Noble Militaries

[Blue Ghost]

Anyone?

Lords, great and small, creating their own personal guards, armed forces; palace guards, special security, dragoons, honor guards, elite service men, special ranks of all sorts?

How does it work? Whom do they answer to? What is their role?

 

[McPerth]

I guess this will depend on the kind of noble we speack about.

If this noble is also a planet leader (likely to have governement code A or B), those will be the planetary forces.

For higher nobles, they may be part (or most) of the subsector or sector colonial forces (here I'd list the 4518th).

For nobles without an efective fief (representatives, but not 'reigning' of a planet or honor nobles), I don't believe they have standing forces.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

For some reason I also envisioned the Imperial to be much like the later Roman empire. Armed retainers of a noble would be like the bucellarii of Justinian's and Belisarius's time.

Bucellarii (the Latin plural of Bucellarius; literally "biscuit–eater",[1] Greek: Βουκελλάριοι) is a term for a unit of soldiers in the late Roman and Byzantine empire, that were not supported by the state but rather by some individual such as a general or governor, in essence being his "household troops".

These units were generally quite small, but, especially during the many civil wars, they could grow to number several thousand men. In effect, the bucellarii were small private armies equipped and paid by wealthy influential people. As such they were quite often better trained and equipped, not to mention motivated, than the regular soldiers of the time.

The Duke of Regina's Huscarls seem a good representative of this.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Bucellarii (the Latin plural of Bucellarius; literally "biscuit–eater",[1] Greek: Βουκελλάριοι)

So, when I said "son of a biscuit-eater!" as a kid......... o:

 

[Blue Ghost]

A wealthy unlanded noble might have some sort of guard around him, or a unit upon which the local government can call on in times of need.

 

[McPerth]

A wealthy unlanded noble might have some sort of guard around him, or a unit upon which the local government can call on in times of need.

I don't believe most govermments would like to have private military units inside their territories.

If the governement is strong enough to deal with them if it needs so, then they will probably not need them, and the advantage of being able to call on them is voided, and if is not strong enough, they will fear them, as they may challenge the government.

Of course, this unlanded nobel may have some bodiguards (and I guess most will), but nothing that cluld be called a military unit, IMHO.

 

[shield]

I think the GURPs nobles book covers it quite nicely. They answer to their noble. He may second them to Imperial service, or in support of the local govt at his discretion.

I think they are still subject to local laws, or various imperial laws as applicable. As an Imperial noble is part of the Imperial govt. They can more easily get weapons permits etc.

The noble can equip his forces as he sees fit, and their size is generally dependant on his budget.

Local govt may ask him to stop parading battledress equipped troops around the streets, and higher level nobles may enquire if his military forces seem to be bigger than he has a need for.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Blue Ghost]

Which book is that in?

Also, how would a noble go about raising his army?

 

[mike wightman]

Emm, GURPS Traveller Nobles - the clue is in the first sentence...

 

[Blue Ghost]

So, is this a non-thread? I thought people would be chiming in with all kinds of unique military units; i.e. special forces type of stuff, or something akin to old fashioned palace guards, or some kind of super fancy elite unit that dressed in garish uniforms, but carried some real lethal energy weapon with the equivalent of an M203 and bayonet attached to it.

I guess I was wrong.

For you people who play nobles, do your characters or noble NPCs ever have their own entourages with armed escort? Is there a "household cavalry" for your nobles? A squadron of fighters? A battalion or company of troops to do your nobles bidding or something? .... a couple of ugly looking thugs with black-jacks?

Anybody?

 

[aramis]

IMTU, most planetary landed nobles have huscarles - typically a regiment for a duke, a Battalion for a count, two companies for a viscount and a company for a baron.

Usually these units are grav-mobile infantry, with a detachement of MP's for "Household Guards".

 

[Gray Pennell]

With the lack of Imperial forces to call on in time of troubles the Marquis of Mertactor created a small private force. The original unit was formed during an uprising on Squallia. Created from some injured, retired and mustered out troops from the 255th Marine Commando that were forced off Squallia it was to be sent to crush the remaining terrorist. Unfortunately the Marquis suffered great embarrassment when his planed commander Captain Otto Huber refused to take command of the unit, choosing to stay with his commandos for the final crack down. In anger the Marquis had captain Otto promoted to Major than transferred to the backwater Imperial 208 Fleet as commander of their commandos. The unit still exist and is waiting to be tested under fire.

The Marquis Hussars Reinforced Company or Lite Battalion)
1st Platoon: Zero-G/Commandos (troops from the
2nd Platoon: Jump Infantry
3rd Platoon: Grav Assault troops
4th Platoon: Marquis Guard aka reserves
1 Platoon Training

The unit is not designed for long term conventional action. Instead the Marquis intends it to put out brush fires. The Commandos are used for counter terrorist or to recon a target. Onces the target area is reconed the Jump inf come in and secure the DZ (space port is usually the favored location) so the Heavy Assault unit can come in followed by the reserves if need be. From here the target is taken out.

