Future Tech Advice and Assistance Thread [O.O.C.]

[Lubyak]

How would military commands work in regard to FT? I have my forces assigned to military districts, which are formed into military regions in wartime.

If I deployed forces to an allied nation or started an offensive against an enemy nation, would I assign them to a temporary expeditionary command?

I suppose it would depend on how good your FTL communications are, but at the same time, I can't see such things differing too much between now and then. In general, yes, you would detach your forces from their 'home' command, and send them to the expeditionary force HQ. I suppose when you're launching an offensive from your own space, then you shouldn't need to create a new operations/strategic command, and can simply use the existing ones.

[Mini Miehm]

It really depends moore on your doctrine than your level of technology. The answer to your question is, what would you do? There's no real iron clad correct answer for this one.

[The Akasha Colony]

How would military commands work in regard to FT? I have my forces assigned to military districts, which are formed into military regions in wartime.

If I deployed forces to an allied nation or started an offensive against an enemy nation, would I assign them to a temporary expeditionary command?

It all depends on procedure. There's no outright correct answer. If you're fighting a war on your border, it may well fall under normal military district command. And if change of command would take too long or be unnecessary, it may never happen at all. The Soviets historically never bothered transferring command or naming when their fronts advanced into German territory; Berlin fell to the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts despite not being anywhere near Belarus or Ukraine.

It may even be possible that you have a permanent expeditionary command, with forces of its own that are designated as the go-to formation to stage counterattacks. Or regional commands that have responsibility for certain areas, like the US Unified Combatant Commands.

[Lubyak]

It really depends moore on your doctrine than your level of technology. The answer to your question is, what would you do? There's no real iron clad correct answer for this one.

Well, I could see technology playing a role in shaping doctrine and action. For example, if your FTL communications are poor, then a decentralised command structure would no doubt develop, and it would be imperative that ships and units be transferred to local command structures. On the other hand, if you have very good FTL communications, you could develop a doctrine that maintained highly centralised C4I, and thus it would not be as important to transfer units to local structures.

[SquareDisc City]

Technology can and will shape doctrine and command structures, but so will politics and ideologies. It's perfectly reasonable to have aspects of the military that are at odds with the technology available. There are plenty of historical cases of leaders trying to micromanage wars going on hundreds of miles away, when the fastest method of getting news and sending orders was a man on a horse.

Remember, in general your nation's military, economic, politics, society, or anything else is under no obligation to be good. Things are probably more interesting if it's flawed.

[Vorkova]

Remember, in general your nation's military, economic, politics, society, or anything else is under no obligation to be good. Things are probably more interesting if it's flawed.

I'm hopeless when it comes to tactics, but I like to have a nice, neat command structure. Throw in some opportunistic, backstabbing officers the likes of which you'd see in LoGH and the fun starts.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone for your replies. You gave me some good stuff to think about.

[The Fedral Union]

How would military commands work in regard to FT? I have my forces assigned to military districts, which are formed into military regions in wartime.

If I deployed forces to an allied nation or started an offensive against an enemy nation, would I assign them to a temporary expeditionary command?

That depends, my forces are unified in to joint command structures . Star Command And the Marines being in one, and the Army being in the other. I base mine much after the US military, each system has a local commander who answers to a quadrant/sector commander who answers to the joint chiefs or the President. Now a note sense of scale makes being able to handle entire quadrants out of the question, but since I have colonies in all four (not more than one or two in the "northern" galactic reaches) They are organized in a way that basically says if there is a situation in any of those quadrants that we know about and are involved in or we're under attack those commands will handle it.

So say the 5th fleet and the 7th fleet would be assigned to one of the quadrants ie Gamma, they'd be under Gamma Sector Fleet Command (GSFCOM), as for offensive situations. The systems or sector commands one uses should have something in place for that ala the US military. Allied Forces need to be coordinated with but wouldn't have in a sense a unified command unless your in an alliance or doing something ala NATO even then it depends. As I'm in GESO this had to be figured out in a sense, so basically have our top brass (if we needed too) or assigned commanders huddle together to come up with plans of actions to support one another as best we can in an operation. But generals do not at that level micro manage (and should not) operations so its dispersed and so forth.

In general what everyone else said in regards to that question is pretty accurate.

[Lubyak]

I decided to have fun and do a size comparison of the ships I've done so far.. Carrier is still work in progress.

[Feazanthia]

I decided to have fun and do a size comparison of the ships I've done so far.. Carrier is still work in progress.

