Aethodian military

This article covers the doctrines, logistics, etc of the military of Theodia.
This article was current as of 2016, June.

Rank

System

Theodia does not yet have a formal system of military rank, and, for the time-being, uses a simple irregular/regular/mercenary/captain/general distinction, with generals leading strategic efforts, captains leading operational efforts, and the others leading tactical efforts.
When Theodia does eventually develop a system of rank, it will have a different set for each mode of combat, and will be shared between the two branches (those being the army and the navy, with the air force integrated into them).

Current officers

Current officers include: Havieyr, who has studied at West Point; Saiygo, who has a pilot's license; and Swena, who is well-versed in warfare (and, indeed, who wrote this article).

Doctrines

More doctrines can be found here.

Theodia's military doctrines are, in general, focused on forcing an enemy capitulation as soon as possible, and on total mobilisation of the Theodian people, as the country does not believe in half-wars. It is fairly ruthless, and operates off of the principle that war is inherently inhumane, and therefore should be made to end as quickly as possible, regardless of the inhumanity required to bring about such a swift end.

Area	Type	Name	Description
Micronational	Multiple	Microrealism	We're not deluded; we know we're weak and insignificant. Additionally, we do not have the supplies nor manpower to fulfill our primary military doctrines. However, we still want to have positions with respect to the ways of modern warfare. Therefore, we will adopt the following doctrines to the greatest extents possible; but also have fallback doctrines and equipment.
		Fallback	In the event that we are nowhere near being close to being able to fulfill the majority of our doctrines, we will focus on guerilla warfare, and on designing simple but effective weapons and armour which our citizens can make themselves. Ideally, these weapons will also come in non-lethal variations, and Theodia in fallback mode should default to non-lethal armament.
Political	Grand-Strategic	Neutrality	Avoid getting involved in wars, especially those that are of no import to us. If another country is falling apart, that's their problem, and it's not our place to intervene, nor is it worth Theodian blood.
		War XOR Peace	Although we may consider sending limited expeditionary forces to assist an ally; if we are to get involved abroad in any significant capacity, we will not do police-actions. If you have so little control over your own country that partisans within it are beginning to pose a threat to our country, we will not just declare war against the partisans—we will declare war against your entire country. We will force a capitulation as soon as possible, redraw borders, set up a transitional government, and get out of there.
General	Strategic	Modified Ruthless Capitulation	Destroy every possible means by which the enemy might oppose us—economy, civilians, hospitals, whatever—in order to force them to capitulate as soon as possible. The 'modified' bit is that, in order to prevent deep-seated future hatred of our people, needless civilian casualties should be kept to a minimum; but, again, if a civilian is seriously acting like they could pose a threat, they are a valid target.
		Strategic Starvation	In particular, focus on cutting off as many supplylines as possible in order to literally starve the enemy out.
	Operational	Manoeuver-Warfare	Out-manoeuver and strike at the enemy before they have time to react.
	Tactical	Combined Arms	Focus on melding together multiple types of warfare at once.
	Logistical	Flexible Arms	Try to make as much of our equipment usable in as many different situations as possible.
Build-Up	Logistical	Neighboured Win-Hold-Win	Our military should be capable of fighting up to two wars against neighbouring countries simultaneously, where one war involves holding off the enemy until the other war is won. The smaller war should be won first, in order to provide resources and a larger front for the bigger one. If there are no neighbouring countries, then the countries which this shall be compared two are to be decided relative to what we believe to be our biggest threats.
Command	Multiple	Mission-Based	Subordinates are given an explanation of the desired outcome, and they figure out the implementation. This decreases load at the top, and increases the speeds at which ground-units can respond to circumstances.
Attack	Operational	Modern Blitzkrieg	Break enemy lines, take strategic points, flank, and encircle (thus cutting off supplies).
		Starved Attrition	Try to engage in attrition-warfare only against units that have been starved for supply.
Economic	Logistical	Total War	The entire country will be leveraged to help our victory; there is no middle ground when we are at war.

Tactics

Formations

The Theodian military typically uses a few basic formations. The most ubiquitous is the Theodian shield wall, in which a line of shieldmyn one-person thick comprises the front and back lines. Reserve shieldmyn line up in equal columns on the flanks of the front and back lines, and replenish any fallen shieldmyn in either line. Polemyn are positioned just behind the front line, in even rows. Bowmyn are positioned behind the polemyn, also in even rows.
The other basic formation is a schiltron. In a schiltron, bowmyn form a solid circle. Polemyn then form a circle around the bowmyn. Lastly, shieldmyn form a circle around the polemyn. This formation does not have a flank, but also does not quite have the offensive power of the normal shieldwall, as the polemyn are less able to thrash the enemy.
The typical marching formation is the 'trirow', where there is a row of shieldmyn, then a row of polemyn, and then a row of bowmyn. This pattern is repeated until the entire unit is accounted for.
If an army is almost exclusively composed of bowmyn, a loose formation is assumed, with regular, square rows and columns.

