[GZG] Mercs and "Realism"

A mercenary soldier is a person fighting for a nation of which he is
not a citizen.	Mercs seem to fall into a couple major categories.
The vast majority have not been part of what I would call "Mercenary
Units" but more like Foreign Legion-style units.

Most mercenaries are those individuals who enlist in other country's
armies.  If there are enough of them, that country might form entire
units of troops from a particular source (Eagle squadrons in the RAF
during WWII, Scots and English regiments during the Dutch Rebellion,
Abraham Lincoln brigades during the Spanish Civil War etc.)
Otherwise, like the Irish, Phillipinos, and Canadians in the United
States Army of today they are simply used to fill whatever slot is
empty alongside regular citizen soldiers.  These sorts of mercenaries
are rarely featured in military SF because they are not as
'glamorous'.  However, the vast majority of historical mercenaries fit
this category.	Typically the units are organized, equipped, and often
provided with native officers identical to other units in the same
army, and do not own their equipment.

On occasion, these units may continue to be filled and even retained
on a peacetime establishment.  The French and Spanish Foreign Legions,
the Swiss Guards of practically every early modern continental
European power including the Pope, and the Scots Guards of the French
kings fit these categories.

There are a few motivations for this type of mercenary.  Generally you
get kids looking for adventure, folks motivated by the cause,
misanthropes who just get off on killing, and people in such desperate
economic straits that they have few other options.

There is a subcategory of these troops which are fighting to earn
citizenship in the nation which they serve.  Roman auxillia fit this
bill, as do many Resident Aliens in the United States Armed Forces.
One cannot really consider these individuals mercenaries.

Another type of "mercenary" is the loan of formed military units or
indivduals from one government to another.  Flying Tigers, the Chinese
Volunteer Corps, the Condor Legion, aforementioned Maxim gun crews the
Germans rented out to the Spanish, the intial 4,000 Rus loaned to the
Romans by the Prince of Kiev (which unit later transformed into a
Foreign Legion known as the Varangian Guard) etc.  As mentioned
previously, this can be an attempt to keep a core of combat veterans
in a peacetime military, or it can be a way for a country to involve
itself in a war by thinly disguised proxy.  In extremis, a government
may even use these soldiers as a means of raising hard currency for
foreign exchange (Cuban formations rented by the Soviets to fight
proxy wars in Africa, for instance)  These are often provided in the
form of military technical advisors which accompany hardware actually
used by the native troops (See:  Practically every third world country
during the Cold War).  Again, considering these individuals true
mercenaries would be stretching the point, as they are merely
professionals following the orders of their government.

The final category of is that much-loved by by authors both fictional
and historical. Formed units which own their own equipment and
negotiate contracts with governments to which their only attachment is
financial.  These are exceedingly rare and difficult to maintain on a
long-term basis.  These sorts of unit are highly unusual and rarely
equipped with equipment which requires a significant logistical tail
because of the difficulty associated with replacing that equipment.
These units would consist of the desperate and the sociopathic only.
Anyone who would kill their fellow human beings with only the
motivation of financial reward falls into one of those categories.

The problem is that these units in a science fiction setting would be
almost entirely light or motorized infantry armed with a wide variety
of disposable AT weapons and small arms in a common caliber.
Mechanized units would run into the problem of resupply of spare parts
and ammunition almost immediately.  It is difficult for a civilian to
concieve of the amount of logistical support required to keep a modern
military motorpool going.  On the other hand, a handful of Land Rovers
can be fairly easily supported by the supplies available on a frontier
planet and a good machinist with a portable machine shop.  Ammunition
for exotic weaponry would have to either be brought in shipping
containers (which then have to be protected or the unit is useless)
and when you run out, you are screwed until you send an order back to
the factory, and it gets shipped out to you (assuming the government
of the planet where it is manufactured still permits selling ammo to
that group of mercenaries, or you know a good smuggler).  The major
powers would not hire mercenaries because they have large,
high-quality armies already, and they would not want unique equipment
screwing up their logistical train by ordering exotic parts or ammo
that aren't normally stocked.

Having said that, these units are a stock piece in the military SF
genre that DSII was intended to emulate and thus occupy a warm place
in many of our hearts.	I happen to think Falkenberg's Legion is a
more realistic model than Hammer's Slammers, but that doesn't stop me
when I want to play a game with hover tanks blowing the hell out of
everything in their way.

Stop worrying about "realism", and put together whatever organization
is both effective and fun to use.

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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