Republic Defense Forces - Order of Battle

[Gir Quee]

I talked at various points with many of you about organizing the Republic army into standardized units, but we haven't ever come up with anything firm yet. So let's change that.

This won't be mandatory for all units and people, but just to come up with a general guide for mainstream federal units. I fully expect people to deviate from it when creating their own special units, especially if it some sort of special forces, elite legion, or local defense force.

But this will apply to mainstream federal units (though it will also serve as a rough guideline for numbers in special codex-submitted units). Once formed, these groups will be used as guidelines for ground commanders for what they can bring into battle, much like the current system for naval officers and capital ships.

So for starters, we previously had this legion/regiment system, though it was not widely used because of the relatively large numbers of NPCs and a general lack of ground commanders:

Legion Structure

Spoiler

Legion—9,813 units: 4 regiments each (9,812 units: 8,192 troopers and 1,620 officers) led by a Legion general

4 Regiments: 2,453 units: 4 battalions each (2,452 units: 2,048 troopers and 404 officers) led by a lieutenant colonel Or higher.

16 Battalions—613 units: 4 companies each (612 units: 512 troopers and 100 officers) led by a major or higher.

64 Companies—153 units: 4 platoons (152 units: 128 troopers and 24 officers) led by a captain or higher.

256 Platoons—38 units: 4 squads (36 units: 32 troopers and 4 officers) led by a lieutenant and a sergeant major or higher.

1,024 Squads—9 units: 8 troopers, including a corporal, led by a sergeant or higher.

Regiment Structure

Spoiler

Assault Regiment:

2 Mechanized Battalions (512 troops, 121 assault craft, 40 speeder bikes each)

1 Armor Battalion (500, 30 tanks, 20 heavy walkers, 55 light walkers/tanks/assault speeders)

1 Infantry(Line) Battalion (512 troops, 100 officers) 4 companies: Aurek(infantry), Besh(infantry), Cresh(heavy weapons), Dorn (Reconnaissance)

2nd Regiment:

2 Infantry (Line) Battalions: (512 troops, 100 officers) 4 companies: Aurek(infantry), Besh(infantry), Cresh(heavy weapons), Dorn (Reconnaissance)

1 Special Missions Battalion: (512 troops, 100 combat officers, Equipment varies as needed)

1 Mechanized Battalion: (512 troops, 121 assault craft, 40 speeder bikes each)

3rd Regiment:

1 Armor Battalion: (500, 30 tanks, 20 heavy walkers, 55 light walkers/tanks/assault speeders)

1 Artillery Battalion: (96 light artillery pieces, 48 heavy artillery pieces, transport craft, 1 Heavy weapons company (128 troopers, 24 officers))

2 Infantry (Line) Battalions: (512 troops, 100 officers) 4 companies: Aurek(infantry), Besh(infantry), Cresh(heavy weapons), Dorn (Reconnaissance)

4th Regiment :

1 Artillery Battalion: (96 light artillery pieces, 48 heavy artillery pieces, transport craft, 1 Heavy weapons company (128 troopers, 24 officers))

1 Mechanized Battalion: (512 troops, 80 assault craft, 41 light walkers, 40 speeder bikes each)

2 Fighter wings: 10 flights of 4 fighters each (3 flights of bombers(12), 6 flights of fighters (24), 1 flight of recon/spotter craft (4), personnel 40 pilots, 25 sensor techs, 25 controllers, and 60 ground crew, 150 total), 2 Infantry (line) companies each.

What I'm currently thinking about is moving to an Order of Battle based on the old Galactic Empire's (and by extension, the Galactic Republic before that), but made so that people can mix and match various troop types to their liking in their own units, using the squad as the base element. But I'd like to get everyone's thoughts to see if there are any other alternatives to consider and to hear on any suggestions for tweaking this system.

Generic Base structure:
Based on the canon Order of Battle, from lowest base unit to the highest. Command rank for each unit is listed in parentheses after the unit:

Spoiler

Squad (Sergeant): 8 soldiers (typically two 4-man fireteams)
Platoon(Lieutenant): 4 squads
Company(Captain): 4 platoons
Battalion(Commander): 4 companies
Regiment (Major): 4 battalions
Battlegroup(General): 4 regiments
Corps (Admiral): 4 battlegroups
Army (Grand Admiral): 4 corps

The squads used as building blocks:

Types of Squads:

Spoiler

Line: Generic squad with standard weapons that has a good mix of mobility, firepower, and flexibility. Aside from standard weapons, each fireteam has one support weapon (ex. light repeating blaster, grenade launcher, missile launcher, etc).

