Mechwarriors and forces outside of the Touman

[Bongfu]

Greetings trothkin,

I have a question on if/how Clans would organise units outside of the Toumans. My thinking is something along the lines of Sorenson's Sabres. Would something like a warrior attachment to a merchant of Clan Diamond Shark be out of the realm of possibility?

[worktroll]

Just my take, but any Clan military force would technically be considered part of the touman, no matter where they were.

If you mean "a bunch of merchants arming themselves with 'Mechs", then the Warrior Caste would be ... grumpy. Perogatives, that sort of thing. Reactions would be ... energetic.

If you mean "assigning a support force to protect the merchants", then - depending on the prestige of the mission - anything from some older or greener Warriors in second-line equipment, to clan Infantry & support vehicles from solahma units, would be put on detatched duty. Still formally part of the touman, but operating away from the formal galaxies/clusters as a whole.

That the sort of thing you're looking at?

W.

[Bongfu]

Just my take, but any Clan military force would technically be considered part of the touman, no matter where they were.

If you mean "a bunch of merchants arming themselves with 'Mechs", then the Warrior Caste would be ... grumpy. Perogatives, that sort of thing. Reactions would be ... energetic.

If you mean "assigning a support force to protect the merchants", then - depending on the prestige of the mission - anything from some older or greener Warriors in second-line equipment, to clan Infantry & support vehicles from solahma units, would be put on detatched duty. Still formally part of the touman, but operating away from the formal galaxies/clusters as a whole.

That the sort of thing you're looking at?

W.

Yeah, I suppose you are right.

So for instance, I want to make a "Merchant Marine" unit for a Clan Diamond Shark merchant (the Sharks would be less opposed to helping their merchant class). It would be kind of a ragtag unit of freeborns, trueborns, solahma. Would they be able to operate away from their main galaxy for an extended period of time?

[Crimson Dynamo]

They should, especially if the merchants they are escorting are responsible for selling military equipment. Need for some tech demonstrators and all that.

As I recall, is there not a piece of fiction about a couple of detached Warriors serving as escorts for Diamond Shark merchants? Something about a Hansa doublecross and 'Mech combat on a tectonically active moon? Damned if I can recall the source.

[Bongfu]

They should, especially if the merchants they are escorting are responsible for selling military equipment. Need for some tech demonstrators and all that.

As I recall, is there not a piece of fiction about a couple of detached Warriors serving as escorts for Diamond Shark merchants? Something about a Hansa doublecross and 'Mech combat on a tectonically active moon? Damned if I can recall the source.

Sounds familiar, but I cannot place it either. I know for a fact that the Sharks had escorts during the Invasion, but I do not know for sure what those kind of units looked like. Elementals were common bodyguards for Diamond Shark merchants. So one can assume either the Galaxies rotated out warriors and elementals in service to the Merchant caste, or they had their own units possibly solahma units.

[Weirdo]

That story is the intro fiction for the heat chapter in Total War. :)

[Archangel]

Well you obviously have Wolf's Dragoons then there is the Zellbrigen stable on Solaris or maybe you were thinking more about something like the Khan's Irregulars?

[jackson123]

I would think st least a star would be assigned.

[Bongfu]

Well you obviously have Wolf's Dragoons then there is the Zellbrigen stable on Solaris or maybe you were thinking more about something like the Khan's Irregulars?

Would be something more along the lines of the Khan's Irregulars.

[Zellbringen]

Technically I think there are several forces/military units that are not part of the official Touman of the clans.  The Touman is the fighting arm of the Clan's warrior caste but the warrior caste has several different sub caste.  The most obvious one would be the Clan police force, these are mostly unarmored Elementals, but IIRC they also use some light mechs.  I believe it is stated that the Piranha has been used in this way.

A more grey area of the Touman is the Clan's Marine and Escort groups for their Black Water Navy.  Elemental Marines are not attached to any of the official cluster, but are normally solahma warriors spending their last days stuck in space.  This much is told about in the Exodus Roads novel during the trip to and from Huntress.  I would assume the same thing of the escort Aerospace attached to Warships.

The final part would be the Transport division of the Clan's Navy.  While most Clan dropships are crewed by Technicians and Merchants, Officer are considered part of the warrior caste along with the gunners for the dropship's weapons. 

But to the point of the original poster.  Especially with Clan Diamond Shark, where the line between merchants and warriors some time blurs.  I don't see any problem with a Clan Merchant Marine unit.

-Zel

[Weirdo]

Troops assigned to ship defense are considered part of that ship's company, so definitely still in the Touman. Troops guarding merchant convoys and such would likely be considered on detached duty, but still a part of their original Cluster and Galaxy, so also still in the Touman.

I do think you're right that police are still considered Warrior Caste, but would definitely not be in the Touman. Any equivalent to modern paramilitary organizations would likely also fall into this category, though I don't know of any aside from maybe the Watch. Clanners are traditionally very leery of any firepower that lies outside the normal military command, so I imagine most Khans would stomp down hard on any attempt to form such a group.

Disclaimer: I have no clue whatsoever how the militia units Clan Jade Falcon recently set up(?!) fit into this.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I was thinking of the Watch myself.  I've never seen a Watch unit listed on any TO&E, but they quite clearly exist.  Seems like whoever sets this unit up could designate it as technically part of the Watch (or even call it a particularly heavily armed portion of the police forces) if they wanted to keep it off the books.  It also seems possible, though, that there could be political repercussions if whoever organizes it has enemies who could construe it as an improper attempt to hide forces loyal to them personally instead of to the Clan as a whole as is proper, etc.

[Colt Ward]

Actually in the Diamond Sharks (and assuming the Sea Fox) sometimes merchants who were once warriors get back into the action, there is a story about such where a Blood Spirit research facility gets taken.  I want to say it led to either ProtoMech tech or the Crimson Hawk.

[Archangel]

Long before the effective merger of the warrior and merchant castes in the reborn Clan Sea Fox, the Diamond Sharks' merchant caste had considerable influence with their warriors.  They helped come up with secondary and tertiary objectives whose capture/destruction could still net the Diamond Sharks a net win even if they lost the 'primary' objective.  During the Clan Invasion they got cocky to the point of refusing orders to leave the Inner Sphere after some Falcon Commanders claimed they were aiding anti-Clan resistance and Khan Hawker finally ordered the destruction of some merchant vessels to force his order home.

After Tukayyid, the head of the merchant caste, former warrior Angus Labov, effectively became a secondary saKhan when he was given orders to rebuild the Sharks' touman while Khan Hawker and saKhan Sennet focused on the politics.  As a result the merchant caste demanded and received considerable assistance from the warrior caste to harass their rivals.  Labov became so powerful that one of Hawker's followers challenge him to a Trial of Grievance which Labov quickly won and thus was able to rejoin the warrior caste at the rank of Star Colonel.

There is also the story about the warrior-trader who was able to persuade the garrison commander to pay attention to a member of the scientist caste's report that their Harjel monopoly may be in danger.  Manipulating the Ice Hellions, they were able to seize the scientists working on a Harjel additive while sacrificing an older DropShip.

Finally, there is also the fact that many merchants were former members of the warrior caste with many have contacts within the warrior caste they can use to gain assistance.