Re: [GZG] "Realistic" Mercenary TO&

On 10/19/06, Charles Lee <xarcht@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Actually a Sci Fi merc unit of basic , mid line force
> would be mechanized infantry with good anti-armor gear
> covered by 2nd rate light armored units and 2nd rated
> air assets. Most would be better than basic troops due
> to the fact merc units don't hire newbies much. They
> want skills proven and battle capible troops.

Want in one hand, crap in the other.

Are proven and battle capable troops who are interested in fighting
freelance available?

In the midst of a major war between the powers whose national armies
provide the majority of this pool, the only people open for hire are
likely to be those who for one reason or another the national armies
don't want.

So expect folks who have criminal convictions and the like, and whose
"proven" skills are questionable.

Mercenaries are a trope of the genre because a lot of authors have a
glamorous and romanticized view of the type.  In reality, mercenaries
arise in response to very specific economic and social conditions.
Military expertise has to be highly concentrated and entirely portable
(like a knight with his horse, for instance) and there has to be no
other option at hand for those folks to earn a living which they are
willing to do.

In a modern era, such mercenaries as have managed to operate in the
modern era have been largely light infantry forces due to logistical
reasons.  A force of tanks is not terribly portable and requires a
logistical chain all the way back to factories which produce the spare
parts and replacement vehicles.  A force of infantry riding in jeeps
and land rovers can find parts in any third world mechanic shop.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani
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