Second Sphere Doctrines

Military Doctrines

It is a simple fact that not all militaries are trained alike. Different goals, tactics and expectations all combine to change how armed forces fight. This is represented in the Military Doctrine values. These are not specific tactics such as 'close for hand-to-hand' but holllistic interpretations of their favored (and disfavored) choices. The more points in a given Doctrine, the better troops will perform in the field.

The Doctrines

Line

Long the backbone of combat fleets, the Line doctrine centers around relatively rigid warship formations optimized to engage and destroy enemy warships. Additionally the tight formations can provide solid anti-air firepower, though their inflexible formations make them vulnerable to high-speed attacks.

Skirmish

Skirmish doctrine puts the emphasis on fluid formations and maneuvers, letting it react more quickly and effectively to fast-paced situations. This makes it an effective choice for smaller, faster warships and is an optimal defense against aircraft or other fast attacks as the flexible formations can reorient quickly.

Wolfpack

Even before stealth in space became truly viable, independent raiders that struck without warning were being pioneered by lightly-armed 'space pirates' operating on the edge of civilized space. Today it focusses on widely-dispersed units operating quasi-independently to achieve strategic goals, generally behind enemy lines.

Superiority

A must for any military that relies on air craft, or indeed one who's enemies rely on aircraft. Superiority revolves around training for air-to-air (and the vaccum equivalent) combat and the piloting of aircraft, mobile suits and the like.

Strike

Any aircraft can drop a bomb but the Strike doctrine elevates it to an art form. Generally required for effectively charging into the teeth of enemy air defence to deliver offensive payloads to identified weak spots.

Combined Arms

Long the staple of 'first world' ground forces, combined arms doctrine feature relatively heavy mechanized formations to seize and hold ground against any opposition.

Partisans and Patriots

The 'people's war' concept has been part of military and political thought for centuries and has become conceptually current as centering around light infantry that take advantage of stealth and mastery of local terrain to achieve victory over slower, more heavily-equipped forces.

Ramparts

The theory and practice involved with the defense of planets against hostile landings and the counterpoint of how to break those defenses became a vital component of the military establishment from the '60s onward as interstellar war became reality, not a possibility.

Electronic Warfare

Ever since WWII, electronic warfare has been a critical element of any warfighting effort. With cheap, portable electronics becoming ubiquitous in the 21st century and becoming integrated into essentially everything by the 22nd, situations where some element of electronic warfare cannot be applied are the exceptions, not the rule. While EWar cannot win a fight on its own, it provides an invaluable support function.

Recruitment

Recruitment is vital for any nation that plans war, as without a robust recruitment apparatus a nation will have great difficulty building its forces up effectively. Specifics TBD, but every point of recruitment will substantially increase the number of (ground) forces that a nation can build per quarter.

Reserves

Many nations retain reserve formations in case of wartime or other, less combative disasters. The reserves doctrine increases the speed at which reserves can be returned to active service and how many you can support. Specifics TBD.

Navigation

Jump navigation can be the difference between being in an advantageous position and being dropped upon. While not necessarily a war-winner, it can definately provide an initial advantage. Having skilled navigators is also useful for Rim exploration.

Individual Excellence

Some militaries exult the individual over the group, or train with the expectation of fighting at a significant numerical disadvantage. Individual excellence thus only applies in such situations - while it cannot completely upend N-Squared, it will help. Individual Excellence also goes well with superfighters and other 'experimental' units.

Nonhuman Adversaries

Some forces train extensively in tactics for fighting nonhuman threats, named velan drones or posthuman weapons. Note that normal, human-built and operated combat robots do not fall under this.

Science!

Who let these monkeys out!

Costs

Rank 1

Cost: 2

Total Cost: 2

Rank 2

Cost: 1

Total Cost: 3

Rank 3

Cost: 2

Total Cost: 5

Rank 4

Cost: 3

Total Cost: 8

Rank 5

Cost: 4

Total Cost: 12

Every unspent Doctrine point can be turned into 600 points of military.

Packages

Nations that train together have broadly comparable doctrines and thus each faction has a standard doctrinal setup that it may buy. Additionally, several generalized packages are available as alternatives. A nation may only buy a single package. Additional levels of specific doctrines may be bought at the appropriate price level, plus the highest package level.

EG if a package has a doctrine at 3, to buy it to 4 a player must spend a total of 5; 2 to re-buy level 3 and 3 more to buy to level 4. The only exception are level 1 doctrines, which do not need to be re-bought.

PACT standard package

Standard PACT doctrines emphasise aircraft as a major striking arm, though warships are not neglected. Recent hot war experience has also given them a strong bias towards combined arms.

Cost: 20

Line 1, Skirmish 2, Superiority 3, Strike 3, Combined Arms 2, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 2, Recruitment 1, Reserves 1

EU standard package

Cost: 20

Line 4, Skirmish 1, Superiority 1, Strike 1, Combined Arms 2, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 1, Recruitment 2, Reserves 1, Navigation 1

Russian standard package

Cost: 20

Line 3, Skirmish 1, Wolfpack 3, Superiority 2, Strike 1, Combined Arms 2, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 2, Navigation 1

Chinese standard package

Cost: 20

Line 3, Superiority 2, Strike 2, Combined Arms 2, Partisans and Patriots 1, Ramparts 2, Electronic Warfare 2, Recruitment 2, Reserves 1

ZOCU standard package

Cost: 20

Skirmish 2, Superiority 3, Strike 3, Combined Arms 1, Partisans and Patriots 2, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 2, Recruitment 1, Individual Excellence 1

League standard package

Cost: 20

Line 1, Skirmish 3, Superiority 1, Strike 1, Combined Arms 2, Partisans and Patriots 2, Ramparts 3, Recruitment 2, Reserves 1

General fleet package

Cost: 15

Line 3, Skirmish 2, Superiority 1, Partisans and Patriots 1, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 1, Navigation 1, Nonhuman Enemies 1

General Air package

Cost: 15

Skirmish 2, Superiority 3, Strike 2, Partisans and Patriots 1, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 2, Individual Excellence 1

General Ground package

Cost: 15

Line 1, Superiority 1, Strike 2, Combined Arms 2, Partisans and Patriots 2, Ramparts 2, Recruitment 2, Reserves 1

Self-Defense Force package

Cost: 10

Superiority 2, Partisans and Patriots 2, Ramparts 2, Recruitment 1, Reserves 1, Nonhuman Enemies 1

Explorers

Cost: 10

Skirmish 1, Ramparts 1, Electronic Warfare 1, Navigation 2, Nonhuman Enemies 2, Science! 2