Military Ranks

[Omegaxicor]

Thank You both,
[MENTION=1165](Psi)SeveredHead[/MENTION] I like The specifics and I might use them for another company (there are several powers in the army, each sending their "company" (army) to join together)
[MENTION=27897]Ryujin[/MENTION] Thanks for the info and the idea, I know just where to place him since he is a minor prince and he doesn't deal with repelling an army so the player's won't encounter him much here

 

[Tovec]

[MENTION=95351]Omegaxicor[/MENTION] I can understand 'confusing' but what was so contradictory? I enjoy actual real world ranks, and can easily decipher things if you find them confusing but I'd need more info on where to start. Beyond that, I like the replies you have received so far as they seem to blend real and fictional world ranks together.
[MENTION=6689464]KaiiLurker[/MENTION] generally speaking you are never going to have a command structure that looks like Ensign > Lieutenant > Captain > Commander.

All of those are valid if you were using naval ranks, but then the captain and commander need to be reversed.
The commander and ensign are invalid if using standard army/air force ranks. In that case you would be likely to see Colonel (and no ensign replacement) atop captain, though the rank of major would also be introduced.

I'm no expert by any means, it is just something I noticed.

 

[MoonSong]

[MENTION=95493]Tovec[/MENTION] Oh, but I was speaking on very general terms, like I said the overall archetype, function and order, not sticking to a speciffic version of the army. I was aiming to give out a simplified list of ranks and how they work. Of course the speciffics between Army, Navy, Air Force and all, and they also have slightly cultural differences.

For example on my country's army there is an Ensign-like figure in the way of "the second grade Lieutenant". Also a Sergeant -normally a NCO with little real authority- is a very important figure overall with a big influence, in part because of high rank inflation on the bases, since privates are fired upon the second year of service, a typical squad consists more of a sergeant with many corporals and a few rookie privates than the bunch of privates lead by a single corporal it should be by design.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I am having my party run through a Dwarven held tunnel followed by a Human Capital but I was wondering what sort of military ranks would the officers they receive missions off hold.

Medieval military ranks would "cross-cut" with noble ranks, at least for humans. (You can use whatever you want for dwarves.)

The capital would have a king, who is theoretically in charge of the entire military force there, but in practice there would be a general working for him. Said general might be a landed noble (eg General Duke Wellington) or, if the king is smarter and more powerful, an unlanded noble who owes everything to the king (General Sir Patrick Stewart). In fact, there's likely a secondary military force for when the king and his army are away - this leader might be the castellan, or some similar title.

In addition, there's powerful landed nobles who spend no time in their lands (those lands are run by their stewards or deputies) but spend all their time at the royal court, scheming and trying to get jobs like Minister of X, Minister of Y, etc. Some of these jobs would instead go to high-ranking priests, and since this is a fantasy setting, one or more jobs might be held by wizards. (There's probably a Court Mage, and the "Court Priest" might be the king's confessor, if the religion has that practice.) Each of those powerful nobles (especially the landed ones) has a "bodyguard" as large as possible, including probably secret "bodyguards", who are likely mercenaries, spies, agents provocateur and what have you - in short, each powerful noble has a secret army. If the king is weak, these armies might be more powerful than his!

A landed noble might feel compelled to give positions to family members, and if he has multiple companies, one company might be led by his smart uncle, another by his idiot cousin, another by a professional warlord who isn't a landed noble, etc. The heroes could figure out a lot of the plot just by which officer is approaching them.

I think you can't really follow military ranks as such because they were ad hoc and less important than the noble titles granted. In essence, these nobles could invent their own titles. Captain Sir Patrick Stewart might call himself the "Red Captain of Fed's Dale" or something like that, but him being subordinate to the Lord Admiral Sejanus of the Bay is probably more important than his actual title.

 

[Tovec]

@Tovec Oh, but I was speaking on very general terms, like I said the overall archetype, function and order, not sticking to a speciffic version of the army. I was aiming to give out a simplified list of ranks and how they work. Of course the speciffics between Army, Navy, Air Force and all, and they also have slightly cultural differences.

Which is fine if talking about fantasy or fictional armies. But my points are still valid, because every and I mean every single armed forces I can think of either has naval or military (army/air force) ranks. And what I said applied to those.

For example on my country's army there is an Ensign-like figure in the way of "the second grade Lieutenant". Also a Sergeant -normally a NCO with little real authority- is a very important figure overall with a big influence, in part because of high rank inflation on the bases, since privates are fired upon the second year of service, a typical squad consists more of a sergeant with many corporals and a few rookie privates than the bunch of privates lead by a single corporal it should be by design.

That sounds... odd.
What country is that, if you don't mind my asking?


