Surface orders of battle #2

Rework to separate the infantry from the vehicles. Tweak on some of the numbers, and adding Chariots now to fill out support organizations. I am now assuming that infantry are assigned to vehicles as needed, rather than integrated units, since the carriage of the vehicles will vary a lot depending on mission profile, especially for larger vehicles where they can embark a squad for a long patrol or a full platoon for assault. This means that vehicle establishment can drop, since no need to assume that the minimum unit size will always be used (i.e. 1 squad per Broadsword). Bikes/light vehicles are still not noted, but have negligible space requirements.

Assume company level mixing of vehicles and infantry. In theory, 4 Broadsword is either platoon for long buttoned-up operations, or almost the full company infantry organization in assault order as riflemen. Minimum independent combined arms unit is still battalion.

Building block formations:

Repulsorlift company:
Vehicle lance – 4x APC Broadsword
Vehicle lance – 4x APC Broadsword
Vehicle lance – 8x APC Chariot
Command lance – 2x APC Broadsword, 2x C3 Chariot
Infantry platoon x3
Support infantry platoon x1 (crew-weapons, scouts)
Total: 10x Broadsword, 10x Chariot

Light armor company:
Vehicle lance – 4x Sabre
Vehicle lance – 4x Sabre
Vehicle lance – 4x Sabre
command lance – 2x Sabre, 2x C3 Chariot, 2x APC Chariot
Total: 14 Sabre, 4x Chariot

Artillery company:
Vehicle lance – 4x railgun Broadsword (variant depends on tasking)
Vehicle lance – 4x railgun Broadsword
Vehicle lance – 4x missile Broadsword
Vehicle lance – 4x flak Broadsword
Command lance – 1x APC Broadsword, 4x C3 Chariot, 1x APC Chariot
Total: 17x Broadsword, 5x Chariot

Heavy armor company:
Vehicle lance – 3x Scythe
Vehicle lance – 3x Scythe
Vehicle lance – 3x Scythe
Command lance – 1x Scythe
Total: 10x Scythe

Command/Support company (battalion troops – this will be quite variable but this is a representative configuration for repulsorlift):
2x Vehicle lance – 4x Sabre (scouts)
Vehicle lance – 4x APC/support Broadsword
Vehicle lance – 8x APC Chariot
C3 lance – 2x APC Broadsword, 4x C3 Chariot
Total: 8x Sabre, 6x Broadsword, 12x Chariot

 

Combined arms level:

Repulsorlift battalion:
Repulsorlift company – 10x Broadsword, 10x Chariot
Repulsorlift company – 10x Broadsword, 10x Chariot
Repulsorlift company – 10x Broadsword, 10x Chariot
Artillery company – 17x Broadsword, 5x Chariot
Support company – 8x Sabre, 6x Broadsword, 12x Chariot
Commander vehicle – 1x Broadsword
Total: 54x Broadsword, 8x Sabre, 47x Chariot

Heavy armor battalion:
Heavy armor company – 10x Scythe
Heavy armor company – 10x Scythe
Repulsorlift company – 10x Broadsword, 10x Chariot
Artillery company – 17x Broadsword, 5x Chariot
Support company – 8x Sabre, 6x Broadsword, 12x Chariot
Commander vehicle – 1x Scythe
Total: 21x Scythe, 33x Broadsword, 8x Sabre, 27x Chariot

 

Repulsorlift company:

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Fractal-fan
Fractal-fan
3 months ago

How many troops is a battalion of troops to you guys

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
3 months ago
Reply to  Fractal-fan

The closest thing to official numbers is ~800-1100 personnel in four combat companies, plus command and support services units. This varies based on what subtype the battalion is, and what vehicles and equipment they’re assigned.

Fractal-fan
Fractal-fan
3 months ago
Reply to  CRMcNeill

Could you also tell me every type of infantry unit and how many troops it has?

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
3 months ago
Reply to  Fractal-fan

Find a copy of WEG’s Imperial Sourcebook.

Road Warrior
Road Warrior
2 years ago

I dig your cover picture for this post. Reminds me of USAEUR lined up on the western approach to the Fulda Gap!

You have some hidden mesh(s) on the tank in the upper left however.

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago

An alternate possibility I’ve considered in the past is to have a hybrid structure, with some units having the infantry integrated with the armored vehicles (in a more conventional armor/mechanized structure), while others are pure infantry or pure vehicle, with the vehicles assigned as transport to the infantry as needed. In the latter case, the transport vehicles would be primarily on the larger end (AT-ATs, Juggernauts, etc), with smaller vehicles providing escort and screening.

This idea grew out of an attempt to reconcile the OoB structure with the vehicles listed in the Ground Assault Vehicles chapter of the ImpSB. There wasn’t a clear organizational place for the larger vehicles, but there was a definite modular pattern of attaching units to the base organizational structure as needed to suit mission requirements.

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

That makes sense, especially since the given numbers for ship-based units never matched up to the nominal strength of their equivalents in the OoB. An ISD, for example, is said to have a full legion of stormtroopers, but if one were to go by the description of a legion from the OoB, then an ISD should have 13-14,000 stormtroopers onboard, not 9,700. However, the 9,700 number becomes more plausible if a legion is treated as a heavy brigade (4 infantry battalions plus assorted vehicle units).

