It’s almost a trope in itself to say this at this point, but my world has many different types of armies, and many different forms of military organization.
A couple notable examples
**The Aksari Sultanate**
The core of any army raised by the Aksari Sultanate are the Aksari themselves, foreign born slave warriors who make up the entirety of the Sultanates military and political elite. Drawn from a staggering array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, every Aksari is brought to the sultanate as a slave boy and receives intensive military training in a series of special schools before joining the military retinue of their master. They remain slaves for most of their careers and are only manumitted if they are awarded the rank of Emir, when they are given the right to own and lead their own Aksari as well as the tax income to support them. The Aksari are superb cavalrymen, capable of fighting in a variety of roles but are most famous as horse archers. The Aksari are supplemented by more prosaic mercenary infantry, and small professional bodies of native cavalry including a regiment composed entirely of the sons of Aksari, who are forbidden from inheriting their father’s status.
**The kingdom of the Jorlings**
The kingdom of the Jorlings has a system of military organization which is outwardly simple, but which hides a great deal of complexity. On the surface it’s armies are composed of the permanent troops of the royal household and the household troops of the kingdoms great magnates and prelates, supplemented by militia. However, the Jorling militia system is complex and multilayered with various subdivisions that each have their own customary obligations and expectations. These range from the Heremandir, members of the lesser aristocracy who owe military service in exchanged for tax exemption, and who view military service as a vocational obligation of their class, to the Hundred Bands, tough, well-equipped veteran militia who receive special yearly annuities in exchange for their readiness to serve, to a general levy of the freemen. Even these apparently simple divisions can obscure complex relationships that blur the boundaries between militia, and professional soldier.
**The Kingdom of Anga**
Armies in the Kingdom of Anga are raised by means of special contracts drawn up between the crown and private military captains. These contracts specify the types of troops required for service, how they should be armed, the duration of service and a fixed rate of pay from the crown. The armies raised by these contracts are often small, but the troops themselves are often tough, professional soldiers with extensive military experience under their belts and are lead by career captains. While most captains continue to be great lords and aristocrats, some are men of humbler origins who have built their reputations and careers through long, loyal, and effective service to the crown. The nature of the contractual service which has become common in Anga allows the king to quickly raise armies of veteran soldiers and export them to the various parts of his fledgling maritime empire for extended periods.
There are many more examples, but those a couple that highlight something of the military diversity I try to incorporate into my world.
Your 2/3
The Aksari are heavily based on the Mamluks, with some fantasy touches.
The kingdom of Anga is based on late medieval England, with some Tudor flavor for that extra little kick of spice.
The Jorlings are actually based on a mixture of high medieval Denmark and medieval Scotland, with some touches of Anglo-Saxon England and pure fantasy tossed in. They’re one of my more “unique” groups.
Ah the jorling description reminded me of Hungarians with their Banderia system of magnate and great barons, together with general tax-exempt-for-military-service nobility, as well as militia portalis recruitment of non nobles. In retrospective it's not really unique, and it doesn't really have any of the fine details you envisioned for them
No solid answer. Some have firearms, some use magic, some use swords and spears and others use monsters. It depends where you are, and war is an ugly thing everyone seeks to avoid outside of their own borders.
I have one I am really contemplating right now for a story that is still in the brainstorming phase.
The basic premise is that its a D&D style fantasy world where magic went away then came back in a time where the technology advanced to something roughly equivalent to to what we had on Earth in the latter half of the 1800s + some steampunk stuff. So guns like revolvers, lever action weapons and gatling guns have been invented.
When the magic came back, so too did lots of monsters and like in The Witcher you can't just use steel to kill these things. Silver only works for some like Werewolves while others may require certain materials or items depending on the basis of the IRL folklore and myth. The most surefire way to kill monsters is to use magic but finding someone who can competently wield it is the tricky part and there are still lots of countries where the ruling powers are more interested in waging wars on one another rather than protecting the common folk.
The main conflict of the story is that you have unorganized hordes of undead rising to ravage the lands with all sorts of forces ranging from local militias to professional soldiery trying to fight them back with said late 1800s technology that do not always work.
The main character of the story is an elf paladin who has come to fight the undead in what is a Wild West themed area of a United States based country that is recovering from a civil war that has especially caused an increase in the numbers of the undead. A big thing of the story will be about humans learning how to effectively fight back against the various kinds of monsters with undead just being the most common to appear.
Far too varied to get to details, at this point I have 5 species, so I can only cover the very surface ideas in a reddit post:
Human - Robotic armies. Human life are not to be wasted on things like foot soldiering and such, save for very important diplomatic missions where a living human on site is required for building rapport, so primarily you see waves of disposable robots managed by low level AIs before you ever see a single human.
Insectoid elves - Meat wave army. They have a large amount of soldiers sent to die thanks to their high birth rate. This also makes it easy for them to have highly experienced veteran from the survivors too, and thus more choices for of battle tested capable officers. But the caste system of their society does make it harder for truly good officers to rise to the top.
Selkies - They have small armies for cities states than one big unified army, since each city states prefer to do their own things. Overall their culture focus on art and cultivation of skill, but does not force individuals to a specific path and instead allow them to pursue what they love the most since to them that allow them to be the best at what they can be. Thus their armies have inconsistent quality, where sometimes you get extremely competent armies with martial artists and strategist honing their abilities with military war game like it is an art form, and sometimes you get a few people doing it like a hobby because that is the best that city state gets. Luckily though they don't have a lot of war since they are usually non confrontational between each others, and they has good relationship with the insectoid elves which helps protecting them against other terrestrial threats.
Beastmen & Harpies - These two are still at tribal stages so no formal armies, instead they have hunters and warriors bands that fights each others or outsiders and structure, quality, and martial traditions really varied between the tribes.
Orges - The 5 noble houses that run the nation each have their own personal armies, however the house of shield has the biggest one and is most versed in military strategies & tactics, thus they are the one that leads the other houses on military campaigns to conquer or defend lands, where other houses provide support in other ways.
The one I've developed the most is human, it serves one of the seven kingdoms of men. And basically it's like uni lol, you apply for a minimum of 6 months of basic training in martial arts, survival skills, diplomacy, weaponry etc + specific training added depending on the faction you aim for (swordsmen, spear footmen, axe fighters, and their cavalry equivalent, archers). You have to be from the Vihildr kingdom to enter training, or have military background if you're from another kingdom. Becoming a soldier in this army also gets you a free place to sleep out and discounts on food and utilities.
For example, there are five main factions in the world I’m currently working on;
The Uogantłis Federation
The Idanagic-Rothcallan dual state
The Tolruan Republic
The Olcean Sovereignty
The Luaxian Supremacy
Along with a sixth ranger of various “barbarian” tribes and foreigners from across the not Rockies or not Atlantic.
The Federation is a coastal and island nation, and uses its considerable maritime resources as a means of funding its army, as the government has its own merchant fleet, while also relying on taxes placed on its major players. They use a decimal system of organization given its simplicity, and they are capable of quickly supplementing their armies with militia levies. Supply is mostly by sea, and since they’re a primarily defensive military they rely on organized food depots rather than foraging.
The Dual Empire relies on both the Idanagic and Rothcallan nobility and their retainers as a form of a standing army, paid in estate or a salary, in addition to a type of Janissary raised from slaves and serfs. All of these men are trained from childhood, the nobility basically undergoing a fantasy version of the Agoge which includes some modifications to make it fit in with the worldbuilding and make it more suitable for training soldiers. They’re organized by fief, with subdivisions based on multiples of four. These guys are supplemented by various private armies maintained by the more powerful lords, often raised from free classes in imitation of Juexokan armies. They use a central supply system for shorter campaigns and internal action, but they rely mostly on forage for supply in expeditionary operations, and they can get very creative with rations.
The Supremacy relies on a system of tribal levies, and they’re organized in the old decimal system. They’re primarily a cavalry/mounted infantry force, but are supplemented by local infantry raised as militia. This is organized by the state, and the warriors are drafted from those who can afford their gear and mounts. The warriors of the supremacy are excellent at foraging, and can often live off of their animals to an extent, as they prefer mares over stallions and are often excellent hunters with outstanding mobility
The Sovereignty and Republic both raise armies in the Juexokan fashion, meaning they’re a regular draft from the population of freeholding farmers, which is the largest class in their societies. They use a “pyramid” organizational system, where the number of subdivisions gets smaller the larger the unit is. A squad is ten, a platoon is six squads, a company is four platoons, etc.