Sharpshooter: Squad is mix of spotters and sharpshooters. Typically divides up into four two-man teams. Each time has a spotter, with exceptional optical equipment and a light weapon, and a sharpshooter, who carries a sniper rifle or something very similar.

Engineering: Squad carries light weaponry but also has demolition and construction equipment. They are typically used to either fortify a position, demolish obstructions and opposing fortifications, or shape a landmass to the benefit of other Republic forces.

Mechanized: Squad has the typical equipment of a standard line squad, but is embarked on light vehicle. This could be something like a Myrmidon APC, a pair of landspeeders, and so forth.

Mechanized Heavy Weapons: A squad that travels on some sort of light vehicle as above, but whose vehicles also carry some really noticeable firepower designed specifically to support infantry. This vehicle could be anything as simple as the canon MobileMortar-3 or something more in line with the armed Warthogs found in the Halo-series.

Recon: A lightly-armed by highly mobile squad designed to scout out enemy positions for intelligence or for probing attacks. May use probots or speeder bikes to help with this task.

Heavy weapons Squad: A squad who generally brings several crew-served weapons into battle (heavy repeating blasters, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, etc). Not very mobile, but has a lot of firepower.

Artillery: Typically mans a single piece of heavy artillery(ex. HMA-v1), two medium artillery pieces (such as an Baldr-class Assault Gun)but could also man several lighter pieces (such as medium caliber mortars, pack howitzers, etc).

Armor: Either four light armored vehicles (ex. AT-PTs), two medium armored vehicles (ex. R-10 Reliant-class Tank), or 1 heavy vehicle (ex Liberty-class Heavy Assault tank)

So for example, Lieutenant Bobert could make a platoon-size element known as "Bobert's Rangers" consisting of two Recon squads and two Sharpshooter squads. Such a unit would be very good at scouting out and picking apart light enemies before they knew what hit them.

On the other hand, Major Major could form the 71st Armor Regiment, consisting of nothing but armor squads using R-10 tanks. In other words, the 71st could have 512 R-10 tanks.

The problem with the second example is that it is highly unlikely such a unit would be applicable to all situations, and even if it were, that people from the opposing side would be happy about such numbers. One way to do ensure that it doesn't cause problems with the other side would be to do a codex submission, but I'm thinking that it might be better for gameplay balances for higher-ranking officers to have access to a few number of troops, but make them especially high-quality to the point that they have an "elite" status.

This could be something that is easily accomplished by having a codex submission for their unit after it's been involved in several threads (which could then be used as development threads for the said unit). An elite unit would then be able to have access to rather exceptional technology and be expected to fair much better against PCs, since they shouldn't be cannon fodder at that point.

What do people think of this concept? Or do you have alternatives that you think we should use instead?

[member="Alen Na'Varro"] | [member="Dair Cotarin"] | [member="Ali Hadrix"] | [member="Camellia Swift"] | [member="Dallen Thayne"]

 

[H3xle]

[member="Gir Quee"]

I think it is an excellent idea to base the structure around squads, that way any rank of ground commander could take all or any portion of his/her force as is applicable to the situation.

This is definitely food for thought.

What I would suggest is to have some basic units put together for any GR player to use and then have dedicated commanders make more elite forces.

 

[Gir Quee]

[member="Dair Cotarin"], that's a good idea.

I think we can make submissions for each squad not unlike the recent one for the Imperial Stormtrooper Company.

Once we do that, we can compile them in a thread in our "Resources and Information" forum for people to reference as needed.

 

[Kenrath]

[member="Gir Quee"]

Am I allowed to have an opinion?

 

[H3xle]

[member="Shamus Walker"]

Yes, this thread is open to any opinions. Gir simply tagged people who had previously approached him about the subject.

 

[Gir Quee]

[member="Gir Quee"]

Am I allowed to have an opinion?

Dair Cotarin is exactly right. This is open to anyone, but I tagged people who had talked to me about it earlier.

[member="Shamus Walker"]

 

[Ali Hadrix]

I've got an idea...

[member="Gir Quee"], we take your structure and apply it wholesale, so that any force consists of ALL of these elements, meaning the different types of squads, etc. Cut the force up so that it consists of roughly equal parts of each type.

The advantage of this is we basically get to slice the whole pie up into pieces that includes anything we might need. When it comes time to battle, we simply take what we need from a single slice and apply it toward that fight.

