RE: [GZG] "Realistic" Mercenary TO&E

Yes, but in some settings, you might have a battalion or a division, but

only field a company to a contract.  If you're doing work on a world
with 
a small mining colony, and you job is to be a show of force, you might 
only be sending in a company (not that I would take such an
assignment!).

So replacements may be available, but they may not be *readily*
available.

In the Slammers books, they often recruited locally to replace losses. 
Doesn't help in during the contract period, necessarily, but it did
allow 
them to sustain their force long-term.

Just some thoughts.

J

John K. Lerchey
Assistant Director for Incident Response
Information Security Office
Carnegie Mellon University

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Michael Brown wrote:

> I think that Company size Merc units are too fragile.  To be
sustainable
> they need to be at least a Battalion (+), especially for more
mechanized
> units.  Using a rule of 40% loss makes a unit combat ineffective; a
company
> can only have @ 30 casualties or 4 vehicle losses before they are out
of the
> fight.  A Battalion can at least rotate a company in and out of the
line.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael Brown
>
> mwsaber6@msn.com
>
>
>
>  _____
>
> From: gzg-l-bounces@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
> [mailto:gzg-l-bounces@lists.csua.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Eli Arndt
> Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:48 PM
> To: gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: [GZG] "Realistic" Mercenary TO&E
>
>
>
> Some recent comments made in a reply to the new 15mm Vehicle
announcement
> have got me to thinking, “What is a –realistic- way to do sci-fi
mercs”	The
> usual tendency seems to be to try to recreate one of the great merc
units
> from books and other games – Hammer’s Slammers, Wolf’s Dragoons, etc. 
But
> are these units representative of what we think merc units would be? 
Is
> there a way to build less amazing, but still effective mercenary
units?	Is
> so, what are people’s thoughts on them?
>
>
>
> Some ideas I have had are –
>
>
>
> 1) An all infantry force with no armor but a good number of
man-portable
> anti-tank weapons.
>
>
>
> 2) Conventional mobile infantry force with mid-tech resources.
>
>
>
> 3) Small, but elite and hi-tech unit of combat walkers.
>
>
>
> These are just off the top of my head.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Eli
>
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