Stevidian Military
His Majesty’s Imperial Army
The Army of Stevid boasts itself as a tactically superior force to many armies out there including some of the more dominant super powers that currently threat Imperial shores and colonies. The Army, by comparison of other super powers, is relatively small as far as man power is concerned but makes up for it with some of the most intense training of weapons, battlefield techniques and physical condition in the world. A fit soldier is key to success in any war, then train him to kill a man with either a gun or his bare hands and then train him in the various tactics and survival skills of war, you have a real killing machine and quite literally a one man army. This is the perfect soldier, a man who can run a mile in minutes, kill ten men in as many seconds with an airgun, and coordinate groups of soldiers to take and hold or eliminate enemy positions on the frontline- this is a Stevidian soldier, a soldier to be rightly feared.
Training is as tough as it gets in life and is used primarily to weed out the weaker men from the strong potentials and then work extra hard on upgrading the fitness of the weaker ones to the levels of the strong ones. This sort of intense training is seen only given to Marines of other nations but Stevid’s own army receives the same treatment to make it one of the world’s best fighting forces on the ground and the air. Training usually takes place in Stevid and the island of Rubet especially in the temperate zones where simple survival and battlefield techniques are sought out inside an individual and harnessed by commanders who then teach the men how to use themselves and their surroundings effectively to good use. Training of weaponry is usually conducted in forests and open fields too especially the art of sniper and tank hunting, training assaults are commonly practised in the open too as well as rapid advancing and disembarkation of APCs that make the army a rapid reaction force which is so urgently needed in a growing Empire like Stevid’s.
Stevid prides itself on rapid armoured assaults and urban warfare which makes it so deadly in certain campaigns of war, fortunately for the Army Stevid has the harsh and barren terrain in which these tactics are drilled to perfection. The barren ash wastelands of Stevid is a huge stretch dust and ash the cuts Stevid in two. It is here where the industry of Stevid starts, over a hundred uranium mines are located here and iron and coal works flourish towards the polluted coastal areas. Light rarely penetrates the Wastelands as a single volcano continually belches ash and smoke from its hellish interior, the whole region is covered in ash and three large cities have been completely abandoned by the councils and populations and are now over run by criminal war lords and gangs, perfect for the Army’s rigorous training programme.
The professional army sweep large areas of the city clean of ‘vermin’ and then the recruits are brought in. Here, in falling ash and in the respirators and in full military gear, they live for twenty-five days. It is one of harshest conditions to man and they have to eat, sleep, wash and train in it. For one solid week in one of the cities a group of one hundred recruits are split in two (50) and are give a section of the city each which then becomes their territory. A week long simulated war begins between the two using blanks in their guns but IR laser designators to signal whether a hit is scored. Those hit are eliminated and sent to another part of the city under military to continue survival training and how to improve on their mistakes during the war. During the week, the objective is to take the enemy’s Capital Building (usually an abandoned skyscraper each visible from sides of the city) by raiding it and planting the flag in place of the enemies. Using all they have learned outside of the Wastelands and without the help of sergeants supervising the combat, they are to “fight” for a week in this harsh environment. Rarely does anyone die from the conditions (so long as they keep their respirators on during ash fall) and it is usually good fun that both sides enjoy. Half the city is used for the war and so proper urban tactical procedures and manoeuvres can be performed within the city. ‘Oysters’ are planted throughout the city- in other words this means that certain objects planted by the Army are scattered around the city, hidden, waiting to be used. These can be anything from vehicles to full functional heaters and other luxuries. Vehicles can be simple ones found wreaked on the streets, thousands of abandoned cars that aren’t planted by the military and can easily be hotwired by a clever recruit and used to bulldoze through a position giving cover to fellow soldiers behind- trucks are a favourite of ambitious recruit leaders and usually means that that side will usually win most conflicts. All vehicles are IR tagged by the RAF before battle (usually done a day before combat) so that damage to the vehicle by laser weapons fire is recorded which means it is perfectly possible to destroy a truck with small arms fire by “destroying” the fuel tank and killing those inside. Luckier recruits will find planted military equipment which is usually a single tank or if one is even luckier- two tanks. The recruits are told this and it isn’t rare for recruit leaders to send out scouting parties to search the deserted ash strewn streets for he military hardware they were promised. If a tank is found then the enemy have the specialist means to destroy it i.e. laser RPGs and fake AT mines. If the recruits can not adapt to such a threat then the modified cannon to wipe out a defensive position and offer fire support when the capital building is attacked, the week long war can easily be over in little under an hour with luck on ones side. It is not unknown that the Army leave a radio with a list of frequencies that call for attack helicopter gunship support that the Army Air Corp gladly provide and simulate ground attacks and missile attacks can be called upon to win the day by clearing out the capital building and then assaulting it.
