 February 2, 2011 - 9:08am | Planning an early history module set during the Free World Rebellion on Zdikit in Madderly's Star got a few question: What sorts of activities do militaries end up doing in a "police action"? With the Free World Rebellion being a human movement to evict the vrusk I assume that there will be the typical attrocities that have to be stopped First encounter: will likely be landing and securing the star port and establishing a perimeter. Probably there is rioting and looting that has to be brought under control. One encounter will involve investigating a mass grave of dead vrusk A couple of encoutners will involve rescuing and bringing vrusk refugees to the star port for protect- sort of a run the guanlet scenario without losing any refugees. One climatic sceen would be the rebels herding a large group into a hastily dug pit for a mass grave-can the CRM stop the atrocity and rescue the vrusk? Another encounter could be intercepting or preventing a the vrusk conglomerate's counter strike Riots around the star port as the rebellion organizers realize that the CRM is protecting vrusk. The evac order comes to pull out and there is a time pressure issue- PCs sent on wild ride into the country side for one last mission. As the evac goes down the PCs are part of the assignment to hold the perimeter while the shuttles are loaded and lift. Need to give some thought to Rules of Engagement for this as well. Thinking that the initial ROE will be stricter and the last encounters will be more open for the PCs I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 3, 2011 - 11:17am | "What sorts of activities do militaries end up doing in a 'police action'?" Well, that depends. One is strictly to protect the nationals (and property) of the nation projecting the force. This could be an in-and-out, or sticking around for a while at some important site. The latter often draws the unwelcome attention of the local military forces. Another could be to inject some law & order in the area, but this requires a lot of forces, or a limited area. That sounds a bit like above. If it's an ethnic conflict (human vs. Vrusk), then they will be interested in protecting one of the groups, or separating combatants. Messy all the way around. A different police action could be to separate warring groups, or to punish an aggressor power. (This last is what the most famous "police action" was, the Korean War-- the US and others were acting as agents of the UN, to block the North Korean invasion. It developed into something else, but that was the intent.) Are the Clarion Marines involved, or is this misplaced? |
 February 3, 2011 - 2:06pm | The CRM would need to establish a base far from the starport, assemble a strike force and take it over. The PC's might be sent to investigate one of the landing zones potential. Then recon the startport. |
 February 3, 2011 - 4:40pm | BTW, it's Kdikit, not Zdikit. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
February 3, 2011 - 8:35pm | @Putraack several months ago I'd had enough with the time line and decided to write my own (I had tried to get some traction in the direction of a community project on it but that turned into a piss and moan session IMO) So anyhow I started rewriting the timeline to suit me for my own personal games and then offer it in the zine as a fan work (for those that want to use it). One of my decisions with it was to state that the first mission of the newly formed CRM was a police action during the Free World rebellion. I thought it was important to make the CRM the first formally organized military and to give it some prior history to when the UPF is organized. I'll be putting together a background page for the module in the documents section but you can read that article in SFman 16 "Frontier Timeline" EDIT: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/4869 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 3, 2011 - 9:08pm | What sort of encounters would you like to see for this adventure? Securing the star port? para-jumping from a shuttle and scouting/ taking objectives at the star port? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 4, 2011 - 1:53pm | All of the above, and a couple of space encounters, with armed Human starships fighting for the rebellion, maybe some armed ships from Vruskan trade houses, kamikaze attacks on the CRM starships by Human fanatics, etc. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
February 4, 2011 - 3:00pm | Right after I wrote that, I read SFMan 16 (as opposed to skimming it), and saw what you are referring to. My apologies for jumping into something uninformed. So, yeah, para-jumping in to secure a drop-zone, making contact with locals and identifying which side they're on, attacking to secure the spaceport. Then patrolling outwards from there. |
February 4, 2011 - 9:49pm | Although most encounters involve military action, please consider some role-playing encounters as well. Some examples;
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February 4, 2011 - 9:54pm | Although most encounters involve military action, please consider some role-playing encounters as well. Some examples;
Lunch a vrusk? I didn't know they were edible  I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 4, 2011 - 10:50pm | sorry, i have 12 tasks on my list tonight. trying to keep up on projects here. shutup yoda. |
