Clan question: Solahma, second line, and PGC units

[mbear]

Are solahma, second line units, and provisional garrison clusters all synonymous?

I know you're not going to find a front-line or keshik provisional garrison cluster, but I see the terms used almost interchangeably and want to be sure I'm not misunderstanding their composition.

[Ogra_Chief]

Are solahma, second line units, and provisional garrison clusters all synonymous?

I believe that they are not, and the confusion arises from the various writers interlacing the terms inappropriately. Each should be distinctive in nature but are not always written as such.

A second-line unit is a unit comprised of secondary personnel and equipment, but should be part of the Clan Touman as an integrated unit. However, the unit could be staffed by older warriors, e.g. solahma, but still be considered a more prestige’s posting than a provisional garrison cluster (PGC).

Consequently, a PGC, should be a temporary collection of equipment and personnel meant to meet immediate Touman needs in a combat/occupied zone. However, a PGC could be active so long, it is considered a second-line unit with the initial designation losing its meaning. Thus a PGC is where you should be expected to find more solahma, due to their low standing in the Clan Touman, but not exclusively.

Continuing, a solahma field-unit is likely an even more temporary unit than a PGC that the Clan Touman doesn’t even bother to name, because its only going to be around long enough to die gorily and gloriously for its Clan. Conversely, this unit should not qualify as a secondary formation or PGC.

Thus, the solahma term should always be a passing label as newer and younger warriors are always being cycled through the Clan Touman; even if those warriors are younger older warriors. So, the term solahma should be used more as a descriptor, rather than a permanent designation.

Though as stated earlier the writers do use the terms interchangeably, and maybe my head cannon is all wrong.

[Frabby]

Solahma is an attribute, for warriors and equipment considered to be near the end of their useful service life.

Second-line units seems to be a catch-all term for military units that aren't among a Clan's premier five or so galaxies that are used for all those glorious assaults.

PGCs are, as far as I understand, one kind of second-line formation, but so low on the sliding scale totem pole that they are typically made up of mostly solahma personnel and arguably constitute a tier of their own, below "normal" second-line and garrison units.

[Colt Ward]

It depends on the Clan IMO . . .

PGCs were originally introduced by the BoK trilogy as garrisons for the new OZ.  They were specifically not frontline units or attached to frontline galaxies, unlike say the Falcon's Eyrie clusters which are like training units.  One of the key things overlooked IMO is that the 23 PGCs that Ulric had summoned were so insignificant in relation to the homeworld garrisons (at that point in the Clan's development) that their departure went unnoticed by any of the Crusaders watching the Wolves.  During that point, IMO the PGCs were very much ad hoc units- perhaps more administrative in formation than a actual combat group.  For instance, the world of Butte Hold had some Elemental points assigned as garrison (maybe a star?) and they were left there forgotten . . . even when the world became a Horse possession, I put that down to the chaos of the shake up of the Refusal War.

Later (Obj Raids) PGCs became a type of secondline formation but the source is known to be flawed, mis-assigning Clusters even between Clans.  With the FMCC/WC we see PGCs becoming part of secondline galaxies, even among the Home Worlds Clans IIRC.

Personally, I have wanted the break down to be frontline/secondline/garrison because by the fluff many Clans divide their clusters and even galaxies into such a qualitative & assignment break down.  Smaller Clans have a greater difference between frontline & secondline with less difference to garrison.  Frontline and secondline galaxies will be used offensively while garrison galaxies are just that- garrison units.  Then you have other Clans like the Sharks which had their Spina galaxies, gear & personnel nearly as good as the frontline galaxies but given a different set of assignments than the galaxies of the Khan/saKhan/Loremaster.  When the Invasion Wolves built Tau Galaxy, it was used offensively and was a combination of Crusaders plucked from the four Wolf frontline galaxies along with much of the Crusader & Supremacists from the sibkos that graduated during/after the Invasion.  Their equipment may not have been quite as good as Alpha, Beta, Delta or Gamma but it still featured a large number of Omnis and was at least Clan spec unlike Epsilon which was a garrison unit (bid for invasion b/c of the gimme nature of their last galaxy).

[truetanker]

To me Frontline equals omni's and heavier standard battlemechs. Second line refers to lighter forces, either Omni or standard. While Garrison is more like the trash that still fights...

