British Military Combatives in the Queen's Service

[Icelander]

Gurkha Close Combat Training

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________6 points

Here's my idea for what hand-to-hand training for Gurkhas in the British and Indian army might be like today. It is basically a combination of bayonet combat and commado-style sentry removal and hand-to-hand, with less emphasis on unarmed strikes and with the use of kukris added. The techniques for kukri use are simple, direct and effective, eschewing complicated maneuvers in favour of brutal, fear-inducing assault that both fosters and takes advantage of the high morale and espirit de corps that Gurkha regiments traditionally enjoy.

Serious stylists usually add the striking techniques that go with Karate or Brawling to the primary technique list, representing a practical kickboxing style with historical links with Bando and Lethwai, as well as TKD and some Northern Chinese and Tibetan styles. Those who learn just the basics might let a single point in Brawling suffice.

Obviously, the cinematic skills and techniques only apply in settings where ethnic cool soldiers can perform superhuman feats. There are a few techniques and perks from my houserules in there, but the substance should be clear.

Skills: Brawling or Karate; Knife; Judo; Spear; Stealth.
Techniques: Armed Aggressive Parry; Choke Hold (Judo); Close-Combat; Disarming (Judo); Neck Snap; Retain Weapon; Targeted Attack (Knife Swing/Neck).
Combinations: Judo Grapple Face + Knife Swing/Neck.
Cinematic Skills: Invisibility; Light Walk; Mental Strength; Power Blow.
Cinematic Techniques: Backbreaker; Binding.
Perks: Armor Familiarity (Judo); Evaluate Mastery; Focused Fury; Hold Evaluate; Off-Hand Weapon Training; Style Adaptation (Any military or modern style); Telegraphic Evaluate; Unusual Training (All-Out Grapple and Strike affects swing damage; only for kukri attacks against the neck from the rear).

Optional Traits

Attributes: Increased ST, DX and HT.
Secondary Characteristics: Improved Will.
Advantages: Combat Reflexes; Cultural Familiarity (Northern Indian?/Central Asian?/Southeast Asian?); Fearlessness; Fit or Very Fit; High Pain Threshold; Language (Nepali); Unfazable.
Disadvantages: Bloodlust; Code of Honour (Military); Overconfidence; Sense of Duty (Employer).
Skills: Axe/Mace; Fast-Draw; Shortsword; Soldier; Staff; Wrestling.
Techniques: Aggressive Parry; Elbow Strike; Hammer Fist; Head Butt; Knee Strike; Stamp Kick.
Perks: Improvised Weapon (Any); Power Grappling; Skill Adaptation (Brawling Techniques default to Karate).

[aesir23]

As it happens, I was just in Nepal over the December vacations, and I bought myself a high-quality kukri as a souvenir (I also drank lots of Gorkha beer, which is how the natives spell and pronounce Gurkha.) So I'm also very interested in learning more.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Gurkha Close Combat Training

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________5 points

Looks good to me. I assume you intend Choke Hold to be for Judo, but I think it's possible to default that technique from Knife so you should specify.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Nepali is basically a dialect of Hindi--the two languages are mutually comprehensible. I'd make their Cultural Familiarity Central Asia. They share borders with India, Tibet (China), and Bhutan, but the Indian border is the only one not consisting of the tallest mountain range in the world.

Nepal is 80% Hindu and has more cultural similarities to India than to any other place.

[Xenarthral]

Originally Posted by aesir23

I'd make their Cultural Familiarity Central Asia. They share borders with India, Tibet (China), and Bhutan, but the Indian border is the only one not consisting of the tallest mountain range in the world.

Nepal is 80% Hindu and has more cultural similarities to India than to any other place.

And neither is in or culturally what is generaly referred to Central Asia...
(For one thing, if they are, where is South Asia?)

I'm almost certain that using the terms in GURPS Infinite Worlds, it would
be Cultural Familiarity: Indic.

[aesir23]

A little more research reveals the Gurkha forces in the British Army fought for long periods in Borneo, Malaysia, and Burma during WWII.

This would seem to support Silat and Bando connections.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

And neither is in or culturally what is generaly referred to Central Asia...
(For one thing, if they are, where is South Asia?)

I'm almost certain that using the terms in GURPS Infinite Worlds, it would
be Cultural Familiarity: Indic.

Is there a South Asia Cultural Familiarity? I didn't check my books, I figured that Asia was divided up into Orthodox, Middle Eastern, Central Asia, and East Asia.

Indic sounds about right, though. I would include Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well as India and Nepal. Parts of Pakistan as well.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Could I make a case for any practitioners that are still spry enough in 2005 to work full-time as instructors to healthy young people, many with a background in military or police work? As far as I know, organised training in the style mostly ended with WWII, i.e. sixty years before the first quick-reaction team started to form.