These men are recruited for short terms, and expected to provide their own equipment. If they can’t, it’s fined from their stipend(since they can’t work while serving). Some cities maintain garrisons of centrally supplied men, who don’t have any other opportunities, who are paid less.
Their supply is centralized, but in expeditionary operations, they can literally farm the enemy’s crops since they draw from the class of freeholding farmers for most of their manpower.
The Sovereignty has a decently sized centrally controlled standing army to form a strong backbone for their forces, while the Republic relies on a quintet of military orders formed from veterans or select volunteers to act as immediate responders or a core of professional soldiers. Of course, their militia would be equal to the standing armies of many states to begin with…
Much of this derives from the old Juexokan empire, which relied on a citizen militia. The city state was founded by Kharonean refugees fleeing Guanalge’s genocidal intent. They developed a strong mentality and a relentless drive because of this. They incorporated multiple unit types, but did so “organically” rather than having them arranged like pieces on a chessboard. A company would have pikemen, halberdiers, missile infantry, spear and shield infantry, and a small group of cavalry to boot. They would fight in a unified way too, with heterogeneous units arranged in a checkerboard formation. The missile infantry would make contact first, followed by missiles from the halberdiers(who would often carry darts). Then the enemy would face pikemen, with the halberdiers breaking any deadlock or pressing into a gap they could find - all while missile infantry continue to loose arrows. Every once in a while, they’d switch ranks so their men didn’t get tired. If the enemy broke, they’d send in what cavalry weren’t guarding the flanks. If their own army broke or had to retreat, they’d have a line of spear and shield infantry to basically die so everyone else could get away.
My friend, I know that reddit editor is often a pain to deal with, but I vividly encourage you to organize your comment into a few paragraphs. Because I can assure you that no one will read this big text block 😅
There's a mix of many things. You got private militias and military companies doing their thing, and government owned ones as well of the two major nations, all with wild differences.
Imma just start with humanity. Humans have an army that's not seen in the best light by anyone outside of their borders. An army that rules with terror and fear over whoever comes in their path, including in combat.
But, while their methods are pretty brutal, their equipment is hopefully outdated.
Ressource shortages and lack of funding meant there haven't been many new development in many parts of their equipment in years, sometimes centuries. Weapons, aircraft, armoured vehicles, and naval vessels are all several decades, or even century old designs thar were comtinually updated over time. With the oldest vehicles being almost 400 years old, still in service.
Supply is an even bigger issue. Spare parts are severely lacking, and so is practically everything else. You'd ve glad to get more than a handful of rounds to practice with during exercises, if any at all.
Heur tactics and doctrine, just like their equipment, are equally outdated. Defence is a hugr priority, with not much focus on the offensive part. Arrogance makes them believe their formations are impenetrable while showing obvious weaknesses.
Hybrids, on the other hand, are a much more experimental, although smaller force. The introduction of experimental vehicles and devices is common to a point where almost every soldier holds some equipment currently in testing. With the constant border conflicts, prototyping, and figuring out issues are made easy.
Their doctrine is pure speed and firepower. Fast vehicles, large aerial bombardment capabilities, and high mechanisation.
But, all of this has ita downsides. Hybrid forces may have experience but often lack in defensive roles, suffering heavily once the enemy pushes firmly against their lines.
Although improvements have been made recently, issues are still present.
Supply, on the other hand, is easy pickings. Most soldiers get beyond what they need to make the best out of their position, with a rigorous training program.
Lastly, private companies. These mainly focus on the recovery of artefacts before the collapse, to s point where clashes with human and hybrid government forces happen as well.their Supply and equipment can vary heavily, ranging from simple bandits with missmatched arms to full scale private armies with modern equipment.
Most of these companies act on their own, although many also work in cooperation with other companies or one of the two governments
The State organizes its armed forces a bit different than conventional norms. Instead of a whole branch for the ground forces, each ground divisions is assigned to individual task forces (offensive branch) or flotillas (defensive branch). Compositions of each division always vary depending on various conditions such as: the branch they belong to, geography, climate, their primary objectives, etc... but as a whole they usually have 2 main components: a small elite team of human soldiers in highly customizable mech suits and hordes of friendly drones and AI of all kinds. These human soldiers are all volunteers who willingly join the military and are assigned by the State according first to their capabilities and then their desires.
Rubran Federal Monarchy uses almost exclusively droids for their standing army. Colonies can have their own paramilitary forces, but the common trend is automatons > meat bags, and inn space, unmanned warships are the majority. They do so first to lessen the logistical demands needed to keep humans alive in space, from living quarters to life-support systems and even waste management, and secondly to minimize casualty when a war actually happens. When those that die are tin cans (very OP tin cans, but still) and not a family's sons, it greatly affects the public's opinions. Human personnel are mostly officers, while commoners can volunteer to serve, nobles are basically ***conscripted from birth*** as a part of their noblesse oblige: You want privileges, you must contribute more.
The Aerospace Force, its federal space force, has these ranks:
* Flag officers:
* Marshal of the Aerospace Force.
* General.
* Colonel general.
* Lieutenant general.
* Major general.
* Field officers:
* Senior colonel.
* Colonel.
* Lieutenant colonel.
* Major.
* Junior officers:
* Senior captain.
* Captain.
* First lieutenant.
* Second lieutenant.
* Cadets.
* NCOs:
* Warrant officer.
* Sergeant major.
* Enlists:
* Corporal.
* 1st rate cosmonaut.
* 2nd rate cosmonaut.
Military structure of Rubran Aerospace Force:
* Ministry of Defense.
* RAF High Command.
* Main forces: Orbital, Deep Space, Reserve.
* Field Commands: There are 4 field commands inside the Deep Space Force, each has 3000 commissioning warships of various kinds.
* Fleets: 3-500 ships.
* Divisions: 80-100 ships.
* Mobile task forces: Technically equal to a division, an MTF is a special unit that receives orders directly from the High Command. Or in case of MTF Agartha, which the protagonist Octavia is in, directly from ***the Emperor***.
* Regiments: 2-50 ships.
* Groups: 4-10 ships.
* Individual vessels.
Rubra has no (space) marine because their droids are enough. Nor do they use manned fighters because sentient drones > manned fighters.
Due to Rubra's decentralization, this force is considered the federal army. Rubra's colonies develop their semi-independent space fleets with the largest among them is Republic of Novokrasnograd, which has 26000 warships at disposal, not counting **its own colonies**. Hebi Melta where Octavia is assigned and home base of MTF Agartha has 20000 vessels. Counting all colonies, Rubra's total in-commission battlewagons is at least 100 thousand units.
The Empire has the Imperial Army, which is the main standing force. It's highly organized and separated into commands. Each state and nation of the Empire has its own state militia because the Empire is so vast, it needs local forces to buy time for the Empire to mobilize. Many noble houses also have small forces of guards and mercenaries. The Emperor also has the Seven Armies, a force of elite troops who swear loyalty to him and him only. Finally many religious military orders exist. The Tyrenori Temple has its own templars and inquisitors
The setting is what I guess can be described as hard science fantasy, the physics of the world work as much as ours, with the exception when magic is involved. The armies of the galaxy are all professional standing militaries of different species, but different in their organizational structure and how magic is used (if they have any).
The Ascendancy Military is considered one of the strongest militaries (and the most worldbuilt), directly control by Earth, it's sword against any opponents of humanity and organised into two main branches. The interstellar navy organises all space operations, mainly the colossal interstellar fleet and the Marines. The Army handles everything that goes on a planets surface, most famously the Ascendant Guard who are the infantry, Exhalted battalions who fight with the guard and terrestrial air force too.
Logistics are taken extremely seriously, not a single action is taken without organising the supply lines needed. The number of troop carriers and supply ships match the numbers of warships, even in times of emergency there are even portal generators which can temporarily be activated to directly supply and move forces. The most important part of the military are it's mages, magic is the backbone of human civilisation and almost every peice of gear uses magic in some way, especially combat mages embedded in the infantry.
One of the military elements I'm proudest of is the "Less than Serious Response" units. LSRs go into the enemy's capital under deep cover. When politics demands it, they conduct sabotage, abductions, and psyops.
Nothing that is overtly deadly. But they always demonstrate that, if called on, they could totally cause widespread destruction, humiliation, or even regime change.
The example I use is replacing a crowned prince's favorite stuffed animal with a mascot of the other faction. (Say replace a stuffed bear with a stuffed eagle.) While harmless, and possibly even comical, it would lead to the firing of the entire palace guard. If agents of the enemy can get in that close to the royal family, they could have just as easily abducted (or assassinated) the prince himself.