One particular battle left one side against the other sides three Challenger II tanks that they had managed to find in two days. Seemingly impossible odds to counter with just fifty men however they had the radio and the frequency to call in air support from two AH-64 gunships which they were saving for an assault on the enemy’s Capital Building but since the enemy were making a full blown assault on their side of the city with all fifty men and three MBTs they had to use the gunships. They were called in to destroy the tanks and mop up what resistance they could before leaving, it worked- both tanks were “destroyed” and twenty men were “killed” with a further fifteen captured leaving only fifteen to defend the capital building. Having not sustained any losses, the fifty men of the other army assault the Capital building with hijacked armoured security vans and took the enemy’s capital building losing only five men. The leader was swiftly granted a commission into the army along with twelve other members of the “army”.
Training in these cities and these environments makes the Stevidian Army already battle hardened before actually going to war and improves urban combat ratings all round. Urban combat takes more lives in war than open terrain does because of the surprises both sides can unleash on each other and thus makes the Stevidian Army more at hone in urban combat than in any other- that excel in all terrain theatres but well and truly shine in urban theatres.
More recently integrated into the Stevidian Army Military Doctrine is the use of rapid infantry and armoured assaults that follow similar lines to the Blitzkrieg tactic used by the Germans in World War II. It was seen by the Army to be a costly kind of tactic and wasn’t commended much by the top brass and was even shunned away completely, however during the Holy Panooly Civil War 24th Foot Infantry Regiment assaulted rebel positions via Warrior APCs and over ran the enemy’s lines at the outskirts of Volta City, crushing all opposition. That is the jist of the operation which took more planning than as just stated but the plan worked and since then the Army has practise armoured assaults. The use of heavy and medium tanks with an incredible off road speed are preferred to slow heavy tanks that boast lots of armour and firepower (although a fast one of those is being purchased). Overrunning the enemy’s lines before they can adequately counter-attack or plug a hole in the advance is paramount and the Army’s previous tactic of subtle wearing down the enemy’s defences before a mass infantry and tank assault and flanking attack has been disregarded as rubbish by some tacticians. Rapid assault and advancing into enemy territory but not so much as to out run ones supply lines is now used and drilled extensively in His Majesty’s Imperial Army.
His Majesty’s Imperial Guard
To put it simply, the Imperial Guard are like the King’s and Royal Family’s own private army under strict regulations on numbers set out by the government and are tasked with defending the Royal Family and their Royal estates and assets. Much like the Palace Guards at Buckingham Palace in Great Britain, the Imperial Guard is the best of the best as far as discipline is concerned. Their mental discipline far surpasses that of a regular rifleman and their loyalty to King and Country is unquestionable thus they are ready to die in the name of the God, King and Stevid with no questions asked, an obligation that is respected and admired throughout the country.
They rarely go to the frontline and are only present in war if a member of the Royal Family is serving on the frontline or in any major theatre of war. A small detachment accompanies the King and his wife wherever they travel in the country and guard their Royal Estates whether they are occupied by either a member of the Royal Family or someone of nobility or not- it pays to show a good image to the general public and to tourists visiting the capital city or houses belong to the Royals.
Their training is exactly the same as the regular army and territorial army seeing as they military fighting soldiers none the less, however if they excel themselves during their training with the other recruits they are offered a commission in the Imperial Guard to which they can accept with the knowledge of greater responsibility and an increase in payroll, or to decline and serve the King and the Empire on the frontlines protecting the country and its citizens from hostile foreign powers. Many recruits choose to decline but a fair few accept the additional responsibilities and rigid discipline it requires to be a member of the Imperial Guard. Members of the Imperial Guard will also know that they will be the last Stevidian soldiers to fall if Stevid is invaded, dying to protect the Royal Family and their households is their ultimate goal and sacrifice and will be the last to die when fighting foreign powers on Stevidian soil.