This will eliminate the need to design units/regiments/etc that are special function, or to reorganize units/regiments/etc based on the particular needs of a single battle/campaign.

It would pretty much modularize the entire force.

 

[Gir Quee]

[member="Ali Hadrix"], I don't quite follow.

Are you suggesting that we have something like a mixed regiment, with every type of squad present in equal amounts, and then applying only the certain types of those squads that we need for the actual battle, or is it something else?

 

[Axo Mend]

[member="Gir Quee"]

If I am reading it right, basically a Legion is what Battletech called a 'Regimental Combat Team'. It has the elements of all the troop types to make it a flexible fighting force on it's own, capable of handling any possible enemy opponent by having a very diverse structure.

if that is the case then you have made the perfect unit layout. I might be seeing it wrong, but if I am not then you have an awesome force to pick from and it allows for amy PCs to be involved with any others because of the variety of the make up.

My opinion counts for squat, so take it for what it is.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Ali Hadrix"] [member="Gir Quee"]

Ali, I would definitely say that for the generalized units, we make them Combined Arms units as you suggested. I would suggest we have a theme for each Company level unit and outfit it with squads of the appropriate squads.

Example:

Aesh Company, 32nd Combined Arms Battalion, 2nd Amphibious Combat Regiment, 3rd Marine Battlegroup, 2nd Corps, 2nd Army could be a vanguard company. As such, it would need to have scout units and base units. If I were to be building it I would place it in this way: 1st Squad is a Recon Squad, 2nd Squad is a Recon Squad, 3rd Squad is a Sharpshooter Squad and 4th Squad is a Line Squad. The LT in charge should be with the Line Squad, I'd have 1st or 2nd squad take point or rear guard respectively and have my sharpshooter squad split into four teams and moving as independent flanking units. This would give Aesh company a great deal of stealth and scouting ability and the Line squad to act as the main back up.

Besh Company, 32nd Combined Arms Battalion, 2nd Amphibious Combat Regiment, 3rd Marine Battlegroup, 2nd Corps, 2nd Army could be an assault company. As such, I would build it like this. 1st Squad is a Line Squad, 2nd Company is a Heavy Weapons Squad, 3rd Squad is a Mechanized Squad, and 4th Squad is a Mechanized Heavy Weapons Squad. The standard marching orders I would give would have the Line squad anchoring the formation with one fire team centered and one fire team acting as rearguard. The heavy weapons squad would take the point position and my mechanized squads would be the flanking units.

I would continue, using the other companies of the 32nd Combined Arms Battalion having strengths that covered weaknesses in the other companies. I would sub it by companies, then do a sub for the battalion as a whole once all four companies have been subbed and accepted. I doubt that such a model would ever see anything subbed above the Regimental level, but you never know.

The logic behind my naming of the OoB is that 3rd Marine Battlegroup maintains its personnel aboard naval assets and are deployed from such. The Amphibious Combat Regiment would be named that because they are trained to deploy into combat directly from the naval assets they are aboard.

My own personal units will not necessarily be created like this, but this is an excellent way, in my opinion, to sub the general use units.

Comments and critiques are welcome. (This is Dair's alt, by the way.)

 

[Kenrath]

Dair Cotarin is exactly right. This is open to anyone, but I tagged people who had talked to me about it earlier.

[member="Shamus Walker"]

That is all well and good but how do you have a discussion about the structure involving military matters and tag two Jedi but not the only remaining PC member of the Republic's ground forces?

Am I not supposed to take that as an intention snub towards me?

 

[H3xle]

[member="Shamus Walker"]

This is a thread designed to be helpful. There was no snub intended, those he tagged were ones who had been in private conversations with him on this subject. If you have an opinion, we all wish to hear it, but if you have some personal beef, take it to a PM.

@All Interested

I am going to be placing some possible subs of vehicles, tech and NPC units up in the military forum. Please let me know what you think about them in their threads, I welcome any comments or criticisms that can help to bolster them and the Republic Military.

 

[Ali Hadrix]

[member=Gir Quee]: Samuel's on the nose with what I'm getting at.

