So here we are again, and I feel I owe you more than just another excuse about having too much work to do, true as it may be. What am I doing, anyway, you may ask?
- Finishing a house. This will be completed in about two weeks, and that means a ton of extra work to chase down all the last minute stuff that always goes wrong.
- Working on another house. This means traveling a lot, because this one is about 300 miles away from where I live.
- Advising on a third house. Because I’ve built this kind of structural system before.
- Drawing a piece for an anthology. The last three anthologies I was invited to join, I ended up missing out on because of time constraints. I don’t want to miss a fourth.
This means I’m not really only half-assing two things, I’m kind of quarter-assing four things. Or, more accurately, WHOLE-assing four things, which is a lot of ass. That might not make a ton of sense, but I’m really overloaded, is all.
However, instead of a two week crapfest like last time, here’s the next tier of the 6-Commando Technical Manual – the Tables of Organization and Equipment for the United Nations Alliance. I know it’s not actually a page, but until I can really give full attention the way this deserves (early June, at this rate) I want to make sure you guys are getting your money’s worth. So, first up: the UNA Heavy Brigade.
United Nations Alliance Heavy Brigade
Table of Organization and Equipment
Following the Strategic Posture Review 1985 (SPR-85), the UNA officially moved from a system of force branches organized in the Regimental Structure to a revised force component based on the Combined Arms Brigade Structure. The goal of the reorganization was to allow the updating of the UNA battle doctrine, commonly known as “MOBAS” or “Mobile Armored Strongpoint,” to meet the challenge of increasingly mobile warfare in smaller deployments worldwide.
One of the main conclusions of SPR-85 was that insufficient armor was available in frontline combat forces, and was improperly integrated with newer Armored Infantry formations, which began to supplant former Light Infantry in battle-line combat starting in the late 1970s. The advent of lighter and more battle-ready infantry fighting systems increased the combat mobility of Armored Infantry and therefore required integration with heavy armored formations to allow MOBAS to function properly without detaching armored groups from their command formations, as had been the practice up to that time. This had the effect of actually degrading the tactical effectiveness of armor units operating within a MOBAS environment by fragmenting their command structure, and in practice, junior command officers ended up shouldering heavy strategic command burdens which left them incapable of effectively performing tactical duties, and led to higher stress on the lower command echelons and unacceptably high turnover within the junior officer corps.
SPR-85 sought to rectify this by replacing the individual Armored Infantry and Cavalry, and Armored regiments with combined-arms Heavy Brigades which integrated all three branches into a strategically viable maneuver unit capable of broadly independent operations. The primary maneuver formations of the Heavy Brigade became Combined-Arms Battalions, which operate in the field in forces of combined nationality as a measure to promote diversity among the UNA forces. Though the reorganization met with some resistance early on, battle drills undertaken in 1989, 1990 and 1991 proved the effectiveness of the new formation structure, and integration accelerated from then on, and international forces are now known to be operating with a high level of cohesion and integration; since 1990, all UNA deployments have been multinational.
Heavy Brigades contain the majority of UNA armor and armored artillery resources; armored infantry and cavalry are distributed into Combined Arms Battalions for MOBAS support, to give the force organic infantry combat and force reconnaissance resources. The Brigade also has access to Combat Engineering, Military Police, Medical, Force Support and Supply units.
The United Nations Alliance completed the SPR-85 transition in 1993, and now maintains a total of twenty Heavy Brigades as the main constituent forces of the UNA Multinational Forces. They operate in conjunction with Light Brigades and Battle Brigades in a revised MOBAS doctrine now officially known as MOBAS-R. In the event of war between the UNA and the Federated Socialist Republic, the Heavy Brigades would form the main combat arm of UNA defenses, and plans exist for a rapid expansion of Heavy Brigades to 45 total in the event of open warfare with the FSR, 35 total in the event of war with the Arab League, and 32 in the event of war with the Southern Coalition. Such forces would be drawn primarily from national reserves, and would not be immediately integrated as multinational forces, although plans to expedite this have been recommended by Strategic Posture Review 1995.
Autonomous Armored Vehicles are assigned exclusively to Heavy Brigades at HHQ level.
