I wasn't sure whether to post this here, in the Inner Sphere sub-board, or in the Clan sub-board. Or to wait a little longer before the book in which it was mentioned passed its Moratorium phase. So apologies in advance if any of the above are an issue.
In the 3250 blurb from
Technical Readout: Dark Age - as can be read in the sample PDF
over on the TRO:DA product page on DriveThruRPG - there is, or at least is going to be, an "SLDF Regular Army", which apparently serves alongside the
touman of each Clan which is a part of the new Star League Defense Forces. Notably, Gunslingers are drawn from both Clan and Regular Army ranks - a deliberate echo of the recruitment of Knights from the various branches of the former Republic Armed Forces.
Of course, there is much we don't yet know about this supposed Regular Army. Does it use Inner Sphere regiments or Clan Galaxies? Is it comprised of Inner Sphere freeborns, Clan Trueborns, or a mixture of the two? Exactly which sources of equipment and personnel does it draw from? And, indeed, is it something which we might expect to see added to the "present-day"
BattleTech universe sooner rather than later?
On the one hand, there is a precedent for a Clan to keep armed forces in Inner Sphere regimental organizations under its control: see the former Outworlds Alliance aerospace forces used to backstop the front-line Clan Snow Raven
touman, over in the Raven Alliance. But on the other hand, other Clans, such as the Ghost Bears or Goliath Scorpions, each prefer to integrate such recruits more directly into their respective
touman, using Clan Cluster and Trinary force organizations.
Also, one might say that the Raven example is a sign of weakness, rather than strength: with the demands of a large WarShip fleet, they have room for only four Galaxies, obliging them to leave the Alliance regiments more or less intact - to include the provision of hand-me-down Clan aerospace fighters, which in turn helps make the AMC the most powerful force of its kind in known space outside of Clan Snow Raven itself.
To which I might answer: compared to
whom? While we wait to see what
IlKhan's Eyes Only has in store for Terra and its immediate environs through to June 3152, the Wolves - plus their attendant Jade Falcon and Smoke Jaguar forces - are quite short-handed at last reporting. While there are more than a few WarShips in the Sol system to potentially deter Capellan attack once the last Fortress wall finally breaks down, any ground-based actions against the CCAF (and against everyone else now within one jump of Terra) might need more than a year's worth of recruitment within each Clan proper might provide.
So, I might wonder if the new SLDF Commanding General might take it upon herself to start offering the ex-RAF soldiers on Terra a new deal: rather than sign up to ilClan Wolf and be obliged to adopt the Clan way of life (a source which has well and truly dried up by the end of the IlClan Trial), sign up instead to serve in an Inner Sphere-style Regular Army, through which they can stake a claim to relevance in the new Star League... or, at least, to help keep Daoshen Liao as far away from Terra as possible.
Would the new First Lord agree to any of this? Or to put it another way, would be be in any sort of position
not to do so?
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Of course, parsec-ages might vary.
Do any of you have your own thoughts on what a supposed Star League Regular Army might look like in the IlClan Era?
And do you think we might see it - and the first new Gunslingers - appear in the not-too-distant future, or should it be one of the things we ought not to expect any time soon?
