Greek Letter Moshpit
SOC-6
Well, Bill Cameron's highlight reel thread inspired me to share some of my experiences.
Before I get started, note that the age range of players ranges from born in 1980 to born in 1992 (I myself lobbed in Sep 83) - not exactly old grognards, all predated by CT and most predated by MT. I started with kids 15-17 years old and it expanded out from there.
I had been reading GT: Starmercs and GT: Ground Forces pretty extensively, and had attempted a mash up the previous year (2005) that worked far better than I could have ever expected, with one veteran of my online games who had hopped the Pacific to play and two newbies.
So I expanded and fleshed out the background from the 4912th Aggressor Regiment to include the entire supporting field army, Five Sisters Aggressor Command. The general idea was a state-supported mercenary field army/rapid reaction force/aggressor formation that got good on other people's credits. Each subordinate formation and unit consisted of a mash up of Navy, Marine, Army, Scout, Count of Five Sisters' Own Huscarles and mercenary personnel, with a preference toward Marines in divisional, corps and army-level command positions.
The small beginnings of the 2947th Aggressor Division (the 4912th having morphed into the 2901st during the timeline advancing from 1135 to 1140) were the three PCs, each with 1-2 stars on their collars. Two were UAFS brigadier generals and the third was a Darrian jarhead two-star.
Even forming and equipping the division took a few game sessions and was the cause of much PC (and player) frustration - the UAFS was willing to help them but the IN, IM, Scouts and the Count's Own were far less willing to come to the party, despite the existing divisions and regiments in FSAC.
So one of the PCs got the bright idea of borrowing the 2901st's senior supply NCO, and letting him loose on the Imperial supply and recruiting systems.
Fleet Sergeant Elliott "Naturally" Baley had previously pulled off miracles that can be described as:
2901st CO: "Naturally, where did that fighter wing come from?"
Naturally: "Naval base, sir."
CO: ".... Do they KNOW they're gone?"
Naturally(checks watch): "Bout now, sir."
Although not in the greatest of favour with the IN, Naturally's help greatly accelerated the divison's formation, being declared operational in the dying days of 1140.
Not having a fully equipped and officially operational division didn't stop sub-units deploying - that happened as soon as platoons had formed up and grabbed barebones kit.
The first official deployment of the 2947th as a division got rolling a couple of weeks later, providing starport security somewhere in District 268 (don't remember where, exactly).
Before I get started, note that the age range of players ranges from born in 1980 to born in 1992 (I myself lobbed in Sep 83) - not exactly old grognards, all predated by CT and most predated by MT. I started with kids 15-17 years old and it expanded out from there.
I had been reading GT: Starmercs and GT: Ground Forces pretty extensively, and had attempted a mash up the previous year (2005) that worked far better than I could have ever expected, with one veteran of my online games who had hopped the Pacific to play and two newbies.
So I expanded and fleshed out the background from the 4912th Aggressor Regiment to include the entire supporting field army, Five Sisters Aggressor Command. The general idea was a state-supported mercenary field army/rapid reaction force/aggressor formation that got good on other people's credits. Each subordinate formation and unit consisted of a mash up of Navy, Marine, Army, Scout, Count of Five Sisters' Own Huscarles and mercenary personnel, with a preference toward Marines in divisional, corps and army-level command positions.
The small beginnings of the 2947th Aggressor Division (the 4912th having morphed into the 2901st during the timeline advancing from 1135 to 1140) were the three PCs, each with 1-2 stars on their collars. Two were UAFS brigadier generals and the third was a Darrian jarhead two-star.
Even forming and equipping the division took a few game sessions and was the cause of much PC (and player) frustration - the UAFS was willing to help them but the IN, IM, Scouts and the Count's Own were far less willing to come to the party, despite the existing divisions and regiments in FSAC.
So one of the PCs got the bright idea of borrowing the 2901st's senior supply NCO, and letting him loose on the Imperial supply and recruiting systems.
Fleet Sergeant Elliott "Naturally" Baley had previously pulled off miracles that can be described as:
2901st CO: "Naturally, where did that fighter wing come from?"
Naturally: "Naval base, sir."
CO: ".... Do they KNOW they're gone?"
Naturally(checks watch): "Bout now, sir."
Although not in the greatest of favour with the IN, Naturally's help greatly accelerated the divison's formation, being declared operational in the dying days of 1140.
Not having a fully equipped and officially operational division didn't stop sub-units deploying - that happened as soon as platoons had formed up and grabbed barebones kit.
The first official deployment of the 2947th as a division got rolling a couple of weeks later, providing starport security somewhere in District 268 (don't remember where, exactly).
