Average/Standard NGR Infantry

[RockJock]

What do you see as a standard/average NGR infantry unit? I'm not talking special forces, or even a playing group, but just the norm on their TOE.

After the new NGR/Triax book you have at least 40% of troops in enhanced body armor. In my thinking I would expect a borg or two, and a light PA or two(Super Trooper, or Terrain Hopper perhaps?), maybe even a DV Drone thrown in as an additional body, or in place of a foot soldier. So something like a ten man squad having 3 soldiers in T-10 with the enhancement pack, 1 in T-11 with the enhancement pack(if you read it that way lol), 2 in Super Trooper or Terrain Hopper, 2 Borgs of various models and 2 more in just T-10 or T-11 armor, plus a DV bot as a night guard sentry. What are your thoughts? If anything I would see the unit being a little heavier, like another PA or T-25 Uber replacing the unenhanced infantry.

On a side note, the Uber with a pair of the new melee weapons is really nasty up close.

[glitterboy2098]

lets see.. if the NGR uses an orginization similar to the current german army, one Zug (platoon) would be composed of a 4-6 man Zugtrupp (command squad) with three Gruppen (infantry squads), with each Gruppe having 10-12 men, usually divided into two fireteams. one of which will be a pure rifleman team, the other will be a weapons team with two support weapons (MG's, rocket launchers, etc IRL), with the 3-4 men which are not the support weapon operators assigned to schlep additional ammunition for the weapon and sometimes parts (such as tripods, mortar baseplates, etc.) the Zugtrupp usually will have a team of specialists in it (such as snipers or another heavy weapons team) as well, to act as support for the rest of the unit.

using those numbers, 40% would be about right if you assume the weapons teams in each Gruppe have been assigned the enhanced body armor for the purposes of increasing their ability to carry ammunition and weapon parts for heavy weapons such as portable railguns, missile launchers, and so on.
i could see the NGR assigning Ai-bots to act as load carriers for the Gruppe, but i would assume that they would be in addition to the human members rather than instead of. (perhaps 2 such, one per fireteam, so they can get by with only 10 men per Gruppe.) i would also assume that the Ai-bot would probably be carrying less vital supplies like additional food, water, etc, since it is more likely to attract attack.

as far as borgs go i doubt you'd see full conversions assigned to human dominated units.. partial conversions i can see, but full conversions seem like they'd be deployed in their own cyborg dedicated Zug and Gruppen. at most you might see a temporary attachment of a Gruppen of cyborgs at the Zug level, for specific missions.

[Shorty Lickens]

if I had to make something up, I'd take the Coalition forces as a standard and just convert people as best I could. Come to think of it, I never bothered to come up with equivalent soldiers for each army.

Coalition Grunt: RUE p. 231 --> Infantry Soldier: WB5 p. 157
Coalition SAMAS Pilot: RUE p. 233 --> Power Armor Commando: WB5 p. 164
CS Military Specialist: RUE p. 235 --> Intelligence Officer: WB5 p. 171
CS Technical Officer: RUE p. 236 --> Communications Officer: WB5 p 158, Medic p. 159, Field Mechanic p. 162
Coalition Dog Boy: RUE p. 142, 237 --> ???
Coalition Psi-Stalker: RUE p. 152., 237 --> ???

[RockJock]

I'm taking a look back at the old Leopard APC. It might show a logical starting point for a infantry squad/platoon TOE. From thumbing through a few things I see zero use of borgs, but use of various smaller PAs, so who knows.

In my head I always saw the NGR using more PA and Borgs then say the CS. It just doesn't seem to be backed up with anything past my own head cannon.

[Hotrod]

A few thoughts:

1. Organizing army units by common equipment simplifies supply, repair, and personnel, which tends to lead to more combat power. Thus, most small units will use the same or similar weapons, vehicles, et cetera. Squads with a variety of equipment are likely to be ad hoc formations or units assembled for a very specific and limited task.

2. Specialties with unique equipment that have to be spread out through the force (mechanics, cyber-docs, nuke/chem/bio specialists, commo specialists, et cetera) tend to be assigned to companies and higher-level organizations (think units with 100+ people). They can be individually assigned to smaller formations for specific missions, but otherwise spend most of their time with the headquarters section.

3. The tip of the spear tends to get the newer, more potent military equipment. Everyone else tends to get the basic stuff.