Being a small unit the Marquis Hussars are issued tech level 15 equipment bought by the Marquis from Mora Marine Armaments at a considerable discount. The 1st Platton is specialized in Zero-G-Combat something not seen in most private forces. The reserve unit, also has the role as being the Marquis Body Guard, is most known for its role in official ceremonies. It appears in the units formal dress of Blue and Yellow uniforms modeled on Napoleon I's 5th Hussars down to the cape, sabor and bear skin hats. http://members.upnaway.com/~obees/soldiers/ihussar.jpg

 

[Blue Ghost]

I guess a knight would anything from a fire team to a platoon then. If he had the cash he could flip the bill for any unit he could afford, but one wonders if rank dictates unit size, or whether it's purely $$$.

One also wonders what the laws are for, as Shield put it, parading your boys around town. What rules of etiquette or customs handed down from tradition/the-emperor are recognized? Would a noble's personal guard be immune to things like traffic violations and other scoff law-ing?

 

[Otto Harkaman]

I go more for CT so I haven't read much of the other manifestations of Traveller and therefore feel free to suggest that the Imperial Court has an Imperial Herald that records: coat of arms, duties, privileges and expected military services of the Imperial nobility.

I think there is also a mercantile side to this, aren't there many Imperial corporations that provide troops for hire that can trace their linage back many millennium? The family owners of controlling stock in these corporations seem of the oldest aristocratic families.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I go more for CT so I haven't read much of the other manifestations of Traveller and therefore feel free to suggest that the Imperial Court has an Imperial Herald that records: coat of arms, duties, privileges and expected military services of the Imperial nobility.

I think there is also a mercantile side to this, aren't there many Imperial corporations that provide troops for hire that can trace their linage back many millennium? The family owners of controlling stock in these corporations seem of the oldest aristocratic families.

Wow, that's really interesting. Core keeps a master list of who's who in the noble army scheme of things, which probably gets updated via x-boat on a regular basis. That's pretty nifty.

 

[Enoki]

I would think it followed typical practices from history:

That is, there are two forms it could take.

1. The noble is sufficently wealthy and powerful enough that he can raise a standing army of some size for his use. This might be a noble that controls a planet or system for example. He / she raises an army to defend the system. This person could also raise a much larger one in times of actual war.

2. A noble is granted permission by warrant. This would be say a count on some planet requires all the Marquis' he controls to raise say a regiment each. The Marquis each require Barons under their control to raise a battalion. The Barons require Knights to raise a company.
This would be much like the European feudal system was.

A different form might be that certain nobles are put in command of a fairly sizable military unit and given funding to run that unit with express goals in mind for the Emperor or an Archduke. This would be more like the Roman system of legions was in the later empire.
But, given the slow rate of communications and the vastness of the Imperium I'd think that most of the time the nobility acts semi- to nearly completely autonomous of central authority.

 

[Gray Pennell]

One of my players was an intelligence but mustered out and award a Baron Title we figure for services rendered. In the adventure he is a mission leader on a secrete mission attached to it is a squad of marine commandos commanded by Otto (now mustered out) from my original post. So yes my noble has a small entourage but no it isn't his personal unit at least not at this point. I am waiting for the encounter when Otto meets up with the marquis again

 

[Icosahedron]

My 2Cr - whatever isn't prohibited is compulsory.
If there isn't a law against private armies, someone rich enough will have one - and it's size/equipment will probably be a status symbol.

 

[shield]

I would imagine any noble above the rank of knight could raise some sort of armed force. vtirtually all will have some security forces - the nobles residence and family will need some protection vs press intrusion, theives and misc troublemakers. They will probably be something like the royal protection detail or the US secret service - i.e. undercover cops.

I imagine that the noble could get them weapons permits etc. as part of his noble privilages. As part of the nobles retinue they could probably bypass some of a local planetary govts restrictions e.g. customs, travel regs etc. Depending on the govt they might still get done for parking tickets, speeding etc. marching your troops through the streets is probably subject to the local govts restrictions on marches and demonstrations - typically you would only expect marches when deploying the troops or for official parades like the emperor's birthday.

They are probably still subject to local laws for serious crimes e.g. murder, etc. the noble may be able to claim his troops were acting for the good of the Imperium. In which case I imagine any decisions about a trial would be bumped up to the IMOJ and the imperial law system at a subsector level or higher.

Depending on the noble's fief his forces may not just be ground troops - a noble on a water world could have wet navy vessel. If the noble is on an asteroid belts or similar he may have an armed yacht or even some gazelle type vessels - to help the govt out with anti-piracy duties. If the nobles has domain over several planets they will have a yacht and possibly other vessels - troop transports, escorts etc.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Rigel Stardin]

I believe I remember this from my reading or a TV show:

Around the end of the Middle ages, there were so many unemployed knights running around Europe with retainers, they were consider a threat to the stablity of some Kingdom. We also have to look at what happen to Samuri's toward the end of fuedal period in Japan. They to were basically thrown under the bus to. And yes I'm aware there is more to these statements than written here.

The thing that I'm looking at is would the Imperium allow such a large number lesser nobles and people who earn their title raise army/unit. If these Knights became disgruntled with something the Imperium was doing in their sector, there could be an armed uprising in a very short time. Therefore, it is quite possible the Imperium may not allow them to create a unit because of historical reasons such as I have mention. Allowing only men and women of Title to raise military units.

Knights may only have title (like it is England right now) as an honor for some service they performed for the Imperium but none of he perks that go with noblility...