TT

[Sartris]

more or less. even after the chaos of the jihad, FM:3085 has most frontline galaxies around 80-90% omnis, which is 4 out of 5 in the average star. few secondline galaxies have more than 20-25% omnis - but still have some.

garrison forces are going to have that SL-era booboo along with a bunch of UrbanMech IICs

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I always saw 2nd line and PGC as interchangeable.

And as far as I'm concerned Solahma units are just the Clan flavor of the militias/paramilitaries we almost never hear about quantitatively on either side of the Clan OZ demarcation line.

[glitterboy2098]

I wouldnt be surprised to find out that the original PGC's didn't even ship in with hardware. Just manpower, issued whatever captured mechs, vehicles, and weapons were present on the world they'd been assigned. Which would explain all the early "C" refits. The PGC's patching mechs back together from salvage.

[rebs]

I tend to agree with the notion that PGCs (as well as Solahma clusters) are a sub-second line formation. 

1-Front line
2-Second line
3-Solahma/PGC

[Colt Ward]

I wouldnt be surprised to find out that the original PGC's didn't even ship in with hardware. Just manpower, issued whatever captured mechs, vehicles, and weapons were present on the world they'd been assigned. Which would explain all the early "C" refits. The PGC's patching mechs back together from salvage.

I absolutely agree with this- and it explains a bit easier their leaving the Home worlds without being noticed.  I really wish we got a errata'd 'C' series where all the available extra weight was just put into heatsinks, it would make them legit units again and for the few that are oversinked it would be funny.  I would also expect a sprinkling of Clan standard mechs, for stiffening but they would be ones pulled IMO from caches.  If they had any Omnis it would be like Mechwarrior Alvarez, who got pummeled by a Spheriod counterattack.  He & his mech were separated and each put back together again.  He gets rotated out to be a brevet Star Commander or Star Captain to see if he can recover to his previous level.  Meanwhile Mechwarrior Angelika, a ristar who was left in the Home Worlds, had been brought forward with her Omni as part of a replacement pool.  She gets assigned to Alvarez former spot in that frontline cluster.

TDC, but some toumans listed in FMCC/WC do list out a cluster as 'solahma' so they do show up.

TT . . . only in certain Clans might it correspond to weight.  I think its more about how 'new' they are . . . recently there was a topic that we talked about how in a elite cluster the equipment might only be a few years old.  While a secondline could have the same exact chassis but its 20 years old, been through 60 distinct Trials and rebuilt several times.  But the Timber Wolf is old and worn, so its 'secondline' quality where a factory fresh Timber Wolf is only considered for 'frontline.'

[Ogra_Chief]

TT . . . only in certain Clans might it correspond to weight.  I think its more about how 'new' they are . . . recently there was a topic that we talked about how in a elite cluster the equipment might only be a few years old.  While a secondline could have the same exact chassis but its 20 years old, been through 60 distinct Trials and rebuilt several times.  But the Timber Wolf is old and worn, so its 'secondline' quality where a factory fresh Timber Wolf is only considered for 'frontline.'

I agree with this as well, as it makes sense, from a logistical and cultural standpoint. The newer and better going to the younger and stronger. I have always believed Clan reserve logistics working similar to the old Soviet reserve system, e.g.

Category 1 : reserves : 75% – 100%, of wartime strength;
Category 2 : reserves : 50% – 75%, of wartime strength;
Category 3 : reserves : 50% or less (cadre), of wartime strength;

with older equipment being issued the further down the pole you slide. So, you could have the same chassis in two units, but with different manufacturing dates. As you stated, functionally comparable, but logistically, not so much.

[Frabby]

I'm surprised to see many fellow posters here seem to regard "solahma" as a kind of military unit or designation. I was under the impression that it is simply Clan-speak for "old and useless", and that some garrison clusters or PGCs may thus call themselves Solahma clusters because that's what they are.

One important aspect to remember is that solahma Warriors are still members of the Warrior caste, no matter where they serve. While solahma carries the notion of opting for suicide missions to go out in a blaze of glory, most old warriors gravitate "down" into second-line and garrison clusters simply to remain in the warrior caste.

I wouldnt be surprised to find out that the original PGC's didn't even ship in with hardware. Just manpower, issued whatever captured mechs, vehicles, and weapons were present on the world they'd been assigned. Which would explain all the early "C" refits. The PGC's patching mechs back together from salvage.

That's literally how I understood the PGCs had been raised. Well, perhaps a minimal amount of essential equipment that even the Clans considered worn-out or obsolete, but mostly what they would scrounge up as they went.