One of these days I need to commission lineart of my ships. That is so pretty x_X

[Vorkova]

I decided to have fun and do a size comparison of the ships I've done so far.. Carrier is still work in progress.

That fleet carrier is amazing. How many craft does it carry?

[Vorkova]

snip

Having separate quadrant commands is an excellent idea. I was going to create my own but I only really have holdings in Delta.

[Lubyak]

I decided to have fun and do a size comparison of the ships I've done so far.. Carrier is still work in progress.

That fleet carrier is amazing. How many craft does it carry?

Cheers, it's the first one of my actual capital ships I'm doing. At present, I'm going for a reinforced wing, so probably 80-90 small craft. There's a view of one of my fighters hanging out above the carrier's flight deck.

I decided to have fun and do a size comparison of the ships I've done so far.. Carrier is still work in progress.

One of these days I need to commission lineart of my ships. That is so pretty x_X

Cheers, man! In all honesty, these ships are the first time I've ever done lineart...but I feel like as I do more, I'm learning more and more how to make things look the way I want. I'd say that it's worth just giving it a shot, if only to see how things turn out.

[Thrashia]

How would military commands work in regard to FT? I have my forces assigned to military districts, which are formed into military regions in wartime.

If I deployed forces to an allied nation or started an offensive against an enemy nation, would I assign them to a temporary expeditionary command?

A popular method used by myself and others, though perhaps not knowingly. The Thrashian military is organized along a strict chain of command, but effectively and pragmatically these "commands" or "fleet groups" are often shifted around quite regularly -- for training and R&R purposes as much as combat. The Imperial Army is, ostensibly, second after the Fleet in importance and size.

[Dreadful Sagittarius]

How would military commands work in regard to FT? I have my forces assigned to military districts, which are formed into military regions in wartime.

If I deployed forces to an allied nation or started an offensive against an enemy nation, would I assign them to a temporary expeditionary command?

I just assign ships to squadrons which are assigned to fleets and then to fleet groups. One fleet group protects the two populated systems while the other protects small colonies, monitors the Liu Xiu protectorate and guards convoys. The three fleets for the 'home' group, or the Patritha Mora consists of two guard fleets and a training/reserve/command fleet, while the border group, or Makria Mora, has just two fleets for guard duty.

The system is set up in a way so that if I went on the offensive, I would need to set up a new fleet who would undoubtedly be assigned to whichever Morae is closest, or even put under the command of the heads of state. If the offensive was big enough, the Nautikon would probably assemble a brand new fleet group.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

I'd be curious to see FT societies with conflicting rank structures. One reason Austria performed as poorly as it did early on in the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars was that its senior military officers were often forced to take orders from their juniors who held higher noble ranks, at least until a fairly competent archduke emerged to get things in line.

(fortunately the Russians never had that problem, since the Table of Ranks established clear chains of command and tied bureaucratic/noble rank to military ranks. They had their own problems, though...)

Of course, I guess our modern equivalent of that would be a civilian legislature trying to run a war. But since such things never happen in this modern and enlightened world, I guess it's unlikely for them to happen in the future

[Steel Union]

So with all this talk of military organization, coupled with an intense desire to watch M*A*S*H, it got me thinking. How does everyone have their medical units set up? Are medical units integrated into combat units? Are they kept separate and wounded soldiers are evacuated to a field hospital? Something else? How do people handle wounded soldiers on the battlefield?

[Yalos]

Leaving them to die is always an option.

Though you could always have some super cool FT handwavium technology that instantly cures wounds and have soldiers take care of their own wounds, though 'm not sure how that would work for dismembered joints...

[-The Unified Earth Governments-]

So with all this talk of military organization, coupled with an intense desire to watch M*A*S*H, it got me thinking. How does everyone have their medical units set up? Are medical units integrated into combat units? Are they kept separate and wounded soldiers are evacuated to a field hospital? Something else? How do people handle wounded soldiers on the battlefield?

Bio Foam and medigel my friend, biofoam for a quick path on the field and medigel to help recovery.

If a person needs a new organ or something they can have one printed out at base, where medical teams are.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

So with all this talk of military organization, coupled with an intense desire to watch M*A*S*H, it got me thinking. How does everyone have their medical units set up? Are medical units integrated into combat units? Are they kept separate and wounded soldiers are evacuated to a field hospital? Something else? How do people handle wounded soldiers on the battlefield?

