31st Pesht Guards, 1st Battalion (Expeditionary)

[Gorgon]

This is a small attempt by me to draw up a support infantry force of roughly battalion size for a DCMS 'Mech force. Basically, what you could shove into a Nagumo DropShip to support a battalion+ size main force in a military, that is notoriously short on conventional support forces attached to their 'Mech units.
There will be a few slightly modified vehicles in this line up, marked by an * and explained in the notes further down.

Comments and critics are welcome, as always.

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31st Pesht Guards, 1st Battalion (Expeditionary) - Qemali's Poachers

• Rifle Company (3 Platoons)
• Battle Armor Company (3 Platoons)
• Artillery Company (3 Platoons)

• Heavy Combat Engineer Platoon (1 Platoon)
• Scouts (2 Scout Teams)
• HQ Staff
• Medical Support Staff (5 Medical Teams, 4 Paramedic Teams)
• Kitchen Staff (2 Kitchen Crews)

Rifle Company

• 3 Rifle foot platoons

Battlearmor Company

• 3 Raiden platoons (3 squads of 4 suits each)

Artillery Company

• 3 Thumper field artillery platoons (24 soldiers, 1 Thumper, 2 Flatbed Trucks each)

Combat Engineer Platoon

• 2 Squads of motorized engineers (16 soldiers)
• 1 Squad of drivers / operators (8 soldiers, 1 Crosscut IndustrialMech, 1 Carbine IndustrialMech, 2 Flatbed Trucks (Bridge)*, 2 Flatbed Trucks (LRM / for mine laying & clearing), 2 Flatbed Trucks (standard)

Scout Teams

• 2 independent scout teams (4 soldiers, 2 Hoverbikes, 1 Freedom 900 Hoverjeep each)

HQ Staff

• Mobile HQ with 1 driver, 7 staff officers / technicians / analysts and 2 staff cars (Hoverjeeps)

Medical Support Staff

• MASH team (5 medical teams / 25 doctors and nurses, 1 MASH Truck)
• 4 Ambulance teams (8 paramedics, 4 Hover ambulances*)

Kitchen Staff

• 2 kitchen crews (4 cooks, 1 Flatbed Truck (Kitchen)* each)

Nagumo-class DropShip Albiero SunriseCargo:

• 12 Platoons of soldiers (in total)
• 2 light IndustrialMechs: 60 tons
• 14 Flatbed Trucks (standard): 140 tons
• 2 Flatbed Trucks (LRM): 20 tons
• 2 Flatbed Trucks (Bridge): 20 tons
• 2 Flatbed Trucks (Kitchen): 20 tons
• 4 Freedom 900 hover jeeps: 12 tons
• 4 Hoverbikes: 5 tons
• 4 Hover Ambulances: 40 tons
• 1 MASH truck: 20 tons
• 1 Mobile HQ: 25 tons
• Ammunition, spare parts, general cargo: 1765 tons

Notes:

• All personnel are carried within the 12-platoon-infantry bay of the Albiero Sunrise. All further equipment is carried as cargo. Which means the only units ready for immediate deployment are the three rifle platoons. Everything else needs to be unloaded in a more tedious and time consuming manner. This unit is meant to come in after the BattleMechs have secured a proper landing zone.
• Much of the Albiero Sunrise's cargo space will likely be dedicated to keep the Mech battalion supplied. Those Unions carry juuust enough to get the Mech jockeys in trouble, but not enough to keep them fed and fighting for long.
• Flatbed Truck (bridge): the six ton cargo space is exchanged for a heavy bridgelayer
• Flatbed Truck (kitchen): replaces the cargo with a field kitchen and 3 tons of refrigerated cargo
• Hover Ambulance: the basic 10 ton Hover APC, with one MG dropped for two sets of paramedic equipment
• The scouts I imagine as operating independently from the main force as long range scouts, not in a battlefield capacity
• I don't imagine every infantry battalion to have an Mobile HQ, just the 1st. This is more to support the Sho-Sa or Sho-Sho of the 'Mech unit, in all likelihood.
• The 14 Flatbed trucks include 6 earmarked for use by the Techs of the supported Mech battalion

[Natasha Kerensky]

Random thought...

If the foot infantry and battle armor are intended to work together, I’d be tempted to choose a longer-ranged weapon for the foot infantry so they can provide supporting fire to the battle armor and stay out of the worst of the firefight while the battle armor do the close-range fighting.  Depending on timeframe, I might also replace the Raiden suits with Kage or Kishi suits.

Thoughtful use of a Nagumo and nicely detailed infantry TO&E.  Good stuff.

[Gorgon]

Yeah, the rifle platoons and BA I'm not 100% set on. I feel like basic rifle platoons work well to represent the DCMS' general disregard for conventional forces. That may just be considered good enough for units intended for base security, keeping civilians in check and engage in urban combat, if necessary.

