The Shaman
First Post
Bobitron said:
No problem - I'll append it to our Rogues Gallery thread in a few days, and update it as new characters are 'introduced'.знаток said:
Thanks for the heads up! Doing anything special?знаток said:
Wing and Sword: a d20 Modern military campaign [METAGAME]
The Shaman
First Post
Well, that explains the vacation "of sorts" comment...Bobitron said:Yeah, he's coming up to see ME!
No problem - I was sitting here watching the Yankees-Mets game so I typed the list as I was watching the game and contemplating this question: why is a game between two .500 teams televised nationally on a Sunday night?Bobitron said:
(The problem with a Yankees-Mets game is that only one team can lose...and tonight it was the Mets behind the sterling relief pitching of closer Bradon Looper, who didn't get a single out and gave up the winning hit to a guy batting .251...which goes a long way toward explaining why both teams were .500 coming in...)
Ahem. Moving on...
Because he seems like the kinda guy who goes in for joshing?!?Bobitron said:
Yeah, I'm sure that's gonna work out for ya... 
The rank chart was posted in the Glossary and the NPC roster in the Rogues Gallery - I kept the latter vague so as not to give too much away, and I will add pertinent details as the game goes on. The roster is organized around the unit hierarchy, to help you see how the characters relate to each other in the platoon and the company. It's not quite as simple as an alphabetical list, but it serves more than one purpose this way. I hope it helps!
That rank list is very nice to have.. Haven't looked at the NPC roster yet, as I had to come here and submit a small correction..
The second rank would be "Légionnaire première classe". That's because of funky french grammar.. Première is an adjective of classe, and takes on the qualities of such, and classe is a "female" word. To do that funky è, use ascii code 138.
The second rank would be "Légionnaire première classe". That's because of funky french grammar.. Première is an adjective of classe, and takes on the qualities of such, and classe is a "female" word. To do that funky è, use ascii code 138.
The Shaman
First Post
Fixed, thanks - that was sloppy on my part.Barak said:
Not really... French is more complicated than english, and I know both languages pretty darn well because of my situations. But if I was to tun a game that included many spanish term, even though I know some spanish, I'd do much, much worse then you are. And spanish is much closer to french than english is.
I always feel sorta like an ass everytime I bring something like that up. Feel free to let me know if you'd like me to shut up about it.
I always feel sorta like an ass everytime I bring something like that up. Feel free to let me know if you'd like me to shut up about it.
The Shaman
First Post
No worries. Considering I had three-and-a-half years of French and travelled across France (albeit a LOoooooNG time ago), it really was a careless mistake.Barak said:
I should install the French language AutoCorrect files for Word - the darn program keeps prompting me to do it! :\
Speaking of...le costaud was the only word I could think of to describe the concept of "big guy" - is there a better idiom you can think of?
знаток
First Post
The Shaman said:
Well, I do have a few things planned, but I'm mostly excited about the July 4th party and the car races (Ferrari Racing Days and ALMS) and dolphin watching (beware the music).
By the way, I know what a pain it is to write my screen name (I experience it everytime I have to log in), so everyone can call me Keith or whatever nickname I might earn through Vidal.
And thanks a ton for the new tools. This game is squared away! Some questions about the ranks, though. Is what you posted the limit of the ranks or just what we're likely to encounter? I assume the officers go beyond what you posted, but it looks like what you did post goes a couple of levels higher than the enlisted ranks. If a sergent-chef is a platoon sergeant, what are the company and battalion level NCOs to match the Capitaine and Commandant? Does it really matter? Should I shut up?
The Shaman
First Post
Thanks for the heads-up on the music! Looks like a fun time.знаток said:
Well, I do have a few things planned, but I'm mostly excited about the July 4th party and the car races (Ferrari Racing Days and ALMS) and dolphin watching (beware the music).
