Army of the Principality of Caledon
| Army of Caledon Ranks | |
|---|---|
| Officers | |
| O11 » Field Marshal | |
| O10 » General | |
| O9 » Lieutenant-General | |
| O8 » Major General | |
| O7 » Brigadier | |
| O6 » Colonel | |
| O5 » Lieutenant-Colonel | |
| O4 » Major | |
| O3 » Captain | |
| O2 » Lieutenant | |
| O1 » Sub-Lieutenant | |
| Enlisted | |
| E9 » Command Sergeant Major | |
| E8 » Regimental Sergeant Major | |
| E7 » Sergeant Major | |
| E6 » First Sergeant | |
| E5 » Platoon Sergeant | |
| E4 » Sergeant | |
| E3 » Corporal | |
| E2 » Lance Corporal | |
| E1 » Private | |
| E1 » Recruit | |
The Army of the Principality of Caledon has a very unique organization.
Please see Principality of Caledon for more information.
The army's actual fighting formations are tied to various lines of nobility, sometimes with histories dating back centuries. These units - via their association with the noble families that raised the units (and, at times, still raise them - raising an Army unit is considered an honor and duty among nobles in the Principality, and new nobles will frequently display their loyalty by recruiting and fitting out a new unit on their family's behalf).
There is a hierarchy of these units:
- Regiment - A Regiment is almost never an actual operational unit; it serves as a combination of an administrative unit, a training body, a repository of traditions accredited by the Regiments' constituent units, a social organization for the unit's officers, a career path for NCOs, and a basis for support organizations helping regiment's battalions' families when their units are deployed, caring for wounded soldiers and families of those killed in action, and administrators of the retirement pensions for the Regiment's retired members. Most Regiments were historically raised by mid-to-upper ranking nobles - Dukes, Earls and other nobles fairly high up in the feudal hierarchy - and still are today. View a sample Caledonian regiment's organization.
- Battalions - A Battalion is an operational unit affiliated with a Regiment. A Regiment will have at least one operational battalion - usually 3-4, and occasional, especially in wartime, dozens. A battalion is raised, bankrolled and (when qualified) led by a noble affiliated with the branch of nobility that raised the parent regiment. Thus, the "13th (Baron Scott's) Battalion of the Earl of Ayrshire's Highlanders" will have likely been raised by Baron Scott, who is affiliated with and subordinate in lineage to the Earl of Ayrshire; the Battalion may be ancient or recently raised, but will share in the traditions of the Regiment, as well as get training, administrative and other support from the Regiment. Note that while every Regiment and Battalion will have unique traditions, honorifics, and even dress uniforms and rank systems, the General Command Staff's supervision ensures that all Battalions are operationally identical (see below).
- Battalions (not Regiments) are formed (according to plans worked out and constantly exercised by the General Command Staff) into brigades, divisions, corps and other larger forces as needed for operational purposes.
The Army contains a high proportion of "lifers" - people who serve for 20 years. The Regiment and its traditions are a powerful tie that binds many servicepeople. See also "Post-Service Life", below.
History and Traditions
The Caledonian Army traces its lineage back over a thousand years, to the units of private retainers that served as the nobles' security forces and private armies.
Regiments (see below) are a key part of carrying that tradition on.
The Infantry Tradition
While the Caledonian Army is a thoroughly modern force (by TL12 standards), and has the latest in weaponry, vehicles and technology, the Army has always seen itself as a "leg infantry" force; the infantry have a mystique in the Caledonian Army; they are seen as an elite, and they learn the finer points of light infantry combat even if they eventually serve in a Mech or Grav infantry unit.
While most Caledonian soldiers go through 12 weeks of basic training before going to technical school for their specialty - grav tanks, engineers, intelligence, signals, artillery, etc - Infantry undergo a competitive 32 week basic-through-advanced course that focuses on fieldcraft, self-reliance, marksmanship, and even blade (bayonet/knife) combat - partly as a confidence-builder, mostly as a traditional rite of soldierly passage.
