Author Topic: Organically Supported Infantry Company  (Read 3244 times)

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Organically Supported Infantry Company
« on: 26 December 2017, 12:41:32 »
This is a thought experiment that grew out of discussions with Monbvol (see his House Rule Emporium thread) and Cray.

What I'm shooting for here is an Infantry formation that includes its own Medical and Technical support.  I also added leadership billets where they felt appropriate (e.g., Platoon Commanders and Platoon Sergeants who aren't part of any individual squad).  At the Company HQ level, I added a Medical team (a Doctor and 4 Medics, as defined by StratOps, page 169).  I also added a Technical Team, as Infantry require one per every four platoons (the HQ platoon itself is the 4th platoon).  With those 12 as a base, plus the required 12 Administrators, I added three Staff NCOs, a First Sergeant, XO, and CO.  This rounds the company out to 120 personnel.

Tactically, the whole unit wears surplus Lyran armor jackets (for an Armor Divisor of 2) with appropriate camouflage (a 1.25 multiplier to cost, but adds no weight) and load bearing equipment.  Most troops carry an Auto-Rifle, and in the three line platoons, each 7-Trooper Squad has one Heavy Grenade Launcher to boost their firepower.  Every Squad Leader and Officer has Range Finding Binoculars and a Vibro-Blade.

Troopers have Military Micro-Communicators, while Squad Leaders have Military Communicators and Platoon Commanders and Sergeants have Field Communicators.  There seems to be a gap in hardware on the military side, as there's no Military equivalent to the civilian Long Range Communications Kit (which can reach satellites).  That's what the Company CO and XO would have if they existed.  Since they don't, they'll have Field Communicators.

Organizationally, the line platoons have four squads of six E-3 Troopers led by E-5 Squad Leaders, plus a CO (O-1) and Platoon Sergeant (E-6) for a total of 30 personnel.  The squads do 5 points of damage at a range of 1/2/3, and this doesn't change when the CO or Platoon Sergeant is added to any individual squad (the rounding works out that way).  As a whole platoon, they do 21 points of damage (the CO and Platoon Sergeant adding their Auto-Rifles to the mix).  The HQ platoon is organized into 5 person squads due to the way StratOps handles Medical Teams.  Each squad does 3 points of damage at 1/2/3 range (with Auto-Rifles alone), and they break down as follows:
Squad 1: CO (O-3), First Sergeant (E-7), 3 AsTechs (E-3)
Squad 2: XO (O-2), Tech (E-6), 3 AsTechs (E-3)
Squad 3: Doctor (O-1), Senior Medic (E-6), 3 Medics (E-3)
Squads 4-6: Staff NCO (E-6) and 4 Admin Specialists (E-3)

Support costs total 196,030    C-Bills per month (2,337,960/year), the vast majority of which is taken up by salaries.  Spare parts are a pittance (240 per month), and even ammunition is only 1,470.

One note for those following Monbvol's rule question being answered by Cray: the Platoon Sergeants make slightly (150/month) more than the Platoon Commanders, but the Company First Sergeant makes 200 less than the Company Commander (and 100 more than the XO). The Doctor is far and away the highest paid member of the company (4,200/month).
« Last Edit: 27 December 2017, 08:55:29 by Daryk »

2ndAcr

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 3165
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #1 on: 26 December 2017, 19:55:39 »
 I personally (not always) deploy medical more like real world. Each squad has a combat life saver or 2 (med skill used as a secondary), so 3-4 per platoon min ( I use 4 platoon companies mostly) so I have min of 12-16 medic skilled soldiers per company.

 Each Battalion has a Doctor, 5-8 dedicated medics, 4 ambulances. I assign this to a HQ/Support Company

 Each Regiment has a full on MASH with 5 doctors, 20-30 medics, ambulances, VTOL evac etc. This is assigned to the Regiments HQ/Support Battalion.

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #2 on: 26 December 2017, 22:06:19 »
If you use AToW for all your troops, everybody gets MedTech as part of the Basic Training field, so that laydown is basically built in.  I like how you set up your battalion and regimental level support, though.  Thanks!  O0

boilerman

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 952
  • Spinning wrenches since 1968.
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #3 on: 27 December 2017, 00:02:49 »
I would make the line platoon squads 4 E-3's, 2 E-4's and 1 E-5.
I organize squads as one squad leader and two 3-soldier fire teams.

And I'm with 2ndAcr on the medical support. US Army medical platoons for front line battalions have 1 doctor.

Overall I think your company is well organized.
Avatar by Wombat. Thanks Wombat!