Easy as cut-'n'-paste.знаток said:
You're welcome, and thanks very much in return.знаток said:
Lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier, and so on - I didn't have the book handy that listed the ranks when I typed that up last night (I was engrossed in the Yankees-Mets game but for the life of me I can't explain why... :\ ), but I will add them later for reference. In fact, Vidal and the gang will be meeting the XO of the regiment in a couple of weeks, lieutenant-colonel Jeanpierre....but I'm getting ahead of myself...знаток said:
You should definitely not shut up!знаток said:...but it looks like what you did post goes a couple of levels higher than the enlisted ranks. If a sergent-chef is a platoon sergeant, what are the company and battalion level NCOs to match the Capitaine and Commandant? Does it really matter? Should I shut up?
As far as I can tell from my reading (and with the caveat that I am not an expert), warrant officers were not as specialized in the French Army as they historically have been in the U.S. Army. A couple of different sources describe adjudants filling the role of top NCO in platoons, what we would think of as 'platoon sergeant'.
After the French government capitulated in Indochina, the Legion experienced a decrease in recruitment and an increase in desertion. This hit all of the regiments, including the REPs, pretty hard: both the 1st and 2nd BEPs were effectively annihilated at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 - the two battalions would be reformed as the 1st and 2nd REPs in 1955 by cannibalizing the 3rd BEP (which was basically a training formation anyway) and bringing in new recruits. The Legion as a whole was suffering a recruiting problem however that didn't start to rectify itself until 1956, the year our game begins.
As is often the case with active combat units, there may be a shortage of qualified personnel to fill every billet - in Indochina and to some extent in Algeria it was not uncommon for a lieutenant to command a company, a sergeant a platoon, and so on. In fact, Pyotr met a lieutenant in command of a tirailleur company during the three weeks your characters were scattered to the winds, and the commander of 4th Platoon in 3rd Company is sergent Santos at the time Vidal and rest join the unit at Portemonte...but again, I get ahead of myself. In any case, the French suffered an acute shortage of officers and NCOs in Indochina and in the early years of Algeria., which is reflected in who fills what billets - I chose to reflect this with the relative absence of WOs in 3rd Co.
On a related note the nature of the enlisted men in the Legion changed by Algeria as well. The number of Germans began to decrease, and there were fewer ex-Wehrmacht in the ranks, though many of the Legion NCOs were former defenders of the Reich (like your platoon sergeant...) - West Germany was about to take over its own armed forces again, so kids who wanted to be soldiers could stay at home instead of heading for the Legion recruiters. More French, Italian, and Spanish joined the Legion, as did a fair number of recruits from Eastern Europe, but men from all over the world still enlisted - I don't remember the exact count, but I think I have something like 30 nations represented in your fictional 3rd Co. For the first time in decades, the Legion in Algeria found itself with a group of enlisted men with little previous combat experience, though it still boasted some of the most experienced and toughest NCOs in the world.
The officer corps of the Legion, which was about 90% French, also changed by the Algerian conflict - the officers of the old Army of Africa, who spent long years in posts in the Maghreb, the Sahara, and the Sahel, were replaced by a candidate corps straight from the Metropole. This was another consequence of Indochina - I don't remember the exact year, but in one year the number of officers killed fighting the Vietminh was equal to that produced by both of France's officer schools, which makes it hard to build up an experienced cadre. I reflected this in the game as well: of the four lieutenants in your fictional 3rd Co., only one served in Indochina.
Wow, that was probably WAY more than you wanted to know - please forgive my many digressions. That said, there is one more thing: there are a couple of other ranks I didn't list. The rank of sergent-chef-major was rarely awarded, but it did exist. The rank of major, which was actually the top warrant officer (not an officer like the U.S., Canadian, and UK rank!), had been discontinued but was re-instituted sometime around 1959 or 1960. The rank of aspirant was a cadet officer, similar to 'third lieutenant' if I'm understanding my sources correctly - you are unlikely to meet an aspirant in-game except with a regular French Army unit.
Did I completely exhaust this question?!?
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