How well does the project get on

[Project_Sardonicus]

The Project seems to have been slightly doomed from the outset.

The decision to put all of it's eggs in the Prime base basket, which was then sabotaged seems an indicator that things weren't right. So how many of these problems may have been there from an early stage. The description in v4 seems to show Bruce himself saw it's failings as inevitable.

So here's some thoughts.

1 MARS
MARS view the project as essentially a military organisation who's mission is to defeat the forces of chaos awaiting them in the future. Being made up more than any of the other divisions from military veterans, they view themselves as the natural leaders and the others as somewhat naive. To them all the other parts of the project are foot soldiers waiting to be press ganged into a greater Morrow army. In many ways they get their own way, certainly Recon equipment reflects their status as army in waiting. With recon teams weighted down by mortar carrying vehicles and hefty anti tank missiles. MARS units will have a tendency to high handedness and a preference for taking over. Of course there will be many wise heads within it as well, who learned wisdom from years of service. But there will be others who view any Recon team not obeying the orders from a freshly awakened MARS team, as rogues needing elimination.

2 SCIENCE AND SPECIALISTS

These are the specialists of the project, who know they're job it is to fulfill their special role. However this has lead to big conflict with MARS, to put it bluntly they expect to do the job and have MARS and to a lesser extent RECON to take care of all the other messy and dangerous details. Hence the Prime Base mistake of just starting building a base without securing the local area first. Across the project this attitude can be maddeningly prevalent. From medical teams trying to build a hospital in the path of Krell, to agricultural teams building hitech dripfeed agricultural teams in the holy hunting grounds of the Amerind Empire. In some cases this lead in the preparation stages to an almost perverse resisted to being drafted. For example choosing trucks and Hummers instead of APCs, or SMGs I mean which army still uses SMGs since the 1980s. A SMG and an unarmoured truck is a way of saying you can draft me but I won't be much use.

3 RECON
Recon are easily the largest and most widely spread of the teams. Where as they have a vital role, to actually contact communities, rebuild and see what's going on. They're diffuse nature makes them the least powerful. Science teams view them as spare skilled labourers, or added security for their projects. Where as to MARS they're spare infantry slightly less disposable then levied survivors. Some times this will lead to a sort of Chicken little scenario where the Recon team is trying to tell the hospital to evacuate, as they can't defend it from a horde of Krell. Or persuade the MARS commander with 20 years experience, that they've scouted the area and his plan won't work.

4 COMMAND
The thing is this unit never existed no one group was put in actual charge of the project. Maybe there was a vague belief that Bruce and the council of the future would rise to the role. But with no actually command structure most planning sessions, would probably have been committee meetings from hell [are there any other kind]. As such the heroes most likely a Recon team will be trying to save the world and the project inspite of themselves.

I think this is a more fun approach. Especially with teams waking up out sequence, perhaps a MARS unit with a Prime 1 and a 100 members, expecting to take over from a patchwork of Recon and Science teams who've found their own way of managing.

[ArmySGT.]

Project File 010 Final Watch.

The Combined Group Leader (Command) is outlined as is the entirety of Combined Group Seattle.

A Combined Group isn't as large as previously surmised. Totaling 79 personnel, most of whom are specialty groups, a force hardly more than two understrength platoons.

This could mean that Combined Groups are smaller, but more numerous than previously alluded too. So a State could have several Combined Groups each with a primary focus of one small portion of a State or greater urban area.

[Project_Sardonicus]

Interesting I should find my old copy of Final Watch.

But again lots of independent teams without apparently an overall commander.

It still feels like there isn't one central directing leader

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus

Interesting I should find my old copy of Final Watch.

But again lots of independent teams without apparently an overall commander.

It still feels like there isn't one central directing leader

Combined Group Leaders would likely report to the Regional Base Commander.

So a Regional Commander would either be a State or a Large Portion of a State; whereas it seems a Combined Group Leader would have a County if it was sparsely populated or a major urban area such as Combined Group Seattle.

Supposition though as this is not in any canon text.

[.45cultist]

If one uses Atlantis Project, a secondary command exists, yet no one who knew survived the war and Krell!

[welsh]

I have to admit I kind of like the idea of tension within the project, especially as Prime Base got taken out early, the wake-up was late, people are scattered and part of the mission is to pull the teams together.

I recall the film Zulu about the Battle of Rorke's Drift. As the battle is about to commence and this small group of a few hundred Brits are about to be overwhelmed by Zulus, the two officers have to figure out who gets command, and it comes down to who got the commission first. Such a system would not work.

I would also think you'll get very different regional projects depending on the composition of the groups and the capacity of the leaders to share a common appreciation of priorities and a willingness to overcome ego for the greater good.

[stormlion1]

Actually you would be surprised how often when it comes to rank things like commission date, enlistment and even age come into play. Back in the mid 90's I was on a exercise with several other guys who had been boot camp with me, we all had the same dates of rank essentially except for one or two who had come in with stripes already and a sergeant told us to go by age. I thought it was stupid as all hell but it was a way of figuring out who was in charge. Hopefully something like that is rare but the sergeant acted like it has come up before.

[ArmySGT.]

I get the impression that the Leader sets the priorities and the Team takes care of the details. Almost governance by consensus. Probably the only time in a Team or Group that a Chain of Command is invoked would be a crisis or combat.