The Army IYTU

[Golan2072]

With all the wonderfully detailed attention given to the Navy and the Marines, the Army seems somewhat neglected; the reason for this lack of attention is probably the fact that, unlike the other two arms of the traditional Traveller military, the Army is diverse in both its technology and applications, and is mostly raised on a planetary basis, rather than by the central government. I've created this thread to discuss the Army: mostly its large-scale organization, but any other related subject.

I'll start with my general idea of how the Solar Triumvirate's (MTU's largest polity) army is organized. To those who haven't read my contribution to the "difference between universes" thread, the Solar Triumvirate is a relatively young polity (it had Jump Drives for about 160 years and STL sleeper-ship colonization for about 200 years before that) centered on the Sol system and is a little more than 9 Subsectors in size. Its highest tech level is TL12 (which is the TL of the Marines, who are equipped with the best gear available), though most non-core worlds have lower TL productive capabilities. The solar Triumvirate has two major enemies - the Matriarchate to its coreward-trailing and the Alliance to its spinward, of which the Alliance border is relatively quiet and the Matriarchate border is quite hot.

Military Budget: (see Striker Book 2 P.38) All worlds within the Triumvirate have a military budget equal to 5% of their GNP during peacetime and 10% during a full-out war (currently - at the year 2400AD - the Triumvirate is at an unstable "peacetime"; this is, ofcourse, gathered through taxes, but the specific bureaucratic mechanism is irrelevant for our discussion). The military budget of each world is divided between financing the central Triumvirate military (30%) the local Army (30%) and the local Navy (40%). This means that the planetary Army gets 1.5% of the planet's GNP. In addition, the central Triumvirate government gives additional funding to border worlds for the purpose of fortification and military buildup.

General Organization: The Solar Triumvirate has four general types of armies: Expeditionary, Garrison, Planetary Army and Planetary Guard. Ofcourse, each Army type has each of the several branches (Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Support and Commando on all worlds; Aerospace/Wet Naval forces exist when appropriate) inside it.

Expeditionary forces are parts of a planet's army which are trained, organized and designated for off-world deployment when the need arises; Expeditionary forces must be TL10+, and must not be more than 60% of a world's total (non-Planetary Guard) Army strength - defense must not be neglected; Their numbers are limited not only by the need for defense but also by the availability of interstellar transport, and for that reason most Expeditionary forces are far smaller than 60% of a planet's Army. for LBB4/Striker morale/initiative purposes, they are treated as Long Service forces. Expeditionary forces are under the authority of the planetary Governor and the planetary Command as long as they are on their homeworld, and under the authority of the Central Command when deployed (unless deployed as a garrison).

Garrisons are one world's Expeditionary forces stationed on another world on a long-term basis; they exist for the purpose of providing high-TL combat defences to low-TL colonies. They are under the authority of the planetary Governor as long as they are not instructed otherwise by the Central Command. Garrisons are usually highly loyal and highly disciplined, and could be used by the planetary Governor and/or the Central Commad as elite counter-insurgency troops.

Planetary Armies are regular armed forces raised on a world for its own use (mostly for defense, disaster relief and counter-insurgency purposes). They vary between worlds in TL and size, but they are usually either Conscript (not really conscripted, but low-quality professional armies) or Long Service forces. They are equipped to their world's TL (with very limited higher TL equipment available for special purposes, especially for anti-armor and anti-aircraft/grav ones) and are under the authority of the Planetary Governor and his subordinate Planetary Command.

Planetary Guard forces are semi-reserve forces built mostly out of "weekend warriors" and other volunteers; they serve as force multipliers for the Plantery Army when needed, but are far less well equipped, trained and organized than it. Planetary Guard units are equipped at the planet's TL (or one TL lower in certain cases), are considered as Militia or Conscript forces for LBB4/Striker purposes, and are under the authority of the Planetary Governor and his subordinate Planetary Command.

 

[kafka47]

IMTUniverses, the Imperial Army is often relegated to level of grunts under Marine & Navy control. However, having said that they form the basis of planetary defence as they form a type of home guard otherwise, local Nobles control the Army much more than they would Navy or Marine forces which are answerable to a pan-Imperial Command Structure.

In the case of decapitation of a world's defences the Army is charged with the task of breaking into small guerrilla forces to harry the enemy and sabotage behind enemy lines.

Then occasionally when large entrenched enemy forces have made a beachhead in a particular system that the Navy cannot dislodge...Army units are called in from neighbouring systems/subsectors and the Marines do the mop-up.