Order of Battle By System
Caledon incorporates over twenty systems, from TL5 through TL12, and systems both small (1,000 humans) and huge (20 billion).
The system ground forces are accordingly diverse.
Unit organizations
While there are a very large number of regiments, and an even larger number of battalions affiliated with them, the General Command Staff, working with the noble houses that raise and maintain the units, have kept the organization of individual units extremely uniform across the entire Principality, and even across the differnet tech levels of the constituent systems. Units are organized as follows:
Infantry
Infantry battalions - whether "leg" or mechanized - are made up of
- Four "Rifle" companies - each made up of three rifle platoons and an HQ platoon. The rifle platoons have four squads.
- A fire support company
- A headquarters company, comprising an HQ with a Lieutenant Colonel, a supply squad, a motor pool section, a communications section, a scout/sniper platoon, and a battalion aid station.
Cavalry
Cavalry battalions - light or heavy - have the same companies (called "Squadrons") as an Infantry battalion. A platoon is always four vehicles (tank or scout). The HQ company includes a maintenance platoon.
Artillery
Companies are called "Batteries", and each "Battery" has six guns, of whatever type - light, heavy, anti-aircraft, anti-missile. Each battery includes a forward observer section with four FOs, and a fire control platoon with fire control equipment - radar, computers, etc - appropriate to the type of artillery.
Engineering
Engineer battalions are similar in organization to Infantry battalions, but each of the battalions companies specializes in a form of engineering - construction, demolition, bridging, and assault engineering - and is equipped accordingly.
Other Types
Nobles tend to prefer to be associated with the cache and panache of combat-arms units like infantry, cavalry, artillery or engineers. As a result, the General Command Staff usually takes over raising specialty units in the fields listed below - although nobles will occasionally (if rather rarely) raise units in these areas as well:
- Signals
- Medical
- Maintenance
- Administration
- Logistics
- Transportation
- Intelligence (this is an exception to the rule for support units; many company-sized intelligence analysis units have been raised by technocratic nobles with background in the field)
- Military Police
Army Special Forces
The Army maintains the following special operations units:
- Long Range Scout Companies - These units are specially trained in long-range close reconaissance.
Caledonian Army Unit Organizations
Ranks
Unlike in Imperial service, rank titles in the Caledonian Army vary by branch of service. The roots of these variations are buried in centuries of history.
Enlisted Ranks
See Caledonian Army Other Ranks
Officer Ranks
Equipment
The Caledonian Army has a variety of equipment based on the tech level of the forces considered.
See also Caledonian Army Equipment
Commitment to the Crown
Each noble house formally commits their affiliated battalions, regiments and so on to the Crown every four years.
Normally the commission ceremony - involving sending a formal Notice of Commitment to the crown (and a copy to the General Command Staff) is a pro-forma exercise, and an excuse for both regimental pageantry for the officers and an epic drinking binge for the enlisted troops.
However, withdrawing Commitment - pulling a noble's units out of the Principality's order of battle - has for centuries been considered a noble's most aggressive form of civil disobedience to the Crown, of registering extreme disapproval for the Crown's policies and behavior. While it's been exceedingly rare in centuries, a number of pro-Maxwell nobles, especially in the Rob Roy and Skye systems, have served notice of the withdrawal of their troops from the Principality's order of battle over the Maxwell succession incident. The process of negotiating their return is an issue fraught with much intrigue, involving the court's diplomats and secret services in equal measure.
Post service life
Because the Army is tied so closely to the nobility, and the nobility is tied so tightly to the commercial class, there is a steady conduit from the Army to the commercial enterprises run by the nobles, as well as those serving as bodyguards in the higher-level nobles' personal retinues. This last has become more common since the beginning of the Campbell-Maxwell feud.
Caledonian soldiers frequently find post-service employment working for Caledonian corporations; combat arms soldiers frequently manage corporate security, while technicians frequently ply their service trades, and officers transfer easily into middle management in their firms run by nobles who sponsored their regiments.