With that in mind, I'd have NGR military units look something like this:

The enhanced power armors and better hand-held weapons are likely to go to commandos and non-mechanized infantry first, mechanized infantry second, and everyone else later. In those specialties, soldiers who are using heavy weapons are likely to get the enhanced armors. Vehicle crews will not get enhanced armors or better hand-held weapons until everyone else has them. Among robot and power armor pilots, as new and upgraded equipment gets fielded, it will likely go to experienced front-line leaders first.

Non-mechanized infantry will not usually patrol with robots and power armor, since this would waste the suits' mobility while attracting attention to the inherently-stealthier infantry. Soldiers on foot are likely to work in groups that can mass enough firepower to take down gargoyles or brodkill. Infantry are likely to be supported by robots and power armor that can respond to them quickly. Infantry units may also include some kind of high-mobility scouts, such as a jet pack, hovercycle, or a light, fast power armor. Scouts tend to be in their own unit that specializes in scouting that's part of a larger combat unit (scout platoon in a company, for example).

Mechanized infantry (soldiers riding in armored vehicles) are unlikely to use enhanced armor or special weapons, since their main armor and firepower comes from their vehicle and space inside that vehicle can be tight. These vehicles are likely to deploy in teams of 2-3 vehicles each for mutual support, and the vehicles are likely to be of the same type (APC, hovercraft, et cetera) to ensure that the mobility of one doesn't slow down the mobility of the others. Mechanized infantry companies are also likely to have some dedicated high-mobility scout units as well, but this may simply consist of vehicles with additional sensor systems on them.

Most combat cyborgs, robots, and power armor soldiers will deploy as teams of the same or similar armors. This prevents these formations from being limited by the slowest suit and brings capabilities to the fight that don't go away if a single suit goes down. In general, cyborgs and suits with single pilots are likely to deploy in larger groups than the big robots that require a crew. Multi-crewman robots are likely to deploy in small groups or pairs unless there's a big threat to take down. Most of these units will specialize in the roles their suits are designed for and deploy specifically to perform those roles. Thus, TC-20 pilots are likely to work as a team, probably in a scouting role, while X-5000 crews will specialize in long-range fire support, and Super Troopers will specialize in heavy assault and anti-armor.

Jagers are a special case. With their optional weapons modules and handheld options, they're suitable for assault, defense, recon, heavy fire support, anti-aircraft, and all kinds of other roles. With their incredible versatility, Jagers are well-suited to be the workhorse robot of the NGR army, and Jager units will likely be poised to take advantage of this flexibility by keeping plenty of optional modules and ammunition close at hand in support vehicles like the Infantry Repair Barge (likely 2-3 of these per company).

Cyborgs present an interesting case, since they all have plenty of speed and have a lot of versatility. All-cyborg units could be highly effective against a variety of threats while remaining nearly as inconspicuous as light infantry. They have superior range, endurance, firepower, and durability. They would make excellent commandos and special operations forces. On the downside, they are much more expensive to produce than standard infantry, so you likely won't see them performing routine missions suitable to regular infantry or mechanized infantry. Rather, you'll see them on longer-range patrols and high-priority, high-risk missions.

Autonomous combat robots are likely to be deployed with a supervising human in the vicinity who can keep up with the robots and keep tabs on them. Cyborgs, robots, and power armor are all well-suited for this, but remotely-piloted and transferred-consciousness pilots work just as well.

In general, the larger the unit, the wider the variety of troops and equipment you'll see. The smallest unit in which you'll see significant combined arms built into an NGR army unit is an NGR mechanized infantry platoon with a single Leopard APC that serves as the command/support vehicles with a robot/power armor squad, two dismounted infantry squads, and some support personnel/crewmen in a command squad. This brings a lot of versatility and firepower, but such a platoon won't operate away from its company or other support base for more than a few days at a time, because they could expend a great deal of specialized ammunition in a single fight.

[RockJock]

I really see the NGR having a sort of armored infantry(looking for a better term) made of borgs and mansized PAs to show how much more powerful a squad or platoon is compared to body armor equipped infantry.

I might be making this up, but I think the first Triax book talks about using very mixed units of PA/Bots. As in you are not going to see a squad of Black Knights, but a squad of mixed bots.

[Hotrod]

I really see the NGR having a sort of armored infantry(looking for a better term) made of borgs and mansized PAs to show how much more powerful a squad or platoon is compared to body armor equipped infantry.