Manœuvers

If facing cavalry, polemyn are taught to turn their flails upside down, and point the spear-end out of the shieldwall, so as to impale any advancing horses.
If facing a large amount of enemy firepower, such as during an offensive siege, the scutum tactic, borrowed from the Romans of antiquity, is employed. In this, all shieldmyn raise their heavy shields. Shieldmyn that are not on a flank raise these shields above their heads, so as to be parallel with the ground; while shieldmyn on the flanks simply raise their shields as usual. The points of flailspears are positioned in the gaps between shields, and bows are sheathed.
Polemyn, when on the flanks of a unit, are taught to switch to the pointed ends of their flailspears.

Manpower

Sourcing

Theodia has universal conscription, active for every single citizen, regardless of age or ability; but those with significantly limited ability (such as children, the extremely elderly, and invalids) are placed into non-combat roles. Allowance is also made for conscientious observers, such that they are also preferably placed into non-combat roles; but, in a pinch, they can be made to fight in a limited capacity.
However, conscripts are only intended for the country's defence, and therefore would only be mobilized in the event that an enemy were on Theodian soil itself. To the extent that Theodia has need for an offencive force, it uses volunteers, regulars, and mercenaries. Volunteers are common citizens who volunteer for service, regulars are the country's few full-time soldiers, and mercenaries are what one would expect.

Training

Every Theodian citizen must train for service for at least 2 ISO hours (1 Theodian hour) every 6 days (one Theodian week), allowing for up to 6 absences every 144 days (one Theodian fiscal year). This is intended to instill discipline and fitness into the general population, as well as to ensure that the country is maximally prepared for war. It also demystifies armaments.

Defence

Theodia believes in having a strong defence throughout the country, and therefore advocates walling cities into districts (for both martial and regulatory benefits), dispersion of facilities across the country rather than their placement into a few centralised places (this includes the legislature, for example, which operates entirely online, without a formal parliamentary building), defensive structures placed throughout the country, fortified borders, and, where possible, underground construction.
As well, Theodians are encouraged to use libre open-source software wherever possible, in order to make it more difficult for foreign governments and companies and such to spy on and/or disable computer-usage throughout the country.
Additionally, Theodia realises the virtually nonexistent threat posed to it by other micronations (limited almost entirely to cyberwarfare); and so focuses primarily on responding to macronation aggression.

Equipment

More equipment can be found here.

Overview

Equipment in the Theodian military was first formalised throughout the second half of 2013 and has been revised continuously since. However, the government, due to lack of resources, is unable to standard-issue this equipment; so the standards make a distinction between 'regulars' (those who meet the government's specifications), and 'irregulars' (those who do not). Citizens interested in volunteering for abroad service in the Theodian military are encouraged to make their gear fit at least the basic standards of a 'regular' armsmyn. The equipment-standards described here are primarily per the fallback doctrine of the Theodian military, whereby equipment is to be reasonably possible for an individual to create themselves; but the government also has standards for modernised equipment, which is handled in its own subsection.
As a note on vocabulary use, it is generally common practice in the discussion of medieval armour to call a Reuleaux triangle as a 'wankel', after the Wankel Engine (even though this engine does not use a true Reuleaux triangle). This article follows this convention.

Arms

File:Th Arms.png

Concept art of Theodian arms

Overview

All regular armsmyn are required to carry a single primary arm. The primary arm of an armsmyn determines hir class; shield-users are known as 'shieldmyn', bow-users are known as 'bowmyn', and polearm-users are known as 'polemyn'. They must also each carry a flanged mace, tool, and pocket multitool, which are collectively known as 'secondary' arms.

Primary

Shieldmyn

Shieldmyn carry two shields: the light shield, and the heavy shield. The light shield is an oblate teardrop punch shield with a strong boss at the center, its grip inside the boss. The heavy shield is a modified tower shield which has one long prong on each of the bottom 2 corners, an equally long horn on the top-left corner, and round excisions on the center-sides. Their uses differ somewhat significantly; the light shield is designed to be a mobile battle-tool, while the heavy shield is designed to provide quality protection in a shield-wall formation. Consequently, the light shield is generally used in single and unstructured combat, while the heavy shield is generally used in formation-fighting.