Overall, I hadn't picked a concrete point in time this unit represents, but was going for a general post-Bulldog / Jihad vibe. The reason I picked the Raiden over other suits: to me, it seems like the most common suit the DCMS is fielding. And as they will likely do most of the front line fighting, I felt that light suits could be too fragile. I'm curious, though, why would you prefer the Kage or Kishi?

(I was for a time considering mixed companies of AC/5 field guns and BA, maybe even Kanazuchi, but decided against it in the end)

A general problem of this TO&E is the lack of organic APCs. But there's only so much that can be done. Loading 4 heavy APCs would be possible, of course, there's spare tonnage enough. But they would require another squad's worth of troop accommodations for the drivers. Which would necessitate cutting the ambulance, scout, field kitchen or HQ personnel. In the end, the rifle platoons and BA would have to rely on friendly tank units for offensive operations or have to be deployed defensively.

[Daryk]

Even with near total disregard, increasing the range of a Foot Rifle Platoon only requires two Sniper Rifles per squad.  The Kurita one from Shrapnel #1 (the Sairentosutomu) isn't great, but it seems to have ammo commonality with Auto Rifles and would extend their range out to 5/10/15 (at the cost of a point of damage per squad, but only two points per platoon due to rounding).

[Gorgon]

The more you talk about the Shrapnel infantry weapons the more I get the feeling I should buy those back issues 

That does indeed sound like a very attractive way to add some range.

[Daryk]

I've converted all the Shrapnel weapons so far to TW stats.  Links are in my sig block (and even work again!)

[Natasha Kerensky]

I'm curious, though, why would you prefer the Kage or Kishi?

For their armor types, stealth and reflective, respectively, and their additional mobility.  They do carry less armor than the Raiden, but they’ll take fewer hits or less damage per hit.  And they have an extra MP of jump or ground mobility, respectively.  The Kage is also has a TAG option and the Kishi’s HMG and Vibroblade are a bit better for anti-mech attacks and massacring unarmored infantry.  The Kishi is probably best for what I had in mind.

In my mind, the rifle platoons have their range upgraded with snipers (per Daryk) or some laser or missile weapon so they can stand off at safer distances while still providing fire support to the BA.  And the BA squads forward deploy Kishi to slice leg actuators and dice enemy infantry, keeping enemy units away from the conventional infantry while benefitting from their fire support.

I might also switch from Thumpers to Arrow IV infantry (see Missile Artillery Infantry on Sarna), throw in a Kage (TAG) squad or two, and deploy them singly.  But that’s getting pretty high-tech.

I was thinking in terms of an integrated infantry battalion that can kill lots of mechs.  But if the unarmored infantry platoons are mainly just to provide base security for the mech dropships and the artillery and BA are meant to support the mechs as needed, not work as a unit with the unarmored infantry, then there’s nothing wrong with bog-standard rifles, generic BA, and Thumpers.  It makes sense as an menu of infantry support for the mech units.

[DOC_Agren]

??  what is the Freedom 900 Hoverjeep?

[Daryk]

I think Copperheads are lower tech than Arrow IVs, so you could keep the Thumpers with TAG.

[Gorgon]

Natasha, those are some good points about the lighter BA. Especially the TAG is tempting. Although it might be a neat idea to build the scouts as 4-person squads with an infantry TAG as support weapon. Gives them something to do on an actually battlefield.

As for different artillery systems: Arrow is neat, but personally I prefer it on something a bit more mobile, due to its relatively short range. Makes it easier to get into range or withdraw before enemy breakthroughs. As Daryk said, copperhead ammo really makes tube artillery a valid alternative. I was thinking about maybe using a Sniper instead of the Thumper for the greater range and damage. But of course, as it needs 20 crew, it's a bit a less resilient to personnel losses than the Thumper...

@DOC: the Freedom 900 is a neat little 3 ton hover support vehicle. 300kg of cargo should be good for keeping for scouts supplied in the field for a couple days.


A cool thing about toying around with 12 infantry platoons like this: you can transfer the organisation to a Condor or Excalibur (although here you'd be quite short on cargo). The only drawback is now you have all those vehicle bays drawing away attention from the PBI 

[Daryk]

Thumpers actually outrange Snipers by three map boards, and have twice as many shots per ton... ;)

[DOC_Agren]

Keep the Thumpers. 

I like the Freedom 900 idea.. 

also maybe trade a hover ambulance for a Soar VTOL

[Gorgon]

Thanks guys, I always get the ranges of the Thumper and Sniper mixed up - it's odd that the middle weight gun has the shortest range and the heaviest (Long Tom) the longest. Runs counter to how things are usually done in BT. Anyway, I'm convinced, the Thumper stays.

Also good idea about the SOAR, DOC, it'll round out the force nicely.

[DOC_Agren]

Also good idea about the SOAR, DOC, it'll round out the force nicely.

I discovered the SOAR while working on another non-canon unit Takiro's The Sohei

I've been using Ferrets in that same role of Search and Rescue Birds