KFS Refit

[Project_Sardonicus]

If most of it's likely foes are going to be armed with low powered muskets (those poor quality steel barrels) and bows and arrows. Wouldn't the KFS invest in some primitive body armour more so than automatic fire power.

In Fallback it mentions how the KFS if need be armour up their vehicles with sandbags. Seems adequate to hold out against slow moving musket balls.

A decent steel pot helmet and a flack jacket made from; a thin layer of steel plates or chainmail links sandwiched between thickly woven cloth or hardened leather. Would most likely keep out those same musket balls and arrows.

It's a feature that would simultaneously make the KFS terrifying to locals, like Roman legionares or Spanish Conquistadors who were both seemingly invulnerable to more primitive arms.

Whilst also giving the project an advantage as that armour would struggle to keep out even 9mm bullets and just slow them down, giving the team a chance to win through their first few encounters.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus

If most of it's likely foes are going to be armed with low powered muskets (those poor quality steel barrels) and bows and arrows. Wouldn't the KFS invest in some primitive body armour more so than automatic fire power.

In Fallback it mentions how the KFS if need be armour up their vehicles with sandbags. Seems adequate to hold out against slow moving musket balls.

A decent steel pot helmet and a flack jacket made from; a thin layer of steel plates or chainmail links sandwiched between thickly woven cloth or hardened leather. Would most likely keep out those same musket balls and arrows.

It's a feature that would simultaneously make the KFS terrifying to locals, like Roman legionares or Spanish Conquistadors who were both seemingly invulnerable to more primitive arms.

Whilst also giving the project an advantage as that armour would struggle to keep out even 9mm bullets and just slow them down, giving the team a chance to win through their first few encounters.

In "Bullets & Bluegrass" Officers and Senior NCO may purchase a type of body armor....It is sold though and to expensive for the common soldier.

[Matt W]

I suspect that the KFS troops would terrify a unit of musketeers. Not only do they have an incredible rate of fire, they have rifle grenades (including a very nasty WP model with a burst radius of 40 meters)

7-man squad
CETME light machinegun with 600 rounds (another 300 are carried by the squad)
4 assault rifles and hand grenades (5 X 40 round magazines)
2 "grenadiers" with assault rifles and 8 rifle grenades each (3 x 40 round magazines)

Under fire, the musketeers might get off 1 shot every minute.

[Project_Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Matt W

I suspect that the KFS troops would terrify a unit of musketeers. Not only do they have an incredible rate of fire, they have rifle grenades (including a very nasty WP model with a burst radius of 40 meters)

7-man squad
CETME light machinegun with 600 rounds (another 300 are carried by the squad)
4 assault rifles and hand grenades (5 X 40 round magazines)
2 "grenadiers" with assault rifles and 8 rifle grenades each (3 x 40 round magazines)

Under fire, the musketeers might get off 1 shot every minute.

This is perhaps where I think the KFS wouldn't operate like that. Let's assume for several hundred miles in every direction of their borders the KFS has nothing but colonies, controlled villages and so on. The last thing they're going to want to do is send in the heavy artillery every time a few yokels decide to have a little peasants revolt. You're killing people you need working your fields, not to mention tearing up said fields with heavy vehicles and the survivors will run off.

The US army doesn't bring out the A10s and artillery for a football riot, that's what the police or national guard are for.

Of course the KFS will have lots of heavy units, who train hard and have copious amounts of ammo and arty. Who are rolled out to squash any serious resistance or the very occaisonal band of marauders who raid villages.

But most of the time they'd be more like an unfriendly police force, cracking skulls and dragging people off for a very short trial. I think they'd be most likely to have a lot of primitive tear gas, shot guns with bird shot and battons in their armouries.

It simultaneously I would think makes them more menacing and sinister, whilst still not wiping out the party on their first encounter.

Also whatever weapons you give to poorly paid soldiers have a nasty tendency of being lost e.g. sold onto the rebels or just merchants, or used for some half assed mutiny. Over arming your frontline troops can be a far greater menace than underarming them, a single mini14 with 200 rounds could on the blackmarket probably pay for a comfortable retirement far away from the KFS.

[Matt W]

The squad I described is straight out of "Bullets and Bluegrass"

Also, according to the module, KFS troops are VERY well-paid. They are volunteers and the military chooses only the best applicants. They have adequate training and good morale. Soldiers' families are not permitted at the border posts; they live at cities in the interior (the Secret Police can keep them as hostages if anyone tries to desert)

The KFS military are confident (even overconfident) but that's because they've never encountered enemies with anything close to their firepower and organization. If they meet a Morrow Project team with an autocannon or an automatic grenade launcher...well, it'll be a shock

Now, if you're talking about a "Peasant's Revolt" then that's going to be crushed by the Secret Police. The Army is a last resort

[Project_Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Matt W

The squad I described is straight out of "Bullets and Bluegrass"

