Sipahi perhaps? Sipahi eventually became fairly well armoured, but still mobile, cavalry who only adopted lances in an irregular fashion.
They were able to defeat Western style knights on several occassions through superior mobility (often allowing allied Western style knights, like the Serbs, to crush disordered opposing knights - like at Nicopolis).
(Sorry if this gets too much pre-modern military nerd in anyone’s sci-fi military nerd!)
Re: indirect fire capabilities - what about (at least in Low and High Index militaries) using ‘smart’ munitions on UAVs? Hell, you could have smart mortars that discharge munitions that hang around above the battlespace until they are “invoked” by commanders on the ground if you are prepared to trust the tech enough… (although you’d better circle up some good sig-techs).
I have to agree with this, albeit well after the fact.
It makes a lot of sense to have these assets organic, especially when you consider where these skills are going to come from in the IE. Your technicians and experts are probably either half-cousins or persons of low birth with a historical association to your family. I expect that stentors, logisticians, and the like probably have their lineages that they consider to be nearly as important as those of the Peers they serve.
I imagine that you might start to have “medieval” problems with the ratio of combat effectives to support staff if you take this idea too far… if each trooper in an Iron unit is a knight, then each might want his own stentor or servant to calibrate his optics or recharge his Iron’s foam reservoir.
Crap, I need to start saving my responses up (or reading this forum more regularly).
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Blaskarth called, he wants his Chaotic Avatar of Cosmic Death back…
Hey I love the early modern stuff! But Chris has already used Sipahi for the Karsan League’s barons. See here.
I am thinking that Lord-Pilot Hussars would be found among almost all of the Iron Empires, albeit in small numbers.
Been thinking . . .
Battalion Executive Officer (First Captain)
X-O’s personal staff–to include an Ensign and Color Sergeant for the Anvil’s colors and a Muster Master-SgtMaj equivalent.
and under the BN HQ, all the administrative & support/service elements are grouped under three officers:
Battalion Quartermaster (Captain)
Mission: keep the personnel and equipment of the battalion in physical shape to fight
Sections:
-1. Mobile Workshop (for spare parts fabrication & complex repairs)
-2. Ordnance Shop
-3. Salvage & Construction (heavy engineering vehicles)
I’d change to Anvil Engineer (Lieutenant) (to plan for engineering works and then task those to assigned combat engineering units and supervise their work. Is the Anvil Lord’s main engineering advisor.)–but maybe that’s just semantics!
-4. Field Hospital
-5. Transportation (some heavy haulers and a lot of GUS utility vehicles)
Battalion Chaplain-Commissar (Captain, ideally a Psychologist) (probably just a “Commissar” in the more secular Darikahn Empire)
Mission: maintain the morale, welfare, and discipline of battalion personnel
Sections:
-1. Battalion Propagandist & staff
-2. Battalion Paymaster & clerks (handle payroll, records, etc.)
-3. Battalion Provost Marshal (internal security)-also tasks Security units assigned to the Anvil
–3’. Comfort Sections (under the Provost Marshal because he controls prisoners, which “comfort women” are; this has the interesting side effect of the Battalion chaplain being in overall command of its sex slaves).
Adjutant (Captain)
Mission: ensure complete information about the enemy and the situation is circulated throughout the battalion
Sections:
-1. Long-range reconaissance (maybe elite Scouts in a stealthy grav sled?)
-2. High-powered sensors
-3. Fire control (since fire control and coordination are all about efficient flow of information). Maybe Fire Coordinator? Or if that is too 21st century, how about Anvil Gunner?
-4. Signals (to maintain the company-wide data network)-often nicknamed “Sparks.”
Whoops! I must have forgotten that! There are a lot of good Turkish names for skirmishing cavalry - perhaps delis (‘mad-men’) or akinci/akinji (‘raiders’) would be okay? I imagine you’ve got to be a bit manic to do all that high-speed low-altitude stuff.
Due to latent Turcophilia I imagine the Karsan League having a lot of Hussar-style Pilotry, I might have trouble thinking of their lower Peers as sipahis rather than timariots though (please don’t send me to the pyres Chris!).