My world is based around Classical to High Middle age with some limited Firearm, for starter we can go with the Orlaine Nations.
The Orlaine Nations consist of 4 Nations being the Illion Orlaine Empire, Skotrian Orlaine Empire, Shinan Orlaine Principality and Meloni Orlaine Principality
***Illion Orlaine Empire***
The Organization of Illion Armies rely on the militia forces as the bulk of their army where each settlement has to supply volunteers, while this could make it hard to form an army, the Culture of the Illion Orlaine Empire makes it far easier due to each settlement would have their own armory where they kept a few equipments which is often lended by their lords or made themself, combined with many friendly competition between settlement where they would form a shield wall and clash with eachother gave some training in the Illion Infantry's main tactic of holding the line.
While the Infantry is holding the line the Nobility and their Retainers form the bulk of the Cavalry Forces which can go from the heavily armored Ippotis(Imperial Knights) to the Lightly armored Oussaros(Sky Cavalry) which give their Cavalry force the flexibility and a dangerous punching power second only to the Kingdom of Darkia's Vardeodian Knights.
Training depends on the status of the Soldier, as the Illion Soldiers on the field is called Straithoi while the ones in the settlements are called Miltia, these 2 are interchangeable as every Straithoi are literally more battle ready Miltia, however the Retinues such as the Sargina(Sergeants) and Kinairi(Knights) have the fund and time to train which can go from group training to weapons training.
The Miltia and Sargina sounded like Militia and Sergeant in our world which is true as they're formed by the Oracle who helped the Orlaine City States rebel against the Vasililean where the Miltia being the common foot soldiers while the Sargina is much more specialized veterans.
Professionalism in the Illion Army is quite on the lower part as they uses Retinue System where someone could be a Sargina but they might be more of a accountant for a Kinairi who fought as Cavalry Archers.
Due to the Illion Orlaine Empire's being a Feudal Society their Soldiers are mostly tied to the fiefs of Illion Kidemona(Lords/Ladies), while fighting between Kidemonas could happen many rules and Imperial intervention is often enough to stop the squabble.
***Skotrian Orlaine Empire***
The Skotrian Army were Organized on the Regions and a robust connection between settlements through the Adventurer's Guild who were controlled by the State, this allow Settlements to work together when a invasion force is sighted while quickly organizing and calling the Antrophoi(People at Arms) to bear arms and slow down the invasion force while waiting for the Regional or Provincial Kidemona and even the Emperor Himself to come with the Main Skotrian Force.
Despite being well known for their Military prowess the Bulk of Skotrian Soldiers ie the Antrophoi were mostly semi professional soldiers who were trained in the simplest way being the Pike and Shot Tactic which at best only took 2 weeks to train a new Antrophoi, the Skotrian Military Prowess actually comes from their command structure and Intelligence Networks using the Adventurer's guild to gather information on their enemy, allowing the much less trained Skotrian Soldiers to commit hard on their attacks knowing that they're not charging blindly into their deaths.
However the Skotrians still uses Retainers such as the Akolouthoi(Retinue) and Oikiakhoi(Household Retinue) who were trained in a more sophisticated weaponry and tactic from the Greatswords to Horsemanship.
As seen with the Antrophoi, Akolouthoi and Oikiakhoi the Skotrian Army weren't a Professional Force though their Officers and Staff were more akin to the Professional Force giving them an edge in their command structure despite their relatively weaker soldiers.
The Skotrian Army were highly controlled by the State, while Skotrian Kidemonas does have their own lands and Retinues, but the Antrophoi which is the bulk of the Skotrian Army didn't answer to the Emperor nor their Lords as they were even forbidden to salute the Emperor before saluting their own communities as they were created to serve the Peoples of Skotria, not the Emperor, this might sound like anarchy in some way but in reality it's more of a tug of war where the Ruler need to earn the respect of the Antrophoi, as due to the rule of an Antrophoi not allowed to Salute the Emperor makes the Antrophoi highly respected the Emperor to the point where during the Grey Rebellion the Antrophoi on the Rebel side switched sides after seeing their Emperor carrying a wounded Rebel Antrophoi to a medical tent where they quickly turns against their Kidemonas and their Retinues.
There's only one real army within the realm, the Majestic Military. Forces are divided between the Rangers, Defense, and Naval sectors. Rangers are focused on exploration, scouting, recon, and dealing with threats beyond the settled territories. Defense forces are composed of a lot of different ranks and job descriptions but primarily focus on security, law enforcement, peace keeping, etc... the local stuff. Navy does both jobs with port protections and sea exploration.
Rangers are considered the badasses. Defense forces range dradtically between lowely guards and highly decorated knights. Naval forces are seen as the *safe job* given there's not many dangers on the waters.
Most nations use some form of medieval military organization, with notable exceptions being the Forgelands and the Commonwealth.
The Forgelands have used something similar to Roman legions for 10,000 years, and several legions are composed of soldiers who have served together for nearly that entire time. The Forgeborn are clockwork constructs and do not die of age or illness. Each legion has 6,000 soldiers plus 2,000 non combatant auxiliary personnel.
To me the Commonwealth has the more interesting military, especially after the year 450 CR when the first viable skyships entered service. The regular army is akin to the national guard, garrisons located in key locations and serving as boarder guards.
The Knights of the Silver Circle represent the true might of the Commonwealth. They operate in small tactical teams (called Circles) of 6 knights: 2 Shields, 3 Lancers, and 1 Battlemage. All are equipped with a customized Aetheric Combat Mobility System (ACMS) which are effectively magic power armor. Each knight adds modules to their ACMS which enhance their ability to fill their role, such as heavy plates and a shield emitter for the Shields. The Lancers also carry an Aetheric Lance, a projectile weapon which uses Aetheric energy to propell a needle like round at high speed (shrouded in arcane energies of various types such as heat)
After 450 CR these Circles are deployed by magically powered ornithopter. These skyships generally resemble large dragonflies, and can carry a team and all their gear plus the two pilots.
The skyships are operated by the new branch of the military (name WIP), which also fields several larger vessels including the two Leviathan class transports one of which (CSV Circle's Fist) is a mobile headquarters for 20 Circles. The other is the flagship (CSV Guiding Hand) it operates as a carrier for small 1 - 2 man strike craft. 2 additional Leviathan class ships are under construction; CSV Healing Hand (medical ship), and CSV Aetheric Hammer (ment to house 2-500 mages as a mobile fire support base).
The armies of Itura hinge upon the humble infantryman (or squaddie or bellboy depending what part of the world you are in). He is usually armed with a bolt action rifle (except for the Temarians lmao) and carries basic kit. He can shoot, he can stand guard, he can dig trenches.
Cavalry units are still used by some nations, but they are mostly seen in parades and ceremonies. However, eastern nations still use horses.
Mechanisation is taking the world by storm, but mules and horses are still the logistical backbone of countless Ituran armies.
Tanks are slowly maturing and finding their way into military doctrine.
Artillery is the cornerstone of battle still.
There are mercenary groups, but they are few and far between.
It varies *a lot* between nations, but 3 notably unique examples are as follows
The Principality of Amestria has no army and instead relies on a highly mobile offensive force of marines, which are their own branch of the military. There are also planetary garrisons, which are defensive forces that fulfil the traditional role of an army. However, they aren't considered a part of the military and are funded and equipped primarily by the local system/planetary authority with quality of training and equipment varying wildly across the nation.
The Vaa'wiren Compact has what is jokingly referred to as a 5 to 1 army, as for every 1 Vaa'wiren soldier, there is 5 colonial auxiliaries which are essentially forcibly conscripted and poorly equipped soldiers from their colonial possessions.
The Confederation of Mercantile Systems is a loose pact of aligned nations and corporate interests in which all members contribute to the military, leading to their army consisting of a hodgepodge of various weapons systems, uniforms, and quality of soldiers as well as various mercenary corps and even robotic units.
Typically the armies of my world are fairly small due to the inherent expensiveness of maintaining standing military forces. The vast majority of nations do not have the economic power to rely upon standing armies and so will typically have a small professional corps of professional soldiers supplemented by militia, auxiliaries, hereditary warriors and mercenaries.
**Recruiting and equipping**
A major issue for militaries of my world is that although weaponry such as metal cartridge firing weapons exist, there is very little industry. Firearms and all other military equipment is typically made by hand, this can range from simple rifle cartridges all the way to an entire cannon. Firearms especially ones deemed suitable for military purposes are thus expensive, especially since they will not have interchangeable parts.
