I was considering scales of combat and training more in the likes of Revolution and The Postman, and I think this nails it…
…as far as extended group categories and professional armies might go.
Level 1: Fireteam, Squad, Section… same as Small, Medium, Large Gang
Level 2: Platoon, Troop, Company… could be a Small, Medium, Large Mob
Level 3: Battery, Flight, Squadron… Small, Medium, Large Riot
after this point, untrained or irregular militants are basically insurgent hoards, tribes, nations of approximated strength…
Level 4: Battalion, Regiment, Brigade…
Level 5: Group, Division, Corps…
Level 6: Field/Force, Region, Theater…
Maybe not a useful thought in a typical AW game, but it seemed worth considering.
Maybe in some hacks this could be more relevant, like; Mass Effect, or Uncharted Worlds… Lonely World, or when using The Regiment perhaps.
I Open My Brain to the maelstrom of thoughts, insults, and opinions…
Do you basically mean bonuses for larger size groups?
That, and how the classifications can get bigger, and more efficient, than the typical large gang of irregular nomads or volunteers.
Part of my thought was also with a post some uncounted number of months ago, where someone was talking about mechanized armor, and comparing the various size categories of such vehicles with gangs… and somewhere there was a discussion of how pre-fall professional soldiers are effectively a step up above their size category (a small 6 man fire-team of professional soldiers, even without pre-fall equipment, are easily matched in training to weight with a medium group of 30 bikers — tactically speaking, with all things given equal consideration… though obviously 30 could swarm 6 guys in an unfair ambush… an armature ambush is not likely to work against soldiers trained in guerrilla and counter-guerrilla warfare) and I was thinking there is room for a bit more size ‘levels’ or scaled ‘tiers’ needed to really express that.
An APC is more than just, equivalent to a large gang… and a Tank is kinda up a whole tier from gangs and small task units. but now that might get into a different set of thoughts.
I go beck to Revolution tv series, and The Postman movie, and the idea that professional regimented troops are not the same as biker gangs and irregular militias — and these are still apocalypse environments that might come up for AW pre-game theme discussions. I also have a preference to some older apocalypse themed settings, like Ark II and BRXXVc — again though as just a personal aside to the real focus of the thoughts.
come to think of it… kaiju monsters may have been part of the original discussions that had me come into these thoughts.
whatever the sources were though, I have these notes that I abbreviated in the original post… because I was wondering what other people might think about it. otherwise it might sit in these random note files until I can decipher them, and maybe figure out if there is inspirational value in the seed.
I know, it likely doesn’t interest a lot of people to have larger scale logistics being a concern in the typical AW game, but sometimes some people under some conditions… it might.
I guess an issue with large, well regulated and, above-all else, disciplined groups is the leader becomes less and less important. The Hardholder, the Chopper, and the Hocus are in part awesome because of the drama of their group.
depends on how you look at it, but that is one way…
not for everyone, not for every situation, I granted that.
In a game of longer scope — and larger timeframes — than often considered, perhaps?
In a hack like Lonely World, where The Regiment hack could be included as a set of common playbooks easily, and the collapse is not quite a Thundarr The Barbarian mess, but more of a ‘Oh hell would you look at them Falling Skies — quick lets all run for cover in Jericho!’
The wars in the post apocalypse of Revolution, could go on for centuries… in the Buck Rogers post apocalypse timeframe, they did go on for centuries, and well into the 25th Century are still smoldering. Not to mention these both show quite expansive holdings. Ark II and Zardoz are not an exception, with several large enclaves of post apocalypse armies and empires, mixed in with a lot of destitute holdings just struggling to survive… all depends on scale and scope, and how far your game’s timeline progresses.
Maybe the Hardholder wants to be an odd Robin of Pendragon as the errant one-eyed inheritor of some SCA (States of Collapsed America) holding named Front Royale on the edge of the Deathlands, while the Hocus wants to be a Cleric of the Equilibrium, the Operator has decided that since a Revolution is eminent he will protect his homeland with the hot and cool running sharpness of Major Tom Neville, and the Chopper wants to be the Warrior of the Lost World with a bit of The Postman thrown in… they have all taken their fiction’s focus up a few notches from the squalor of a small oil refinery in the deserts of Australia threatened by 80s punk rock band rejects in scavenged sportsgear.