I might be making this up, but I think the first Triax book talks about using very mixed units of PA/Bots. As in you are not going to see a squad of Black Knights, but a squad of mixed bots.

The first Triax book mentions an "Armored Division" within the army in the OCC section that includes combat cyborgs, power armor commandos, and power armor pilots. According the Cyborg Soldier OCC description, 18% of the NGR Army are full-conversion Borgs, 15% are partial borgs, and 60% have minor cybernetic implants. By my math, that means 1/3 of the NGR army is either fully or partially converted, and 93% have some kind of cybernetic or bionic augmentation.

Triax, Mindwerks and Triax 2 present some large vehicles with combinations of different types of units based out of a super APC. The Undertow of Triax 2 is this concept taken to an enormous extreme. Even in these cases, however, there tend to be groups of specific armor/bot types.

[glitterboy2098]

they also have regular EBA infantry though.

doctrinally i'd guess that the robots, PA, and cyborgs form the vanguard, with the EBA infantry units doing the mopping up and territorial occupation, as well as missions like clearing buildings/tight confines and interacting with local populations.

[Hotrod]

they also have regular EBA infantry though.

doctrinally i'd guess that the robots, PA, and cyborgs form the vanguard, with the EBA infantry units doing the mopping up and territorial occupation, as well as missions like clearing buildings/tight confines and interacting with local populations.

Agreed. I think you'd also have some plain old regular EBA infantry in a lot of fights, too. The NGR has some flashy stuff, but its resources aren't infinite, and EBA infantry are relatively cheap and quick to train and equip.

[RockJock]

If you have 100 troops 33 are Partial/Full Borgs, and at least 40 are in enhanced EBA. This isn't counting true PA or Robots, or even the T-25 Uber Exoskeleton. I can see T series PA being mixed in with foot infantry to make up the rest of these troops.

I can see Borgs being in their own pure units, their own squads as part of mixed infantry, or organic to infantry units as their big guns. Heavier PA and Robots would be group based on job/use. For example, Dragonwings and Predators being deployed together, or an all Jager uniter due to their speed.

Then you get into very mixed robot units supporting the really big bots.

[Hell knight]

In rifter 55 they give an up date on the NGR O.C.C.s to make them in line with the rue.

[pad300]

I'd actually expect the "typical" NGR infantry formation to be Borgs or PA. As someone noted up thread, 18% is full conversion borgs. Add even a very small Ground based PA component (2% - crazy low given all the types they have; ), and you are at 20% infantry troopers.

Modern field armies run a "tooth to tail" ratio of 1 to 2.5 or more. (If you count non-field units in training, HQ, Logistics, non-field repair, etc, it gets much higher). To be really generous to the NGR, let's make that 1 to 1, implying 50% of the field force is primary combatants (crazy high by current standards). So from the 50% combat types, you're already down to 30% remaining. From which come the armor (giant robots, tanks, APC's, wierd robot vehicles, JAGER's - it's implied, IIRC, that the JAGER unit is their main fighting force...), flying PA (again, this is going to be significant, they have lots types), air force (remember all those flying APC's and fighter jets...). There is just not enough bodies left for a signficant EBA infantry force. Especially because they have infantry robots as well, DV-12 and DV-15... (Overall, these numbers are another example of Palladium's innumeracy)

The primary combatants in EBA will be stealthy forward scouts, some special forces types, and maybe some psychics (although I get the impression the NGR is much less psychically capable than say the Coalition). The rest of the people wearing EBA will be cooks, mechanics, medics, truck drivers, etc. who make up the "tail" portion of the force.

It should also be noted that this may be underestimating the cyborg fraction in the field force. That 18% was is for the whole NGR army? Remember that "tooth to tail" ratio gets a lot worse when you count the non-field units - but those units are likely to have a much lower percentage of cyborgs. (What's the point of a assigning a full conversion combat borg to a supply warehouse or a repair facility?). That leaves a higher proportion of cyborgs for the field units...

[RockJock]

The concentration of borgs is kinda my issue. If a third of total troops are partial/full borgs, 40% are enhanced EBA then most all of the rest of "field" troops are going to be PA/Robot pilots or crew.

I'm thinking a field infantry platoon being something like 40% borgs, 40% light man sized PA(Super Trooper, Terrain Hopper, Ubers etc) and the rest being enhanced EBA equipped infantry. I might be going too heavy on the PA.