August 20, 2011 - 6:15pm | Ok, squad of RM with one Royal Guard attached Royal Guard officer. To help the RM team coordinate with the Guard/ call for artillery support and etc. Initial encounter in Madderly's Star is lightly armed combatants/converted merchantmen in the name of the Committee of Public Safety? Committee Against Human Persecution (CAHP)? Committee for the Advancement of Human Rights (CAHR)? Humans for a Free World (from vrusk)? Free World Rebellion Committee? There could be a House Naar vessels trying to get away as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 20, 2011 - 6:17pm | After the Committee of whatever fires on the Royal Marines vessels and a short fire fight erupts it could be followed by a boarding action. After that the RM will take the high orbitals while the planet is scanned and a council of war is held. The Naar starport is the only suitable place for the freighters with the Royal Guard units to set down but it seems that the defenders have entrenched and installed what looks like anti air defenses. A team will infiltrate and take them out then secure a secondary objective, fuel tanks. The operation to take the star port will be a huge battle with the PCs taking a small but important part. Sort of like in the climax of SF-2. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 19, 2011 - 6:36pm | EDIT: of post Mercy Mission Adventure Outline Alpha 1 (AD) Prequel fleeing Naar ships arrive in White Light PCs are the ones to stop and inspect the ships, must assemble information by talking to the shell shocked vrusk and examination of the ship. Full exp awards for assembling a full report. Alpha 2.1 (KHs) Arrival in Madderly's Star armed merchentmen firing on a House Naar ship, Royal Marines intervene and are fired upon by human combatants. Alpha 2.2 (AD) board an armed merchent vessel and subdue the crew. Gather intel. Alpha 2.3 (KHs) take the high orbitals and interdict lift offs. Humans have a captured vrusk ship and craft an ambush with it fleeing 2 armed shuttles. With control of the high orbitals secured and some decent intell coming in from orbital photography a council of war is underway for how to land on the planet. The only truly suitable sight to land is the Naar star port which shows signs of some digging in and possible anti air defenses. New mission to secure a base of operation. Beta 1 PC's team to insert covertly and neutralize the anti air defenses before moving to secure the chemical rocket fuel stores when the full up combat landing comes in. Beta 1.1 battle for Naar Star Port with counter moves by defenders Beta 2. Royal Guard units are landing and the star port has been secured. but the looted corporate center is next door and human opponents are using it for cover to launch hit and run, mortar and sniper attacks against the peace keepers. Teams are sent out to patrol the area. Random encounters: snipers, mortor attacks, vrusk refugees, looters, local wild life, role play encounter, nothing. Gamma 1.1 With Royal Guard units moving out to secure more areas word and intel comes in of atrocities, a RM team is sent to recon a suspected masacre sight. Gamma 1.2 diverted to new location after initial recon, imagery from orbit show a concentration of vrusk being herded by armed humans. Orders to recon only but situation will go into the crapper. will PCs violate orders or not? What will higher command say? Gamma 2.3 Gauntlet run back to Naar. series of encounters, ambushes and such. Can the PCs save the rescued vrusk? Delta 1 House Naar determines to strike back (KHs) RM crews must intercept the Naar ships Delta 2 recovery of escape pods from battle in Delta 1. RM crews realize that human opponents are moving in on the life pod, escape and evasion. Hell ride back. Delta 3 Extraction of refugees, fighting withdraw from forward fire base Delta 4 On the last flight out Epilogue: resettlement of vrusk in K'tsa-Kar I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 20, 2011 - 12:04am | Mercy Mission Order of Battle I've never personally directed a police action or mobilized an army so I'm unsure what to do but: 1. I dont see the need to detail every last one of the "Ground Pounder" in the Royal Guard, What do you all think 1or2 battalions? 2. since the focus is the the Royal Marines I'm thinking to detial the crews of ships and extra platoons of RM 3. I want a mortar platoon (I think four mortar teams is enough) of RG dug in at the star port to provide artillery suport that the PCs may actually be successful in calling for. 4. Royal Marine vehicles available: some (3) Big Guppies, 2 Command GEV all painted in gray with RM crests and maybe a nice pretty red stripe diagonally across the side that sort of says "Hey, here I am!" 5. RG gets a bunch of the Marauder APCs, a couple of the command GEVs, a bunch of Guppies and 6 Raptors all are painted in camo optomized for Clarion's environment. The Royal Guard will do a lot of moving out and securing points and stuff and I'm unsure how many units to bring to the table for that just to sound realistic in portraying a police action. Basicly the Royal Guard gets to do, "off screen", all the boring stuff that wont really make for an exciting game. Another issue is that at this time in history interstellar craft that can jump from system to system are uncommon. so I'm thinking the naval component will be one big bulk freighter to lug the bulk of the vehicles and troops, possibly 2 smaller transports and then the RM's armed ships. Not sure what sort of ships the RM has at this time but it certainly isn't the Assualt Scout, which is a latter Space Fleet design, I'm thinking that the civilian ship rules in KHs will work fine for working up the military ships of this time. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 23, 2011 - 6:17pm | I can certainly see a battalion-sized task force being all you can squeeze onto a single transport, but that's not a lot of troopers to seize and secure a downport. How much information does the RM/RG have on the local human forces? Equipment and training? Do they believe they have a significant training and equipment advantage? I'd think the commanders would be thinking of no more than a temporary lodgement. How about fighter-bomber cover, from either a ship overhead or the port itself? That could make up a lot of firepower. I'm kind of flashing ideas from Traveller, but could there be a mercenary unit they could draw on for assistance? |