All the best, folks, and thanks for being so patient with me! It’s a very crazy life I chose, but I’m working on it.
Aaand, as always, the text is too small to read.
And, as of lately, it’s all posted below, so you can enjoy it anyway 🙂
Yeah, I know it’s formatted for print at a different scale. Sorry, but it’s just the way these sheets work out with this page format. Like Andrzejef says, I put the text in the body of the post so you can read along.
So, there will be a nice printed version of it at some point? You know how to keep the hype high 😛
Well I hope so, but I won’t print it before the actual book. I’ve had suggestions that I do a high-res downloadable PDF, which is a thought.
Hey dude, I really hope you’ll succeed in all four of your businesses!
Try to rest and have some fun, too!
Thanks, man. It’s a lot to get done but I’m just lining up my commitments and doing them one at a time until they’re done. I wish the comic didn’t have to be the most flexible part of my schedule right now, but unfortunately that’s how it’s shaken out for me. I’m looking forward to getting back to a more predictable schedule very soon though!
We are still grateful for any updates, even if it’s big blank “Be right back” page, a lot of webcomics (and not only comics) don’t even do that. Everything else – like those juicy bits of, uhm, lore – is a bonus 🙂
Mathieu, we love you and whatever drips from your pen. If you have to miss a week or two, so be it. We won’t die for lack of update. Get your paying stuff caught up and work under control. Then you can enjoy your creative work on 6-Commando. I echo what Andrzejef said. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks a whole lot for that, seriously. As time goes on my career sometimes demands more of me than I can accurately foresee, and this is one of those situations. It really helps to know that you guys are behind me on it, and I appreciate it a ton! It’s not what I prefer, obviously, but it’s just what has to be done! And of course, you all know I’m not giving up on the comic, either!
I noticed that the AI tank counts as “Personnel” in the summary. Nice touch. 🙂
He counts as both! His Logic Circuit is personnel, and his chassis is Equipment. The UNA is having its cake and eating it too.
Finnaly. And I thought that you have forgotten long ago.
Also, I do have few questions concerning the concept.
1. Does the UNA have an dedicated AI for battlefield data management?
2. Does armored infantry have its own organic means of transportation, such as APCs or IFVs? Are those LAVs fill that role or act as cavalry fighting vehicles?
3. Also what place does have Echo class in brigade’s operational doctrine?
4. And exactly how many Echo and Victor class vehicles were operational at the start of hostilities?
Forget? Never! 🙂
In answer to your questions (call it a sneak preview):
1) Yes, in a sense. There are gel mainframes analogous to Mike and Victor, but they don’t do anything like whole-battlefield control, at least not individually. They’re networked to some extent through a proto-internet called AFSCON, or Allied Forces Systems Connectivity, but the absence of a satellite network makes this a difficult thing to handle over intercontinental distances.
2) Armored Infantry can be mechanized, but the suits themselves are highly mobile and within the context of MOBAS operations, battlesuits on foot are usually mobile enough to keep up with armored formations.
3) A Rumbler is attached directly at Brigade, and is used as a heavy armored assault force to break through defended positions and provide long range fire support for armored units following up the attack. Defensively, they act as mobile fortifications to hold strategic corridors in preparation for conventional counterattack.
4) There are nineteen Echo Class and three Victor class Rumblers currently in service. Mike is one of four in Africa, the rest are in Southeast Asia, China, and Manchuria, and two in Central America. Victor is the only operational member of his class at the moment – Archie-One-Victor was the class prototype but experienced software problems that were never fully resolved. Juliet-Two-Victor had defective armor in her front glacis plate and is being refitted at the Nordyne plant in Calgary – she was scheduled to be sent to China in 1998, but with the war, all bets are off.
Incidentally, the naming of Victor-class Rumblers is different from previous models, mainly because there are going to be far fewer of them as they get bigger. Previously, the “personal” names were alphabetical (although not sequential), followed by a number representing their production series. With the Victors, the personal name is more or less random, and the number is the sequence in which individual units were built.