[member="Samuel Quentin"] / [member=Dair Cotarin]:

You did a detailed job fleshing that out, but I think it's a little too...convoluted. I hate using that word but that's really the best one I could think of. It looks messy, and we're only looking at two companies in your example.
What I'm suggesting would be a bit more relaxed, higher on the unit level. Instead of actually designating which squads are line squads and which ones are grenadiers, and which ones are yada-yada-yada, we just need to identify how many of each we have in a given unit

Take a Division, identify the number of each type of unit at the squad level (squadron level for vehicles).
Beyond that, we don't need much. Naming and designating every unit in the military force is about as likable an idea as it is in real life...which is why unit names transfer down over hundreds of years. lol

Our line units should be just that: line units.
Amphibious companies and sniper/scout companies, and mortar companies, these should all be separate from one another. That way we don't have to identify which squads in a company are line squads, which ones are this and which ones are that, etc.

This is the way the real world U.S. Army works, and when another unit type is needed, they're simply attached to the larger force.

So when a battle comes up, let's say an invasion of Yavin 4, we'll take an Amphibious Company, an Armor Company, and two Line Companies (to work in conjunction with the Armor Company), and put them to work, with a Mortar/Artillery Company acting as support.
Those units are chosen due to the terrain of the battlefield. Artillery, already less mobile, is great for slamming targets I.D.'d by Line Units.
The Amphibious Company attacks from the sea, securing a beachfront from which to flank the enemy.
The Line Units trek through the forest I.D.'ing enemy targets and positions, setting up support elements (Anti-Aircraft batteries and the like), etc.

Am I making more sense? If not, let me know and forgive me, I'm supes tired.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Gir Quee"]

Should we also put caveats in the Order of Battle concerning upper level commanders also having a headquarters unit?

Perhaps having it along the lines of "The commander of a unit, company size and above, has a headquarters unit equal to the unit size two units lower, up to the size of a company."

Example: Aesh Company contains 4 platoons of soldiers and a headquarters squad that contains the Captain, Company First Sergeant (Chief Petty Officer?), two clerks and four soldiers on security detail.

32nd Combined Arms Battalion contains 4 companies of soldiers and a headquarters platoon that contains the Commander, Executive Officer, Battalion Sergeant Major (Master Gunnery Sergeant?), four clerks, one driver, two squads of security soldiers and a battalion quartermaster squad.

2nd Amphibious Combat Regiment has 4 battalions of soldiers and a headquarters company that contains the Major, Executive Officer, Regimental Sergeant Major (Master Gunnery Sergeant or Master Chief?), one driver, four clerks, 3 squads of close security, 2 platoons of security and 1 platoon of regimental quartermaster.

Cut and paste Regimental HQ unit on up the chain, substituting appropriate ranks and such.

 

[Ali Hadrix]

This is honestly how I'd do it:

I'd start at the Platoon level, not the squad level. I'd keep the Platoon a fluid entity, one that I could pick apart into squads when need be. But basically, with RP, you don't actually need to break your units down any further than the Platoon level. You can always just include Designated Marksmen and scouts based on need, rather than have to flesh it all out.

Platoons are assigned vehicles to support them. These vehicles don't rely on the platoon for operation because they have a crew, but the vehicles are able to transport and support the platoon based on need.
A small tank would be perfect for this, or an APC.

You alternate through your OoB, assigning Platoon and Companies specific roles, but you keep them separate from one another.

I'll probably add like seven more things before the next person posts.

 

[H3xle]

[member=Gir Quee]: Samuel's on the nose with what I'm getting at.

[member="Samuel Quentin"] / [member=Dair Cotarin]:

You did a detailed job fleshing that out, but I think it's a little too...convoluted. I hate using that word but that's really the best one I could think of. It looks messy, and we're only looking at two companies in your example.
What I'm suggesting would be a bit more relaxed, higher on the unit level. Instead of actually designating which squads are line squads and which ones are grenadiers, and which ones are yada-yada-yada, we just need to identify how many of each we have in a given unit

Take a Division, identify the number of each type of unit at the squad level (squadron level for vehicles).
Beyond that, we don't need much. Naming and designating every unit in the military force is about as likable an idea as it is in real life...which is why unit names transfer down over hundreds of years. lol

Our line units should be just that: line units.
Amphibious companies and sniper/scout companies, and mortar companies, these should all be separate from one another. That way we don't have to identify which squads in a company are line squads, which ones are this and which ones are that, etc.

This is the way the real world U.S. Army works, and when another unit type is needed, they're simply attached to the larger force.

