Sepoy

## Tactical Analysis

* **The ants go marching one by one:** The Commonwealth's deepest well of manpower makes its backbone on the humble sepoy who marches off to war with equipment that would have been outdated in the second world war, with a semi-automatic but still effective M1 Garand rifle and a cloth uniform and perhaps a flak vest for the lucky ones in a battlefield increasingly dominated by armoured soldiers. And there are always a lot of sepoys on the field.

* **Who *throws* grenades:** While many armies have left the rifle grenade behind for other implements, the Commonwealth military still sees value in them and hands them out to their sepoy to pack a harder punch against heavier targets; bombarding positions with a large number of small explosives all at once.

* **Just one man:** Sepoys can be deployed with such weight of numbers because they are poorly trained and are poorly equipped by their cash-strapped army. Wielding semi-automatic weapons in an assault rifle dominated battlefield and lacking proper body armour while also having low morale means that they will not only suffer against anti-infantry weapons; but require the weight of numbers in combat against most other basic infantry.

* **Live long enough to see the benefits:** The various sepoys who survive long enough to get promoted find that the most valuable tool isn't a new gun or heavier body armor. Instead they learn that the best tool is just more bullets, though filing down the mechanisms in their rifles doesn't hurt. This turns their M1s into burst-firing rifles. They also manage to get their hands on underslung grenade launchers allowing them to shoot explosives much farther and more frequently.

## Background

*"Anything can fall to the Sepoy's march!"*

- Unofficial Frontier Corps motto
Many military forces like to imagine that their soldiers have joined for some kind of reason. The Soviets put out tons of propaganda extolling the selfless conscripts and their glorious sacrifices for the revolution. The Empire fills recruits with the tales of the samurai of old and teaches them the tenets of *bushido*. Even the GLA uses prayer to instill in their rebels a sense of duty towards Allah, before sending them off to die in yet another ridiculous and darkly hilarious fashion. The Commonwealth sepoy, at least according to the press releases, fights for the same reason other Allied soldiers do; security of the free world, common cause against communism, and the advancement of mankind. That's the press release. In truth, it's because the sepoy fighting in the Frontier Corps gets paid on time and the amount they're promised to be paid.

That's not to say the sepoys don't realize just how far their cause has come. Back in the days of the British Raj and brutal colonialism, the sepoys were considered the expendable front lines of the empire, dying first to keep anyone important from being killed by the uncivilized hordes. They were sent everywhere from the mountains of Nepal to the fields of Flanders, anywhere they needed to fight for the crown. On their independence, many of their most experienced of these soldiers became the new officers of the Indian Army, and eventually the Frontier Corps. Unlike their counterparts in the Soviet Union, the sepoys need not be forced to join, because so many men and women want to be a part of the Frontier Corps. They are allowed incredible leeway in their thinking about war, their government, and (when they can't be heard publicly) their commanders. They're considered human beings, not just members of a party.

Try telling that to the average sepoy, and they'll likely laugh in your face. They either came from a packed, cramped, terrifying mess of a city, or from out in a rural farm where they could barely scrounge enough to pay for the shoes they enlisted in. They wanted to eat at least two meals a day and have decent clothes for a change. To the average sepoy, the risk of death in the field is no greater than the threat of dying from the lack of decent medicine in their homes. Of course some will mention wanting to fight for something more, like their nation or their beliefs in democracy. The rest are too busy enjoying the use of shoes that aren't falling to pieces and not tilling a field all day.

As far as the Commonwealth is concerned, the average sepoy can think whatever he wants. So long as he follows orders and comments on the enemy's actions more than his commander's decisions, the Commonwealth will continue to pay for their service. After all, what work is there back home?

## Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Infantry

 **Kill Reward** | 200

 **DPS** | 5

 **DPS** | N/A