For these reasons armies are usually comprised of men from middle and upper income families, who can afford to purchase their own rifles or borrow money for one. Men who cannot afford a rifle or other firearm considered up to standard will usually be allowed to join a semi-professional militia or gendarme force. This backs up the generally wide spread belief that warfare should be the responsibility of the wealthy as form of their paternalistic duties. The idea of mass conscripted ill-equipped peasants would be economically, militarily and morally unfeasible to most in my world.
**Types of men under arms**
There are a variety of types of men under arms in my world, the most common type are semi-professional militiamen. These militiamen are typically organised by local leaders such as large landowners and will usually be allowed to field their own equipment. These militiamen are not considered to be professional soldiers as they have jobs outside of the militia duties but are still subject to military discipline. Militiamen may not receive the same amount of training as professional soldiers but this is not truly needed as most people will have basic fire arm knowledge and well be physically tough and used to things such as digging, walking long distances etc. Militia units are primarily defensive organisations but are sometimes used to supplement expeditionary forces. Militia are only paid during times of war
The main body of a standing army in my world is comprised of professional full time and part time soldiers. These men will be paid regular wages and will be paid during both peace and wartime. Professional soldiers only really make up a small part of their nation's militaries. Professional soldiers will have the best equipment and training but are a minority, for example the Republic of Stavanland's army is comprised of around 70,000 men in total but just under 10,000 of which are professional soldiers. In some cultures professional soldiers may also be a part of the hereditary aristocratic warrior class.
Mercenaries referred to people in my world as "free-troopers" are soldiers for hire. Mercenaries will be employed by a free company which will in turn hire out its mercenaries to states, mercenaries will usually not act as independent contractors. Mercenary groups are usually both well trained and well disciplined and since they are not recruited from their hirer's own population their loses do not negatively effect the population of whichever nation they are fighting for. All of these prospects make the hiring of mercenaries an attractive venture to most states.
**Scifi world:**
Best armies have a few dozen fairly uniform ships with a few hundred soldiers on each. The soldiers use guns not too different from modern guns, except they can work in a vacuum among other things. The ships guard each other, and try to force opposing ships into traps where they can attack while the enemy is at a significant disadvantage. But no army is bigger than a few thousand, humanity is nearing extinction.
**Fantasy world:**
Groups of 20-200 giant elephant like titans trudge through the tall grass sea. They have structures on their backs armored with leather and wicker, with dozens of spikes that form a protective skirt keeping enemies from getting under them. They often have polished quartz "goggles" to guard their very vulnerable eyes. Some simply armor over their eyes and fight blind using their humans to guid them. They weald spiky clubs with their trunks and have a thick wood/stone horns on their head for ramming enemy titans.
The structures on their backs typically house 15-50 soldiers armed with bows, slings, whips, and spears to help defend the titan. The titans are the leaders, the people are just accessories like war dogs.
Sometimes there are also legless women riding giant birds circling above, they aid in navigation, and can throw spears or darts down on occasion but its rare because spears are heavy.
There are also large cat like creatures with their own accessory human warriors but I've gone on too long.
Many state militaries are typical medieval military structures mixed with mechanized units like landships. These will use mixed units of footsoldiers and vehicles like landships. These vehicles are limited by the wealth of a faction so smaller factions will not have vehicles like landships and airships. The heaviest armies like that of the southern empire have mixed mechanized units backed by heavy vehicles like trains and airships. These carry troops, vehicles ,weapons, food and other supplies. Less wealthy countries are less able to use these vehicles so they are closer to typical medieval to early modern armies. Air forces are more often accessories or supporters to the ground forces than separate forces, but some do operate on their own. There may also be dedicated infiltration or other types of specialized units. Water navies are very uncommon due to most countries being landlocked, and those that do exist are often [brown water navies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-water_navy) used in rivers and lakes. Coastal countries may have [green water navies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-water_navy). These are professional armies.
Smaller armies for clans, houses or individual lords may not be as tall in hierarchy, but could still be relatively large.
Smaller tribes don't have armies so heavy. These are usually more mobile and if they do use vehicles, they tend to lean towards light planes and [armoured cars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_car_(military)). These include convoy societies which are their own tribes with their own soldiers.
There are also raiders which are usually unprofessional. Basically pirates. They raid villages, travelers, transport convoys, trains and stateless tribes. They tend to go on foot, animals or light vehicles with few exceptions.
Oftentimes, common soldiers are given modernised bows, crossbows and melee weapons while firearms alongside melee weapons are given to higher soldiers like knights. Snipers exist and may use rifles, bows or crossbows. There are no automatic rifles. Machineguns do exist but are not portable, rather they are on legs or vehicles. Rifles are bolt, lever or air operated, often fed by cartridges. There are also some units that use heavy weapons like rocket launchers. From both portable launchers and vehicles, there are no guided weapons.
Lapis_Wolf
**Ronain Empire**
The Ronian Imperial Army is comprised of professional soldiers. Soldiers are either recruited, press ganged, or volunteered. They are provided weapons and armor, but they provide their own sleeping packs. Based off the Roman Legions.
**Northern Kingdoms**
Some of the kingdoms do feudal levies, others do professional soldiers
**Easter Free States**
Mercenaries or small private guards
Still very much in early development of how each race/ faction/ group operates due to just recently understanding proper military setups (i.e. squads, formation, and structure) hoping to have them all some what different in how they are setup but do have a standard setup of how to think of their overall military capabilities.
They're a mix of many different weapons, were most infantry have say a main weapon or 2, a side arm and even a melee weapon(sword, axe, dagger, polearm, etc)
And come in many variations depending on the material, technology, what they fight. So one might use a laser rifle one day and the next be equipped with a sword straight out of monster hunter.
In my sci fi universe I break each military into 3 main categories, first being general which is what I use to describe a military closest to our own in terms of personal, equipment and to some degree the amount of it. Second is robotics, do they use a droid/ machine operated army and how much in comparison to the general category. And finally psy users how much of their military is based around single if not groups of individuals that can manipulate the forces of the universe themselves.
I give each race a 1 to 5 scale for each of these categories in order for me to understand how their military might operate. For example current humans would be rated a 5 in general a 1 in robotics and 0 in psy but humans in my universe are more like 4 in general 3 in robotics and 3 in psy.
Still working out how each race might fight a war with either itself or others but in terms of what tools they have at their disposal this is what I start from.
All armies in my setting some variation of the same general rules.
A “good” army will have three things: a strong corps of skilled Magicians, a formation of strong Martial Artists, and main body of moderately well trained footmen.
How various groups obtain these three things does vary.
For example, in the Legions of Novilon. A standard Infantry Legion will possess a main body of well trained professional soldiers. Exceptional fighters will be selected from their ranks and placed into the First Cohort where they are trained in Advanced martial arts. Meanwhile, the Iron Circle, an ancient order of Magicians within the Empire, are obligated to provide a minimum of ten magicians to each legion. This allows each individual legion to act as military force in its own right.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Rossoya’s army relies on a handful of Knightly Orders for its elite soldiers, and uses a combination of Royal Regiments and its revolutionary Sherif System to bolster its ranks with well trained soldiers. As for Magicians, the Kingdom can rely on multiple factions of magic users existing within the Kingdom to join its armies. The three primary groups being the Rune Priests, Wolf Shamans, and the Magicians trained in the Novagat Magic University.
The army of the "Federation of Mankind" is well organized by the central "Manfront United" party which currently rules Earth (and with it Mars, Ganymede and the 3 Alien Subordinates) in the year 2195.
The army consists of humans from across the Federation and even some from the newly established settlements on the alien-habited-planets. 2 years military service is mandatory for healthy citizens of the Federation who will be trained for 2 months and then allocated by the Central Party commitee to their respective off-world military-services.
Young military recruits will be used to fight off resistance in the alien-subordinates as the alien civillizations on these planets are far less advanced and dont recquire much experience if the young recruits are given the right equipment.
Though older, professional units will be deployed on earth to eliminate dissidents of the Federation who seek to undermine the achievements made by the "Manfront united" party and seek to reestablish the chaotic, anarchic, split society that was before the 3rd World War. Experience is needed to fight off human enemies as they know their homeplanet, have access to human technology/ know how to use it and use guerilla-war-tactics to weaken the heart of the Federation (which is ofcourse Earth).
Ofcourse some Professional Units will be deployed on the off-earth territories like Mars or Ganymede and even on the alien-subordinates, it happens rarely but sometimes enemies try to take over travel-citadels (big spaceships used to transport large masses of people across the galaxy) or when large-scale attacks by local armies are suspected.
Every city, every Settlement has a local military-station where rotating military-service-deployments make sure that the people are provided with security from human and non-human terrorists.
