Author Topic: Historical: Reunification War - size of VII Corps  (Read 2695 times)

BrokenMnemonic

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Historical: Reunification War - size of VII Corps
« on: 18 January 2012, 06:36:23 »
I was wondering if it would be possible to confirm what the size of VII Corps was when the invasion of the Magistracy of Canopus began was?

The detail provided on page 95 of the pdf edition of Historical: Reunification War states that the makeup of VII Corps was three divisions (19th, 20th, 21st Royal) plus four independent BattleMech regiments. It then gives the force strength of the Corps as 31 BattleMech regiments, 17 Armor regiments, 30 Infantry regiments and 12 AeroSpace regiments.

In comparison to the other SLDF corps, that's absolutely huge. Page 65 and page 107 indicate that the corps involved in the Taurian and Outworlds Alliance campaigns were each formed of 9 BattleMech regiments, 9 Armor regiments, 9 Infantry regiments and 3 AeroSpace regiments - it's only VII Corps and the two corps involved in the Rim Worlds campaign that differ from this pattern.

Whilst I'm inclined to say that page 94 is in error, the description of the campaign for Cranston on page 98 states that:
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The nine 'Mech regimentsof the Fifty-eighth Brigade expected a hard fight

 - and that doesn't include the FWLM auxiliary forces, because it later states that there were

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six regiments continuing to grind down the Cranston garrison while the remaining three regiments (together with a FWLM auxiliary regiment) prevented the Restitution forces from linking up.

The Commanding Officers of the various Brigades mentioned in the Magistracy of Canopus chapter are also all variously described as "General" so and so, in contrast to the Outworlds Alliance chapter, where the Brigade commanders are described a "Lieutenant General" so and so, which again infers that the VII Corps was atypical.

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Chris Hartford

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Re: Historical: Reunification War - size of VII Corps
« Reply #1 on: 19 January 2012, 12:55:16 »
I was wondering if it would be possible to confirm what the size of VII Corps was when the invasion of the Magistracy of Canopus began was?
...
In comparison to the other SLDF corps, that's absolutely huge.


This issue was mentioned last summer so excuse me for paraphrasing what was said then:

Yep, it's high and suggests that each VII Corps brigade had the equivalent of 3 regiments of 'Mechs (plus conventional forces). There is a reference to the VIIth being overstrength in "The League's Might". The current force listing isn't explicit on the strength of each division though, so it's not always clear how big the VII is.

(As an aside, the size of VII corps is a conceit to reconcile the existing figures for the force sent against Canopus with this only being a single Corps; the assumption is that Marian 'used her authority' as a council member to best advantage and hoovered up a chunk of the reserves)

The Commanding Officers of the various Brigades mentioned in the Magistracy of Canopus chapter are also all variously described as "General" so and so, in contrast to the Outworlds Alliance chapter, where the Brigade commanders are described a "Lieutenant General" so and so, which again infers that the VII Corps was atypical.

I suspect that's just shorthand in writing - my TOE for VII Corps has each brigade commanded by a Lieutenant-General  and each division by a Major-General. It's much easier to say "General Smith" than "Lieutenant-General Smith" though
Chris Hartford

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Historical: Reunification War - size of VII Corps
« Reply #2 on: 19 January 2012, 14:21:36 »
Thank you for the responses, that's great :) Given how influential Albert Marik was during the formation of the Star League, it makes sense that Marion Marik would be able to pull so many resources into VII Corps. I'm sorry that I didn't notice the question had been asked before - I went back to read the old thread, and it answered a question I had on the 1st Canopian Fusiliers as well, so that's two good answers for the price of one!

I suspected that it was a case of simple shorthand with the brigade commander ranks, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't making assumptions. It caught my attention largely because the Outworlds Alliance campaign writeup uses full ranks a lot, whereas the Magistracy campaign writeup mentions far fewer SLDF officers by name and rank.

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

 

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