The Terran Magellanic Empire maintains the Terran Magellanic Marine Service as it’s principle ground forces. The Marines were formed as a response to the problems revealed by the First Mwoah War. The Marines are intended as a ready reaction force able to quickly respond in a crisis; allowing for the mobilisation of more substantial Diadochi forces.
The Imperial Magellanic Marines
The Imperial decree of 2214T that created the Marine Service lists the role of the Marines as "To act to protect the interests and stability of the Empire and the safety of its officials and citizens in times of crisis; and to render such assistance as may be required by the properly empowered civil authorities, providing that such assistance does not interfere with it’s primary role in defence of the realm". The decree further prohibits current serving or reserve military personnel from holding the positions of either Seneschal of Defence or Deputy Seneschal of Defence for the Marines, thus establishing the principle of civilian control of the Marines.
The Legions
The Legion is the basic operational unit of the Marines. Each Legion is a self contained combined arms combat unit and there are currently eleven active Legions. Each Legion consists of two infantry battlegroups and one cavalry battlegroup (the named Albion Legion is an exception, having an additional infantry battlegroup, giving a total of three); in addition to a reconnaissance battalion, an engineer battalion and a heavy artillery battalion. Currently during peacetime one Legion is deployed with each Naval Station and the remaining Legions are held as a central reserve.
In addition to these forces there is the Jneril Eiahya Legion and the Querad Brigade. The Eiahya Legion is organised as a standard Marine Legion, but while it is under the tactical command of the Marines, administratively it is a completely separate organisation; recruited from and funded exclusively by non-Imperial Jneril. The Querad Brigade is an ad hoc unit with the strength of one infantry and one cavalry battlegroup. It is manned by personnel drawn from other existing Marine units on a temporary basis; and is deployed in the Querad Union under the Treaty of Hakkon.
Regimental Organisation
The Marine regiments are the core of the Marine Service, each regiment is an independent administrative unit responsible for both recruitment and training. The regiments fiercely retain their independence and separate esprit de corp. Regiments are assigned a seniority according to their date of formation (older regiments have a higher seniority) and some fierce rivalries exist between the various regiments.
There are currently two types of Marine regiments; infantry and cavalry. Both are in fact balanced combined arms forces, differing only in the proportions of troops. Each regiment is organised into a number of battalions; currently a line regiment will consist of 3 active line battalions, an artillery battalion, a reconnaissance company, an engineer company, a reserve battalion and a training battalion, numbered sequentially (by tradition the reserve battalion is always numbered as the 13th battalion and the training battalion as the 14th battalion); the reconnaissance and engineer companies are numbered sequentially as independent companies. The combat units are then organised into a battlegroup and assigned to a Legion. During peacetime, a regiment will only maintain one battlegroup, but during wartime, additional battlegroups may be raised in order to form additional legions. Each line battalion will consist of 4 line companies, a reconnaissance platoon and an artillery battery. In an infantry regiment, a line company will consist of 2 infantry platoons, a cavalry platoon and a support platoon; whilst in a cavalry regiment the proportions of infantry and cavalry are reversed.
During peacetime the reserve battalion in mainly an administrative unit, maintaining records of the regiments reserve personnel and ensuring that they attend regular reserve musters (generally 3 or 4 weeks a year) to ensure that their skills remain current. During wartime it will muster and retrain the regiment’s reserve personnel. It will then act as an additional training battalion. The training battalion’s function is to train the regiment’s recruits and to ensure that it’s current active personnel are fully conversant with the most up to date tactics and equipment.
In addition to these units, each regiment also maintains a Shipboard Service Command. Theoretically this is a purely administrative unit which draws troops from the line units for temporary service aboard Navy ships. In practice the Shipboard Service Units have evolved into permanent units. Thus a Marine regiment may also produce several shipboard units (ranging from squad to battalion size); and though the personnel for these units are drawn from the regiment’s line units on a rotating basis, the regiment is deliberately kept sufficiently over strength so that there is no effective loss to the line units. Shipboard Service Units are named for the ship on which they serve (thus the Marine company serving aboard the ship of the line "Warspite" is called the Warspite Company). Shipboard units are entirely composed of infantry.
Non-Human Units
Whilst the majority of the personnel serving in the Marines are Terran Humans, numerous other races are also represented. In the case of non-Terran Humans, these generally serve in the same units (though the Corps of Guides and the Ekahkg Rislfelir are composed entirely of Imperial citizens of Efrip and Akhrini decent). Non-Humans generally serve in support units so as to ease the logistical problems. However three Marine regiments are recruited entirely from non-Humans. The Frontier Regiment (recruited from various Imperial non-Human citizens); the Voidward Musketeers (recruited from Imperial Dk’arek citizens); and the Jlinaa Arquebusiers (recruited from Imperial Jneril citizens). In addition the entire Eiahya Legion is recruited from non-Imperial Jneril.
Current Marine Regiments
Cavalry Regiments
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