Organized marauders, a serious thorn in the back of regular armies

[atiff]

Agreed with all the above. Also, the definition of 'marauder' (or not) is not black-and-white, especially somewhere like Poland. I see many groups of armed people raiding each other for supplies, etc. (think the neighboring town that tries to invade Jericho in the TV series of the same name). And then some bands that were 'marauders' may settle into a village or town and become more 'legitimate' after a winter of coexistence. One man's marauder is another man's patriot/hungry villager/wronged man seeking revenge/etc.

Andrew

[Legbreaker]

One man's marauder is another's militia/freedom fighter/police force/military unit/fill in the blank...
By 2000, it's very likely the definition is very blurred with pre-war elite units turning to occasional "marauding", and bands of criminals organising to form proper militia with a real desire to keep their small part of the world safe.

[Raellus]

I think that the term marauder should apply to units outside any established military chain of command. In other words, if a unit is no longer accepted orders from higher HQ, it is, technically, a marauder. Village militias might be the exception. In non-cantonment areas outside government control, local militias would be essential to avoid predation. I think it would be unfair to classify all such indpenedent militias as marauders.

I think another qualifier is that marauders are also groups, static or mobile, that resort to predatory behavior (raiding, toll-collecting, protection rackets, etc.) in order to sustain themselves.

I think that if a group meets both of these criteria (a. operating outside military chains of command AND b.) preys on others to meet its own needs), it should be classified as marauder.

I don't know if there would be an agreed upon classification like the one above in the year 2000. On one hand, it seems like some sort of widely accepted unwritten rule about who or what constituted a marauder would develop over time. On the other hand, things are so chaotic, and the lines between conventional military and bandit so blurred, the distinction may not be so clear. My hunch, though, is that folks in 2000 would have a pretty clear understanding of what a marauder was or was not.

[rcaf_777]

I think marauder would differ depending on where you are, PC in Poland would find marauders being a mix bag or crimnals and rouge military units, but in state side you find organization like gangs or "Other groups" being your main problem

As your taking them on that you depend on what the local Commander had on hand to deal with them, I could some Commanders could employing static defenses while having recon teams out attemping to locate thier main camp, having found said camp the commander then sends in heavy armed troops and equipment to attack them, the main goal being to capture or kill as many as then can

Being a thorn in the side would depend how well the marauders are equiped and who they attack, a small group of three or four person stealing food to live might be a problem for a Mayor or local Milita but the MILGOV or CIVGOV commander might brush it off, he would more likely to take action should a unknow group attack his troops or try and steal miltary supplies

[dragoon500ly]

When I was doing research for a Dien Bien Phu campaign, I came across a book called the Last Valley, decent overview of the DBP battle, but also included useful information on the fighting in the years that took place prior to DBU. All of the horrors of classic guerilla warfare in mountainous jungles. And the French trying to maintain control with worn-out WWII aircraft, a handful of helicopters and a mostly road-bound military.

In the early years of the 1st Viet War, The French tried to withdraw their northern highland garrisions, out of some 6,000 troops, the French lost over 5,000...

Now picture the effects of a marauder band numbering say 1-200 men......pity the troops that would have to go out and hunt them down, talk about a death of a thousand cuts!

[Raellus]

Scale is important too.

Most marauder bands are likely to be small, squad-to-company sized units who survive through simple banditry. They would be a continuous nuisance to military units and a bane to undefended civilians. This would be your most likely encounter in a standard T2K game.

You might, however, encounter a much larger, battalion-to-regimental sized unit that moves through the countryside raiding and pilaging. This group would likely be a former military unit that mutinied or deserted whole-sale but continues to operate as a coherent formation. These groups would be much more rare and considerably more dangerous. In many ways, they would resemble the Free Companies of the Hundred Years War.

[HorseSoldier]

Marauders are probably a lot like cults -- above a certain success level we start to call them religions, even if their beliefs remain kooky. Above a certain success level and size level, marauders will morph into (probably oppressive) local governments, though their predatory tactics may not change at all and the distinction may be wasted on their victims.

Probably the further away from organized military formations, the larger your potential marauder groups get. Close in to controlled areas, anything too threatening will get smashed, meaning you'll mostly see small units that dodge patrols and aren't enough of a problem to justify a dedicated campaign to wipe them out. Out in the middle of nowhere, there won't be that culling process for the most successful, so that's probably where you see large marauder bands turning into feudal aristocracy or whatever, or fighting it out with independent towns and settlements in bloody little knife fights for the crumbs of civilization.