HQ and Command Ranges

[Elxaime]

I thought I'd raise an issue that has flummoxed me and see what the veterans thought. This issue is the numbers of HQ and command ranges.

In France 1914, for example, a German Divisional HQ has a command range of six. The German Division also has three subordinate brigade HQ with ranges of 4. As a result, a 1914 era German infantry division with four HQ can cover out to a distance of ten hexes and be in command. In HPS France 1914 the scale is 1 km per hex.

In Danube 1985, a typical Soviet Tank Division has one HQ, the divisional HQ, with a range of 10 hexes. The scale in D85 is 1 mile per hex.

Accounting for the difference in scales, a German 1914 division can cover 10 kilometers. A Soviet 1985 division can cover 16-17 kilometers.

This really seems strange. In 1914, they used motorcycles/bicycles, early cars/trucks, horses, runners and pigeons to get the word out. When fighting was static, they could lay wires, but transmission and reception was slower than modern times. The few bits of technology they had were concentrated at higher levels and generally not available below regiment/battalion.

In 1985, modern wireless communications were widely available in every modern developed country army, especially in a front-line Soviet Tank Division. Hand held radios were widely available and each AFV had a radio.

Even granting the idea (which is controversial) that Soviet 1985 doctrine was so rigid that they just sat around waiting for higher ups to tell them what to do, they certainly possessed communications capabilities far, far in excess in quantity and capacity to what the Kaiser's men had in 1914. And I don't think the German Army circa 1914 was that nimble to compensate for the difference. There's also the issue of numbers of HQ - the Soviet Division has one, the Kaiser's Army has four - this means a lot when you consider how lack of an undisrupted HQ in range can affect a division in a HPS game, e.g. low ammo (1914), low fuel ammo (1985), lesser disruption recovery, etc.

What gives? Why does the Soviet Army of 1985 have a combat radius not quite twice what the German Imperial Army of 1914 possessed? And why do they get only one HQ when the Deutches Heer gets four?

Just seems strange. There would have to be a huge weighting of this for doctrine and I don't think the Soviet Army of 1985 would come out as more dogmatic and inflexible than the German Army 1914, which history showed as still using Napoleonic-style mass charges. Seems to me the Soviet Army needs more HQ per division and also greater command range. Ditto I assume for NATO.