So I think we have the same vision. I would see more of a role for the Army in the Solomani Confederation whereby Marines are demoted at the expense of the Army.

 

[flykiller]

how would an army, confined to a planetary surface, fare against an enemy naval force over it? I can't see it doing well, and thus I can't see a place for armies, except where navies are not a factor or where sensor rules make it difficult to locate surface targets. I see combat actions being decided by naval forces, with planets surrenduring to the winner (a good reason why no-one seems to use high-velocity rock bombardments).

perhaps the army can be viewed as a ship's crew, the ship being the planet, with the army manning the big guns and repelling boarders.

 

[mctesla]

IMTU the Army is a primarily a planetary defense force--- it mans the deep site planetary meson sites, has attack speeders, state of the art tanks, etc.

It's definately not a 2nd class citizen to the Marines, instead, it simply does not consist of the rapid reaction forces that the Marines do.

 

[Pickles]

IMTU there is no Imperial Army (well, not in the Spinward Marches, anyway). 'Army' covers local planetary defence forces, with local naval forces and their marines being a seperate force. In times of full interstellar war, they usually come under Imperial command.

The army makeup depends on size, tech level, budget and organisation, of course. However, they usually deal with planet surface and interface defence, while the local navy is responsible for interplanetary space. There will often be some overlap. This means that the army basically goes up to grav vehicles in equipment, but small craft and upwards are under local navy command.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

I think I am going to unify the Army, Navy, and Marines, maybe even Scouts. into one force IMTU, and Probably call it the Imperial Legion. Been thinking of this for a while now. Each Legionnaire would have a Primary MOS that would sort of define what "class" they are.

I usually break it down to that there is a System-Wide "System Guard" for each starsystem, because I think the troops could get excellent training on the many environments offered in even the most average system. They could even be posted out to train and perform tasks good for the entire system, like installing com relays, launching satellites, etc.

Major cities have the "Arcology Guard", like a generalized civil service/fighting defense force a given arcology or Grav city. That is, in areas that really would need it. On most systems in the core areas, the Arcology Guard is little more than a social club, but on frontier worlds, they could be anything from a bunch of guys with clubs to a privately funded wing of Gunships.

I directly rip this idea from Judge Dredd's "CitiDef" concept, where each city block had its own armed regiment made up of resident volunteers. it means all sorts of adversary possibilities for a party.

 

[parmasson]

I have a parallel structure loosely based on a blend of the old US regiment and British system.

On an Imperial world like Shirnkung TL-12, Pop 125,000,000
There is the 2653rd Imperial Infantry Regiment, 6th Core, (15,000 men) soldiers recruited locally and trained somewhere else. They are the mobile force directly under Imperial control. Along side is the Commonwealth Defense Force, Recruited and trained locally. The CDF is responsible for in system defense, COACC and other internal stuff. The Imperial regiment has two battalions one at home and one away. During quiet times both might be at their home base, during war both might be on assignment but the Imperium likes to keep the bases staffed.

 

[Chaos]

IMTU there is an unspoken agreement, at least among the polities of Humaniti, against orbital bombardments; to be precise, not to place ground-based batteries, COACC bases and other places that "invite" an orbital bombardement anywhere near populated areas (ideally, only on unpopulated moons), and
not to use nukes in planetary bombardements when fall-out could be a problem for the civilian population.
Also, in most wars both sides would be interested in conquering worlds as intact as possible - which means a ground war campaign, rather than orbital bombardement.

As a consequence, the Marine Corps is used for boarding actions, raids on military (and pirate) installations, and for securing the inital bridgehead for a planetary invasion (usually far off the main population centres, to make it more difficult for the defenders to attack the bridgehead right away).
Once the Marines have a foot on the ground, the Army forces land; it is them who slug it out with the defending forces.

The above is, in the Third Imperium, the job of the Imperial Army. There are also local planetary (or nation state) armies that serve as planetary defense forces; on some worlds, especially low-tech or low-pop worlds near borders, Imperial Army units are also stationed as additional garrisons.

So, the Marines IMTU are a (relatively) small, high-tech, highly trained force, whereas the Army has the manpower and heavy equipment needed for long, drawn-out campaigns. Basically it is "lightning strikes" vs. "trench warfare".

 

[RossWinn]

Any multi-system armed forces is, I think, only approachable in a unified forces approach. The idea of having distinct services has always seemed very odd to me.

 

[The Oz]

I've never really thought about the Imperial Army IMTU, which kinda proves Employee 2-4601's point.

