ND/Military Organization

# Liberation Military Organization

General Trahaern ab Owen and Ambassador Aisling Mhic Muiris, with input from Himmel Detfin, Uster Vaipnesterk, and Ariana Rees, have had more or less to teach themselves how to construct and organize an army and its logistics. Fortunately, they've had the example of the heavily militarized orcs to draw from and have seen many of that system's weaknesses. They are very, very good at their jobs. Thanks to Aisling and Vaipnesterk's recruiting efforts, they've have had no trouble finding volunteers. The Liberation Army is young and often ad-hoc, but it is already a potent military force.

The Liberation Army Regulars are paid professionals. All citizens over the age of 16 are eligible for entry as all they have to do is get to the nearest recruiting office and sign up. Training periods are generally brief (anywhere from a few weeks to 'here's your shield and sword, we fight tomorrow!'), with the army still heavily relying on covert, Resistance basic training and local proficiency for troop skill - everyone knows that the best infantry scouts come out of the forests and hills of Engenstut and Stineyer, for instance. The loot from captured orc strongholds and the taxes of a grateful peasantry have so far allowed the army to keep a regular pay schedule.

Liberation Militia are volunteer levies limited to a three-month period of service each year and rotated frequently. While some are well-equipped with recovered Orcish loot and those near logistics centers can rely on proper supply, for the most part the militia troops are farmers or merchants with a bare minimum of training and gear, useful for garrison duty and manning patrols root out the remnants of the Orcish armies who've turned to banditry. Regulars are preferred for actually killing the orc bandits.

An army travels, fights, and wins on its stomach. Ariana Rees is nominally in charge of the army's logistics, including the Kobold smiths who work the forges and the wagon teams that keep food and supplies moving. Mines and farms are deliberately not part of the army's logistics chain. Instead, the Liberation leadership is trying to encourage the economic buildup of the liberated lands and making sure that the army pays for its needs out of tax revenue rather than wholesale ownership of the supply base.

As of May 508 ANI, The Liberation Army is composed mostly of human Medium and Heavy Infantry; ranged support is provided by squads of longbow- and crossbowmen, occasionally backed by light artillery such as scorpions and other small ballistae. The army has very little in the way of cavalry but has developed a flexible pike doctrine to deal with heavy Orc cavalry charges. Human and Tzavarim wizards, priests, and druids, are used on the battlefield mostly to counter enemy magic and for reconnaissance and communications; the few battle mages in the Liberation Army focus on indirect methods of weakening enemy troops in order to comply with the Laws of Magic. They are also critical for the ambulance and hospital services that keep casualties low. There is a contingent of former Kobold miners working as siege engineers and a substantial number of human former guerillas acting as foot scouts and skirmishers. A few orcs, goblins, and Ogres have turned against the Empire, often semi-unwillingly, and provide well trained, but brutal and unreliable, strike force for the 1st Legion.

The liberation of southern Menkgu and Venrike allows recruiting herdsmen with some familiarity with horses, and each Legion has a cohort of quickly trained horse archers to serve as scouts, skirmishers, and pursuit units. They are inexperienced compared to Orc Drake Knights, and it will be a long time before they can deal with orc cavalry in anything approaching equal numbers. Dynfarch mercenary skirmishers from Zerniless are much more capable, but too expensive to field more than few hundred.

The rescue of the Minotaurs from Venrike and Zerniless means that the handful of turncoat ogres will soon supplemented by large numbers of ultraheavy infantry.

Sven's Air Cavalry
In April 508, Sven rescued a group of Pegasii from an Imperial breeding ranch in Menkgu. The group consisted of 24 mares, half of which had recently foaled and the other half that had recently been covered by one of the six studs kept at the ranch. There were also 13 yearlings that had been born in February to April 507 and had been too young to be taken to fight in the Civil War, and another 11 foals that were a few days to a few weeks old. Sven started training the oldest yearlings to act as heavy cavalry, and found volunteers to ride the mares and studs. He now has 27 flying heavy cavalrymen, including himself, mounted on the adult steeds and oldest yearlings, and a handful of flying couriers and scouts on some of the other yearlings and pregnant mares.

The capture of another 15 adult pegasii in October 508 means the Air Cavalry can be expanded as soon as there is time to train and organize some new recruits.

## Force Structure and Ranks

In late June of 508, the proposals for reorganization of the Liberation army's structure were completed. The army would be organized into cohorts and (eventually) legions, following the (likely misunderstood) old empire of Hanist's military structure:

**Squad** - 2-3 elements of troops.
**Iussum** - 2 squads, or 4-6 elements of troops. No orcish equivalent.
**Century** - 4 squads, or 8-12 elements. Equivalent to an Orc Company.
**Cohort** - 10 Centuries, 80-120 elements. Equivalent to an Orc Regiment.
**Legion** - 10 Cohorts, 800-1200 elements. Equivalent to an Orc Legion.

The Liberation Army strives to have skilled soldiers in high ranks, but the rapid expansion and difficulty of evaluating military skills means there is a lot of variation. Cross-reference an individual's rank with their troop quality to determine their skill in any military skill. Senior non-coms and officers generally have higher skill levels. ie, an Auctorus drawn from a Good unit would have Soldier-16 (+/- 2); Leadership-15 (+/- 2); Tactics-14 (+/- 2). Random officers have a quality based on the of the formation they're with, so a typical Resistance Leader is effectively a Poor quality Princeps Primorus with Strategy-11 (-4 to +2). See also Liberation Officer Skills.

 Elite | 18 | 0 to 1

## Liberation Elements

*See also Pageantry of War*

Heavy Infantry
An Average-Quality Resistance Heavy Infantry element consists of a couple of veterans (either two corporals or a corporal and an experienced private, using the Squire template from DF5, p.17), six soldiers (use the Guard template, DF5, p.21), and two laborers (DF5, p.22) with no battlefield role; weapon skills are Sword Weapons, Shield (Buckler), Spear, and Thrown Weapon (Spear). Shield-Wall training is a must for Resistance Regulars. Good-quality equipment for the element consists of a Shortsword or Broadsword, two Spears, and a Heavy Large Shield, along with either an Orc Infantry Harness (for elements using captured Orcish gear) or an identical Resistance-crafted equivalent. As of May 508 The Liberation doesn't use any heavy infantry with lower than Good-quality gear.

Pikemen
The Liberation makes extensive use of pike formations to counter the orcs' overwhelming cavalry advantages. The standard element of Pikemen is equipped similarly to the Heavy Infantry above, but skilled with Pole Weapons and Shortsword in place of the array of skills needed by the heavy infantry and with Teamwork (other members of the element) replacing Shield-Wall Training. Liberation Pike elements tend to be very well-equipped, either with captured Orcish gear or products of the Liberation's own forges in Stineyer; armor is identical to the heavy infantry's, while each pikeman will be armed with a 15' pike and a shortsword.