NEMA Order of Battle

[Chaos_Matt]

Hello board. Long time player, first time poster

I thought of several questions to ask but only a couple stuck so if anyone could help me out, that'd be great.

I haven't purchased the CE source books yet so I'm not certain if this info is in there. If so, please let me know which. What I was looking for was more information regarding NEMA's order of battle. Are they structured similar to the US Army? What's the rank structure? Do they use standard line echeleons, such as platoons, companies, battalions, etc? How are the units broken up? Guardsman and Roscoes in separate companies or all intermingled? How many Silver Eagles per echelon? That sort of thing.

I could always use the CS order of battle info from Rifts Sourcebook One or from Coalition War Campaign but I was wondering if this info was already covered somewhere else for NEMA specifically.

Second, I realize CE had its roots in Rifter but has there been any CE-related fiction in a Rifter since its debut as a stand alone RPG?

That's it for now and thanks ahead of time for any help

[Dustin Fireblade]

Welcome to the boards!

As to your questions, I don't recall any organizational notes in the CE Main Book, or any other book to date. There is something called a Mission Book that will be released (a few of them, sort of like Adventure Books for Rifts I guess) that I think will detail NEMA's organization.

I'm not aware of any Rifter articles other than what has already appeared in the preview issues. I know of at least one person that has a CE setting submission though, and it's very good, so hopefully we will see it soon.

[zor_prime1]

Welcome Matt!

I'm crossing my fingers that there will be one in the Rifter soon...

[Jefffar]

I would assume NEMA had a structure similar to the military and police units it was meant to function along side.

However, given the state of affairs facing Chaos Earth, there's no garuntee that any unit organized above the company level survived.

[Chaos_Matt]

Thanks for the kind welcome, guys!
I was asking about fiction in the Rifter because I am interested in submitting something but as I'm sure the editors would want to avoid a saturation of CE-related fiction, I wanted to know how slim my chances were of seeing it published. I hope you see your entry in print soon, Zor!

As for the meaty question, NEMA Order of Battle (or OB as its known in the Army)... I understand the likliehood of a similar structure and rank system as you mentioned Jefffar but what causes me to hesitate is the fact we're talking about three nations and in the case of the American contingent, more than one military service (not sure about Mexico or Canada).

What I mean is, there are differences in the echelon structures in the US Army and Air Force and major differences in the rank structure of the Army and Navy (and minor ones in the Marine Corps). Simplest way seems to be to adopt the Army system but as I write, I didn't want to do that if a CE Sourcebook already pointed out something different

For gaming (were there gaming going on here) I would probably just use a mosiac rank structure and an army echelon/command structure and just call it a day.

Matt

[smkeyes]

I am useing the army system. In the book they state with the advant of MDC armors and weapons the power that possesed them didn't need as large of a Military Force. So how could you have a large NEMA force throughout the United States. You remove the National Guard from being part of the Armed Forces and make them NEMA units now. It also expalins why and how you have a large number of NEMA units spread throughout the country.

Then For the NEMA forces in a given state look at that sates army and air national guard units and use the following.

Air National Guard = Silver Eagle Pilot

Army National Guard:
Armor - Chromium Guardsman
Infantry - Peacekeeper & Fire and Rescue
Field Artiliry - Armored Sentinal
Enginer - Field Engineer
Military Inteligence - Intellagent/spy & Military Spechilist/Commando
Medical - Peacekeeper & Fire and Rescue
Spechiel Forces - Military Spechilist/Commando & Peacekeeper

Thats Just one way of doing it without designing your own Force compostion.

SMKeyes

[Jason Richards]

good list, but I would list the Armored Sentinel as Mechanized Infantry rather than Artillery.

[smkeyes]

good list, but I would list the Armored Sentinel as Mechanized Infantry rather than Artillery.

Either in the description for the Armored Sentinel or the Robot discriptions it is mentioned as being the replacement for Artillery.

Besides Mechanized Infantry is easier to do with Peacekeepers in APC's wich is what Mechinized Infantry realy is.

Mechinized Infantry Battalion:
4 Companies Peacekeeprs in APC's.