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #4 on: 27 December 2017, 08:40:31 »
Thanks Boilerman!  I was setting up this company to operate independent of a battalion, so that's why they have their own doc.  In comparing the costs of adding the fire team leaders, I found an error in the calculations (the additional rows I had inserted didn't expand the range of the various SUM functions like they were supposed to).  I'll edit my first post with the corrected figures, and post again with the differences.  Thanks again!

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #5 on: 27 December 2017, 09:18:36 »
Ok, fixes made.  Adding the 8 Fire Team Leaders per line platoon only increases the total salary cost by 6,000 per month (to a new total of 202,030, or 2,424,360/year).  With that, you could even use live (HE) ammo for training and still stay under 2.5M/year.  AV ammo is just too cost prohibitive (100 per round; a full clip is 20 rounds, and each trooper needs 25 rounds per month (0.25 x 5 clips)).

Cryhavok101

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1840
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #6 on: 27 December 2017, 13:10:03 »
Looks pretty great. I'd mix some K-9 support units in there as well.

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #7 on: 27 December 2017, 16:00:33 »
Interesting idea... how much would you recommend at the company level?  A squad?

Cryhavok101

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1840
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #8 on: 27 December 2017, 17:35:48 »
Yeah, a squad sounds good for company level. More if you are holding a hostile planet where civilian bombings or something like that is a worry. It's more of a role playing thing in my opinion, than a table top thing.

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #9 on: 27 December 2017, 18:22:30 »
Hmmm... looking at the K9 rules, I'm inclined to add them as a 5-trooper squad with 2 dogs to the HQ company, and move the Medics to the their own sub-unit.  Said squad would be led by an E-5, with two E-4 dog handlers and two E-3 assistants.  I don't see any rules for additional support costs for K9 units, so it looks like they'd just add:

Salaries: 8,500 C-Bills/month, 102,000/year
Spares: 10 C-Bills/month, 120/year
Auto-Rifle Ammo: 12.5/month, 150/year
Total: 8,522.5/month, 102,270/year

Nebfer

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 1398
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #10 on: 06 January 2018, 16:26:16 »
Well here's how I did a infantry company
Infantry Company (Foot) 106
HQ 7
Mess 3
Medical 5
Maintenance and supply 7
3x Platoons 84

Infantry Battalion 402
HQ 28
Admins 19 +20
Mess 3
Medical 20 (4x teams)
Supply & Maint 14 (2x squads)
3x Infantry Companys 106 /318

So theirs 35 Medical personnel in the battalion, not much but by in large most medical functions at this level is basic keeping the guys fit, combat roles is recovery and sending them to the regimental aid station (which has 55 men), further more 12 mess personnel (sure you could drop a team, but I like having a team per "company"), 35 maintenance and logistical personnel, more than what the book says they should have but one per company is not to out of the line (as depending on the org thats what you'll have), with the battalion level ones being more supply focused, which the book dose not really dwell on out side to make the pants on ****** claim that Astechs moonlight as supply personnel. As for Admins, the books has it at 1/10th of the other units in the force with the stipulation of House units can cut that in half (representing higher levels of support), so I cut them in half and bump the not used guys as regimental cmd staff, that group is represented by the +20


Now for a regiment I went with the 4th succession war layout, with a few slight mods

Foot Infantry Regiment 1,935 personnel
HQ Platoon 34 (2x inf sqds, 4x vehs 45 to 60t +4 techs) I'm not sure how I came up with this layout, I think I wanted more staff than what a mear vehicle ptln would have
Escort Platoon 16 (lt veh ptln)
Admins 104
Mess 6
Medical 55 two MASH trucks and a extra guy, though one could go with one truck and a bunch more ambulance teams...
Supply & Maint 28
Infantry Company 106 (Towed autocannon co?)

---Support Battalion 380---
HQ 20
Admins 18 +19
Mess 3
Medical 20
Supply & Maint 28
Artillery Company 133
Recon Company 91 basically a light armor co
Truck Company 67

---3x Infantry Battalions 402---
HQ 28
Admins 19 +20 to reg
Mess 3
Medical 20
Supply & Maint 14
3x Infantry Companys 106 /318
-----
Artillery Company 133 this is where the slight mod comes in, the Atlas only has 1 firing ptln, with two mot inf ptlns in the co, here it's 3 firing ptlns of two thumpers each
HQ 7
Mess 3
Medical 5
Maint & Supply 28
3x Towed Artillery Batteries 90 (6 tubes, thumpers)

Armored Truck Company 67
HQ 7
Mess 3
Medical 5
Maint & Supply 28
3x Platoons 24


For more of these style of ToEs that I have done click here
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=57824.0

Daryk

  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 37043
  • The Double Deuce II/II-σ
Re: Organically Supported Infantry Company
« Reply #11 on: 06 January 2018, 16:43:15 »
Interesting way to scale things up, thanks!