The biggest drawback I can see to the modular system is such formations are essentially ad hoc in nature, with little to no time to drill or practice together, which decreases efficiency and coordination. That would likely be less of a concern in mass deployments, but the smaller a unit is, and the more dispersed its operational mode gets, the more important it will become.

Chris Bradshaw
Chris Bradshaw
2 years ago
Reply to  CRMcNeill

A legion of stormtroopers might not be entirely comprised of stormtroopers. Their support personnel, vehicle crews, and logistics units of the Legion might be manned by members of the regular Imperial Army, similar to how Yank Marine Corpsmen are technically Navy, but go on deployments with Marines.

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris Bradshaw

But the Marine Corps is effectively subordinate to the Navy, even to the point that Marine officer cadets attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Marines have their own vehicle crews, as well as virtually all their own support personnel apart from Navy Corpsmen. There’s no reason the Stormtrooper Corps couldn’t have their own organic vehicle contingents.

Chris Bradshaw
Chris Bradshaw
2 years ago
Reply to  CRMcNeill

Sure, they could, but I was just positing a possible rationalization that would keep the Imperator’s ground strength at a full legion with only 9700 stormtroopers. Vehicle crews might go either way, as there is cinematic evidence of the Endor vehicle crews being Imperial Army instead of Stormtrooper Corps.

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris Bradshaw

That wasn’t what that part of the stat block meant, though. That slot was reserved for troops or passengers, as distinct from the rest of the ship’s working crew. So per the WEG system, an ISD could only carry 9,700 troop regardless of whether they were Stormtroopers or Imperial Army or COMPForce. However, also by the WEG system as described in the OoB, a stormtrooper legion consisted of mostly infantry with a few vehicles and would have 14,410 (counting all support personnel). If those numbers are accurate, there’s no way to fit an entire Stormtrooper Legion onto an ISD.

However, you CAN fit a Line Regiment (nominal strength 3,530), along with various attachments like an Armor (Walker) Battalion, special operations attachments, and assorted other vehicle units to fill in the additional slots. This would also be in line with the USMC’s MEU(SOC) concept, where a reinforced Marine Battalion is deployed aboard a handful of amphibious assault ships, accompanied by various vehicle detachments including Amph-Tracs, Abrams Tanks, LAV-25’s, towed artillery and various forms of aircraft.

LazerZ
LazerZ
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris Bradshaw

According to WEG, a Stormtrooper Legion allegedly lacks support personnel. How they are supplied is supposedly a mystery. Nor do they contain staff officers. The Imperial Sourcebook says “every single individual is either combat command or a trooper…” Of course this may not be the whole truth, given the conceit that the Imperial Sourcebook is meant to be based on in-universe Imperial materials intercepted by the Rebellion.

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago
Reply to  LazerZ

The problem there is that WEG’s own numbers don’t match up. They say a storm trooper battalion completely lacks support troops, yet give it the same numerical strength as an Imperial Army Line Battalion. The closest I’ve come to an explanation is treating this like the Marine Corps’ “every Marine a rifleman” credo, in that all of the support personnel (medics, techs, etc.) are actually fully combat capable stormtroopers, and that they perform this in addition to their non-combat support duties.

This is bolstered by the fact that WEG made a distinction in organization between combat troops and support elements, which can be seen if you look at the Sector Group Organization Chapter. All Imperial Army organizational levels include both a total numerical strength and an additional notation as to how many of them are combat troops. There is also some precedent for the “every trooper a Stormtrooper” approach in the chapter, as well; see pg. 93, under the description for the Imperial Army Special Missions Battalion, which takes a similar approach.

Road Warrior
Road Warrior
2 years ago

Interesting.

Do you forsee a mobile shield vehicle attached to these units? Not sure if that would be attached to engineering or not..

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago

Are you picturing separate chains of command within the units here? As in, the Command Lance for the Repulsorlift Company includes 2 Chariots. Does one Chariot act as the Command vehicle for the vehicles while the other commands the infantry? Or is it a CO vehicle combining the two command teams into a single vehicle with an XO vehicle as backup?

Eugene
Eugene
2 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Would it be tactically feasible to organize ground units, accordinf to the task, in the same fashion Republic Starfighter Corps was described, with considerable difference in numbers while bigger formations (I think Division/Corps and above) would be more of modular headquarters with administrative control of units, assigned as needed?

CRMcNeill
CRMcNeill
2 years ago
Reply to  Eugene

It sort of already is. If you’re going by the OoB from the WEG Imperial Sourcebook, the various units are organized by different sorts of combat, from set-piece battles, to concentrated attacks against heavily defended targets, to mobile warfare against a dispersed enemy spread across a wide area. And each unit type is designed organizationally to be modular, where support / augmenting units can be tacked onto its organizational structure as needed, all the way up to the corps level. Now, as has been pointed out elsewhere, the WEG system drastically underestimates the scale of the military units required to conquer and occupy an inhabited planet, but the modular structure is well established in the source material.