NationStates Jolt Archive

An Idiots Guide to Designing a Competent Land Force

Table of Contents
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Different Types of Divisions and Separate Brigades, Their Strengths and Their Weaknesses
Section 3: Command, Control, and Rear Support in a Division
Section 4: Combat Assets in Different Divisions (
Section 5: Divisional Assets: Artillery, Combat Engineering, Air Units, and Support
Section 6: Recommended Reading
Section 7: The Micro Level: Infantry Combat Platoons and Below
Coming Soon…
Section 8: Helpful Hints from Other NS players

Foreword: I have no incentive to write this out. By writing this guide, I am actually making it harder for myself in future RPs, as I expect anyone who reads this to have established themselves a well-organized and supported army that will give my fighting forces endless grief.

Section 1: Introduction

Greetings. I’m sure some of you are reading this out of curiosity, or others are new and are looking for a resource to help with the conundrum of “how do I build a military?!?” Well, I will discuss this from the divisional perspective, before getting into corps and beyond. First, I will describe plainly what a division is, and then what makes up a division. I will then go into greater depths down towards tailoring a division to meet your combat needs. Many Nationstates players believe that there is a need for an absurdly high amount of support personal, in what is generally dubbed “the logistics train,’ though this is fundamentally wrong, and I will explain that in greater detail in the future. Above all, I will try to keep this relevant to NS as much as possible, since information that can be gleaned here can be used in almost any RP.

Modern day warfare centers on the maneuver force. Unlike world war 1, most combat centers on movement rather than static lines. This must be kept in mind while making any kind of fighting force. If your army is based on static lines, you will rapidly be flanked and overrun. However, movement adds new sets of challenges, since there are different conditions where different maneuver forces do well. Heavy (meaning mechanized or armored) forces do best when the terrain favors mobile combat and extended fields of fire, where as dismounted infantry operate best during limited visibility or closely confined combat. Basically, a modern-day army that focuses solely on armored spearheads will fall in urban, jungle, or forest areas where they can be engaged at close range by infantry. Likewise, a light infantry unit will get slaughtered when there are long, open fields of fire.

There are two major maneuver forces in existence are corps and divisions. Corps are the largest tactical units (generally) in an army that are maunvered to the operational or theater level (i.e. they are maunver forces on a large scale. Where as a light battalion would be charged with taking a city, a corps would be charged with a region or an entire country). Corps rarely operate alone, and usually operate as part of a larger field army or an army group, or as a joint task force with other branches of service. It is absolutely critical that a corps have support from other branches, be it a navy or an air force. There is no set structure for a corps, but a corps typically has the following components, many of which will be explained later:

Combat:
3 divisions
2 Separate Brigades
An armored Combat Regiment
An Aviation Brigade
Corps Artillery
A Combat Engineering Brigade
An Air defence brigade

That’s it for combat. However, support operations greatly increase the number of corpsmen involved in general. Many nationstates players do not think about the following components, though many are necessary for proper operation of a corps.
Signals Brigade
Chemical Brigade (Used in a division to lay smoke or to provide decontamination work in the event of an NBC attack)
Mission Intelligence Brigade
Psycological Operations Batallion
Civil Affairs Brigade
Military Police Brigade
Finance Group (regiment)
Personanel Group (regiment)
Corps-level Support (i.e. logistics)

A corps can be tailored for any mission it would need, but the support elements are critical. A division, which will be discussed in the next paragraph and coming sections, has many smaller versions of these assets, but will often draw on the echelon above’s resources. If a division needs more artillery support, it will call for corps artillery assets. Likewise, a division may not have enough combat engineering support to defend a city or breach a large minefield, and therefore may need corps level combat engineering support. Like wise, corps air assets are not just helicopters, but may also include limited air force assets, such as JSTAR links. Likewize, a corps level air defence may not just include maneuverable air defense (such as Avenger anti-air systems) but theater-level air defense (such as THAAD or S-300/S-400 weapons systems).

A division is the largest echelon that trains as a cohesive tactical unit, and is the largest specialized fighting force. There are several key features of a division that makes it so widely used in a modern day war scenario.
-A division is a self-sustaining force capable of operations over long periods of time
-A division leader plans almost all operations based on a general guideline from a corps commander
-Divisions can be tailored to fight in low, medium, or high intensity conflicts.
-A division is capable of performing independent operations (rather than being dependant on a higher echelon for assets it does not have)
-A division’s area of control is roughly 70 kilometers

Divisions are specialized by combat, which has important support implications, and will be discussed in section 2

Section 2: Different Types of Divisions and Separate Brigades, Their Strengths and Their Weaknesses
Coming Soon…
There are several types of divisions, and a competent fighting force exploits their strengths while marganlizing their weaknesses. Many Nationstates players create absolutely huge divisions in the hundreds of thousands of personal. This is not the best idea, since it makes the division too large and unwieldy to meet the initial qualifications of a division. Separate brigades and the divisions they are modeled fall into one of two caragories: heavy and light.