Bio Foam and medigel my friend, biofoam for a quick path on the field and medigel to help recovery.

If a person needs a new organ or something they can have one printed out at base, where medical teams are.

"Medical teams."

It's not medicine unless it involves screaming and buckets of boiling tar.

[-The Unified Earth Governments-]

Bio Foam and medigel my friend, biofoam for a quick path on the field and medigel to help recovery.

If a person needs a new organ or something they can have one printed out at base, where medical teams are.

"Medical teams."

It's not medicine unless it involves screaming and buckets of boiling tar.

:/

Nope

[New Tsavon]

Bio Foam and medigel my friend, biofoam for a quick path on the field and medigel to help recovery.

If a person needs a new organ or something they can have one printed out at base, where medical teams are.

"Medical teams."

It's not medicine unless it involves screaming and buckets of boiling tar.

Also hacksaws.

[The Fedral Union]

Right well, everyone should know that the first line in aid comes from your fellow solider, military personnel today are trained to render basic aid. But that has limits, for me though my power armor we use is the first line of aid followed by the guy next to you in the foxhole or in cover. Pain meds, stasis fields and anti pathogen drugs are all standard and are used as needed. However those fancy things just cut the chance of death not eliminate it or the psychological trauma after.

Next are the combat medics, or more often medi drones with a bunch of advanced things to treat injuries, most FT states would have super powered medical tech if that's your flavor. Ie I base mine heavily off of ST with other fancy bobs and cogs fit in. Anyway that aside the drones try to stabilize the fallen one as much as they can, we try to medivac injured men as soon as possible. That means either by an armored ambulance, gunship or your buddy hauling your ass far enough from the front lines and/or if he has to from the middle of a cross fire, where medical teams can get to downed man.

Medical care can come in various facilities, such as mobile medical units, they're not designed to manage large amounts of personnel like other hospitals are but they provide a decent amount of support and evac of less critical injuries vie transports. Then you have troop ships, my troop ships are designed in mind to act like mobile hospitals if need be with a ,large capacity for treatment top of the line medical talent/AI and equipment as well as other standard stuff you'd find on a thing like that. (It should also be noted they're armed as well as they have multiple roles like point defense and support of landing ops. )

Aside from that, we do make use of base side hospitals on planets too, but the circumstances vary. Like if they're confidant that they can defend a position or keep the lines stable; or if they're capable of maintaining orbital supremacy they'll establish a base or land a ship. If we have allies on the ground or safe cities we'll make use of local buildings and what have you to set things up. But it all hinges on things not getting nuked to hell from orbit, we like to retain as much ability to extract people and withdraw as we can if something comes up. But bringing back divisions of troops tanks, IFV's and so forth is tricky if it needs to be done on short notice. Teleportation is another fancy thing I have, but its not as useful in cases like that as you might think. Mainly because A:Jamming/interference B: the ships using them need to drop defense fields for their use. Those two apply if there is a battle in orbit and if jamming is present. However its easier just to take them to the back of the lines and patch them up, sending the most injured ones back up via transporter, anyone that is sent up likely will be out of the fight or become a causality later. Transporters are also not conductive to not being spotted, thus yeah.

Special forces and so forth who operate behind the lines cant always get access to gunships for extraction or medivac at all times, so each member of a spec ops unit is well trained and extensively trained especially its medic and they all have drones that can double as medi drones attached to them if need be.

That all being said, depending on where the injury is you may or may not live. There is no way in hell someone will survive with their head blown off, or loss of weight due to most of the torso being blown through, vaporization is also a thing that induces death in the right instances. Hand Displacers (what I use) or any disruptive weapon tends to produce weird and rather nasty effects if used at certain settings, though higher settings for my weapons are avoided in combat for various reasons mainly because we don't like wasting grav batteries with overpowered shots, and more so because the rate of fire for that sort of stuff is generally not-conductive to combat situations in some senses.

Anyway long story short guns that go pew pew swoosh and bang bang may or may not kill you depending on place or the rounds hitting you. Either way FT battlefields can never just hand-wave away every injury ,war is hell; the wounds suffered on the battlefield are nasty. After all, this is shit intended to kill someone. You always count on species like humans to find a new way of screwing over your enemy in battle and leaving nasty scars/causing many deaths. So unless your god, or if you use mass drones in a way that their destruction matters not, war will always include sacrifices. Soldiers know what they're getting in to signing up, and I will always maintain that the guy next to you will more than likely be the reason you survive.