Aside; For the record officer ranks would look like:
Naval: Ensign > Lt. JG > Lt (full) > Lt. Commander > Commander > Captain
or
Army: Lt. JG > Lt. (full) > Captain > Major > Lt. Colonel > Colonel

The NCOs would be different of course. And KaiiLurker was pretty damned-on with the brass (admirals/generals).

I was just adding for clarity not to disrupt anything else or say how it should work in-game.

 

[Omegaxicor]

[MENTION=95493]Tovec[/MENTION] you and KaiiLurker disagree on the order of titles but both sets of titles are the same just in a different order, different websites say different orders for the same military.

[MENTION=1165](Psi)SeveredHead[/MENTION] yea, that's where it gets confusing because with different people having entirely different titles despite being equals it is hard to know who is in charge of who, which I suppose is the point , and the players aren't going to spend that much time focusing on it if it is that confusing...

 

[TalenOrAvinair]

I've done quite a few home brew city games, and here is how I deal with the watches:

Squad - 1 Corporal, 4 Men (5 men) - In charge of patrolling several blocks in the city. There are multiple squads running around at any given time (based on city size)
Patrol - 1 Sergeant leading 2 squads - (11 Men) - They get a section of of the city to patrol. The Sergeant is the commander for this section of the city.
Platoon - 1 LT leading 2 patrols (23 Men) - This is a typical watch section. All these guys are walking around at any given time.

Watch Breakdown - 9 Platoons, each of who work 8 hour shifts - everyone likes a day off. At any given time there is 1 platoon in the city, and 1 platoon that is manning the jail/HQ buildings
Captain of the Watch - The commander of the Platoons that are on duty in the city (48 Men). In my city there are 4 Captains of the watch who work 12 hour shifts.
Sergeant of the Watch - 2nd in command to the Captain of the Watch, generally in charge of the jail. He is a senior NCO.
Commander of the Watch - 1 guy who is answerable to the town council for everything that goes on. Has the rank of Major.

 

[haakon1]

Keep it simple.

Captain = Company commander. True in the Renaissance, true today in every army. What's a company? A group of mercenaries. In the modern military, standardized to 100-250 men (for a typical US infantry company and similar units).

Lieutenant. Look at the word. Tenant = holder. Lieu = French for place, used in English in the phrase "in lieu of" (in place of). In other words, a PLACEHOLDER for a Captain. A junior officer under a Captain.

Besides those two ranks, I use one higher:
Captain-General = Commander of more than one Company. I think this might literally be how the word "General" was derived.

And two lower:
Corporal = Lead soldier, with a small body of men under him. (Corpus = Latin for body.)

Sergeant = More senior Corporal. Almost always a veteran in my campaign worlds.

By class and level in 3.5e, I'd do this:
Captain-General = Typically at least Fighter 5. A professional, career officer.
Captain = Wide variety, on up from Warrior 3 or Fighter 2.

Sergeant = Warrior 2 or Fighter 2, or higher.

Corporal = Warrior 2, Fighter 1

Knight = Aristocrat 1, or higher level with levels in Fighter or Aristocrat. Distinguished more by gear and social status than level.

 

[Starfox]

Something to remember here is that most pre-modern and early modern armies were what we'd call contractors. Someone shouldered the responsibility for fielding a military force, in return for some kind of payment or concession - land early money in later periods. This makes the military pecking order very confused. Each contractor can use his own structure and ranks. And the position in the pecking order of different contingents/contractors were matters of honor, things to duel over and contest.

In general, "Captain" seems to have been the title of the leader of such a group of warrior. Group size could range from a dozen to thousands tough, so the title of "captain" can correspond to anything from lieutenant to colonel in modern terms.

 

[Gryph]

Which is fine if talking about fantasy or fictional armies. But my points are still valid, because every and I mean every single armed forces I can think of either has naval or military (army/air force) ranks. And what I said applied to those.


That sounds... odd.
What country is that, if you don't mind my asking?


Aside; For the record officer ranks would look like:
Naval: Ensign > Lt. JG > Lt (full) > Lt. Commander > Commander > Captain
or
Army: Lt. JG > Lt. (full) > Captain > Major > Lt. Colonel > Colonel

The NCOs would be different of course. And KaiiLurker was pretty damned-on with the brass (admirals/generals).

I was just adding for clarity not to disrupt anything else or say how it should work in-game.

True for modern, US forces. The British services in the imperial era had Ensigns in the Army as the lowest ranking officer and the Navy had Lieutenants. In the Navy, both ours and the British, Captain is both a rank and a duty post. The commander, regardless of rank, of a ship is always a Captain but a Captain is not always a commander of a ship.

It can be confusing and the advice that [MENTION=25619]haakon1[/MENTION] and others gave is good. Creating a simple set of ranks with only enough levels for the force size and not paying too much attention to modern military ranks is an excellent approach.