All heavy divisions are pretty much any division tasked with providing mobile, armor-protected firepower. Heavy divisions have the highest survivability and mobility in an army when used properly, and are most useful over wide areas that afford long-range and flat trajectory firepower. In essence, a heavy division does best over rolling plains or deserts, not in mountainous or densely populated/covered areas. Heavy division combat goals include destroying other armored assets, controlling land areas (including population and resources), and use overwhelming force to spearhead enemy lines or envelope and surround enemy defenses. Using their inherent mobility, heavy divisions them concentrate to attack, reinforce, or block, and overall defeat an enemy force with as little power as possible to better economize other forces in another area.

Heavy divisions have the following capabilities
-Heavy Divisions conduct sustained combat operation against heavy enemy maneuver force in either conventional, chemical, or nuclear contaminated environments
-Heavy divisons act to attack and counter attack using their speed to exploit gaps in an enemy line
-Heavy divisions, in defensive operations, disperse over great distances to escape an enemy before converging rapidly to counterattack/defend
-Heavy divisions conduct delaying operations against a larger heavy force
-Provide air defence against low-altitude hostile aircraft
-Conduct limited airmobile operations
Heavy divisions have the following limitations
-Substantial quantities of heavy equipment limit strategic mobility (i.e. they cannot easily self-deploy over a long range)
-Jungles, dense forests, steep and rugged terrain, built-up areas, and water restrict mobility
-Tracked vehicles require heavy logistics support and generally require railway and highway transport for long ground moves.

A heavy brigade has the same capabilities as a heavy division, be it mechanized of armored. The main difference between a heavy brigade and a division of the same type is that they lack assets usually assigned to higher echelons. Most brigades are not-organic (i.e. can be moved from unit to unit) and are attached to a force needing it. Separate brigades are generally attached to corps and carry their own limited dedicated airdefence.

Light divisions include all divisions that rely on non-mechanized infantry, light infantry, airborne infantry, or air assault units. While their deployments and capabilities differ, light divisions share the same general strengths and weaknesses, and have several advantages and disadvantages over heavier divisions.
Light divisions have the following capabilities
-Manuverability in areas that mechanized forces cannot move
-Seize and hold terrain
-Employ through all forms of mobility (i.e. trucks, helicopters, aircraft, backs of tanks and IFVs, etc.)
-Operate under limited visibility
-Close with the enemy to capture or destroy them
-Employ supporting direct and indirect (i.e. anti tank and artillery fire) to defeat maneuvering heavy forces.

However, light divisions have unique sets of limitations:
-When operating on foot, light forces are not nearly as mobile
-Light forces are vulnerable to all types of observed and directed fire, such as artillery and close air support
-Lack heavy combat support
-During an NBC contaminated environment, protective gear horribly reduces combat power
-Light forces have only limited anti-tank capability

That being said, there are several types of light infantry divisions, which will be differentiated (in terms of armament) in the upcoming sections. However, here is a general overview.

Light infantry divisions are among the most versatile divisions. Because they lack organic vehicle support, they can operate in a variety of terrains. They can also serve to reinforce forward-deployed divisions and fully integrate with them. A light infantry division, when on an offensive, operates over a large area in a decentralized manor during nighttime or periods of low-observability. This type of force is best deployed in small unit operations rather than through a physical concentration. Light divisions should only mass when there is low risk and high payoff. Light divisions are capable of amphibious assaults and can conduct light air assault operations. The main drawbacks to a light division is their inherint lack of support, and the inability to operate without support for more than 48 hours, the inability to conduct a spearhead,and limited anti vehicular/aircraft capability.

Airborne divisions are similar to light divisions, but are specialized in operations concerning the seize, secure, and reapir airfields to act as a forward operating base, as well as to rescue nationals besieged overseas. Airborne divisions also serve to act as a strategic reserve and to conduct large scale raids. The main disadvantages of airborne divisions is that they depend on airforce airlift assets to deploy. Because the entire division is airmobile, it has only limited assets, and logistical trucks cannot be effectively used to transport infantry. The division itself is vulnerable to mechanized and armored assault, despite having heavy amounts of anti-tank weapons.

Air Assault Divisions are possibly the most effective of the light infantry divisions. Air assault divisions use their air assets, primarily assault helicopters, to effectively move infantry into position, as well as attack the enemy. Unlike light infantry divisions, air assault can rapidly redeploy, and can rapidly change the tempo of battle over an extended range. Because they rely heavily on helicopters, they can overfly barriers, bypass enemy positions, surprise the enemy, and can make the enemy act prematurely into revealing firing positions, and have the benefit of moving light field artillery into otherwise unaccesible positions.

One very important consideration that must be taken into account is how easy it is to transport and deploy a specific division type. Light divisions and airborne divisions are the easiest to deploy. Air assaults take nearly double the time to transport, and mechanized and armored divisions take over 6 times as much effort to transport to a foreign theater. All this information must be taken into account when designing a division, and multiple divisions of different types are needed to effectively destroy most any kind of enemy force.

Section 3: Command, Control, and Rear Support in a Division
Coming Soon…

Section 4: Combat Assets in Different Divisions
Coming Soon…

Section 5: Divisional Assets: Artillery, Combat Engineering, Air Units, and Support
Coming Soon…

Section 6: Recommended Reading
Coming Soon…

Section 7: The Micro Level: Infantry Combat Platoons and Below
Coming Soon…

Section 8: Helpful Hints from Other NS players
Coming Soon…

Will this be finished?

Yea, soon enough, probably by next week (when I get the motivation to continue working on it).

This looks like it could be a good guide. Please continue!