mercenaries

[jatay3]

Mercenary wholesalers:

In Star Mercs most of the units listed seem rather small. For a small city-state yes. But why would any power of reasonable size go to the trouble of hiring them? Perhaps for specialty jobs(a traditional use of mercenaries). Or their could be wholesalers who collect them into division size lots and contract them out.

 

[Anthony]

Giving the cost of transporting mercs, they've got to be very high value per unit; this strongly favors elite, high-tech forces. They're probably typically used as special forces, trainers, or to stiffen a local force.

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Anthony:
Giving the cost of transporting mercs, they've got to be very high value per unit; this strongly favors elite, high-tech forces. They're probably typically used as special forces, trainers, or to stiffen a local force.

Exactly.

Of course, most of the mercs IMTU are hired as contractors, rather than as condottieri style units. Either that, or as members of "foreign" units, like the Papal Swiss Guard, the French Foreign Legion, or the British Gurkha Rifles. These latter units are often subsidised by the hiring government's allies...

On occasion, entire units of certain planetary governments may be found as "allies" on other worlds. This is particularly common when one or more of the governments in question is a Megacorporation. (This is one of the ways Megacorps launder their military power.)

All IMTU, of course.

Alan B

 

[jatay3]

And I believe I did mention "high-value per unit" when I said specialist units. And this also seems to be implied in Star Mercs. However the units given as examples don't all seem to be valueable enough to hire individualy. The Death Head's,or the SB Rangers would be hired like that. But a lot of them seem like they would be lost in the system. The Free Troopers sound a lot like something one would get in a group deal. Imagine a General: "look mister we just hired you so we could get those other units; play games and I'll have you fired"

 

[jatay3]

What if the ticket includes fighting against the Imperium? Theoretically that's illegal, but it would be done if profitable. However they might have a hard time collecting: the ticket would be legally null and void. So there would have to be special arrangements.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Good luck cashing in that blood chit, grunt. Bad War, or what?

 

[jatay3]

What if employers traded mercenary units like baseball managers trade players?

 

[orc65]

Mercenary worlds such as the Dorsai in Gordon R. Dicksons, Dorsai series. The Dorsai economy is entirely based on providing mercenary units and advisors to the rest of the known galaxy.

One prime candidate within the Imperium would be the Answerin in Vland. With fear regarded as a disease of the mind these guys would make the coldest, most efficient mercenaries I could think of.

Another example in literature would be the Hammers Slammers Series by David Drake.
These books give you great insight into what it's like to be a mercenary in a starspanning campaign.

 

[kaladorn]

Most mercenaries tend to be employed to either answer an immediate need for a small deployable force (as a striker/security element) or for a cadre to train larger indigenous forces in Counter Insurgent warfare. Some may be used to shore up peace-enforcement operations by the Imperium itself. Others will get used by corporations.

Once you hit a certain size/time frame, it makes more economic sense to train and equip your own standing forces.

I don't imagine you'll see Division sized merc ops too often. Probably Battalion or light Brigade might be the most likely top end.

Also note that many of these will be long-service vets retired from the Imperial forces, a further tie to Imperial policy (at least in terms of not taking contracts the Emperor wouldn't like).

For interesting examples, Rick Shelley's books Officer Cadet, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, etc. featuring the Dirigent Mercenary Corps (and a mercenary world) and also Joel Rosenberg's hard to find "Not for Glory" and "Hero" featuring Metzadan Mercenary Corp/Company. (Expatriate Israelis I think, IIRC)

 

[jatay3]

A Mercenary doesn't tend to have an ideology other than pragmatism (at least the force as a whole lacks a common one). This is not true of many national or ethnic forces. Usually, this ideology is less than a useful component.
---------------------------------
I'm not sure that's true. They don't have a political "ideology". They can have a warrior ideology-"brothers in arms", "legion of lost souls", etc. They also can have a patriotic loyalty to their homes if they all came from the same area. Not so much patriotism in the sense of loyalty to their countries political interests, as their country is to far away for their actions to affect it. But more analogical to what an athletic team feels for it's school- win glory and show that OUR planet has the best fighters in the world.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

I had a Vargr Merc Character once that got conscripted (in the middle of a job, no less) into some local conflict and the one thing I didn't understand was the reaction of the Brass when I had him resist the press ganging because they didn't even discuss payment. A predicament most certainly contrary to vargr nature!

"I kill for money" is an easy (and age old) concept. It should always be about the money. Ideological leanings are no gaurantee of a steady flow of expensive armaments, but good business sense should.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Money is the reason that we started the Motorcycle club Caste of Assassins (we were all military members, working for the government for money).

 

[Chuck Anumia]

See my other post on Mercenary Medals

 

[jatay3]

One thing that did bother me is that many adventures in Star Mercs seem like typical frontier mayhem. Reasonable enough except for one key point. Such things are usually decided quick. For any faction to summon offworlders would require about two months of lead time, unless it was right next to a Merc depot,or knew weeks in advance that it was coming. Even the "battle of Heya"(Star Mercs,p93-95)requires either a long lull or at least a long period of time while the Heyans are bashing at the Vargr on their own.
I suppose you could do the adventures in the book with the lead-time problem assumed.
Some adventures can't be done. It would really be impossible(and not just uncommon) to hire people for a one mission ticket, because by the time they
arrived the situation will have changed. A be-on-call type would be more likely. The only one missions I can imagine is if there was a coup or first-strike in the works; it wouldn't work for an ongoing war.
The lead-time problem also means that Mercs would have to bring something that the employer doesn't have. Which is another reason they cannot be mere goons; they wouldn't be worth the trouble as goons can be gotten anywhere. Therefore they have to have a minimum of quality.
Still Star Mercs doesn't address the leadtime problem properly.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

I have a mercenary org. that hires out "teams" from 3 people (corporal and two privates) for security work and such as well as squads, platoons, companys and so on up to the entire Corps.