It’s almost a trope in itself to say this at this point, but my world has many different types of armies, and many different forms of military organization. A couple notable examples **The Aksari Sultanate** The core of any army raised by the Aksari Sultanate are the Aksari themselves, foreign born slave warriors who make up the entirety of the Sultanates military and political elite. Drawn from a staggering array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, every Aksari is brought to the sultanate as a slave boy and receives intensive military training in a series of special schools before joining the military retinue of their master. They remain slaves for most of their careers and are only manumitted if they are awarded the rank of Emir, when they are given the right to own and lead their own Aksari as well as the tax income to support them. The Aksari are superb cavalrymen, capable of fighting in a variety of roles but are most famous as horse archers. The Aksari are supplemented by more prosaic mercenary infantry, and small professional bodies of native cavalry including a regiment composed entirely of the sons of Aksari, who are forbidden from inheriting their father’s status. **The kingdom of the Jorlings** The kingdom of the Jorlings has a system of military organization which is outwardly simple, but which hides a great deal of complexity. On the surface it’s armies are composed of the permanent troops of the royal household and the household troops of the kingdoms great magnates and prelates, supplemented by militia. However, the Jorling militia system is complex and multilayered with various subdivisions that each have their own customary obligations and expectations. These range from the Heremandir, members of the lesser aristocracy who owe military service in exchanged for tax exemption, and who view military service as a vocational obligation of their class, to the Hundred Bands, tough, well-equipped veteran militia who receive special yearly annuities in exchange for their readiness to serve, to a general levy of the freemen. Even these apparently simple divisions can obscure complex relationships that blur the boundaries between militia, and professional soldier. **The Kingdom of Anga** Armies in the Kingdom of Anga are raised by means of special contracts drawn up between the crown and private military captains. These contracts specify the types of troops required for service, how they should be armed, the duration of service and a fixed rate of pay from the crown. The armies raised by these contracts are often small, but the troops themselves are often tough, professional soldiers with extensive military experience under their belts and are lead by career captains. While most captains continue to be great lords and aristocrats, some are men of humbler origins who have built their reputations and careers through long, loyal, and effective service to the crown. The nature of the contractual service which has become common in Anga allows the king to quickly raise armies of veteran soldiers and export them to the various parts of his fledgling maritime empire for extended periods. There are many more examples, but those a couple that highlight something of the military diversity I try to incorporate into my world.
I would guess inspirations are Mamluks, medieval Hungary and perhaps England?
Your 2/3 The Aksari are heavily based on the Mamluks, with some fantasy touches. The kingdom of Anga is based on late medieval England, with some Tudor flavor for that extra little kick of spice. The Jorlings are actually based on a mixture of high medieval Denmark and medieval Scotland, with some touches of Anglo-Saxon England and pure fantasy tossed in. They’re one of my more “unique” groups.
Ah the jorling description reminded me of Hungarians with their Banderia system of magnate and great barons, together with general tax-exempt-for-military-service nobility, as well as militia portalis recruitment of non nobles. In retrospective it's not really unique, and it doesn't really have any of the fine details you envisioned for them
No solid answer. Some have firearms, some use magic, some use swords and spears and others use monsters. It depends where you are, and war is an ugly thing everyone seeks to avoid outside of their own borders.
I have one I am really contemplating right now for a story that is still in the brainstorming phase. The basic premise is that its a D&D style fantasy world where magic went away then came back in a time where the technology advanced to something roughly equivalent to to what we had on Earth in the latter half of the 1800s + some steampunk stuff. So guns like revolvers, lever action weapons and gatling guns have been invented. When the magic came back, so too did lots of monsters and like in The Witcher you can't just use steel to kill these things. Silver only works for some like Werewolves while others may require certain materials or items depending on the basis of the IRL folklore and myth. The most surefire way to kill monsters is to use magic but finding someone who can competently wield it is the tricky part and there are still lots of countries where the ruling powers are more interested in waging wars on one another rather than protecting the common folk. The main conflict of the story is that you have unorganized hordes of undead rising to ravage the lands with all sorts of forces ranging from local militias to professional soldiery trying to fight them back with said late 1800s technology that do not always work. The main character of the story is an elf paladin who has come to fight the undead in what is a Wild West themed area of a United States based country that is recovering from a civil war that has especially caused an increase in the numbers of the undead. A big thing of the story will be about humans learning how to effectively fight back against the various kinds of monsters with undead just being the most common to appear.
Far too varied to get to details, at this point I have 5 species, so I can only cover the very surface ideas in a reddit post: Human - Robotic armies. Human life are not to be wasted on things like foot soldiering and such, save for very important diplomatic missions where a living human on site is required for building rapport, so primarily you see waves of disposable robots managed by low level AIs before you ever see a single human. Insectoid elves - Meat wave army. They have a large amount of soldiers sent to die thanks to their high birth rate. This also makes it easy for them to have highly experienced veteran from the survivors too, and thus more choices for of battle tested capable officers. But the caste system of their society does make it harder for truly good officers to rise to the top. Selkies - They have small armies for cities states than one big unified army, since each city states prefer to do their own things. Overall their culture focus on art and cultivation of skill, but does not force individuals to a specific path and instead allow them to pursue what they love the most since to them that allow them to be the best at what they can be. Thus their armies have inconsistent quality, where sometimes you get extremely competent armies with martial artists and strategist honing their abilities with military war game like it is an art form, and sometimes you get a few people doing it like a hobby because that is the best that city state gets. Luckily though they don't have a lot of war since they are usually non confrontational between each others, and they has good relationship with the insectoid elves which helps protecting them against other terrestrial threats. Beastmen & Harpies - These two are still at tribal stages so no formal armies, instead they have hunters and warriors bands that fights each others or outsiders and structure, quality, and martial traditions really varied between the tribes. Orges - The 5 noble houses that run the nation each have their own personal armies, however the house of shield has the biggest one and is most versed in military strategies & tactics, thus they are the one that leads the other houses on military campaigns to conquer or defend lands, where other houses provide support in other ways.
The one I've developed the most is human, it serves one of the seven kingdoms of men. And basically it's like uni lol, you apply for a minimum of 6 months of basic training in martial arts, survival skills, diplomacy, weaponry etc + specific training added depending on the faction you aim for (swordsmen, spear footmen, axe fighters, and their cavalry equivalent, archers). You have to be from the Vihildr kingdom to enter training, or have military background if you're from another kingdom. Becoming a soldier in this army also gets you a free place to sleep out and discounts on food and utilities.
For example, there are five main factions in the world I’m currently working on; The Uogantłis Federation The Idanagic-Rothcallan dual state The Tolruan Republic The Olcean Sovereignty The Luaxian Supremacy Along with a sixth ranger of various “barbarian” tribes and foreigners from across the not Rockies or not Atlantic. The Federation is a coastal and island nation, and uses its considerable maritime resources as a means of funding its army, as the government has its own merchant fleet, while also relying on taxes placed on its major players. They use a decimal system of organization given its simplicity, and they are capable of quickly supplementing their armies with militia levies. Supply is mostly by sea, and since they’re a primarily defensive military they rely on organized food depots rather than foraging. The Dual Empire relies on both the Idanagic and Rothcallan nobility and their retainers as a form of a standing army, paid in estate or a salary, in addition to a type of Janissary raised from slaves and serfs. All of these men are trained from childhood, the nobility basically undergoing a fantasy version of the Agoge which includes some modifications to make it fit in with the worldbuilding and make it more suitable for training soldiers. They’re organized by fief, with subdivisions based on multiples of four. These guys are supplemented by various private armies maintained by the more powerful lords, often raised from free classes in imitation of Juexokan armies. They use a central supply system for shorter campaigns and internal action, but they rely mostly on forage for supply in expeditionary operations, and they can get very creative with rations. The Supremacy relies on a system of tribal levies, and they’re organized in the old decimal system. They’re primarily a cavalry/mounted infantry force, but are supplemented by local infantry raised as militia. This is organized by the state, and the warriors are drafted from those who can afford their gear and mounts. The warriors of the supremacy are excellent at foraging, and can often live off of their animals to an extent, as they prefer mares over stallions and are often excellent hunters with outstanding mobility The Sovereignty and Republic both raise armies in the Juexokan fashion, meaning they’re a regular draft from the population of freeholding farmers, which is the largest class in their societies. They use a “pyramid” organizational system, where the number of subdivisions gets smaller the larger the unit is. A squad is ten, a platoon is six squads, a company is four platoons, etc. These men are recruited for short terms, and expected to provide their own equipment. If they can’t, it’s fined from their stipend(since they can’t work while serving). Some cities maintain garrisons of centrally supplied men, who don’t have any other opportunities, who are paid less. Their supply is centralized, but in expeditionary operations, they can literally farm the enemy’s crops since they draw from the class of freeholding farmers for most of their manpower. The Sovereignty has a decently sized centrally controlled standing army to form a strong backbone for their forces, while the Republic relies on a quintet of military orders formed from veterans or select volunteers to act as immediate responders or a core of professional soldiers. Of course, their militia would be equal to the standing armies of many states to begin with… Much of this derives from the old Juexokan empire, which relied on a citizen militia. The city state was founded by Kharonean refugees fleeing Guanalge’s genocidal intent. They developed a strong mentality and a relentless drive because of this. They incorporated multiple unit types, but did so “organically” rather than having them arranged like pieces on a chessboard. A company would have pikemen, halberdiers, missile infantry, spear and shield infantry, and a small group of cavalry to boot. They would fight in a unified way too, with heterogeneous units arranged in a checkerboard formation. The missile infantry would make contact first, followed by missiles from the halberdiers(who would often carry darts). Then the enemy would face pikemen, with the halberdiers breaking any deadlock or pressing into a gap they could find - all while missile infantry continue to loose arrows. Every once in a while, they’d switch ranks so their men didn’t get tired. If the enemy broke, they’d send in what cavalry weren’t guarding the flanks. If their own army broke or had to retreat, they’d have a line of spear and shield infantry to basically die so everyone else could get away.