August 24, 2011 - 6:14am | I can certainly see a battalion-sized task force being all you can squeeze onto a single transport, but that's not a lot of troopers to seize and secure a downport. How much information does the RM/RG have on the local human forces? Equipment and training? Do they believe they have a significant training and equipment advantage? I'd think the commanders would be thinking of no more than a temporary lodgement. How about fighter-bomber cover, from either a ship overhead or the port itself? That could make up a lot of firepower. I'm kind of flashing ideas from Traveller, but could there be a mercenary unit they could draw on for assistance? They would expect a serious equipment and training advantage. This is a planet that was only recently colonized and the human population has risen in rebellion against the vrusk who got there first and who have not seen war since the fall of the hive system. the divide between the two races was about race than economics- The FARM board (Frontier Agricultural Resource Mission) has been providing subsidies to set up Ag colonies to support the colonies that dont have much agriculture (Clarion in particular benefits from this due to it soggy environment and torrential rain) Due to memories of ecological collapse on Earth the board has mandated strict control on farmers taking their subsidies requiring soft impact on the environment and sustainable practices- the FARM board is a bit heavy handed and probably leans too far to the left on this issue. The vrusk conglomerate Naar beat the human colonist to the planet and started right in with corporat style farming so while they did welcome the human farmers its obivous that in this planet's economy that the humans will end up marginallized and have nots while the vrusk prosper. The FARM baord stubbornly insists that any farmer that took subsidies from them must follow their guideline or payback the money immediately. The human communities formed committees sort of on the line of the American War for Independence sought help form FARM but in the end rebelled to over throw the vrusk - the anger turned ugly with some groups seeking to just erradicat them from the planet. Its expected that the rebells have improvised and light weapons. What the RM and RG dont know is that the Naar conglomerate was soley into agriculture but was a key participant in aerospace and had factories producing other equipment some of which has been "red neck engineered" into air defence and some man portable rockets that while not very accurate can let vehicles with light armor know that they've been kissed. So what I'm trying to do is balance what I write the mission is against what would be a resonable/managable ammount of troops and still control what the outcome will be so that I dont change Frontier history. From conversations with a buddy who was a marine befor becoming a Lt in the army it sounds like a division is what would be needed at a minimum. However we're talking about societies that dont have traditions of war and only have newly organized armies. There are humans present that were born on earth and a few even had prior military experience (Captain Morgaine for one) so it could easily be a situation where optimistic thinking says all sorts of things that wont play out in practice. I was leaning toward a battalion plus attachment simply because I'll have to draw out a map and place representations of all these troops on it. As for air superiority I worked up attack hellos from the Dragon article Tanks Again. Its tough, very tough and I didn't even try to make it totally bad ass. so I was only going to have them bring 4-6 of those siting space restraints on the transports. The Big Guppy is armed and has much less armor but is an air cav platform (think Huey) except with pontoons since it optimized for Clarion's environment. So if the politicians ordering the police action arent listening and they send in just a battalion it could easily turn into a cluster screw up with staunch resistence form the rebells, some of whom are from Clarion which makes for another complication. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 25, 2011 - 10:34am | Another reason I'm thinking battalion-sized task force for the initial forces is that I'm betting that's all the King can scrape up at short notice. Hopefully, there's another 1-3 more on the way, once reservists are called up and recruits trained. I found one source that suggests small units like this tend to put 5% of their manpower into headquarters (includes planning cells and intelligence gatherers and analysts) and 10% into vehicle and equipment maintenance. If the RG/RM aren't used to deploying far from home base, then this last part might be shorted, and they might suffer for that down the line. I'd suggest another 5% for a medical unit (field hospital), maybe more than that if the mission is supposed to be humanitarian. There should probably be some civilian relief efforts, like the Red Cross or Oxfam. They can be better organized than this scratch military force, or less so. If your job is to bring civilian Vrusk to the secured port, the troops will find that they will want transports to carry them, as well as to move food and shelter around. If they didn't bring enough trucks, the obvious solution is to requisition them from the locals. Promise to pay them back-- that Vrusk corporation will surely accept the King's IOU, right? I'm thinking now you might get a reinforced Guard battalion, with the Marines contributing a scratch company of troopers, who may be shorter on support elements than the Guard. After all, the Marines never really leave their ships, right? OTOH, the Marines would be better equipped for parachute-like insertions, jet packs and all. They wouldn't have power armor, right? |
