[Mass Combat] PLAUSIBLE army diversity in settings

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by downer

Well, looking at it, the navy of those island people would probably be composed of a lot of small units - corvettes, armed trawlers, submarines. They use these to keep their waterways under control and keep their waters clear of commerce raiders. If anything more powerful - battleships, carrier groups - shows up, they call in the air force, which is based on the islands, with enough range to strike the invader.

Sounds good.

Originally Posted by downer

That still means that their long-distance trade is open to whatever their enemies want to do to it. Carrying on international trade will be next to impossible with this configuration, if major surface units go after your convois. Submarines might still be kept in check by destroyer and corvette escorts. They might plan for this contingency by holding a unit or several of higly specialized planes in reserve, which are designed to attack such surface units. Basically, large fuel supply, powerful anti-ship weapons, stealth capacity. So when the enemy declares war, they send out these units to sink whatever large commerce raiders they can field, then use their smaller units to keep their convois safe from small-scale commerce raiding by subs and auxiliary cruisers.

It should be noted that as a political entity, they seem very reluctant to participate in all-out warfare. Selling mercs here and there - sure, as long as they don't take it personally. Committing all of their able-bodied population to pursue a political warfare - no way.

Even though on the individual level the Khæn are seen as loud and daring, in the political sense, the Khænish Islands (official name pending) are supposed to embody the 'Beware the Quiet Ones' trope - they're huge (total area and population somewhere between Australia and China, haven't decided yet), larger than any other sovereign state in the setting (not larger than some semi-temporary alliances, though), culturally monolithic (in contrast to the rest of the setting), capable of hive-mind-like coordination in large-scale combat, and very reluctant to take sides in political conflicts.
Most world leaders think that it's best not to anger the sleeping giant, and they're probably right. Truth be told, while the Khæn can probably defeat any confederation and maybe even any alliance in the setting, this is likely to have catastrophic consequences for them in terms of population loss and expenses.

Originally Posted by downer

It might just work. After all, TL 8 carrier groups are not primarily a weapon of sea warfare, they are a way of projecting air superiority. If that is not what you want, you wouldn't need them. The specialized planes outlined above would be sufficient to sweep the seas clean of battleships and carriers, and might serve as a deterrent to enemy naval deployment, and convoi warfare is a matter of lighter units anyway.

I'm not saying they can't have carriers. I'm just reluctant to give them special bonuses in the naval area, since I think a +1 aerospace TL (or nearly so) is pretty scary already.