Also, according to the module, KFS troops are VERY well-paid. They are volunteers and the military chooses only the best applicants. They have adequate training and good morale. Soldiers' families are not permitted at the border posts; they live at cities in the interior (the Secret Police can keep them as hostages if anyone tries to desert)

The KFS military are confident (even overconfident) but that's because they've never encountered enemies with anything close to their firepower and organization. If they meet a Morrow Project team with an autocannon or an automatic grenade launcher...well, it'll be a shock

Now, if you're talking about a "Peasant's Revolt" then that's going to be crushed by the Secret Police. The Army is a last resort

According to Bullets and Blue Grass the Secret Police were specifically created to deal with the MPs. They have some secret bunker with advanced computers for listening in on their communications. The v300 was built specifically for taking out MP vehicles as were the rifle grenades. The SPs have a lot of experience in dealing with the MPs. They're not going to be overly bothered by a pipsqueak armoured vehicle or automatic grenade launcher.

True the KFS have never faced an enemy on their scale, but they've had a lot of experience knocking over much weaker foes and Morrow Teams.

The analogy I always thinks fits is they're like the European imperial powers in the 1930s. When both were fighting campaigns against large, but technologically primitive foes in Iraq etc. Where a few aircraft, armoured cars and artillery made most engagements a push over. Right up until they ran into the Germans.

[Matt W]

Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus

The analogy I always thinks fits is they're like the European imperial powers in the 1930s. When both were fighting campaigns against large, but technologically primitive foes in Iraq etc. Where a few aircraft, armoured cars and artillery made most engagements a push over. Right up until they ran into the Germans.

Yes, exactly. It's an "Imperial Constabulary" role. The British called it"Aerial Policing" in the 1920's

If I can lift a couple of quotes...

"Attack the most inaccessible village of the most prominent tribe which it is desired to punish. All available aircraft must be collected; the attack with bombs and machine guns must be relentless and unremitting and carried on continuously by day and night, on houses, inhabitants, crops and cattle."

In his memoir of the crushing of the 1920 Iraqi uprising, Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer L Haldane, quotes his own orders for the punishment of any Iraqi found in possession of weapons "with the utmost severity": "The village where he resides will be destroyed _ pressure will be brought on the inhabitants by cutting off water power the area being cleared of the necessaries of life". He added the warning: "Burning a village properly takes a long time, an hour or more according to size"

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by Matt W

I suspect that the KFS troops would terrify a unit of musketeers. Not only do they have an incredible rate of fire, they have rifle grenades (including a very nasty WP model with a burst radius of 40 meters)

7-man squad
CETME light machinegun with 600 rounds (another 300 are carried by the squad)
4 assault rifles and hand grenades (5 X 40 round magazines)
2 "grenadiers" with assault rifles and 8 rifle grenades each (3 x 40 round magazines)

Under fire, the musketeers might get off 1 shot every minute.

Look up the tactics of the locals in "Starnaman" for another response, probably even more effective against the KFS soldiers.

[RandyT0001]

Let's not forget that the KFS was written by its author to be undefeatable with realism a distant tenth in criteria. The KFS does not need a refit but replacement, a complete overhaul.

IMO, the Rich Five did not create one state but five, each one under the control of a family. (They do not want to share one state but will trade and cooperate with four others.) These states operates as a loose confederacy, engaged in trade and intrigue. These states cover parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. The holdings of each state is (somewhat) intermingled with the others (similar to German Confederation or Holy Roman Empire) though each family has a predominate, primary territory.

The tech A, fusion power, listed in the book are not copies of fusion plants from MP but a single captured MP fusion plant originally intended to power the MP rebuilding in the future. After 150 years it's output is small and the R5 have moved to coal as a primary energy source.

No planes, no M1s, no Bradleys, no V300s because they do not need them, there is no large threat to their domain. They have several working MP vehicles which the "Secret Police" (more of a commando group than a police unit) use to ambush MP teams that they find.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Let's not forget that the KFS was written by its author to be undefeatable with realism a distant tenth in criteria. The KFS does not need a refit but replacement, a complete overhaul.

IMO, the Rich Five did not create one state but five, each one under the control of a family. (They do not want to share one state but will trade and cooperate with four others.) These states operates as a loose confederacy, engaged in trade and intrigue. These states cover parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. The holdings of each state is (somewhat) intermingled with the others (similar to German Confederation or Holy Roman Empire) though each family has a predominate, primary territory.

The tech A, fusion power, listed in the book are not copies of fusion plants from MP but a single captured MP fusion plant originally intended to power the MP rebuilding in the future. After 150 years it's output is small and the R5 have moved to coal as a primary energy source.

No planes, no M1s, no Bradleys, no V300s because they do not need them, there is no large threat to their domain. They have several working MP vehicles which the "Secret Police" (more of a commando group than a police unit) use to ambush MP teams that they find.

Good point, if they can copy the fusion, they could copy an M1 exactly.