August 25, 2011 - 11:51am | Yeah, no power armor that would be latter in history like circa SW2. There will have been a total break down of the vrusk corporation with most high ranking corporate officers getting off planet on company ships. I'm toying with a new idea: "Its a bad thing for politics to interfer in military operations." Years ago I had an interesting converstation with a member of the failled Iranian Hostage Rescue operation. The on site general who was suppose to be in charge had to vet every decision he made up to and possibly including whether he could take a crap, with President Carter by direct line back to DC. Apparently Carter was a micro manager (also got an interesting stroy from a family member of a Secret service agent that also suggested he was a compulsive micro manager so I tend to believe it). Now the Frontier at this time probably doesn't have a sub space radio so how could a politician micro manage this operation? By coming along? Demanding weekly courior trips by star ship? Dont want the micro manager to be the king though. The basic idea is that the military operation is to be royally screwed by political interference and allow the GM to royally dump the PCs in the crapper for them to fight their way out on their own resources and cunning. I know I've detailed the political situation in one of these threads and stated that there is political pressure to prevent Clarion from conquering Kdi-kit outright. But suppose the politician is a Duke who is normally part of the opposition to the king and the Prime Minister was forced to bring this duke and his party on board to form a majority government and as a price for the duke and his party's support the duke got a cabinent seat; perhaps even secretary of war? Just maybe the Duke has an aggenda different from the Prime Minister and the King. Perhaps he wants to conquer Kdi-kit and position himself to become duke of madderly's star? With this as part of the story line there would be a need to allow the PCs to discover evidence of the Duke's betrayal of the king and prime minister. Could even allow the duke to find out that the PC's squad know the truth and does a "Uriah the Hittite" on them, sends them on a suicide mission, leaks the information to the rebells and then orders the pull out from Kdi-kit. Can they survive? can they find a ship and get off planet? can the prevent the Duke from branding them traitors and having them arrested? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 25, 2011 - 6:57pm | Your last paragraph has my interest. Is this Duke the King's envious little brother? A cousin who feels that he (she?) would make a better world ruler? In that case, the other human worlds' political opposition may be fueled by a slip of the tongue, by the royal cousin before leaving. Yep, I'd heard that from books on Desert One. Modern telecommunications offers a temptation for higher-ups to meddle in affairs that should be below their pay grade. In Vietnam, company and platoon leaders sweating through the bush had to put up with brigade commanders in helicopters overhead micromanaging squads or individual troopers. It was called the "squad leader in the sky" effect. Without subspace radio, the Lord Commander on this mission is very much on his/her own, and should recognize that. That may be why a trusted peer of the realm is being sent along, to offer political guidance to the colonel who is suddenly far from home and surrounded by hostiles. It's a week to home, and a week back for information and fresh ammunition! On the other hand, it's at least another 2 weeks for Minotaur's response to reach Clarion, something that could work in the Duke's favor. Hmmm, that "viceroy" would have a better chance at a coup if they got the human settlers/rioters to support him than he would at trying to subvert the Royal troops sent there. A victory over the Royal troops, sneaking them in past the aerial recon mentioned elsewhere, would just about do it. Once they've seized the port and neutralized the air support, fire support, and/or HQ, he might expect the Royal troops to surrender, in exchange for unimpeded passage home. Of course, the PCs should discover some signs of this duplicity, and break it up. That's what adventurers are made of, right? Actually, you mention "Uriah," I think a similar model would be the old war movie, "Cross of Iron." It's from the '70s, with Maximilian Schell and James Coburn. Schell's officer wants a medal, and Coburn's grizzled corporal won't sign off on the citation, so the captain arranges for his platoon to get left behind during a withdrawal. In this case, the PCs might end up the only eyewitnesses to the plot, and thus end up in the crossfire. |