(Seriously I couldn't imagine the interest of a decent war rp if either side could just magic away death and destruction, at that scale why the hell are you even fighting?) - >.>

[Lubyak]

I'd be curious to see FT societies with conflicting rank structures. One reason Austria performed as poorly as it did early on in the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars was that its senior military officers were often forced to take orders from their juniors who held higher noble ranks, at least until a fairly competent archduke emerged to get things in line.

(fortunately the Russians never had that problem, since the Table of Ranks established clear chains of command and tied bureaucratic/noble rank to military ranks. They had their own problems, though...)

Of course, I guess our modern equivalent of that would be a civilian legislature trying to run a war. But since such things never happen in this modern and enlightened world, I guess it's unlikely for them to happen in the future

Hehehe, given that I am FT Oesterreich, I might well have that exact problem. Or at least a slightly less competent officer being placed at the top because at least s/he's a high enough noble rank to give orders all around, and all the actually competent officers of lesser blood are promoted up to advisory positions to said high noble.

[New Lyrane]

I'd be curious to see FT societies with conflicting rank structures. One reason Austria performed as poorly as it did early on in the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars was that its senior military officers were often forced to take orders from their juniors who held higher noble ranks, at least until a fairly competent archduke emerged to get things in line.

(fortunately the Russians never had that problem, since the Table of Ranks established clear chains of command and tied bureaucratic/noble rank to military ranks. They had their own problems, though...)

Of course, I guess our modern equivalent of that would be a civilian legislature trying to run a war. But since such things never happen in this modern and enlightened world, I guess it's unlikely for them to happen in the future

I have a slightly different source of conflict. New Lyrane has the Army and the Navy as independent services. So independent in fact that the Army has its own fleet of troopships and the Navy's Special Landing Forces are a pretty decent surface army. Yes, that involves quite a bit of duplication of effort, but what can you do when those idiots in the Navy Ministry just won't see reason?

This happy arrangement was inspired by the Imperial Japanese forces.

[Feazanthia]

I'd be curious to see FT societies with conflicting rank structures. One reason Austria performed as poorly as it did early on in the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars was that its senior military officers were often forced to take orders from their juniors who held higher noble ranks, at least until a fairly competent archduke emerged to get things in line.

(fortunately the Russians never had that problem, since the Table of Ranks established clear chains of command and tied bureaucratic/noble rank to military ranks. They had their own problems, though...)

Of course, I guess our modern equivalent of that would be a civilian legislature trying to run a war. But since such things never happen in this modern and enlightened world, I guess it's unlikely for them to happen in the future

The Kiith Federation Expeditionary Force has this to some extent, but mostly because it is essentially a multi-national force. Nominally, the entire fleet is under the command of Somtaaw Silas uln-Jalaat. He is the phia-sa (essentially a "grand admiral"), and he issues directives to each phia (again, essentially "admirals") under his command. Each of these phiada command the forces in the Bezakpartlawa (Milky Way) for their respective clan. However, these phiada also must follow directives from their respective Kiith-sa (clan leader) and associated command structure, all the way back in the Hiiglawa (home galaxy). In theory, the Kiith-sada are supposed to defer to Silas uln-Jalaat as he (in theory) has the greatest understanding of the situations "on the ground". This does not always happen. One must understand that even though the Kiith are enjoying the longest period of inter-clan peace in the civilization's entire history, the various clans are still harboring competing agendas. The Sobani and Manaani are still bitter rivals, for instance; and you will never get a Nabaali to trust a Paktu (or vice versa). The only reason a Somtaaw phia-sa was chosen to lead the expedition was that Somtaaw has a number of influential allies, and no really influential enemies.

Regardless, this means that there are occasions that the Phia-sa will issue a directive to a particular task force under his command, and that directive will be either only partially carried out or ignored, if that directive competes with the immediate interests of the associated clan. There are other occasions where a task force will go off completely on its own, more than once engaging a force the KFEF as a whole has no quarrel with. This can create great political turmoil for the KFEF, as they must to decide whether to intervene on the embattled Kiith's behalf (and thus risk all-out war), or to leave the Kiith on its own (and thus weaken the overall strength and readiness of the KFEF). This is complicated by the fact that not many nations understand or care about the KFEF's multinational status, and treat it as a unified whole. For instance, a Kiith Soban task force engages a force of IoM Space Marines, that Space Marine chapter sees no compunctions of engaging a peaceful Kiith Somtaaw colony.