You'll have had some people learning it in the following couple of decades, simply because many people looked back to the war as an attractive time. The ones amongst those people who are still active might very well want to teach young people about it, but since they are generally seen as eccentric right-wingers, might have trouble getting to do so. So they might well be keen to teach if an audience presented itself.

In fact, I'm not sure that someone living near Oxford or Cambridge could find any instruction in Bando and it could be hard even for someone in London to find high quality training.

Both Oxford and Cambridge have good enough train connections to London that it's perfectly possible to visit for an evening, if you're willing to get home a bit late. The train connections are so good because they have substantial populations that commute daily to London for work.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by aesir23

A little more research reveals the Gurkha forces in the British Army fought for long periods in Borneo, Malaysia, and Burma during WWII.

This would seem to support Silat and Bando connections.

There were also a lot of Gurkha regiments in Malaysia, both before and during the Malay Emergency and the confronation with Indonesia, so up to 1966 or so. So familiarity with some form of silat would be easy to justify.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

You'll have had some people learning it in the following couple of decades, simply because many people looked back to the war as an attractive time. The ones amongst those people who are still active might very well want to teach young people about it, but since they are generally seen as eccentric right-wingers, might have trouble getting to do so. So they might well be keen to teach if an audience presented itself.

I'm still not sure to what extent post-WWII military hand-to-hand for British commando units amounted to rebranded FCCT. My gut instict is 'pretty much a lot', but I'm willing to have experts correct me.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Both Oxford and Cambridge have good enough train connections to London that it's perfectly possible to visit for an evening, if you're willing to get home a bit late. The train connections are so good because they have substantial populations that commute daily to London for work.

I've been on the train to Cambridge. Hmmm... Oxford too, now that I think about it.

On the other hand, students at elite universities with what amounts to a second field of study on top of their public degree work (the study of actual, functioning magic and the paranormal) as well as a demanding (and unpaid) part-time jobs as assistant researchers and analysts might not have all that much extra free time to spend on commuting.

I'd like it if they could manage maybe three dojo sessions a week, as much for general health and psychological benefits as anything else. And travelling between London and neighbouring towns three times a week sounds like a pain. They also have to get in their reading of ancient tomes, deciphering of arcane runes or anthropological analysis of modern encounter reports with reference to religious myths, folklore and even literature, after all.

Maybe a weekly session in East London and whenever there are enough people in on the secret in a particular area, they can meet up in a local dojo or gym and do some sparring a couple of times per week. And then during school vacations they'll visit a lonely castle on a moor somewhere, there to train with the most gifted of their predecessors, now graduated and working as what amounts to professional magicians, as well as hardened ex-military and police Rangers in the quick-reaction teams. They will be learning practical self-defence, magical and physical, in case they ever have to go into the field to gather data or if they think (or the senior people do) that they could make Ranger on their own.

After all, as magic seems to be growing in strength, almost to the point of being useful in the field (as opposed to in a pre-prepared and consecrated area, over a long period and using a lot of ritual objects and preparation), a magical practisioner with tactical training would be a huge asset for a paramilitary team in the future. And given that spells and rituals in modern, living languages almost never work, it's probably easier to train scholars in military and security skills than it is to teach special operators several dead languages and enough historical information to qualify for Cultural Familiarities in vanished societies.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

On the other hand, students at elite universities with what amounts to a second field of study on top of their public degree work (the study of actual, functioning magic and the paranormal) as well as a demanding (and unpaid) part-time jobs as assistant researchers and analysts might not have all that much extra free time to spend on commuting.

You don't want undergraduates for this, at least not in time-hungry subjects like mathematics or sciences. Two Cambridge degrees that can take remarkably little time:

Land Economy is the art of running large estates, and is a Cambridge degree for historical and social reasons. It is traditionally studied by upper-class types who spend their time on social pursuits or sport, but it might be suitable for people involved with this job.

English is most unusual. You are not expected to go to the lectures. The core work is to read a set book - which is usually a major work of literature - and write an original and insightful review of it. Each week. If you are talented at this, at speed-reading speed, it can be done in two days per week.

I'd like it if they could manage maybe three dojo sessions a week, as much for general health and psychological benefits as anything else.

In that case, you can solve the problem with money. Set up an invitation-only martial arts club in each town, rent space in each town, and have the trainer travel between Oxford and Cambridge.

[johndallman]

Two novels - fairly dark in tone, but recommemded - about an occult secret service working for the Crown, rather than the government: Hunter's Moon, and Eagle Rising.