[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by James Langham

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

No problem. I appreciate that whilst I'm still discussing the RAS I may be drifting away from the intent of your thread, which was to expand on what is in canon...whereas I may be looking at more from the perspective of the flaws in that canon material...as a Scot I can't help but look at it and wonder how realistic some of it is...for example I have doubts about how many RAF / RN personnel will want to throw their lot in with an independent Scotland given that majority of them are going to be English. There probably wont be enough Marines left at Condor to resist if the RAS attacks in strength, but I'm not so sure about the Navy and RAF bases - at best I think some of them would remain neutral, at worst they are going to stay loyal to the Crown. It's probably possible RAS forces could "beseige" them and effectively starve them out, but that's going to take time and manpower. And if the RAF have enough fuel to get a Tornado airborne that could cause the RAS a World of hurt...so apologies if I'm derailing the thread slightly...

That said...looking at it from the point of view of how to expand on canon...

Originally Posted by James Langham

Bear in mind the RAS does not have large numbers to oppose it, the marauder groups are actually quite small and untrained. I will probably expand the militia from the 2001 level. Militia will be armed with a real mix, at best SLRs, often .303s and some shotguns. Ammunition will be in short supply. Uniform will be armband at the start, probably with self-bought military surplus kit. Numbers may well be limited by availability of weapons though.

Fair enough, but there could still be a fair amount of law enforcement to be done...there are a few towns in central Scotland that have areas that are "dodgy" (to put it politely)...there's likely to be a fair amount of friction in some of these places with local strongmen trying to seize power, that sort of thing. That's where I think the manpower quoted in canon is somehwat optimistic to control all of Scotland. What I'd be inclined to do is have the standing force 2000 strong and have another 2,000 (or so) serving as part time Militia. Assuming the sailors come over, control of the Navy base at Rosyth would give a firm grip of the southern half of Fife (and dependent on how much damage you want to inflict may give the Scots control of a dock large enough for an Illustrious Class aircraft carrier or a big ferry (IRL a RO / RO ferry sailed between Rosyth and Zeebrugge for a number of years, whilst cruise liners have also called in). From Kinloss and Lossiemouth you'd have a great base to secure the Highlands (there's also an Army base at Fort George, which is only about ten miles from Inverness - chances are an HSF Company would be based there from whichever of the 51st Highland Battalions affiliated to the Queen's Own Highlanders). Leuchars is in northern Fife, so with Leuchars and Rosyth under control you've probably got Fife. I discussed Glencorse in my last post - with a Battalion in there you're in good shape to control the eastern Borders (and protect against incursions from England). Put at least one Battalion in Stirling and you can reach into the Central Belt (which was home to a lot of hi tech manufacturing sites for companies like Motorola, NEC, and IBM). I think you'd need a Battalion in South West Scotland as well, maybe in somewhere like Dumfries, to control the region and guard against anyone coming into the area from northwest England - you wouldn't want some marauder horde working their way north from what's left of Greater Manchester / Lancs.

Originally Posted by James Langham

RN - I will probably add a note putting many in the Engineering Rgt or the Amphibious Squadron. Most of the RAF will probably gravitate to the RAF Rgt or the Engineering Rgt. The conventional bombing raid could make a good short article in that it's own right. The RM will probably gravitate to the Rapid Action Force.

I may have one base refuse and a firefight break out.

This thread has reminded me that I still have some work to do on my own (non canon) Separatist piece...I intend to have a small number of Condor Marines running around causing general mischief...

Originally Posted by James Langham

I considered as many options as I could for the names, individuals didn't feel right as it is the regiments that tend to have the glory. Any names you can suggest are welcome. If you have a better option please let me know.

Really useful comments, thank you.

I have been racking my brains trying to think of suitable names other than those that you already have such as Bannockburn, Flodden, etc and to be honest I can't think of any. I'm sure if I googled Jacobite Battles or someething similar I could come up with some, but that obviously wouldn't be an option in post apoc Scotland circa Feb 1998, so didn't go down that road.

What I would suggest is trying to tie the Battalions in with their traditional recruiting areas. For example, the Gordon Highlanders recruited from Aberdeen and Angus, the Black Watch recruited from Fife, Perth, and Tayside, etc, so I'd suggest something along the lines of 1st Battalion (Black Watch), Royal Army of Scotland for the Battalion covering the Black Watch recruiting area, 2nd Battalion (Royal Scots), Royal Army of Scotland for the Battalion covering Edinburgh and the Lothians, etc, etc. That way you're taping into the Regimental names (as you say, it's the Regiment that gets the glory). You could follow the British Army order of precedence if you wished, which would make the Royal Scots first in line. But for Companies, I'm stuck with straightforward 1 Company, 2 Company, etc, etc. Or maybe place names, e.g. 1 (Fife) Company, 2 (Perthshire) Company, etc.

Cheers