Clan Smoke Jaguar ----> History: Organizational Doctrine

CLAN BURROCK

Organizational Doctrine

Nicholas Kerensky created the basic Clan formations of the Point, Star, Binary and Trinary, Cluster and Galaxy. He considered the Point --- one OmniMech, two OmniFighters or vehicles, or five Elementals --- the smallest effective deployment of any military asset.

Five Points working as a single unit, or Star, provide the maximum destructive power with minimum logistical demands. In general, Clans that experimented with mixed Points in a Star found such Stars' combat effectiveness severely weakened. Only Clan Wolf's preferred formation of a strategic command Star --- four OmniMech or Elemental Points and a Single Point of aerospace fighters for escort and reconnaissance --- has proven itself of lasting value. Several Clans have adopted this formation, but only in limited numbers.

The Nova, or double-Star formation, is the only major change in the order of battle that has become a standard feature in almost every Clan. A Nova is effectively a Binary consisting of one OmniMech Star and one Elemental Star. The difference between a Nova and a regular Binary lies in training and deployment. Novas are drilled in combined-arms combat techniques far more intensely that are similar Binary formations, and so generally outperform the Binary. However, when a Nova reverts to its constituent parts, its individual Stars are often less effective in combat than individual Stars from a typical Binary.

With Binary and Trinary formations --- groupings of two or three Stars, respectively --- the Clans begin to customize their fighting forces. These formations may be considered "pure," meaning their component Stars contain similar types of forces, or "mixed." Pure formations tend to edge out mixed formations within the Clans, though both are in wide use. Binaries and Trinaries require only modest increase in logistical support over Stars, making them the most common deployments of Clan forces. When comprised of Nova Stars, a Binary or Trinary is commonly referred to as a Supernova.

At Cluster level, the generalities begin to break down. The combined-arms approach becomes much more significant, as the scale of combat demands inclusion of OmniMech, Elemental and aerospace assets. How those assets are organized, however, varies from Clan to Clan. In general, Clusters are comprised of three to five Binaries or Trinaries, with the average between four and five Trinaries. A typical Cluster (insofar as there is such a thing) among the Clans as a whole consists of two pure OmniMech Trinaries, an Elemental Binary, an OmniFighter Binary and either a mixed Trinary or a Supernova.

The largest organizational formation among the Clan forces is the Galaxy. Wisely, Nicholas Kerensky never attempted to set criteria for Galaxy formations. He recognized that, given the individual tailoring at Cluster-level formations and a typical Cluster's inherent strength, Galaxies would be organized more for logistical purposes than offensive capability. The average Galaxy consists of four Clusters and an independent command Trinary or Cluster, though some Galaxies include as few as two Clusters.

Second-line Galaxies are organized along the same lines as their front-line counterparts, though often with less emphasis on customization. These Galaxies are a mixture of second-line and provisional garrison Clusters (PGCs). In most Clans, a second-line Cluster is comprised of warriors one cut beneath front-line quality; many of these Clusters have OmniMech technology and good logistical support. Such second-line forces are used to take less-important objectives or to hold targets captured by front-line troops. Most PGCs, by contrast, are comprised of freeborn warriors and trueborns either disgraced or aging past the useful period of their lives. These troops remain in rearward areas, holding less-important objectives and often cleaning up after second-line and front-line forces. A few Clans make no meaningful distinction between second-line Clusters and PGCs, which gives them more homogenous second-line troops but widens the gap in quality between their front-line and reserve forces. The stronger Clans field between five and eight second-line Galaxies, while the majority field four to seven such Galaxies.

Finally, each Clan also possesses planetary militia forces. These units are the proverbial bottom of the barrel, consisting of solahma, less-talented freeborn and failed trueborn troops poorly equipped with conventional vehicles and weapons. No Clan has ever called upon such standing militia forces for real battle; instead, these units are assigned the thankless task of controlling the lower castes. Their military strength, therefore, is irrelevant to the purpose of this document.