OBT Forum

Takiro
Is Ares a Duchy capital? Or it could be a planetary school, I will look it up.

Rainbow 6

Looking at the maps of the Confederation its part of a Duchy with:- Necromo, Capricorn III, Minnicora and New Sagon.

Of those i would say Ares is the most likley to be the duchy capital and site of a RTC.

Ice Hellion

Fine with me.

Hessian
Quote from: Takiro on April 26, 2009, 09:29:02 PM
I read the entry on Talon Zahn and there is only two relevant entries. One, the Ares Mechwarrior Academy. Two, Born (Ares). To me this indicates a young man who was trained on his homeworld then shipped to Sian University for his OCS.

Most likely every planet around the InnerSphere has some type of military academy to train its militia at the very least. I believe the Ares Mechwarrior Academy is one of these likely part of the RTC.

Understood. Fine with me too(since, to my knowledge this is the sole mention of the Ares Mechwarrior Academy).

Ciao
Hessian

One update here based on the Field Report CCAF

The Confederation Reserve Cavalry is described as the "designated reserve regiments for the Sian Commonality".  This would conflict with the way we have described them as a rapid response force akin to the Deneb Light Cavalry.  

Maybe we should change then CRC to a general reserve force (I would not tie them to the Sian Commonality, but the CC as a whole) that is used to plug holes in defensive lines.

This would play into the elements of the Field Report that the CRC's main task is to assume garrison roles, freeing front line units for offensive operations. 

Two comments come to mind. One, the size of the Sian Commonality could play a contributing role here. Such a massive area, nearly half of the Confederation, could dictate the existence of such a force. I'd really like to get into the historical aspect of why the Capellan state military looks the way it does. From its internal borders to its component regional defenders. All are historical leftovers not yet rearranged by the horrors of the Succession War.

Sounds like a plan.

Two, I fail to see the distinction between the a designated reserve and a rapid response force. Both roles seem nearly identical to me. The whole point of holding a force in reserve is so they can respond to a crisis along your front.

Because the field report describes the CRC's role as a garrison force that is used to relieve front line forces for other missions.  From the field report:

However, their treatment since their recall to Confederation space has been more in line with the Reserve Cavalry’s traditional role. Each
of the regiments is spread in battalion-scale packets across a swath of worlds, holding down critical defensive assignments so the frontline
regiments of the CCAF can strike into the collapsing Blakist Protectorate

Now you can argue that their role, as described above, depicts their service during the Succession Wars and that their original role was something different but we need to be clear on that.  A rapid response force is something very different from a reserve garrison force.  Using real world examples, a Marine Expeditionary Unit or the 82nd Airborne are far different from a National Guard Infantry Division. While they may share some of the same equipment, their intended roles and deployment capabilities are vastly different.  A rapid response force (like the 82nd or the Marines) is capable of quickly deploying it's forces (within a few hours of getting their orders).  On the other hand a reserve force (like the national guard) will require a bit more time to mobilize. 

A better example of this might be the Israeli Defense Forces- with only limited manpower, the majority of their military is composed of reservists- probably something on the order of 75% of their army is composed of reservists.  In the event of a war, these reservists will be recalled to active duty and assigned to combat postings.  While these reservists can be called to duty fairly quickly it can take a few days- caught by surprising during the Yom Kippur War it took the IDF about 2 days to fully mobilize it's reserves for a counter attack.

So what I am getting at is we need to define the role of the CRC- is it a Rapid Response Force or is it a garrison/reserve force. 

It's not bad. It definitely looks pretty.  It reads well but it could have been longer.  The industries section is annoyingly vague- the only mech factory mentioned is Shengli Arms on Victoria- while I didn't expect an Objective Raids treatment it would have been nice to get the following factories have been destroyed, these are being rebuilt, these are new since 3067, these survived largely unharmed.

The unit entries are short- each formation (capellan hussars, Warrior houses, crc, MAC, etc) receives 1 page per formation with a brief overview, what each individual regiment did during the Jihad, their current condition/morale and unit listing showing their strength, upgrade levels and current postings.  There is also a nice map showing the CC and the CCAF's deployment as of 3079. 

Is it worth buying -if you are following the Jihad I think it is worthwhile. If you have no interest in the Jihad there is almost no information in the book that is useful in a pre-Jihad setting.

Do I regret buying it- no.  I found it more interesting then the Galtor and Misery TP books (which could have used more Sourcebook book material to go with the scenarios). I will be getting the other Field Reports as they are released.