At first thought I would agree with those that say the 3rd Imperium leaves armies to the local planets. In a way, this has the Imperium sticking to what it says it controls, the "space between the stars" and not the star systems themselves. When the Imperium needs massive ground forces (the Imperial Marines are commando troops IMTU) it borrows them from member worlds, usually the high-tech, high-pop worlds like Rhylanor or Mora, in the Spinward Marches. If this is so, the peacetime "Imperial Army" would consist mostly of headquarters troops (maybe one headquarters per sector) who plan what planetary troops to borrow if a war starts and how best to use those troops when they are borrowed. Of course, once the Imperium borrows a planet's troops, the 3rd Imperium has to pay them and support them out of its own pocket. Which would mean that those few "Imperial Army" headquarters would have vast bank accounts to pay for all the expenses of the troops they might borrow, which leads to all kinds of possible graft and corruption possible in the "Imperial Army." Hmmmm, I kinda like that....

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by ross_winn:
Any multi-system armed forces is, I think, only approachable in a unified forces approach. The idea of having distinct services has always seemed very odd to me.

Remember that while the chain of command could be integrated at any level you want it to, you are dealing with a high-tech professional force; you still need specialists in various fields. Basically, you need one group of people who specialize in various ship-operating tasks (Navy) and one group of people who specialize in conquering and occupying planets (Army). The Marines are basically a mix of the two categories of people, but (atleast as I see them) they are a smaller force to be used as a spearhead in wartime and for limited operations in peacetime; once you get into serious conflicts, you'd probably want ALOT of soldiers performing each kind of task.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

ross_win, you need specialization to help you focus doctrine, and to keep people from knowing so many things they don't know any of them particularly well. Also, you get into turf wars: "That grunt has spent his whole career dirtside. Why are they promoting him to Admiral?!" You already get this within services: the combat folks resent being under a combat services support leader, the naval aviators don't particularly like working for a "shoe", fighter pilots don't like working for a tanker commander, etc.

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran von Gushiddan:
I directly rip this idea from Judge Dredd's "CitiDef" concept, where each city block had its own armed regiment made up of resident volunteers. it means all sorts of adversary possibilities for a party.

Sounds like the Alliance militia IMTU...

 

[aramis]

IMTU, there is NO "Imperial Army." More correctly, there are no Imperial Army troops.

Each world has units whcih are raised to meet its commitment to provide troops to the "Imperial Army"

Officers and Senior Enlisted are seconded to Cluster, Subsector, and sector commands, and sworn to fealty to the ruling Count/Duke, to provide the regional HQ and staff. This staff also selects and trains all drill instructors, and can cashier any local troop or officer for cause. Few come to their attention; doing so means either transfer to the huscarles, transfer to HQ, transfer to a penal unit, or dishonorable discharge.

Nobles raise Huscarles to protect their fiefs, which are IMTU, the Starports. Some raise them by internal "army" career. Some pull them from local forces as an elite assignment. Some pull the best and brightest into fealty.

Huscarles are as close to a permanent "Imperial Army" as my TU gets. The rest are local forces, called up by the local HQ for action.

The Marines are the only permanent Imperial non-ship combatant force IMTU.

Penal units are units of troops from off world assigned under cadre from on-world. Usually, they are assigned as shock troops, in a manner not dissimilar to the FFL. They can redeem themselves by honorable service as an expendable, death in the line of duty, or valor; or they can quietly do their time, and escape the army. They are usually some of the first units called up into service, alongside the various elite formations. Often, these Omega Mobs are equally motivated, for very different reasons, as the Elites.

 

[stofsk]

IMTU, the Army is replaced by what I call the Militia.

The Navy has two branches: Stellar and System. The Marines have three branches: Line (or Reservists), Garrison, and Fleet. For the most part this is enough, given that planetary invasions haven't occured in my setting for hundreds of years.

But the Navy and Marines can't be everywhere. Hence why you get a Militia. They should probably be referred to as Colonial Defence Force, and thus their outfit will be equipped accordingly. There will be a Ground Command, Maritime Command, and Aerospace Command.

 

[veltyen]

IMTU the navy and marines are heavily linked, often with cross training and serving. For example naval boarding parties often have gone through some marine training. Marine pilots and feild engineers will train at least part of the time with the navy.

The Imperial Army is raised in all Imperial systems, individual army sizes however are highly variable. Planets at the lower end of the tech spectrum will still be expected to have a small contingent trained to higher tech levels to operate COAC functions (which are considered an intergral function of the local army). COAC consists of space capable weaponry and sensing systems to be able to control the air, and potentially to threaten at least near space, this can be acheived at surprisingly low tech levels.

