An exercise for the reader: generate five Imperial Army infantry companies of TL E:
- one Vilani Imperial company from Vland. “Obedience to prior orders, traditional not innovative, good planners, dislikes the concept of taking prisoners. Favours well-planned, systematic assaults against a properly-softened enemy. The best commanders are extremely good at picking out the right lessons from similar situations in the past, and applying them to today’s enemy.”
- The wise commander will always avoid fighting a war of attrition with the Vilani. Always.
- one Solomani Imperial company from the Solomani Rim. “Local circumstances take precedence to prior orders, innovative in the field, over-optimistic planners, will take prisoners – except in the heat of an assault. Favours surprise assaults, likes to leverage technology to their advantage. The best commanders are able to read the enemy’s strength and plans from fragmentary information, and have a deep understanding of their own abilities and limitations.”
- In the small scale, the Solomani can build a powerful force from poor materials like nobody’s business. In the large scale, they are quite skilled in building a ‘Strategic Victory from Tactical Defeats’.
- one Vargr Imperial company from Antares (Ovaghoun Vargr). “Local circumstances over prior orders, traditional in the field, good planners, dislikes prisoners – but will do so if it boosts the standing-charisma of the company in the eyes of their peers/the locals/Imperial Authority. Favours assaults that look really good in the media (Vargr culture) after a good amount of covert planning and preparation (Vilani culture). The best commanders combine Vargr hunting instincts with Vilani organizational skill, a union that is absolutely crushingin the right circumstances.”
- If you are fighting the Ovaghoun Vargr, never let the situation spiral out of control. They will eat you alive.
- one Vargr Imperial company from the Spinward Marches (Gvegh Vargr). “Local circumstances are FAR more important than prior orders, highly unpredictable in the field, doesn’t believe in planning, and taking prisoners are a flip-the-coin decision. Assaults tend to be rash, spur-of-the-moment decisions: their success is almost completely tied to circumstances and the instincts of the Imperial Vargr commander. The identity of the Vargr commander in question may change radically during the assault: fragging unpopular officers is an absolute tradition in certain Gvegh units, regardless of any number of threats from High Command. The best commanders are astonishingly good at picking out opportunities out of nowhere, have a sixth sense when it comes to traps and ambushes, and are extremely inspirational in the field.”
- Understanding the plans of the enemy commander thinks is difficult if he is always subject to replacement at any time. Or if his army is here today, gone tomorrow, born again as a trading corporation next week, and mutates into some weird combined cutting-edge research/grey-market bank a year from now.
- one Bwap Imperial company from the Empty Quarter. “Prior orders are everything; local circumstances are nothing. Following the Book in exhaustive detail is more important than either tradition or innovation – or even winning the battle in question. Prisoners will be taken, as it is Official Policy. (When official, published policy changes, then – and only then – will the Bwap change their behaviour in the field.) Assaults tend to closely follow the Book, but when things get unpredicable, the Bwap tend to just follow procedure more closely. The best commanders are good at spotting patterns in the behaviour of their enemy, and use those same habits against them.”
- Bureaucrats aren’t fighters; but armies are bureaucracies. Bwap soldiers are far more dangerous if they get their moist little hands on the enemy’s internal rulebooks, regulations, and requisition procedures. If you let them interact with your nation’s lawyers…, if they figure out how to ‘work the system’…, if they learn how to shame your military paper-pushers with bad publicity…, or if they figure out a way to drown your bureaucracy with appeals and complaints… then you have already lost. Resign quickly, before they discover that you violated the Imperial Military Code, Section H, Subsection IX, Articles e and f, on eighteen occasions between the dates of 45-982 and 103-993 (complete with a flawless electronic trail to back up their claims).
Give each of them the same mission: defeat four TL C companies of men, of regular experience, holding a strategically-situated hill in a Earth-temperate climate zone, during local-spring.
(If you want the Bwap to win hands-down, let them set up a few sock puppets with the enemy chain of command: quite doable with their technological lead…)