Bowmyn

Bowmyn carry a deflex recurve compound flatbow, typically constructed of pipe, with a deep shelf allowing a shot down the centerline of the bow. Arrows have 3 feather-flights (these provide quality flight without to much resistance of greater numbers of flights or the instabilities of lower numbers) in a right-hand (from the archer's perspective) whorl pattern (so as to have the arrow hold itself against the bow-stave just a bit better during release), and end in a bodkin point. They tend to be fairly cheap and to have somewhat considerably variant splines, which is why Theodian bows must be centerline shot, so that the archer's paradox is mitigated. Bowmyn also have a half-wankel strapped to their bow-forearm.

Polemyn

Polemyn are to carry a polearm of at least their full standing height. It is to have a collapsible grip, a stout pommel, and two heads: one being a mourning star flail, and the other being a spearhead with a crossbar. Polemyn carry a wankel on their off-hand forearm.

Secondary

1-handed mace

The 1-handed mace is to be constructed of 5 cubicly curved prongs with a hollow upside-down convex-triangular core, whose downward edge is serrated and sharpened. There are 5 of these prongs because 5 is the smallest polygon, the angle between whose radii is acute (this is the minimal number of prongs necessary for edge-alignment to be relatively unimportant, and for hooking the equipment of opponents with more than one prong); the core is hollow for to allow for more comfortable weighting; the core is cubicly curved for to create a space between the prongs and the shaft which can be used for hooking enemy equipment; the core is triangular to make the tip of the prongs polygonally minimal (thus allowing easier penetration and cutting-into of armour; compare to a bodkin); the cores are convex to increase durability; the cores have a point facing downwards for to provide a cutting surface (in the event that this weapon is used against a fleshy target, the weapon can be used to cut it open after impaling it with a prong); and this cutting surface is serrated for to make it more effective at cutting. At the tip of this mace is a convex spike. The hilt is fashioned of a basket and has 2 prongs on the front and back which extend upward for to catch incoming blades. This basket contains within it a single curved quillion for the index finger to wrap around; it contains the grip, the length of which is ribbed to prevent unintentional disarmament; and it contains the pommel, which tilts forward for to reinforce the basket and make the hilt more comfortable. The hilt technically extends upwards past the basket, forming a ricasso of about one hand in height. This gives way to the hollow shaft that leads to the head. The reason for the making of many of the mace's components lighter was for to cause the point of balance to be located within the hand, provided the user great control of hirs weapon; as well at to allow for a larger head.
This mace's head was originally inspired by the Dacian falx and the English billhook, and was comprised of several crescent-shaped blades whose points faced outward. It later became essentially several axe-blades spun around a central point, and nowadays has become essentially 5 curved military picks spun around a central point. The handle was inspired by those of a number of late-period swords.

Tool

The tool carried by each armsmyn is a personal choice, and it doubles both as its usual function and as a backup weapon. The machete is a popular choice, for it is quite useful for clearing paths through tropical vegetation.

Multitool

The current standard-issue pocket multi-tool is the Victorinox Soldatenmesser 08, the same used by the Swiss military. It is also used as an eating knife and misericord.

Housing

Each arm has a specific sheath. Secondary arms are to be located on the on-hand hip, the mace in a clip-in hold, and the tool in a frog. Light shields, bows, and collapsed polearms are to be sheathed on the off-hand side. Tower shields are to be worn much like a backpack, and wielded before assembling into a shield formation. A bowmyn's main quiver is to be located on the back over the off-hand shoulder, and should be able to accommodate at least two dozen arrows; it should also have an attached cover which is easily opened (this is to protect ammunition from the elements). Bowmyn are advised to hook as many backup quivers to themselves as they can without hindering combat performance.

Safe variants

As the Theodian military defaults to non-deadly force, the weapons most commonly equipped by Theodian militiamyn are those that are unlikely to cause serious harm to other people in regular use.
The flanged mace's serrated blades are replaced by heavy rubber, and the spike at its end by a cylinder of durable padding.
Bowmyn utilize the same bow as they do when equipped with deadly arms, but their arrows differ, being most typically constructed of pipe, paper, tennis balls, and duct-tape, and even cheaper than the deadly versions.
The polearm used by polemyn is essentially the same as the deadly one, except that the flail-head is composed of a sphere of heavy rubber, and its spear-point composed of a cylinder of durable padding. The metal chain is replaced by a stout rope.

