Originally posted by far-trader:
First I thought we just had the three qualities of troops, and that Green and Regular were the same?
So we could have an experienced (Elite) Corporal with more leadership skill than some fresh (Green) Lieutenant just out of OCS. I like that.
76 Gunmen makes these same distinctions, and they have been in play since the original striker. In general, Green troops are fresh from training and have little real world experience. Regulars have been at it a while and have the drill down fairly tight. Veterans are well experienced and older troops who've learned most of (if not all of) the tricks of the trade. Elite types come from your highly "strack" units, special forces, or are simply that rare breed of high speed troop that’s been around forever and tends to be highly proactive.
Increasingly high experience ratings will also produce increasingly high orders of rarity. (i.e., green troops are far easier to come by than veterans, and so on.)
Increasing experience tends to produce increasingly proactive troops. Note also the character levels associated with the experience rankings. Those are also from 76 gunmen. (I would use the term "initiative" as meaning they are willing to act on their own or are able to interpret orders / function without them, but do not want this confused with the die roll to determine whom acts first.)
Note that any NCOs and officers will by virtue of their position had some leadership training (formal or otherwise). They might not be maxed out, but will at the least be able to issue commands etc. Note also that the unit will be assessed a leadership rate no higher than its current commanding officer even if those under him are better leaders. That’s the nature of the chain of command. This is not to say that your lower levels should not waste time with leadership... but only that the person in charge controls the unit and it can function no better than that officer by virtue of command and control.
You need not have 76 gunmen as a reference to apply these ratings. Hence the reason I posted the ranks and equivalent skill ratings.
Take that for what its worth.
And yes, your veteran corporal vs green LT is a valid and in fact common one in real life. Which is why a competent NCO rapidly becomes skilled in "training his officer" without the officer realizing it. There is a reason they call it "tact"