Military Musings
Between the 13th Age game and recent military scifi reading, it occurs to me that I may "know" a lot more about military organization, weapons, strategy, and such than a lot of my generational peers. Granted, this knowledge is a amalgam of many sources that may vary in significant ways - ranks, for example, are not universal across branches, much less nations. Still, a lot of things I take for granted are total unknowns to some people.
And all my knowledge is theoretical (in that I have never served and don't use firearms).
So when a player set their character up as a major in the game, my thought was less "this is the group leader" and more "that seems an unusually high rank to only be leading half a dozen people." Of course, handwaving and "it's just a game" and all that, so I don't dwell on it. But it has had me thinking tangentially about such things and how I've assimilated bits and pieces from various sources.
Recently reading has involved the Alexis Carew, Hayden War and Confederacy series.
The first was very naval focused and deliberately patterned off the British Age of Sail. It may be set in space, but there is a lot of effort in making the parallels. It sets up some naval rank issues, talks about pay and prizes, and gets into piracy/privateering.
The Hayden War series deals with the (space) navy to an extent, but mostly on the larger, strategic scale. The main character focuses the story more on special forces and "operator" culture. Sorilla is basically a Green Beret, not just in the sense of being a highly-trained ass kicker, but also in that her specialty is going in and teaching locals to fight. The series puts a lot of focus on technical advancements. The human use of implants is one of their few advantages and they play a serious game of catch-up over the course of the series. By the most recent book, she's advanced from Sergeant to Major, which is pretty huge, but given the setting involves less "ongoing war" and more "desperate battle for survival against alien forces," most of the promotions make reasonable sense.
The Confederacy series, which I'm still making my way through, sets up a more "traditional" ongoing interstellar war with humans as a part of a larger group. The main character there is another sergeant who is regularly saddled with running her unit as well as guiding the officer(s) above her in the field. There's a lot of emphasis there on the enlisted/officer distinction and small units having to fight against larger ones.
Of course, even a lot farther back, I could say I picked things up from things like Robotech and GI Joe. Various media over the years have exposed me to facets of military culture, though many through particular lenses.
And in thinking about all this recently, it occurs to me that I've spent very little effort to learn about it directly from the two USAF captains I've known. With my step-dad, it just seemed to be a job he complained about like one would any other. With my dad, it's... well, there are elements he's talked about, yet I never felt interest/appropriateness at the time to dig in with questions about what it was like. Maybe it felt too personal? I'm not sure, and now I wonder about that.
And all my knowledge is theoretical (in that I have never served and don't use firearms).
So when a player set their character up as a major in the game, my thought was less "this is the group leader" and more "that seems an unusually high rank to only be leading half a dozen people." Of course, handwaving and "it's just a game" and all that, so I don't dwell on it. But it has had me thinking tangentially about such things and how I've assimilated bits and pieces from various sources.
Recently reading has involved the Alexis Carew, Hayden War and Confederacy series.
The first was very naval focused and deliberately patterned off the British Age of Sail. It may be set in space, but there is a lot of effort in making the parallels. It sets up some naval rank issues, talks about pay and prizes, and gets into piracy/privateering.
The Hayden War series deals with the (space) navy to an extent, but mostly on the larger, strategic scale. The main character focuses the story more on special forces and "operator" culture. Sorilla is basically a Green Beret, not just in the sense of being a highly-trained ass kicker, but also in that her specialty is going in and teaching locals to fight. The series puts a lot of focus on technical advancements. The human use of implants is one of their few advantages and they play a serious game of catch-up over the course of the series. By the most recent book, she's advanced from Sergeant to Major, which is pretty huge, but given the setting involves less "ongoing war" and more "desperate battle for survival against alien forces," most of the promotions make reasonable sense.
The Confederacy series, which I'm still making my way through, sets up a more "traditional" ongoing interstellar war with humans as a part of a larger group. The main character there is another sergeant who is regularly saddled with running her unit as well as guiding the officer(s) above her in the field. There's a lot of emphasis there on the enlisted/officer distinction and small units having to fight against larger ones.
Of course, even a lot farther back, I could say I picked things up from things like Robotech and GI Joe. Various media over the years have exposed me to facets of military culture, though many through particular lenses.
And in thinking about all this recently, it occurs to me that I've spent very little effort to learn about it directly from the two USAF captains I've known. With my step-dad, it just seemed to be a job he complained about like one would any other. With my dad, it's... well, there are elements he's talked about, yet I never felt interest/appropriateness at the time to dig in with questions about what it was like. Maybe it felt too personal? I'm not sure, and now I wonder about that.
Seems like there could be fuel there for a certain mage-general
ReplyDelete*chuckles* Certainly some of that does/should inform Chia. Though trying to extrapolate her into a modern/scifi setting would probably put her behind base walls or on a flagship, given leading from the battlefield stops about the time communication technology allows it. She is, however, a bit more a general overlooking the battlefield from a hill type than leading from the vanguard - though spellcraft would make her more involved than most generals.
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