The pride and joy of Stevid, the one truly major thing Stevid as a nation and as a military, economic and political super power is known by, the Royal (Imperial) Navy of Stevid. This is the single largest military branch in Stevid and receives also quadruple funding as either the Royal (Imperial) Air Force or the Army. Stevid is an island nation and relies heavily on a powerful navy to provide adequate air and sea defence in conjunction with the Fleet Air Arm. Today’s Royal Navy is the biggest it has ever been and seeing as war exists between Stevid numerous other nations, ship building to replace lost vessels and to add to current numbers is high on both the Admiralty’s and government’s agenda in parliament.
While not an official arms supplier to the world, Stevid boasts highly that it has one of the high rates of ship production with a particular quality in the production of battleships and cruisers. Most recently Stevid has been famed with replacing the old Catholic Class Super Dreadnoughts which are decades old with the new Sanguinious Class Super Dreadnought in which five of these vessels are cheaper and more powerful than the whole fleet of Catholic Class ships. Even more recently is Stevid’s ascension up the naval super power totem pole with the completion of the country’s first Supercapital Ship which is even more powerful than any Super Dreadnought- only a small collection of countries possess the money or workforce to build such gargantuan ships with the economy suffering a cataclysmic breakdown. The Farseer Class is Stevid’s own version of the Supercapital class of vessels and joins the ranks of Sarzonia, Questers and Praetonia to name a few nations who own Supercapital ships.
The Royal Navy consists of ten fleets with six of them major ones and four “part-time” ones used usually for coastal defence duties but can be assembled into ready made task forces. The Fifth Fleet of the Royal Navy used to be the largest and most powerful fleet in the Royal navy before The Macabees fire nuclear tipped torpedoes into it’s home port of Portsmouth Harbour and obliterated almost all of the fleet and breaking the back of one of the Catholic Class SDNs that had escaped a previous battle undamaged while her sisters lay in dry docks all over the country being repaired. Currently the First Fleet is the largest and most powerful and is tasked with guarding the Otium Aqua Sea from the hordes of the Golden Throne. The First Fleet, along side Independent Hitmen naval allies, managed to fend off an enemy Kriegmarda from the Golden Throne from the Otium Aqua thus protecting it from further enemy attack. The First Fleet earned its stripes that day and returned victorious (to a point) to its home port in Rubet Island. The Second Fleet is the second most powerful after having been quickly mobilised to combat the threat posed by Kanami, Aqua Anu and Magic Sorcery, but after a small conflict resulting in a victory to the Royal Navy the Second Fleet withdrew back to Stevid to counter a new threat posed by Athiesism in the War of Golden Succession leaving Kanami free to bocker a ceasefire on par the request of Stevid and RedTide2. The Third Fleet is now the third most powerful in the Royal Navy (although the Fourth Fleet used to be) having been sent to the Athiesist Archipelago to wage war against the “reprobates” that dwell there.
The Third Fleet has won two major engagements in that particular campaign already but with severe losses to its own number. The Royal Navy of Stevid has, for the first time since the Battle of Otium Aqua Sea, met a tough and resistant opposition to its raw power on the seas. The final fleet worth of much mention is the Fourth Fleet which has had a very subdued role as far as Stevidian foreign policy is concerned. The Fourth Fleet defend the Eastern coastline of Stevid from any potential threats from that direction; however Stevid has managed to maintain peaceful relations with the countries east of its sea boarders throughout its history. Huzen Hagen ‘’(deceased)’’ was an extremely close ally of Stevid and both countries participated in a war together that saw the Royal Navy lose Type-23 Frigate HMS Rougebuck to enemy bombing, the war also saw the Forth Fleet in action with Huzen Hagen naval forces before nuclear weapons destroyed over half the allied navy and then almost all foreign cities of the target nation. Other nations such as New Empire and Psychotic Psychos have very good diplomatic relations with Stevid but no military aid and assistance pacts- this begs a common saying in parliament which is now tradition seeing as it is said so much in the monthly parliamentary address: “All is quiet on the Eastern front.”
The Royal Navy used to be Stevid’s ticket into the Organisation of Maritime Powers or the OMP.
