The Commander Series Forum

Now that my 3mm Not-Quite-Hammer's Slammers are here, I'm starting to consider the OPFOR structure to face the St. Vincent Brigade as they battle their way through Balkan countryside in the First Upheaval. I've finally come down in favor of the Earthlight Division. The Earthlight Division is one of the first national military units to be outsourced to private military contracting by the government of Mitteleuropa. They are not quite mercenaries, since they only work for Mitteleuropean contracts, but after the Upheaval they became much more independent. I have a force for them in 6mm with gravtanks, but this being an earlier milieu, hovercraft are more appropriate.

I haven't quite worked out their TO&E yet, but it's based on five or six Action Groups or "Aktionsgruppen," each a combined arms force of variable size and capable of independent field maneuvers. Generally, each has one or two battalions of heavy mechanized infantry, one or two battalions of armor, an artillery section, an electronic warfare section, a command company with attached military intelligence and UAV assets, and may or may not have its own spacecraft. The Division also has a standing contract with Donnerschlag-S.U., a company that is pioneering the battlefield use of powered armor and orbital interface rapid-deployment operations, so any given action group might also have one or two companies of transatmosphärischen fallschirmjäger attached for rapid strike maneuvers. And there will also, of course, be Mitteleuropean cybertanks of the Ausf. E type, with more missile weapons than the Vinnies' Oscar-class Rumblers, though with lighter armor.

All in all, I think they will be pretty versatile, and able to be ramped up or down as a modular force to face the Vinnies in a variety of situations. I'm working out the details, and will probably put together a full TO&E pretty soon. Something I'm working on for both units is a series of unit cards for deploying full companies and detachments quickly, to forestall the kind of rules-lawyering that a fine-tuned tank-for-tank selection of these forces is likely to generate. In scenarios, you'd select a base force and a number of detachments and assets. We'll see how this works out. Suggestions are welcome, of course!

Sounds good! I look forward to the piccies Also, good name.

Love it! I'm doThe unit To&E being used here is based on an American Armored Cavalry Squadron, ca. 1965-1980. These units had HUGE combined arms platoons, made up of three tanks, 1 APC carrying an infantry squad, one APC-mounted mortar and some six recon APCs, for a total of 11 vehicles per platoon – more than a Soviet tank company!

I'm making this TO&E regimental and a bit more flexible. It will have 3 Dragoon troops, 3 Luftpanzer troops and 3 Light Attack/GEV troops, along with 3 Squadron Headquarters. Troops can swap platoons and Squadrons can swap troops so, in practice, mission-tailored task forces can be easily created.

The regiment will also have an aviation troop and an artillery battalion.

The walker battalion will be straight-up and simple: three companies of three platoons each, with a fire-support platoon in reserve.ing the Sallies~op-force now, too. Still no name for them.

Macunaima I recognise the tanks and big apcs from OO's new Sci fi range but where are the "grave sled" types from?

Very nice once again

I realized, on going through my bits box, that I have a bunch of those Germy Grav vehicles on hand myself. They may well serve as a light Armored LODAV force (with apologies to Darkest Star) to accompany Donnerschlag-S.U.

Finally got around to making a TOE for the Earthlight Division. The hardest part was coming up with a proper unit insignia for them.

This is quite cool! These guys get the Slammers equipment, then?

They do indeed. Very much so. In fact, this is a game-data unit card I made for the Panzergruppe. The unit data isn't set in stone yet - I pulled it off one of the army lists in the rulebook as a placeholder. But the idea for my Union Commander subset of the Commander System rules is to have larger formations you select instead of building unit-for-unit.

Are they getting combat cars, too?