The Next largest unit would be a Mechinized Infantry Brigade:
2 Mechinized Infantry Battlions of 4 Companies each peacekeeper with APC
1 Armor Battalion of 4 Companies Chromium Guardsmen.



SMKeyes

[smkeyes]

Keep in mind that the writers in the past have shown a somewhat,...imperfect, grasp of military terminology and concepts. Artillery, when referred to as a specialty, is traditionally for troops trained in the employment of indirect fire weapons systems, ie., howitzers, artillery rockets, and heavy mortars. The Armored Sentinel could potentially be classed as Infantry, Armor, or perhapes a new branch is created for combat robot pilots (exp. Armored Infantry). Some of these pilots could even fall under different branches depending on their mech. Gunbusters could be considered part of Infantry while Bulldog pilots are members of the Armor branch.

For the Silver Eagles I'd classify as similar to Army Aviation as opposed to something Air Force. Their employment and close cooperation with ground pounders make their mission more akin to Army version as opposed to the Air Force vision.

Chromium Guardsmen...I'd see these more as Infantry branch then Armor since their strengths would seem to lay with support of infantry and even independently operating like infantry instead of tanks. Not really anymore different then Anti-Armor and Mortar (11C) MOS's in the Army being part of the Infantry Career Managment Field (CMF) and the Infantry branch then something like say...Artillery.

And finally Peacekeepers...looking at the MOS list you can't really classify them in one branch. EOD/Demo would be part of the Engineers, Communications Expert would be Signal, and Medic as part of the Medical branch.

A breakdown of existing MOS's in the Army is here.

I know about the breakdown of MOS's in the Army since I have two of them. 68X1P Armament and Electrical systems repair for the Apache Helicopter and 11H1P Infantry Heavy Anti-Armor. I spent eight years in the Army before returning to civilian life. I know how you feel about Palladiums writers imperfect grasp of military terminology and concepts.

I think your right in that National Guard aviation units should be Silver Eagles instead of the Air National Guard units it makes better sence and increases thier numbers. I used armor for the Cromium Guardsmen because it gave them an increased number as to why they survived to the PA times. It is also part of the reason why I made the artilery units Armored Sentinals. There are more infantry both light and Mechinizied and Armor Units than Artilery units. It would be a reason why a lot of thier equipment survives to PA times and the Armored Sentinals equipment dosn't.

I was trying to just generlize what would constitute the majority of the unit.

[Jason Richards]

One has to also consider the possibility that this is an RPG, not a military simulation. To make these military units "realistic" to any legitimate degree would totally eliminate the heroic, larger-than-life feel of Rifts. In "realistic" games, you don't engage in hand-to-hand brawls with lesser demons or use flying power armor to scream through a building looking for survivors before it collapses. It's highly cinematic, but not realistic.

Chaos Earth has this sort of feel too, but it's very different than in Rifts. In CE (as it now stands) it's all about the limited few with superior technology protecting the weak, normal people from the Cataclysm. Still, to bind it to a "realistic" tone, it wouldn't really be any fun to play. Throw in the fact that you've got monsters and psionics and magic and then, well... if you're still arguing for realism that you're beyond me.

[Jefffar]

Everything is really up to the GM, drawing on real world units is a good insparation.
I've drawn up a TOE for most Robotech units, including the bad guys. Some of them resemble real world units some of them don't.

My basic suggestion is work wth recurign patterns of the flollowing numbers:

2, 3, 4 and 5.

Everything should be built from "2 of" or "3 of" and so on.
Then ad the leadership and support elements.

For example, a typical American Infantry Squad would be "2 firetreams of 4 plus a squad leader"

For Power Armour Squads I tend to use "2 fireteams of 3 plus a squad leader"


Build what makes sesne to you.

[grizzly]

I don't know if you were just speaking hypothetically or not, but a T/O US infantry squad is 3xFire Teams of 4 plus a squad leader for a total of 13.

[smkeyes]

If you want to look at some older army squads they where 11 men.
Squad Leader
Assistant Squad Leader
RTO
2 4 man Fire Teams

If memory serves me right.

[smkeyes]

The TOE that I mentioned was Post Korea to the early vietnam era. The use of the Heuy Helicopter cut the squad size down to 9 men.