebirth). Pillar-1 persistence mechanics can differentiate factions with historically honest refit rules instead of one universal reinforcement mechanic. inference

9.1 In-match deployment bands (how a division deploys over a battle)

Three bands named for what divisions historically did (Claims 5.1–5.4), not for clock years:

Each deck authors per-band availability counts WARNO/SD2-style (per-card quantity × veterancy trade-offs, Claim 5.6 / arsenal §4A.1). Mechanically a band is commitment, not a timer: advancing bands costs an explicit escalation action (build-order/resource gate per the approved deck-as-roster loop) — "the plan comes together" stays a player decision. design synthesis grounded in Claims 5.1–5.6

9.2 Era-band E0–E2 verdict: AMEND (recommended)

Keep the three campaign bands but redefine them from equipment-dates to roster states driven by the DRQ4 timetable: E0 = the Aug-1945 standing board (§3); E1 = the winter-45/spring-46 board after the documented departures/arrivals/conversions (§6.2) and re-arm completions; E2 = the mid-46 board (Constabulary-era West, consolidated Soviet divisions, reward-shelf material per arsenal §4). Equipment tiers stay the bands' content [carried]; the driver becomes who is on the roster. Alternatives available at the gate: adopt-as-carried (pure equipment bands) or replace (continuous timeline, no bands) — name either in notes.

9.3 Deck construction across a short or long campaign

• Short campaign: lock to one era-band (default E0). Decks are authored once from the division's To&E proportions (§4) + arsenal tiers; in-match bands A/B/C carry all escalation.
• Long campaign: the deck is a persistent roster evolving between battles on three historically grounded dials:
  1. Veterancy persistence — surviving cards keep experience (Pillar 1).
  2. Refit culture (Claims 6.1–6.4) — each faction repairs losses its own way: US individual replacements dilute veterancy but never lose cards; Soviet decks can burn down and cadre-rebuild (card lost now, reborn stronger later); UK decks may disband a card to refill others; German decks rebuild destroyed cards under the old name at a cost.
  3. Roster events — the §6.2 timetable fires as campaign pressure (points departures, Pacific earmarks [carried ARQ4b], conversions like Guards Armoured, arrivals like 52nd Lowland), each a visible event the war's course can suspend or accelerate (the war-morale lever [carried]).

Token granularity, map representation, and campaign pacing remain campaign-design-pass property — untouched (non-goal). Glossary candidates from this proposal — deployment band, refit culture — are gated separately in §12.

Assumption register after research (DR-A1–A5)

Approved terms are appended to research/glossary.md (flat mode) at Stage 3. Source: divisions-1945. Neither candidate exists in the current glossary (checked 2026-06-11). Both arise from the §9 proposal — if the proposal is recorded-only, approved terms are still appended (they describe the artifact's vocabulary either way). Choose one option per term required.

New gaps this sweep (recorded, not papered over):

1. US Third/Seventh Army division-by-division station list, Aug 1945 — army/corps frame high; named-division sample medium. CMH "Order of Battle ETO" volumes identified as follow-up source.
2. Soviet division-level granularity inside GSOFG/CGF armies — army level verified with HQ towns; division level open (kin of arsenal gap 4).
3. Soviet formations in Czechoslovakia Aug–Dec 1945 — presence/withdrawal high, composition open.
4. French First Army named-division set in Germany Aug 1945 — "10 divisions" aggregate high; names beyond 2e DB partial.
5. Greece garrison detail — 4th Indian vs British 4th Infantry Division 1945 split; sources blur.
6. Bornholm Soviet occupation (Denmark, front 5) — not swept.
7. 2nd/3rd Armored "heavy" 1942 organization — common usage, not separately verified (7n).
8. 9th Guards Army ex-airborne composition — not verified.
9. Romanian/Bulgarian division-level OOB Aug 1945 — army/corps level only.
10. Yugoslav army-by-army division lists post-March 1945 — aggregate only.
11. Polish People's Army division list (10 ID + 5 armd bde) — single capture.
12. GSOFG formation-date variance — 29 May directive vs 9 June establishment; both recorded, no roster impact.
13. BAOR strength at formation (80,000) — single capture.
14. Air armies per group of forces beyond 16th Air Army's existence — AR-A2-scope kin; composition open.
15. 6th Guards Tank Army southern-front availability — Vienna lineage high, but the August 1945 baseline places it in Manchuria; campaign return/redirect is a design choice, not an automatic front-3 roster fact.

Scope clarification, 2026-06-12: Danish local forces, Italian co-belligerent combat groups, and Austrian local/security formations are roster-cycle checks if proposed as playable decks or attachments, not DRQ1 front-OOB blockers.

Arsenal gaps 1–16 where touched: gap 1 (German depot stocks) untouched — still caps re-armed German scale at medium (the custody/staff evidence strengthens organization, not equipment). Gap 4 partially narrowed (army-level Soviet in-theater granularity now in hand). Gap 7 closed for genre mechanics only (WARNO verified, Claim 5.6). Gap 8 materially narrowed / force-concept closed (Unthinkable's attack scale and German-remobilization lever are directly supported, Claim 1.2); the exact 64/35/4 allocation remains medium because it rests on secondary-source breakdown. Others untouched.

Totals: 14 batches · 54 search queries · 1 verification fetch. No novel formation classes or evidence angles in batch 14 → exhaustive stopping rule honored.

15. Compile