[glitterboy2098]

we've seen dedicated solhama clusters in the fiction, often assigned to duties like pirate hunting. most appear to use star league level hardware, probably pulled from the brian caches. almost none of them have official write ups though, suggesting they might have been adhoc formations for a given mission rather than permanent units. (some clans do have dedicated solhama units as part of galaxies though)

[Natasha Kerensky]

A bunch of solahma units — clusters that use the term “solahma” in their name — have appeared in the canon.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/index.php?search=Solahma+cluster

So “solahma” can refer to both a type of unit — presumably composed of old and unaccomplished warriors assigned disgraceful (e.g., bandit hunting) and canon fodder duties — as well as the warriors themselves.

Relatedly, at least one freebirth cluster also appears in the canon

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/22nd_Smoke_Jaguar_Freebirth_Cluster

My head cannon is that these are all secondline clusters.  Some are long-standing and may have offensive potential, while others are provisional and really geared towards temporarily garrisoning hostile populations (especially Spheroids in the invasion corridor).  Either may also earn or substitute the solahma or freebirth appellations, but that has more to do with the composition of their warriors rather than their mission.

I wish there were some canon “Dezgra Clusters”...

FWIW...

[massey]

My interpretation is that front line units are pretty much all Trueborns whose careers are on the rise.  They have a force of almost pure Omnimechs and nearly everybody is a 2/3 or better.

Second line units are those who can't quite match up to the first ones.  They are made up of older Trueborns who never really distinguished themselves (you know, old men in their 30s),  some high performing Freeborns, and maybe some guys who are very talented buy got disgraced or are on the outs politically.  They've got 1/2 older Omnimechs (maybe without the newest whiz-bang cool weaponry) and 1/2 second line mechs (which are usually pretty badass anyway).  Their pilots are 3/4s and they don't get the choicest assignments or the best chances at glory, but they'll still probably see regular combat.

Provisional garrison clusters are probably made up of older second line mechs and Star League refits, sometimes perhaps even Star League surplus or Inner Sphere salvage.  You're probably looking at guys who qualified as warriors but either age/injury has slowed them down a lot, or they had some sort of humiliation, or just lots of Freeborns.  Yeah they're warriors, but they're just a garrison force.  They're a bunch of nobodies.

Solahma units are trash.  These guys basically just get thrown away.  You're talking about people who serve the Clan by soaking up enemy bullets.  There's zero expectations that these guys will really do anything useful (both by Clan leadership and by the people themselves).  Equipped with whatever equipment is left over, Inner Sphere salvage, etc.

[R.Tempest]

 I think the confusion here is a result of PGC having potentially 2 meanings. Provisional Garrison Cluster - the key word here is `Provisional'. This by definition an ad hoc formation that may only be in use for a short time. On the other hand you have Planetary Garrison Units ( at least in the Federated Suns). I think there has been some confusion in the narrative between these 2 types of units.

[Foxx Ital]

Don't pgc's also have the distinction of not having dedicated jumpships?

[Colt Ward]

Some secondline clusters do not have dedicated jumpships- probably have their own DS though.  PGCs & definitely solahma lack enough DS capacity to lift their whole unit, but I would expect the PGC to at least have a single old beat up rust bucket that can shuffle some of the force in response to any threats.  One thing I also forgot to mention in a previous post in regards to 'equipment' would be that part of the reason PGC & solahma gear is in bad shape- besides being old & well used- would be a lack of spare parts and enough techs with any skill to perform the repairs.

So while a elite frontline cluster will meet (or exceed) the book's required tech strength, a garrison unit is possibly struggling to meet the quality/quantity needed.  The best techs are going to get transferred to the more prestigious units.  I would expect garrison clusters to be tech training commands- so while they may have or exceed the number of warm bodies they will not have the skills yet to perform the more difficult repair & upkeep tasks.  Lots of green astechs running around with a few veteran techs trying to get them all up to speed.

The PGC though?  Star Colonel Blowhard lost a politically important Trial of Possession against the rival Clan and blamed mechanical failures for why his mech fell in combat with him thus defeated.  It would never be that he kept firing in Ultra mode on his AC and rode his heat dangerously high before he let some stravag punch some lasers into his assault mech in the back.  Technician Unlucky had the fallout land on him, the Galaxy Commander even signed off on his transfer from Beta Galaxy for 'incompetence' to a PGC guarding Armpit station.  Good luck recovering his reputation since the PGC rarely gets to shine in combat, he is now condemned to purgatory and will be infected by the general malaise the warriors and techs all exhibit.