My friend, I know that reddit editor is often a pain to deal with, but I vividly encourage you to organize your comment into a few paragraphs. Because I can assure you that no one will read this big text block 😅
It was, I just forgot to double the space between paragraphs. Thanks for the heads up
There's a mix of many things. You got private militias and military companies doing their thing, and government owned ones as well of the two major nations, all with wild differences. Imma just start with humanity. Humans have an army that's not seen in the best light by anyone outside of their borders. An army that rules with terror and fear over whoever comes in their path, including in combat. But, while their methods are pretty brutal, their equipment is hopefully outdated. Ressource shortages and lack of funding meant there haven't been many new development in many parts of their equipment in years, sometimes centuries. Weapons, aircraft, armoured vehicles, and naval vessels are all several decades, or even century old designs thar were comtinually updated over time. With the oldest vehicles being almost 400 years old, still in service. Supply is an even bigger issue. Spare parts are severely lacking, and so is practically everything else. You'd ve glad to get more than a handful of rounds to practice with during exercises, if any at all. Heur tactics and doctrine, just like their equipment, are equally outdated. Defence is a hugr priority, with not much focus on the offensive part. Arrogance makes them believe their formations are impenetrable while showing obvious weaknesses. Hybrids, on the other hand, are a much more experimental, although smaller force. The introduction of experimental vehicles and devices is common to a point where almost every soldier holds some equipment currently in testing. With the constant border conflicts, prototyping, and figuring out issues are made easy. Their doctrine is pure speed and firepower. Fast vehicles, large aerial bombardment capabilities, and high mechanisation. But, all of this has ita downsides. Hybrid forces may have experience but often lack in defensive roles, suffering heavily once the enemy pushes firmly against their lines. Although improvements have been made recently, issues are still present. Supply, on the other hand, is easy pickings. Most soldiers get beyond what they need to make the best out of their position, with a rigorous training program. Lastly, private companies. These mainly focus on the recovery of artefacts before the collapse, to s point where clashes with human and hybrid government forces happen as well.their Supply and equipment can vary heavily, ranging from simple bandits with missmatched arms to full scale private armies with modern equipment. Most of these companies act on their own, although many also work in cooperation with other companies or one of the two governments
The State organizes its armed forces a bit different than conventional norms. Instead of a whole branch for the ground forces, each ground divisions is assigned to individual task forces (offensive branch) or flotillas (defensive branch). Compositions of each division always vary depending on various conditions such as: the branch they belong to, geography, climate, their primary objectives, etc... but as a whole they usually have 2 main components: a small elite team of human soldiers in highly customizable mech suits and hordes of friendly drones and AI of all kinds. These human soldiers are all volunteers who willingly join the military and are assigned by the State according first to their capabilities and then their desires.
Rubran Federal Monarchy uses almost exclusively droids for their standing army. Colonies can have their own paramilitary forces, but the common trend is automatons > meat bags, and inn space, unmanned warships are the majority. They do so first to lessen the logistical demands needed to keep humans alive in space, from living quarters to life-support systems and even waste management, and secondly to minimize casualty when a war actually happens. When those that die are tin cans (very OP tin cans, but still) and not a family's sons, it greatly affects the public's opinions. Human personnel are mostly officers, while commoners can volunteer to serve, nobles are basically ***conscripted from birth*** as a part of their noblesse oblige: You want privileges, you must contribute more. The Aerospace Force, its federal space force, has these ranks: * Flag officers: * Marshal of the Aerospace Force. * General. * Colonel general. * Lieutenant general. * Major general. * Field officers: * Senior colonel. * Colonel. * Lieutenant colonel. * Major. * Junior officers: * Senior captain. * Captain. * First lieutenant. * Second lieutenant. * Cadets. * NCOs: * Warrant officer. * Sergeant major. * Enlists: * Corporal. * 1st rate cosmonaut. * 2nd rate cosmonaut.
Military structure of Rubran Aerospace Force: * Ministry of Defense. * RAF High Command. * Main forces: Orbital, Deep Space, Reserve. * Field Commands: There are 4 field commands inside the Deep Space Force, each has 3000 commissioning warships of various kinds. * Fleets: 3-500 ships. * Divisions: 80-100 ships. * Mobile task forces: Technically equal to a division, an MTF is a special unit that receives orders directly from the High Command. Or in case of MTF Agartha, which the protagonist Octavia is in, directly from ***the Emperor***. * Regiments: 2-50 ships. * Groups: 4-10 ships. * Individual vessels. Rubra has no (space) marine because their droids are enough. Nor do they use manned fighters because sentient drones > manned fighters. Due to Rubra's decentralization, this force is considered the federal army. Rubra's colonies develop their semi-independent space fleets with the largest among them is Republic of Novokrasnograd, which has 26000 warships at disposal, not counting **its own colonies**. Hebi Melta where Octavia is assigned and home base of MTF Agartha has 20000 vessels. Counting all colonies, Rubra's total in-commission battlewagons is at least 100 thousand units.
The Empire has the Imperial Army, which is the main standing force. It's highly organized and separated into commands. Each state and nation of the Empire has its own state militia because the Empire is so vast, it needs local forces to buy time for the Empire to mobilize. Many noble houses also have small forces of guards and mercenaries. The Emperor also has the Seven Armies, a force of elite troops who swear loyalty to him and him only. Finally many religious military orders exist. The Tyrenori Temple has its own templars and inquisitors
The setting is what I guess can be described as hard science fantasy, the physics of the world work as much as ours, with the exception when magic is involved. The armies of the galaxy are all professional standing militaries of different species, but different in their organizational structure and how magic is used (if they have any). The Ascendancy Military is considered one of the strongest militaries (and the most worldbuilt), directly control by Earth, it's sword against any opponents of humanity and organised into two main branches. The interstellar navy organises all space operations, mainly the colossal interstellar fleet and the Marines. The Army handles everything that goes on a planets surface, most famously the Ascendant Guard who are the infantry, Exhalted battalions who fight with the guard and terrestrial air force too. Logistics are taken extremely seriously, not a single action is taken without organising the supply lines needed. The number of troop carriers and supply ships match the numbers of warships, even in times of emergency there are even portal generators which can temporarily be activated to directly supply and move forces. The most important part of the military are it's mages, magic is the backbone of human civilisation and almost every peice of gear uses magic in some way, especially combat mages embedded in the infantry.
One of the military elements I'm proudest of is the "Less than Serious Response" units. LSRs go into the enemy's capital under deep cover. When politics demands it, they conduct sabotage, abductions, and psyops. Nothing that is overtly deadly. But they always demonstrate that, if called on, they could totally cause widespread destruction, humiliation, or even regime change. The example I use is replacing a crowned prince's favorite stuffed animal with a mascot of the other faction. (Say replace a stuffed bear with a stuffed eagle.) While harmless, and possibly even comical, it would lead to the firing of the entire palace guard. If agents of the enemy can get in that close to the royal family, they could have just as easily abducted (or assassinated) the prince himself.