Mike, therefore, is NOT a prototype, but he was part of the first production run of the Echo class – there were three, altogether, numbering five, ten, and four units, respectively. Mike was the last of his production series, the others being Charlie, Dave, Fred, and Lily, in order, and all were suffixed “-One-Echo.”
Archie, Juliet and Victor, on the other hand, are all part of the same run but have sequential numbers and random first names.
Thank you.
Given that you have said, it appears that UNA prepeared to fight last war, and I mean by that a bit more mobile World War I, given that they have invested in land cruiser concept, apparently expecting that they would be chewing through several Maginot lines, am I right? More emphasis on physical destruction of the enemy?
Does the deep battle concept actually was taken under consideration, or I am mistaken?
Also how deos the UNA plan to use Rumblers against the FSR, given fact that they do not posses a border with them, aside the areas of real life Georgia and Nagland and Manipur regions of modern India, in any meaningful capability?
And also another question.
Why spaceflight related technologies were not pursued?
The UNA has a rather long border with the FSR in China and Manchuria. Rumblers are also capable of crossing the Bering Strait, and technically able to cross the GIUK Gap, although that’s more theoretical. The UNA also has a large fleet capable of supporting landings in force and one of several war plans includes a massed Rumbler force invading the British Isles via a soft route through western Ireland, but that’s mainly a War College exercise, not a genuine battle plan. If Rumblers were used en masse in the current conflict, it was likely primarily in mainland China and Primorsky Siberia.
Spaceflight is considered an extravagance, as well as a potential strategic escalation neither side was willing to invest in. The Canadians orbited an astronaut in the mid 1960s but beyond that it’s seen as a waste of resources. Why spend money on satellites when they have bigger problems on the ground?
Ok.
Now, can you elaborate about what doctrinal paradgims conventional warfare evolved around?
Becouse from what it looks like, UNA expects to charge through Maginot Line head on.
And what about FSR combat doctrine? What are their capabilities?
Also why does the Rumblers are equipped with battleship grade cannons? Are they expected to fight against armored forts?
Or the concept of battleship is still alive and kicking and they are to act as mobile costal defenses?
If yes, then how about guided weapons? How are they advenced? Does fire and forget weapons are a thing?
First of all, great job. I stumbled across your comic while leafing through a random forum post for a good shot of an Ogre Mk3 cybertank to send a buddy and ended up reading the whole way through your archives in one shot.
Second, I must say… I envy your TOE. I’ve assembled one for detailing the aggressors in a series of sci fi shorts I’ve been (glacially) writing, and it’s nowhere near as clean.
Third, damn you for contributing to a sudden urge to stop procrastinating and get back to it! 😛
But seriously, I don’t have a big group of webcomics I check up on regularly anymore; you’ve been added to the short list.
As an aside, I was discussing powered armor earlier this evening and I’m wondering what drove the clamshell unibody design in your powered armor? Usually I see (and use) either battlesuits ala GEV/40k/Honorverse, or sharply angled clamshell torsos (to minimize weak points and increase the chance of a round glancing off)… is it a stylistic choice or is there an engineering element I’m too fried to catch at the moment?
Whoops! Can’t edit my comment to fix this (caps denoting missing word):
*I’m wondering what drove the ROUNDED clamshell unibody design
Next time I’ll try and make sure I comment after I sleep, not before. Insomnia is a hell of a thing.
No problem – thanks for the compliments, man! I’m glad you enjoy the little bits around the edges as well as the actual comic. Which I’ll be getting back to very, very soon!
Incidentally, if it’s the Heavy Suits you mean, their design is an homage to the work of Kow Yokoyama, combined with the drop-cast appearance of the M4 Sherman tank, which gives the suits a slightly smooth, slightly obsolete look to them that goes with the UNA aesthetic. It’s a rugged and effective but slightly old-fashioned look that I really find attractive. The M75 tank, for example, is an up-gunned, up-armored cross between an M103 and an M60A2.
It was the Heavies I meant, yes. They remind me a bit of the old Clan Elemental models from Battletech so I couldn’t help but ask.
Another question, you mentioned at one point that some of the battlesuits use Gauss accelerators–do they use single stage or two stage (cartridge and Gauss booster) accelerators?