Creating a Military pt.1

I have once again got dragged into a narrative league of BattleTech and need to create a regiment. Which got me thinking about how I create armies in both my worlds and when I build in other worlds. This process should be adaptable to other armed groups in most settings, the only exception is if standardized units don’t exist.

The requirement of standardized units is more for my sake and to a degree yours. I will admit while there are arguments that nonstandarized units will make more sense in some settings, I suspect those who would argue those points will end up frustrated, and with a worse outcome than if they play along. That all said let’s get into it. I will be using my BattleTech game as an example and building out an independent fictional military force as we go on.

What is the military for?

Every army, legion, self defense force or guard has a reason to exist. Somewhere it’s reason to exist is written down and defined so I start there. If I am building in another’s world such as for my BattleTech game I start by asking what would this unit be used for by the faction I’m working with. In this case I am apart of House Marik. As Battletech nations are on the scales of planets and star clusters that really doesn’t narrow it down much. It could be a scrappy backwater world’s elite forces that are over trained and under equipped compared to the larger army’s standard forces. Likewise it could be a ceremonial honor guard with the best equipment money can buy that spends all day on the parade ground and polishing their boots. These are clearly two very different units and both very distinct from what you’d expect from the mainline military.

To re-generalize the question: What is the role for the military in question? Is it fighting peer to peer? A glorified SWAT team? The bodyguards for someone important? The answer to this will determine the requirements of the military. The forces needed to guard a microstate will be different than the ones needed to project power the various moons of a gas giant. Thus knowing what the military is going to be doing will give you an idea of scope, tactics, required capability and the like.

For the BattleTech game I will go with Local Defense Forces, or guys who happened to be there and call it a day. That will fit with the requirements of s

However I am building out a military from scratch as well. I am thinking a small planetary government. Small because they are a planet with a population to rival these United States. I will say 400 million as it is a round enough number. With a planet to guard and that population the question becomes what are they guarding it from? I'll put a few ‘near peer’ planetoids around to need defending from. Thus this military will be primarily defensive with some minor expeditionary capabilities. You know, for when the moon gets all uppity.

What is the condition?

For the campaign, I'm thinking it's at ¾ strength right now. It was off doing something and got beat up. Survivors of previous battles are being reinforced but war waits for no one and they are back on the front line. Without the games master knowing how it’s going to work in detail, this is where my adventures in BattleTech will end for now.

I see condition as made of three things, Training, Operational Readiness and Stockpiles. Each are a part of the condition of the troops. Depending on the situation for each of those the situation will be very different. These three levers allow us to turn the calculus of war into comparably simple algebra.

Training is fairly straight forward. How well trained are they? Do they train regularly? Did they train in a classroom and on a range or out in the field? How hard do they train? These questions of training help determine the quality of the troops. More training generally means better troops. There is a thing such as over training where you wear out troops and material by running them ragged. Over all this is roughly a setting a tone.

Operational Readiness is how many troops, armor, aircraft or ships are ready to go at any one time. It is unrealistic to have a 100% operational readiness: people get sick or thrown in jail, things get broken or lost which means they can’t be ready. Generally the higher the number the better you are. Generally speaking a full time army that is well funded you will see a rates between 75% to 85% anything above that is either lying or actively prepping for active combat. Even then hitting north of 90% combat readiness is unlikely even at the start of combat operations.

Stockpiles consists of two metrics that make up the army’s staying power. Replacements are the number of things that can be replaced, this can be everything from rifles to airframes. In theory ships could be put into this stockpile however I would recommend against it. Consumables is the other half. From beans to bullets to bandages if it can be used once that goes into the consumable pile. There isn’t a good general rule that I can find for realistic militaries. Some can afford more parts others don’t keep as many consumables on hand.

To put it all together a military’s quality is dependent on training as that sets the tone, operational readiness is functionally how strong you are in reality v on paper, and stockpiles let know how roughly how long a war can go on from the opening salvos. These three levers can define many different types of militaries.

A well trained force with large stockpiles but low readiness could be the survivors from a war rebuilding with material salvaged and given by allies, or the peacetime core of a military that will be doubled in size due to conscriptions. Likewise a high readiness army with low stockpiles could be underfunded and the troops are scrapping together to keep everything running. A poorly trained highly readiness nation with good supplies could be a largely conscript army of a dictator.

I am thinking running that low readiness but highly trained and deep reserves of supplies for my fictional nation. This would be the elite core that will be 60% conscripts or reservists should a war be declared the rest of the time the remaining 40% will cover peace keeping and deturrent functions.

Next week we will be delving into the mess known as Doctrine.