I’ve finally come up with a detailed structure for the revised BASE, which I offer here for comment before I post the (hopefully) final version.
Since much of the BASE is variable in size, I’ve used the following placeholders:
“x” is one per company, +1 for BASE itself
“y” is one per company, +1 for BASE itself, +1 extra per high maintenance company: Iron, Hussar, Artillery,or Sapper
“z” is one per company, +1 for BASE itself, +1 extra per high-personnel company: Light Infantry, Armored Infantry, Security
Battalion Executive Officer : First Captain :
1 : Deputy Battalion X-O : Captain :
1 : X-O’s Aide-de-Camp : Lieutenant :
1 : Battalion Color Sergeant : First Sergeant :
1 : Treasurer : Warrant : often civilian courtier accorded courtesy rank
1 : Advocate : Warrant : often civilian courtier accorded courtesy rank
1 : Herald : Warrant : often civilian courtier accorded courtesy rank
1 : Adjutant : Captain :
1 : Deputy Adjutant : First Lieutenant :1 : Signals Officer : Lieutenant :
1 : Signals Warfare Officer : Warrant :
1 : Network Administration Officer : Warrant :
1 : Network Security Officer : Warrant :
2x : Signals Specialist : Specialist :1 : Reconnaissance Officer : Lieutenant :
1 : Sensors Officer : Warrant :
1 : Signals Intelligence Officer : Warrant :
1 : Scout Reports Officer : Warrant :
x : Intelligence Specialist : Specialist :1 : Fire Control Officer : Lieutenant :
1 : Fusor Artillery Officer : Warrant :
1 : Missile Artillery Officer : Warrant :
1 : Anti-Projectile Defense Officer : Warrant :
1 : Hammer-Anvil Liaison Officer : Warrant :
[1 per company with SPAGs, +3 per artillery company] : Fire Control Specialist : Specialist
1 : Analysis Officer : Lieutenant :
x : Analysis Specialist : Specialist :
1 : Chaplain-Commissar : Captain :
1 : Deputy Chaplain-Commissar : First Lieutenant :1 : Provost-Marshal : Lieutenant :
1 : Provost Sergeant : First Sergeant :
z : Detention Section : :
z : Comfort Section : :1 : Battalion Monitor : Lieutenant :
x : Company Monitor : Warrant :1 : Chief Clerk : Lieutenant :
x : Clerk : Specialist :1 : Propagandist : Lieutenant :
1 : Propaganda Sergeant : First Sergeant :
1 : Band/Choir Master : Sergeant :
x : Bandsmen/Choristers : Specialist : culturally appropriate instruments
x : Propaganda Specialist : Specialist :
1 : Quartermaster : Captain :
1 : Deputy Quartermaster : First Lieutenant :1 : Battalion Machine Shop : :
1 : Machine Shop Leader : Lieutenant :
1 : Machine Shop Sergeant : First Sergeant :
y : Machinist Team, each of
1 : Master Machinist : Sergeant :
3 : Machinist : Specialist : often conscripted Guild member
6 : Machinist Apprentice : Private : often conscripted Guild apprentice
y : Ordnance Team, each of
1 : Ordnance Sergeant : Sergeant :
3 : Ordnance Specialist : Specialist :
6 : Ordnance Apprentice : Private :1 : Battalion Field Hospital : :
1 : Battalion Chief Surgeon : Lieutenant :
1 : Battalion Chief Medic : First Sergeant :
z : Medical Team, each of
1 : Camp Doctor : Warrant :
3 : Medic : Specialist :1 : Battalion Motor Pool : :
1 : Motor Pool Leader : Lieutenant :
1 : Motor Pool Sergeant : First Sergeant :x? : Transportation Section : : need enough to move BASE as well
1 : Transportation Sergeant : Sergeant :
1 : Signals Specialist : Specialist :
10 : Pilot : Private :
10 : GUS : :y? : Salvage & Recovery Section : :
1 : Salvage & Recovery Sergeant : Sergeant :
1 : Signals Specialist : Specialist :
1 : Heavy Engineering Vehicle - Crane : :
1 : Heavy Engineering Vehicle - Transport