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Old 11-12-2015, 04:20 PM   #13
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: [Mass Combat] Discipline, Law, Order and Preventing Atrocities

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pomphis View Post
I have no idea, but wouldnīt the last part mean that the more MPs you have, the fewer atrocities will happen ? How many professional, trained, and reliable troops does the commander have who might be deployed as MPs ?
He has 300 utterly reliable men who have 10+ years of experience as paramilitary guards in a post-revolutionary city where each neighbourhood was more or less independent, many of them were controlled by gangs or violent revolutionaries, and these guards emerged out of a security collective on behalf of the Artisan's Guild, defending their own quarter from the chaos. Having essentially been a paramilitary unit that was adopted wholesale into the PCs force, they have 3 months of intensive training in Savoir-Faire (Military) and Soldier by teachers with Teaching 15+, in order to function as Military Police.

There are also 300 militiamen* and 200 hoplites who all come originally from Shussel, the city being seized, who are brought along as guides and to interface with the local population. These presumably have a low chance of random atrocity against actual locals and ought to have at least decent discipline, but they can't necessarily be trusted as MPs without having some other troops along, as they might not have much respect for the rights of enemy combatants.

These 800 troops weren't used for combat duties during the invasion, so they could essentially be on full-time security detail from landing onwards. After the battle comes to an end, there will be a stream of new troops coming ashore, without having actually fought, and some of them might be used as security as well, if needed. But most of them will be assigned to preparing defences against the field army outside the city.

Among those troops are around 700 highly professional men in the direct employ of the PCs. Their duties upon landing were to establish quarters for everyone, so they'll have acted as traffic cops of sorts while the confusion was sorted out. After they went into their own quarters, sailors from the offloading ships would have taken over that role. Say around 500.

While they bore much of the brunt of what hand-to-hand fighting took place before enemy forces that didn't make it to the inner keep surrendered, the 570 Marines might be used as security troops once hostilities cease, but only if a situation develops to make it necessary. Otherwise, it is far preferable to allow them to rest.

*Who have actually been full-time soldiers now for 2+ years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pomphis View Post
How well and regularily are the troops paid ? Looting will be almost necessary if itīs necessary to get food and beer. And then it becomes much more likely that somebody gets killed for resisting. And once you kill, I assume raping also becomes more likely.
The locally-raised troops are paid a decent wage by local standards, while the full-time professional mercenaries brought from abroad are paid astronoically by local standards and very well by any standard. Payment is prompt, in coinage that has hithertoo always been accepted by local merchants, and access to beer, wine, erotic entertainment and plentiful food has been exemplary.

There are benefits to having a guy with Accounting 20+, Administration -25, Economics 20+, Finance 20+, Freight Handling 20+, Merchant 27, Propaganda 20+, Psychology (Applied) 20+ design and operate your system of military logistics, procurement, managment and finance. Granted, he can't run it full time every day, but he has chosen capable lieutenants and there are multiple people involved with Administration 20+.

For that matter, the PC acting as Commander in Chief has Administration at over skill 20 and is superb at a wide range of planning and managment skills. He just tends to focus on strategic managment, not day-to-day logistical issues. It's extremely important to him that his men have no rational reason to molest civilians and that the commissary supply all the physical requirements that the men need for good morale and health, but he mostly gives General Orders directed to that goal and leaves a competent staff to implement them.

None of this can alter the fact that a very good wage, regularly paid, pales into insignificance next to the riches that could be realised by capturing a magical item from an enemy officer and managing to somehow sell it on the black market for even a tenth of what it is actually worth. A good bounty is paid to troops that turn in such valuable loot, of course, with the invidual who captured it getting a nice bonus and all his comrades up to the regimental level sharing in the prize, but the bulk of the value still ends up in the coffers of the new government and the mercenary company that the PCs are running.

But stopping looting is an unrealistic goal anyway. The PCs will settle for encouraging the rational among their soldiers to avoid violence against civilians and focus on schemes that involve smuggling out valuables to sell on the black market. It's not as if the average Status -2 to Status -1 civilian is very likely to be hiding items of fantastical value, like the enemy priests or aristocrats might be doing.
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