So when a battle comes up, let's say an invasion of Yavin 4, we'll take an Amphibious Company, an Armor Company, and two Line Companies (to work in conjunction with the Armor Company), and put them to work, with a Mortar/Artillery Company acting as support.
Those units are chosen due to the terrain of the battlefield. Artillery, already less mobile, is great for slamming targets I.D.'d by Line Units.
The Amphibious Company attacks from the sea, securing a beachfront from which to flank the enemy.
The Line Units trek through the forest I.D.'ing enemy targets and positions, setting up support elements (Anti-Aircraft batteries and the like), etc.

Am I making more sense? If not, let me know and forgive me, I'm supes tired.

This makes a great deal of sense. I apologize for going a bit crazy with the identifying units, I might possibly, kinda enjoy that type of thing. *grins sheepishly*

On reading your post, I agree that Line companies should be Line units, with minimal mixing of other types, possibly only as far as heavy/mechanized squads to shore up weight of fire and maneuverability issues. For the generalized units, simple would be best.

I will likely go crazy with my personal units...but I assure you that is not because I am crazy.

[member="Ali Hadrix"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Ali Hadrix]

[member="Gir Quee"]

Should we also put caveats in the Order of Battle concerning upper level commanders also having a headquarters unit?

Perhaps having it along the lines of "The commander of a unit, company size and above, has a headquarters unit equal to the unit size two units lower, up to the size of a company."

Example: Aesh Company contains 4 platoons of soldiers and a headquarters squad that contains the Captain, Company First Sergeant (Chief Petty Officer?), two clerks and four soldiers on security detail.

32nd Combined Arms Battalion contains 4 companies of soldiers and a headquarters platoon that contains the Commander, Executive Officer, Battalion Sergeant Major (Master Gunnery Sergeant?), four clerks, one driver, two squads of security soldiers and a battalion quartermaster squad.

2nd Amphibious Combat Regiment has 4 battalions of soldiers and a headquarters company that contains the Major, Executive Officer, Regimental Sergeant Major (Master Gunnery Sergeant or Master Chief?), one driver, four clerks, 3 squads of close security, 2 platoons of security and 1 platoon of regimental quartermaster.

Cut and paste Regimental HQ unit on up the chain, substituting appropriate ranks and such.

I won't lie, including headquarters elements just sounds like a pain to me. They serve a function abstract from the function of combat, so they're not really necessary for RP.
We can always write headquarters personnel in our stories, but as far as including them in the over all force, entirely unnecessary if you ask me.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Ali Hadrix"]

Yeah, I was wondering if the HQ parts were me getting to organizational crazy.

 

[Ali Hadrix]

This makes a great deal of sense. I apologize for going a bit crazy with the identifying units, I might possibly, kinda enjoy that type of thing. *grins sheepishly*

On reading your post, I agree that Line companies should be Line units, with minimal mixing of other types, possibly only as far as heavy/mechanized squads to shore up weight of fire and maneuverability issues. For the generalized units, simple would be best.

I will likely go crazy with my personal units...but I assure you that is not because I am crazy.

[member="Ali Hadrix"] [member="Gir Quee"]

lol I hear ya. I've run into the experience before of over-doing it with the detail, to the point where I ended up with a roster of my entire force that included all 2,000 infantry personnel: By name.
Of course I fleshed this out over the course of a year and a half, but you get the point. Sometimes it's best to take a step back.

But I can't wait to see how crazy with your units you get.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Ali Hadrix"]

Well, I plan to get the components done first, starting with the Taurek IFV MK I. It will either be a Mechanized Company or a Special Operations Battalion with a Mechanized Infantry Company as part of it. The plan for the company is to make it be 3 platoons of Taurek IFVs for a total of 12 IFVs, and have that last platoon being an armor platoon using some form of tank.

The SOB would use that MC, and then have a scout/sniper company, a combat engineer company that would specialize in covert demolitions and a combined engineer/heavy weapons company that would specialize in fortifying positions. I know it doesn't seem very much like a special operations load out, but its use would be akin to Havoc squad from SWTOR in that it is tasked with completing all manner of missions.

The plan would be to sub out each company, I'd likely go as detailed as possible, though maybe not as far as naming people yet, aside from commanders. Then I would sub out the battalion as a whole, using each companies sub in the battalion sub and fleshing it out with overall mission parameters and how the companies would interact internally of the battalion, internally of the Republic Defense Force and externally.

I am not going to do any in character posting, most likely, until after I get back from Florida near the end of July. I will, however, be able to work on subs as I wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting ahead of me or waiting for me. Therefore, aside from the Taurek IFV, I might sub some other equipment in order to give the unit(s) the feel I want.

Any idea on if the Republic would be able to get more of your walker tanks? *innocent smile*