August 25, 2011 - 7:32pm | Something to play up may be any rivalry between the Royal Guard, which is in command of the planetside part of this mission, and the Royal Marines attached to it, who should have their own command element. The Marine commander is probably a Captain, or even the Lord Commander, but will be occupied in orbit. The ground/boarding element leader is likely a lieutenant commanding a provisional company, and another lieutenant commanding the vehicle support. Their dirtside command staffs will be minimal and overwhelmed, as they would have little experience with being a ground-based expeditionary element. Going back to your original question: how many marines? Let's go with the mortar platoon, the helos, a scouting section and two provisional platoons of assault troops. If the scouting section is wiped out, then the PCs can get "promoted" from the assault platoons to be the new scout section. Each assault platoon should be as many marines as you can fit into your 3 Big Gulps, er, Guppies. Add some cooks, commanders, medics and communicators, and you're all set. Some of the supports just mentioned could be spacers who aren't "line" marines. Oh, and leadership. Like I said, a pair of Lieutenants for the above, Junior Lieutenants for the 3 platoons, and some eager-to-succeed Midshipmen for the section leaders, hopefully backed up with some experienced petty officers. Somewhere in there should be another royal family member (or two?!), who wants/needs to hold up their end, but no one wants them captured or killed. The Guard leaders will swagger about, pointing out many oversights and errors that the Marines might make, while the Marines will be seeking to prove their superiority only on the battlefield, like in the assault on the port, various skirmishes and sniper fights outside, and so on. I admit I'm influenced by recent reading on the Pacific theater in WW2 and Army-Marine tensions there. Any Guard officers/noncoms directly attached to the PC team should not engage in such shenanigans for long, especially if that guy's along for communications and fire support. Anyway, as PCs, the marines should experience some of this, but it doesn't need to be a big factor. It actually can work in the GM's favor, as marine requests for Guard support might be slow in coming, if at all, but requests of the marine transport helos and mortar teams will be prompt. |
August 25, 2011 - 8:23pm | Orignially in the timeline i submitted to the SFman, Captain Leonine set up the monarchy on Clarion as a constitutional monarchy but giving himself the position of a strong executive for a period of time that would phase back his direct power but would save the colony on its diminished resources (there were 12 ships and only 3 made it to Clarion) He bought off the other leaders who were stalling progress and trying to run things by committee by making them nobility in the new system. I was originially thinking that the Duke causing problems could have been from that party. But I also like the idea of him being related to the king by marriage. Despite the marriage hes still opposes the king on the "high moral ground" of the king made himself a virtual tyrant, it doesn't matter that the constitution trims back the king's power over time and the Duke desires power purely out of altruistic reasons ;) So if the Duke's stirred up Minotaur and is planning to seize power on Kdi-kit then he may have slipped military hardware to the rebell groups. That was one of the things I was concerned about- the rebells having enough hardware to give the good guys a hard time and having the hard ware that they have be plausible too. This would mean that he may have engineered the whole rebellion, perhaps through pulling strings with the FARM board and accomplices on kdi-Kit. Structure is starting to suggest its self: Adventure 1: Land and secure the star port (plus some action purely for flavor) rescuing the vrusk Adventure 2: Plot thickens PCs gain clues discover imported arms etc. evidence of someone giving intel on the RG/RM to the rebells Adventure 3: Everything goes to hell, duke tries to kill the PCs by proxies, orders the troops out, PCs must survive against hellacious odds to capture the Duke and bring him back to Clarion Epiloge: Without the duke the leaders of the rebellion get their act together and declare their own government. Minotaur is raising some diplomatic stink and the whole affair is grist for the tabloids. The survivors of the Naar conglomerate repudiate their CEO (who will go on to become a pirate and cause of the 1st Common Muster) and the vrusk refugees will be resettled with aid from the Crown in K'sta-Kar. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 30, 2011 - 11:20am | Adventure 2: the Duke's going to have some cut-outs doing his dirty work for him, so the evidence shouldn't point to him right away. As for his motives, is it that he wants power for altruistic reasons, or that he sees that if one King can make himself, why not two? |
August 30, 2011 - 5:56pm | Self proclaimed motive is altruism but he's out for numerous uno.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 14, 2011 - 6:20am | Had a great phone conversation with my brother and his recommendation for this is that since we're talking about a newly organized military organization without a 200 year history to develop a large bureaucratic tail that the ratio of of trigger pullers will actually be higher than the US military of today- quite possibly on the order of 4 out of 5 sets of boots on the ground is a trigger puller, that in a newly formed military the soldiers will all have civilian skill sets but they've been drafted or inducted to defend the nation and been given a rifle. (not that a draft would come into play until the sathar war if at all). He thinks that a culture much like the army reserve would be the right note to set at this stage in the timeline for these military organizations. Having a high ratio of trigger pullers makes things simpler and possibly easier to manage. I also got a tip from Ronin Lore that Gurps Massed Combat was a great rpg source for organizing a military op so I just ordered that off amazon- looking forward to checking it out. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 15, 2011 - 11:54am | The shoved mentioned issue of the ratio of trigger pullers actually matches what we observe in the Warriors of White Light module, namely that it doesn't matter what you job on the ship is, every carries a side arm and is by default a trigger puller. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