Armor

File:Th Armor.png

Concept art of Theodian armour

Description

The armour-requirement for a militiamyn to be considered a 'regular' (materials mentioned below) is a lamellar cuirass with square Theodian lamellæ and lacing; front and back besagues; splinted rerebraces, extended vambraces, extended cuisses, greaves, and sabatons; goussets of chainmail on otherwise unprotected spots (so, against the elbows, the backs of the knees, the armpits, etc); a splinted great-helm with a visor (excepting bowmyn, who do not have visors on their helms), a coned top, slits for the eyes and mouth and ears, chainmail over the mouth-hole and the ear-holes, clear plastic over the eye-holes, scale aventail, and internal chinstraps. Beneath this armour is a padded aketon containing between two sheets of cloth: equilateral triangles of open- and closed- cell foam symmetrically arranged in a horizontal-dominant pattern, with the open-cell foam on top, and the closed-cell foam on the bottom; the two cloth sheets then sewn together along the spaces between each triangle, with rivets placed at the points of every triangle (essentially, the foam is quilted between the two sheets). The aketon will be a three-piece suit, with the body, arms, and legs all one piece; the head, another piece; and a little skirt which can be attached to the aketon that covers the body, which reduces noise caused by the cuirass and cuisses banging together.
Demi-gauntlets are also required, but the types of gauntlet differ by hand and class. These gauntlets are known by the fingers which are individually covered. For example, 1A (1-All) would be a mitten, 1X (1-exclusive) would cover just the thumb, and 12A (1-2-All) would cover the thumb, index finger, and the rest of the hand. A plus sign (+) after a glove indicates armouring. For the main hand, shieldmyn and polemyn use 12A+, while bowmyn use X2A (Theodian bowmyn are trained with the Mongolian draw). For the off-hand, shieldmyn use 1A, while bowmyn and polemyn use 1A+.

Design-notes

At the time of creation, most Theodians lived in southwest Florida, so the standard armour had to be designed to work in high-heat and high-humidity environments (traditional plate armour, for example, was utterly out of the question). Lamellar was chosen for the chest because of its high strength and good breathability, and because padding does not need to be as thick as it does under chain mail. Scalemail was deemed to work well-enough for an aventail, as it provides quality protection from blunt-trauma while remaining quite flexible and less of an oven than a gorget. As well, the splint vambraces do not go all the way to the wrist; this is so that that armsmyn may remove their gloves and pour water onto their wrists to cool their bodies down (and, in fact, when in warm climates, gloves are required to be off when not needed). All armour pieces, especially those in the basic version, are considered to be quite easy to make as far as armour goes, while providing quality protection and remaining cool and mobile. Theodia's current arctic locale does not require modification to this armour, apart from using warmer padding.

Camouflage

In 2013 November, Theodia began developing a special general-purpose camouflage (with a focus on Florida) that could be easily integrated with the standard armour. On 13-11-21, the current camo pattern, Theodcam, became standard. It is a two-colour scheme, using the colours of sawgrass and dull fur (alligator skin colour + medium fur colour). Despite its focus on the Floridian Everglades, the camo is considered to function fairly well in transitional terrain, and makes use of colour-matching and disruptive coloration. In addition, some of the equipment is transparent due to being made of clear plastics, thus providing exceptional camouflage to those areas, so long as they are made to be poor reflectors of light. However, the camouflage is nigh-impossible to apply directly to UHMW polyurethane, so alternatives are being considered. The colours don't have to match the Theodcam pattern exactly, but they should be close, generally following the scheme of brown + dark-grey. These coloured plates should be used in random order in the cases of lamellar and chainmail, and alternating in the case of splint.

How lamellæ are organized in the cuirass.*
*Note that this only shows half of the design; in the real thing, both sides are 'outsides'.

Materials

All scales are required to be made of 2mm UHMW polyurethane (with the Theodian lamellar design, this results in octoplex armour of 16mm thick), all splint (including besagues) is required to be made of 4mm UHMW polyurethane, and chainmail requires 1/2 solid and 1/2 closed UHMW polyurethane rings with a radius of 8mm or less woven in a 3-in-1 Persian sheet pattern (so-called "Trinity" maille). 1mm woven UHMW cord (such as Dyneema or Spectra) must be used to attach several components, and must be of a brown or black color.
The lamellar cuirass must be laced such that the plates' outside edges face downward on the front and upward on the back, and such that the top (if downward) or bottom (if upward) row of plates overlap from starboard to port across the body.
The inner-aketon and any other cloth piece that directly nears the skin have specifications that differ per the climate. In warmer climes (such as that of Neapolita, Theodia's urheimat), these are required to be a 45° diagonal twill of linen (cotton and hemp are allowed in the basic version) with seersuckered warps to create a cool microclime near the skin. In colder climes (such as that of Jamesonland), these are required to be of any sufficiently warm material. Cloth forming the outer aketon may be made of any sturdy material, including synthetics, but an aramid stitch-bonded warp-knit is preferred (these Aramid fibers are protected from UV damage by any UHMW and polycarbonate layers above them). Nylon is disallowed due to its inefficacy in heat and humidity (the latter of which remaining somewhat important in many cooler climes). The inner layer of the aketon, should it be woven, should ideally be in a herringbone pattern, culminating in a chevron (ʌ) at the breast and back, and a caron (v) at the sides, so as to help ensure ease and bilateral consistency of movement.
Shields use about 24mm of transparent polycarbonate plastic, so as to give the bearer superior vision; shields are then dyed (often with Rit) a random mixture of colours from the Theodcam pattern. Shield-bosses are required to be even thicker, at about 30mm, and to be made of UHMW polyurethane. Shields are trimmed in UHMW polyurethane to help keep their edge.

