Upper Echelons

Department of HumanitiesPsychology/Sociology Section

For: Chief EngineerSubject:: Command groups

The last core component to the basic army is the officer corps. The officer corps comprises the command groups. These command groups are overall responsible for the planning and direction of the military forces. The officer corps is based around the following structuring:

Platoon leaderCompany/Troupe Executive Officer (XO)Company/Troupe Commander (CO)Battalion XOBattalion CommanderBrigade XOBrigade Commander

For organizations larger than a brigade, the pattern continues. The officers, regardless of their position, are responsible for issuing broad-based commands to their enlisted soldiers. It is the job of the NCOs to execute the missions through assigning missions to their personnel. However, there is more to the job of the officer than just issuing orders.

Starting at company level, the Commander has a supporting staff. At the company level, this staff is comprised by the Supply Sergeant, Armourer, the senior NCO in the company, a clerk, and possibly a wizard or cleric. Each member of this "platoon" plays a crucial role in keeping the gears of the war machine greased.

From battalion level and higher, the staff becomes something entirely different, yet serves somewhat of the same function. Here the breakdown of the staff comes into four staff shops S-1, S-2, S-3 and S-4. The job of S-1 is to keep track of pay rolls, awards, leave requests, transfer orders, etc. for the battalion. They also have the task of writing the death certificates and disposal of the bodies.

S-2 is the intelligence center of the battalion. This is where the scouts and skirmishers report. The job of S-2 is to attempt to interpret the actions of the enemy as well as engage in misinformation tactics. The S-2 staff members are masters of intelligence and counter-intelligence skills. Though they lack the psychological sophistication of the Baatezu, the Acheronian armies are very good at what they do. However, the canniest of generals employs at least one Baatezu as part of their S-2 staff if they can afford it.

S-3 plays two different roles: planning and operations. The planning side of the house works out the mission objectives and gives one or two plans along with contingencies to the other hall of their staff and works closely with the S-2. The job of the operations side of the house is to implement the plans and make crucial decisions during the course of a battle based upon the information they receive from the companies and from S-2.

The last staff group deals in supply and logistics. The S-4 staff is tasked with tracking the supply lines of the battalion as well as keeping a careful log of damage assessment of the equipment out on the field and those in reserve. They are also responsible for determining the overall effectiveness of a unit based upon how many supplies remain. The quartermasters keep their units well stocked or they all perish.

As you can see, what makes a great house is the conformity of the individual to the military machine. Now that I have established a basic working knowledge of the military structure for you, I can begin to delve into tactics and the psychology behind the machine that has become Acheron.

Calix Arvandus, Shaper 2.