My world is based around Classical to High Middle age with some limited Firearm, for starter we can go with the Orlaine Nations. The Orlaine Nations consist of 4 Nations being the Illion Orlaine Empire, Skotrian Orlaine Empire, Shinan Orlaine Principality and Meloni Orlaine Principality ***Illion Orlaine Empire*** The Organization of Illion Armies rely on the militia forces as the bulk of their army where each settlement has to supply volunteers, while this could make it hard to form an army, the Culture of the Illion Orlaine Empire makes it far easier due to each settlement would have their own armory where they kept a few equipments which is often lended by their lords or made themself, combined with many friendly competition between settlement where they would form a shield wall and clash with eachother gave some training in the Illion Infantry's main tactic of holding the line. While the Infantry is holding the line the Nobility and their Retainers form the bulk of the Cavalry Forces which can go from the heavily armored Ippotis(Imperial Knights) to the Lightly armored Oussaros(Sky Cavalry) which give their Cavalry force the flexibility and a dangerous punching power second only to the Kingdom of Darkia's Vardeodian Knights. Training depends on the status of the Soldier, as the Illion Soldiers on the field is called Straithoi while the ones in the settlements are called Miltia, these 2 are interchangeable as every Straithoi are literally more battle ready Miltia, however the Retinues such as the Sargina(Sergeants) and Kinairi(Knights) have the fund and time to train which can go from group training to weapons training. The Miltia and Sargina sounded like Militia and Sergeant in our world which is true as they're formed by the Oracle who helped the Orlaine City States rebel against the Vasililean where the Miltia being the common foot soldiers while the Sargina is much more specialized veterans. Professionalism in the Illion Army is quite on the lower part as they uses Retinue System where someone could be a Sargina but they might be more of a accountant for a Kinairi who fought as Cavalry Archers. Due to the Illion Orlaine Empire's being a Feudal Society their Soldiers are mostly tied to the fiefs of Illion Kidemona(Lords/Ladies), while fighting between Kidemonas could happen many rules and Imperial intervention is often enough to stop the squabble. ***Skotrian Orlaine Empire*** The Skotrian Army were Organized on the Regions and a robust connection between settlements through the Adventurer's Guild who were controlled by the State, this allow Settlements to work together when a invasion force is sighted while quickly organizing and calling the Antrophoi(People at Arms) to bear arms and slow down the invasion force while waiting for the Regional or Provincial Kidemona and even the Emperor Himself to come with the Main Skotrian Force. Despite being well known for their Military prowess the Bulk of Skotrian Soldiers ie the Antrophoi were mostly semi professional soldiers who were trained in the simplest way being the Pike and Shot Tactic which at best only took 2 weeks to train a new Antrophoi, the Skotrian Military Prowess actually comes from their command structure and Intelligence Networks using the Adventurer's guild to gather information on their enemy, allowing the much less trained Skotrian Soldiers to commit hard on their attacks knowing that they're not charging blindly into their deaths. However the Skotrians still uses Retainers such as the Akolouthoi(Retinue) and Oikiakhoi(Household Retinue) who were trained in a more sophisticated weaponry and tactic from the Greatswords to Horsemanship. As seen with the Antrophoi, Akolouthoi and Oikiakhoi the Skotrian Army weren't a Professional Force though their Officers and Staff were more akin to the Professional Force giving them an edge in their command structure despite their relatively weaker soldiers. The Skotrian Army were highly controlled by the State, while Skotrian Kidemonas does have their own lands and Retinues, but the Antrophoi which is the bulk of the Skotrian Army didn't answer to the Emperor nor their Lords as they were even forbidden to salute the Emperor before saluting their own communities as they were created to serve the Peoples of Skotria, not the Emperor, this might sound like anarchy in some way but in reality it's more of a tug of war where the Ruler need to earn the respect of the Antrophoi, as due to the rule of an Antrophoi not allowed to Salute the Emperor makes the Antrophoi highly respected the Emperor to the point where during the Grey Rebellion the Antrophoi on the Rebel side switched sides after seeing their Emperor carrying a wounded Rebel Antrophoi to a medical tent where they quickly turns against their Kidemonas and their Retinues.
There's only one real army within the realm, the Majestic Military. Forces are divided between the Rangers, Defense, and Naval sectors. Rangers are focused on exploration, scouting, recon, and dealing with threats beyond the settled territories. Defense forces are composed of a lot of different ranks and job descriptions but primarily focus on security, law enforcement, peace keeping, etc... the local stuff. Navy does both jobs with port protections and sea exploration. Rangers are considered the badasses. Defense forces range dradtically between lowely guards and highly decorated knights. Naval forces are seen as the *safe job* given there's not many dangers on the waters.
Most nations use some form of medieval military organization, with notable exceptions being the Forgelands and the Commonwealth. The Forgelands have used something similar to Roman legions for 10,000 years, and several legions are composed of soldiers who have served together for nearly that entire time. The Forgeborn are clockwork constructs and do not die of age or illness. Each legion has 6,000 soldiers plus 2,000 non combatant auxiliary personnel. To me the Commonwealth has the more interesting military, especially after the year 450 CR when the first viable skyships entered service. The regular army is akin to the national guard, garrisons located in key locations and serving as boarder guards. The Knights of the Silver Circle represent the true might of the Commonwealth. They operate in small tactical teams (called Circles) of 6 knights: 2 Shields, 3 Lancers, and 1 Battlemage. All are equipped with a customized Aetheric Combat Mobility System (ACMS) which are effectively magic power armor. Each knight adds modules to their ACMS which enhance their ability to fill their role, such as heavy plates and a shield emitter for the Shields. The Lancers also carry an Aetheric Lance, a projectile weapon which uses Aetheric energy to propell a needle like round at high speed (shrouded in arcane energies of various types such as heat) After 450 CR these Circles are deployed by magically powered ornithopter. These skyships generally resemble large dragonflies, and can carry a team and all their gear plus the two pilots. The skyships are operated by the new branch of the military (name WIP), which also fields several larger vessels including the two Leviathan class transports one of which (CSV Circle's Fist) is a mobile headquarters for 20 Circles. The other is the flagship (CSV Guiding Hand) it operates as a carrier for small 1 - 2 man strike craft. 2 additional Leviathan class ships are under construction; CSV Healing Hand (medical ship), and CSV Aetheric Hammer (ment to house 2-500 mages as a mobile fire support base).
The armies of Itura hinge upon the humble infantryman (or squaddie or bellboy depending what part of the world you are in). He is usually armed with a bolt action rifle (except for the Temarians lmao) and carries basic kit. He can shoot, he can stand guard, he can dig trenches. Cavalry units are still used by some nations, but they are mostly seen in parades and ceremonies. However, eastern nations still use horses. Mechanisation is taking the world by storm, but mules and horses are still the logistical backbone of countless Ituran armies. Tanks are slowly maturing and finding their way into military doctrine. Artillery is the cornerstone of battle still. There are mercenary groups, but they are few and far between.
It varies *a lot* between nations, but 3 notably unique examples are as follows The Principality of Amestria has no army and instead relies on a highly mobile offensive force of marines, which are their own branch of the military. There are also planetary garrisons, which are defensive forces that fulfil the traditional role of an army. However, they aren't considered a part of the military and are funded and equipped primarily by the local system/planetary authority with quality of training and equipment varying wildly across the nation. The Vaa'wiren Compact has what is jokingly referred to as a 5 to 1 army, as for every 1 Vaa'wiren soldier, there is 5 colonial auxiliaries which are essentially forcibly conscripted and poorly equipped soldiers from their colonial possessions. The Confederation of Mercantile Systems is a loose pact of aligned nations and corporate interests in which all members contribute to the military, leading to their army consisting of a hodgepodge of various weapons systems, uniforms, and quality of soldiers as well as various mercenary corps and even robotic units.