Armory

The government has a small stockpile of about ten cheap boffers should the need to arm a militia arise. They are constructed of closed-cell foam from pool-noodles, PVC pipe, and duct-tape. They are poorly weighted and limited in design, so it is planned to expand the stockpile with superior arms at some point in the future.

Research

A schematic of a proposed spring-gun

The Theodian government devotes a significant amount of time on military research, attempting to outfit all members of the Theodian national militia with the most efficiently effective equipment imaginable.
The lamellar design, Theodcam, the gambeson design, the Theodian mace and its handle, the spearflail, the heavy shield, and the regular armour standard were all developed by Swena on behalf of the Theodian government. Trinity maille was not, but is a highly atypical weave, and was adopted by the Theodian military upon its discovery.
Currently, research is underway on improved missile weapons. A pump gun powered by a coiled spring has been proposed. It has a clip that can hold up to 6 balls, and a bayonet at the end for melee combat. It can be constructed almost entirely of plastic.
Another area of research is in developing easily constructed boats for navigating city canals and lakes. A design has not yet been proposed, although it is likely to be a catamaran and, if a sail is chosen to be the primary means of propulsion, to have a single lateen sail.
Some research is also being conducted on unpowered exoskeletons for to relieve some of the weight of the armour worn by soldiers in the military.

History

The early Republic

At the time when the equipment of the Theodian military was first being standardised, there very quickly came 'Basic' and 'Advanced' versions, with the former geared toward easily obtainable materials, and the latter geared toward superior protection. Eventually, in early 2015, the Basic design was dropped, and the Advanced version was made increasingly easy to manufacture.
As well, for a time (primarily during 2013), Theodia considered developing part of its society within Minecraft, due to its ability to simulate some of the aspects of running an actual country. During this time, Minecraft-based military technology was developed extensively; and some of it has since been ported to the real world.
Typically, castles and forts were built in the shape of an octagonal star, with the cardinal points being built as towers that are connected to the main body of the structure via skybridges. This completely eliminates blind-spots around the fortification, and protects the portcullises from enemy artillery-fire. This kind of fortification is known as a star-fort, and was first developed in the late middle ages as a response to increasingly powerful gunpowder-artillery.
Walls and towers were typically constructed in three layers, the lowest having a square arrow-slit, the middle having a tall arrow-slit, and the top machicolated and hoarded.
Gates were typically constructed of one or more portcullises, their walls and ceilings were peppered with murder-holes, and their floors were comprised of soul-sand over slime-blocks. For those entrances whose normal use required crossing by foot or horse, a contraption was usually added, which allowed the slime-blocks to be raised and lowered at will, so as to minimise the slowing of travel during times of peace. Portcullises were typically raised and lowered via single-piston elevators, and comprised of gravel and either iron bars or netherbrick fence.
Towns were often walled in districts, with expansion handled by the addition of a new district.

During the Kingdom

In the past, the Theodian military did not have standardised equipment, so soldiers wielded whatever they could find—typically outdated, deadly arms which included axes, machetes, swords, knives, and bows. Round tabletops are known to have been made into shields, and many used wooden weapons. Most wore surcoats, particularly if they were wearing armour; it was believed to add further protection from the heat of the sun.

Antiquity

Many years before Theodia's founding, people living in the modern area of Neapolita often fashioned projectile weapons out of K-nex pieces and rubber bands. One particular piece, a large crossbow, has survived in relatively good condition; although its rubber-band string has long since disintegrated. It shot long aluminium bolts without fletchings. The people in historical Neapolita had developed an advanced method of weaving rubber bands together to create increasingly powerful strings, but their technique has since been lost, along with much of their weaponry.