As detachments are one of the reasons that I came to the Empire I would like to write a detailed defense of them. I do not claim that anything you will read is correct in any way other than the fact that it is my opinion and I leave the door open to being wrong.
Also I have attempted to write this as an extract from an Book on Tactics so,
1: Basic Soldiers Pay = 25% to be spent on core
2: The last century (7th ed)
The Imperial Detachment System
Having looked at length at the infantry that the Empire is quickly able to raise and therefore will form the backbone of any Imperial force I think that it is important that we spend some time looking at the detachment system with which these infantry are trained and the effects that it will have on our battle lines, should we adopt it or fight against it.
A detachment is a smaller unit that is taken from the main body (though it may not be armed the same as the main body) and is trained to protect the flank of the main body. The detachment will never be more than half the size of the main body and sometimes a great deal smaller. I would like to look at the different types of infantry that are used, at their advantages and at their disadvantages and then I would like to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the complete system.
1: Halberdiers
As we saw when we examined the infantry Halberdiers are the aggressive option for the Empire. Cheap, decently trained and armed with a powerful halberd these troops can cut through opposing ranks with ease. The same is true if they are detachments, indeed more true if they are detachments. Due to the difficulty of the attacked unit to defend itself to the flank and the front the halberdiers that are crashing into its flank can do considerably more damage than would otherwise be expected of them. Their advantage lies in the damage that they cause.
The disadvantage of halberdiers as a detachment is the same as the disadvantage of the halberdier in general. Weak armour and poor defense means they die easily.
2: Spearmen
When we examined the spearmen we saw that they are cheap and that their long weapon offers them a greater range. This however is not as useful as a detachment as they find it difficult to use the greater range when charging and therefore will not find it a benefit until locked in combat.
Their disadvantage of weak armour and poor defense is not effected.
3: Swordsmen
Swordsmen are better trained than either Spearmen or Halberdiers and yet as a detachment that greater trainer, which provides them with a much greater defensive ability, is somewhat wasted.
Their want of killing power and limited range is a disadvantage for them.
4: Free Company
The Empire, as we saw, has at its disposal numbers of bandits and loyal citizens that band together in times of need. They tend to be a little frenzied and provide masses of poorly trained but high attack rates.
Their advantage is the hight numbers of attacks they produce.
No armour and weak defense is, with almost all Imperial infantry their disadvantage.
You can see that of the combat troops I favour the halberdier but the free company also has their part to play.
5: Handgunners
Expensive but well trained and using powerful weapons Handgunners suffer from the slow reloading process that makes movement difficult.
6: Archers
Expensive to train but their swift reloading process means that they can move and shoot. However their damage tends to be small and the fact they can move means that their ability to hit suffers
8: Crossbows
They have a longer range than the handgun but are not as powerful. Their extra range does make up for their (slight) lack of power so everything that was mentioned when discussing handgunners applies to them.
Therefore you will notice that I prefer the handgun but find that the crossbow is just as acceptable.
I would now look at the charges that are levied against the system.
1: It is expensive to train. That is to say that the money needed to train these troops in this method does not come from the Basic Soldiers Pay and must be found elsewhere.
This is true, there is no way of denying that. However this argument is based on the idea that there is no elsewhere to get the money from. An Imperial army's backbone is its basic soldiers and you will find that much more of the army's kitty than is allotted will be spend paying basic soldiers. Upwards of 40% of the army's budget will normally be spent on its core troops. Also the argument can, and has, been made that the lack of any real rare choice troops means that the money that would normally be spent on them can be used to pay for the upgrades.
2: That they provide a weak point in your line for the foe to exploit. This is based on the idea that the foe will charge the detachment rather than the parent unit and break through your line that way.
I think that this is based on the idea that detachments are small. In the last century this was true but they proved hard to command and since then, given the greater increase of the size of units in general, detachments have grown larger and large. I would not be surprised to see a detachment that would have been an entire unit in the last century. A foe attempting to charge a well placed detachment that is some space behind and to the side of its parent unit suffers from two major problems.
a: should the foe be in horde formation his front will be too wide to connect with the detachment without connecting with the parent unit first. thus allowing the detachment to do its job anyway.
b: Should the detachment, when finding itself charged, flee, the foe will be forced to deal with the parent unit, that will often have a flank charge.
It is unwise therefore, to my mind, for the foe to attempt to break through the Imperial line by charging detachments. A note should be made that should the foe charge the detachment and the parent unit at the same time reactions will have to be made as are correct in that point of time.
The advantages of the detachment are as follows.
1: They mean that you can deploy your army more swiftly than would otherwise be the case
2: They provide you with units that can be used for baiting, drawing out fanatics etc that will not cause panic in your army.
3: They are large enough units to deal with war machine hunters and the light infantry and flyers of other armies.
4: The can protect the flanks of your forces
5: The larger size of the detachments, compared to the last century means that they can be detached and sent on missions of their own.
6: They can charge the flanks of units attacking their parent unit.
I hope that you find this useful.
"Taken from 'The Imperial Army' by General Jonadons de Vasdonmac"