Particular types of rejects from the Army are made welcome in the Marines.

The Army is purely a defensive force. The most agressive role it might be given is being ferried to a nearby imperial world for disaster relief or peace-keeping. Apart from some regular personel exchange between certain worlds (generally to train low tech troops) armies pretty much stay put.

Where the threat of invasion, insurrection or natural disaster isn't imminent armies tend to be quite small, getting down to 0.01% (1 in 10,000) per capita. Mobile armies (ones that can be recruited for peace-keeping elsewhere) get a partial refund from Imperial military taxation, a popular choice for nobles who want to keep jobs close to home. This doesn't pay off quite as well if they are regularily needed elsewhere.

The Marines on the other hand are used more in the active sense. Raids on enemy polities, beachheads, and a small amount of garison duty protecting naval assets. Boarding parties will either be marine or navy depending on the ship and what crew are available. The Marines (and to a lesser extent the Navy) use chem and cybernetically altered soldiers, something that armies tend not to do. Marines tend to be in for multiple terms, especially if altered in this way.

Invasions pretty much don't happen. The Imperium tends more towards supporting popular uprisings by stealth (for example hiring mercs through a third party for "technical assistence"), with the imperial forces only becoming involved at the last minute (if at all) at least on paper by request of the now rulers. This is a common way of gobbling up less cohesive societies a world at a time. Rebellions are often let stand, in some cases without even a blockade, as the cost (in both popularity and credits) of moving a sizeable army based force in is often more then the world is worth. Eventually they will ask to rejoin.

In the case where the world is worth keeping a Marine contingent is assembled. This is generally in the form of a 'ron of Marine Assault craft (think carriers with landing craft) that drop of the Marines before retreating to fetch Army "peace-keepers". This leaves the Marines stranded on planet for a while (generally a couple of months) before the Army arrives. Once the army does arrive the Marines are shipped back offworld to return to a ready state.

 

[leadhead]

I see the division of labor a little differently. The Navy is responsible for defense from spaceborne threats and for carrying the fight to the enemy. It is the senior service as it is the means by which the Imperium (or any other interstellar state) projects its power.

The marines lead the way, marines are a rapid reaction/spearhead force equipped and trained to TL 15 (GTL 12) that secures the LZ on hostile worlds and functions as a raider force. Marines don't hold real estate, that's the Army's job. Marines don't hold on to anything but the enemy. They hold him by the nose and kick him in the @$$ (to paraphrase Gen. Patton). They go in full throttle, loaded for bear and take names and basically knock the teeth out of the opposition. Marines are basically a jump infantry formation, light on the vehicles, heavy on the personal armor and man-carried weapons.

After the Marines kick in the door, the Army lands with its heavy armor and massive infantry formations. The Army is equipped at TL 10-15 depending on the homeworld of the regiment in question. Army regiments are raised from individual worlds, trained and equipped under that world's military traditions and Imperialized (or Confederalized or Consulatized or whatever-ized) in time of emergency or war. The Army is responsible for taking and holding the real estate, pacifying the occupied population and enforcing the Imperial will after the marines have moved on. The Army is heavy on the armor and lift infantry with only a few, elite jump troops formations (a point of interservice rivalry, Army jump troops wear jump wings with pride, but every Marine cook is jump qualified so the Marines don't even issue jump wings... you're a marine therefore you are a jump trooper)

 

[Murph]

I use more of a British system, with each world contributing battalions/briagades of similar tech level to be used by the Imperium. The division level is used, but as an ad hoc structure of 3-5 brigades.

Battalions are named per British practice: 1st Battlion, 42nd Infantry, The Black Watch, or the 1st Battalion, Black Watch.

 

[BetterThanLife]

IMTU There is no Imperial Army, per say. The Army is defined as local forces raised, trained and equipped locally. Thus they vary greatly in size, technology, training, readiness, funding, etc. They generally include local space defense, if any, the Planetary Navy, and things like deep site meson guns, fighter squadrons, tanks, etc. Now the planetary Navy can get called into Imperial Service and then serves in Imperial "Colonial Squadrons." The Army can also be called upon to supply troops elsewhere. IMTU I treat the Army similar to the US National Guard system, though with less standardization and they generally serve full time.

 

[Straybow]

I like a Dune-style milieu, where the Dukes and other greater nobles have their own multi-planet armies, fleets, and marines. Lesser nobles have system armies with smaller fleets. The Emperor controls IN and IM.