Your Imperial Ministry of Defense

[Yef]

I was wondering, when you are playing, which Dpt in your Imperial Ministry of Defense do you assume that have the control of the diferent branches of your military?

The navy would be, of course, under control of the Imperial Navy. But what about the weapon platforms, troops, fighters that are based on planets, drones, sats, mines, and the pop transports?

Would there be an Imperial Army as an independent institution?
What about an Imperial Air Force? Would that make the fighters in carriers "Naval Aviators"?

It appears to me that the nature of space combat would make all branches of the military to be of secondary importance in comparisson to the Navy, because of its ability to take combat to your foes, but many planets in secured systems (without neigbouring hostiles) will probably never in their life see a warship pass through their sectors, and their defenses will remain land based, and even if you build them fighters, those fighters would be very unlikely to see the interior of a carrier.

So, should colonial defenses be under control of the Imperial Navy, the Army, or the Air Force?
Or should they be independent, as in Colonial Planetary Defense Force?

There is also the issue that ground forces in an Space Empire would be more like todays marines, since they have to go into battle in navy ships and then land, to do any combat at all.

And finally we have the Weapon platforms, which have nothing to do with the navy at first sight, other than fighting them.

What are your ideas on all these diferent possibilities for military structure and organization?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I think applying the term 'navy' to a space-based force would be a misnomer.

As for attached forces, they should be integrated into the force they are attached to. If your weapon platfom commander doesn't know what to do with fighters, your training is lacking.

[Yef]

Yes, but under whose command?

Should the weapon platforms be under command of the Navy, the Army, or have its own branch in the military?

[Combat Wombat]

National Guard?

[ April 05, 2004, 20:45: Message edited by: Combat Wombat ]

[PvK]

Really it depends on the alien species/society/military in question. Personally, I rarely play as the same type of nation twice, except I think I have played the EEEvil Oooze three times, but their answer is something like "whoever the nearest meanest Ooozoid is. Kill! Kill!"

In general, though, ya in SE4 the star fleet dominates. A lot of that is due to the limited nature of the other types of units, though. If troops were organized into armies with experience and supplies and generals and they had to actually do detailed protracted battle on planets and weren't dead meat to planetary bombardment, then they might be more like their own branch of service.

Static units that stay on a planet often seem like they could be under local command in a different organization. But generally, unless doing heavy roleplaying, they can be snapped up and deployed to another location by the fleet.

I do however like playing "captain's games", where I give control of practically everything to the ministers, except a single squadron which I control myself. In that case I tend to severely limit which forces I am allowed to commandeer.

PvK

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Combat Wombat:
National Guard?

That sounds about right. With adjustment for actual combat experience. about one rank up, i'd say. and an adjustment for no combat experience. about one rank down.