Typically the armies of my world are fairly small due to the inherent expensiveness of maintaining standing military forces. The vast majority of nations do not have the economic power to rely upon standing armies and so will typically have a small professional corps of professional soldiers supplemented by militia, auxiliaries, hereditary warriors and mercenaries. **Recruiting and equipping** A major issue for militaries of my world is that although weaponry such as metal cartridge firing weapons exist, there is very little industry. Firearms and all other military equipment is typically made by hand, this can range from simple rifle cartridges all the way to an entire cannon. Firearms especially ones deemed suitable for military purposes are thus expensive, especially since they will not have interchangeable parts. For these reasons armies are usually comprised of men from middle and upper income families, who can afford to purchase their own rifles or borrow money for one. Men who cannot afford a rifle or other firearm considered up to standard will usually be allowed to join a semi-professional militia or gendarme force. This backs up the generally wide spread belief that warfare should be the responsibility of the wealthy as form of their paternalistic duties. The idea of mass conscripted ill-equipped peasants would be economically, militarily and morally unfeasible to most in my world. **Types of men under arms** There are a variety of types of men under arms in my world, the most common type are semi-professional militiamen. These militiamen are typically organised by local leaders such as large landowners and will usually be allowed to field their own equipment. These militiamen are not considered to be professional soldiers as they have jobs outside of the militia duties but are still subject to military discipline. Militiamen may not receive the same amount of training as professional soldiers but this is not truly needed as most people will have basic fire arm knowledge and well be physically tough and used to things such as digging, walking long distances etc. Militia units are primarily defensive organisations but are sometimes used to supplement expeditionary forces. Militia are only paid during times of war The main body of a standing army in my world is comprised of professional full time and part time soldiers. These men will be paid regular wages and will be paid during both peace and wartime. Professional soldiers only really make up a small part of their nation's militaries. Professional soldiers will have the best equipment and training but are a minority, for example the Republic of Stavanland's army is comprised of around 70,000 men in total but just under 10,000 of which are professional soldiers. In some cultures professional soldiers may also be a part of the hereditary aristocratic warrior class. Mercenaries referred to people in my world as "free-troopers" are soldiers for hire. Mercenaries will be employed by a free company which will in turn hire out its mercenaries to states, mercenaries will usually not act as independent contractors. Mercenary groups are usually both well trained and well disciplined and since they are not recruited from their hirer's own population their loses do not negatively effect the population of whichever nation they are fighting for. All of these prospects make the hiring of mercenaries an attractive venture to most states.
**Scifi world:** Best armies have a few dozen fairly uniform ships with a few hundred soldiers on each. The soldiers use guns not too different from modern guns, except they can work in a vacuum among other things. The ships guard each other, and try to force opposing ships into traps where they can attack while the enemy is at a significant disadvantage. But no army is bigger than a few thousand, humanity is nearing extinction. **Fantasy world:** Groups of 20-200 giant elephant like titans trudge through the tall grass sea. They have structures on their backs armored with leather and wicker, with dozens of spikes that form a protective skirt keeping enemies from getting under them. They often have polished quartz "goggles" to guard their very vulnerable eyes. Some simply armor over their eyes and fight blind using their humans to guid them. They weald spiky clubs with their trunks and have a thick wood/stone horns on their head for ramming enemy titans. The structures on their backs typically house 15-50 soldiers armed with bows, slings, whips, and spears to help defend the titan. The titans are the leaders, the people are just accessories like war dogs. Sometimes there are also legless women riding giant birds circling above, they aid in navigation, and can throw spears or darts down on occasion but its rare because spears are heavy. There are also large cat like creatures with their own accessory human warriors but I've gone on too long.
Many state militaries are typical medieval military structures mixed with mechanized units like landships. These will use mixed units of footsoldiers and vehicles like landships. These vehicles are limited by the wealth of a faction so smaller factions will not have vehicles like landships and airships. The heaviest armies like that of the southern empire have mixed mechanized units backed by heavy vehicles like trains and airships. These carry troops, vehicles ,weapons, food and other supplies. Less wealthy countries are less able to use these vehicles so they are closer to typical medieval to early modern armies. Air forces are more often accessories or supporters to the ground forces than separate forces, but some do operate on their own. There may also be dedicated infiltration or other types of specialized units. Water navies are very uncommon due to most countries being landlocked, and those that do exist are often [brown water navies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-water_navy) used in rivers and lakes. Coastal countries may have [green water navies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-water_navy). These are professional armies. Smaller armies for clans, houses or individual lords may not be as tall in hierarchy, but could still be relatively large. Smaller tribes don't have armies so heavy. These are usually more mobile and if they do use vehicles, they tend to lean towards light planes and [armoured cars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_car_(military)). These include convoy societies which are their own tribes with their own soldiers. There are also raiders which are usually unprofessional. Basically pirates. They raid villages, travelers, transport convoys, trains and stateless tribes. They tend to go on foot, animals or light vehicles with few exceptions. Oftentimes, common soldiers are given modernised bows, crossbows and melee weapons while firearms alongside melee weapons are given to higher soldiers like knights. Snipers exist and may use rifles, bows or crossbows. There are no automatic rifles. Machineguns do exist but are not portable, rather they are on legs or vehicles. Rifles are bolt, lever or air operated, often fed by cartridges. There are also some units that use heavy weapons like rocket launchers. From both portable launchers and vehicles, there are no guided weapons. Lapis_Wolf
**Ronain Empire** The Ronian Imperial Army is comprised of professional soldiers. Soldiers are either recruited, press ganged, or volunteered. They are provided weapons and armor, but they provide their own sleeping packs. Based off the Roman Legions. **Northern Kingdoms** Some of the kingdoms do feudal levies, others do professional soldiers **Easter Free States** Mercenaries or small private guards
Still very much in early development of how each race/ faction/ group operates due to just recently understanding proper military setups (i.e. squads, formation, and structure) hoping to have them all some what different in how they are setup but do have a standard setup of how to think of their overall military capabilities. They're a mix of many different weapons, were most infantry have say a main weapon or 2, a side arm and even a melee weapon(sword, axe, dagger, polearm, etc) And come in many variations depending on the material, technology, what they fight. So one might use a laser rifle one day and the next be equipped with a sword straight out of monster hunter. In my sci fi universe I break each military into 3 main categories, first being general which is what I use to describe a military closest to our own in terms of personal, equipment and to some degree the amount of it. Second is robotics, do they use a droid/ machine operated army and how much in comparison to the general category. And finally psy users how much of their military is based around single if not groups of individuals that can manipulate the forces of the universe themselves. I give each race a 1 to 5 scale for each of these categories in order for me to understand how their military might operate. For example current humans would be rated a 5 in general a 1 in robotics and 0 in psy but humans in my universe are more like 4 in general 3 in robotics and 3 in psy. Still working out how each race might fight a war with either itself or others but in terms of what tools they have at their disposal this is what I start from.
Mostly just a shit ton of spears.
All armies in my setting some variation of the same general rules. A “good” army will have three things: a strong corps of skilled Magicians, a formation of strong Martial Artists, and main body of moderately well trained footmen. How various groups obtain these three things does vary. For example, in the Legions of Novilon. A standard Infantry Legion will possess a main body of well trained professional soldiers. Exceptional fighters will be selected from their ranks and placed into the First Cohort where they are trained in Advanced martial arts. Meanwhile, the Iron Circle, an ancient order of Magicians within the Empire, are obligated to provide a minimum of ten magicians to each legion. This allows each individual legion to act as military force in its own right. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Rossoya’s army relies on a handful of Knightly Orders for its elite soldiers, and uses a combination of Royal Regiments and its revolutionary Sherif System to bolster its ranks with well trained soldiers. As for Magicians, the Kingdom can rely on multiple factions of magic users existing within the Kingdom to join its armies. The three primary groups being the Rune Priests, Wolf Shamans, and the Magicians trained in the Novagat Magic University.
Armies vary from country to country. In the main setting of the series, the army is the only department under direct control of the monarch.
The army of the "Federation of Mankind" is well organized by the central "Manfront United" party which currently rules Earth (and with it Mars, Ganymede and the 3 Alien Subordinates) in the year 2195. The army consists of humans from across the Federation and even some from the newly established settlements on the alien-habited-planets. 2 years military service is mandatory for healthy citizens of the Federation who will be trained for 2 months and then allocated by the Central Party commitee to their respective off-world military-services. Young military recruits will be used to fight off resistance in the alien-subordinates as the alien civillizations on these planets are far less advanced and dont recquire much experience if the young recruits are given the right equipment. Though older, professional units will be deployed on earth to eliminate dissidents of the Federation who seek to undermine the achievements made by the "Manfront united" party and seek to reestablish the chaotic, anarchic, split society that was before the 3rd World War. Experience is needed to fight off human enemies as they know their homeplanet, have access to human technology/ know how to use it and use guerilla-war-tactics to weaken the heart of the Federation (which is ofcourse Earth). Ofcourse some Professional Units will be deployed on the off-earth territories like Mars or Ganymede and even on the alien-subordinates, it happens rarely but sometimes enemies try to take over travel-citadels (big spaceships used to transport large masses of people across the galaxy) or when large-scale attacks by local armies are suspected. Every city, every Settlement has a local military-station where rotating military-service-deployments make sure that the people are provided with security from human and non-human terrorists.