AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Military, Authority & Decisions In MSLN series

Avatar_notADV · 2007-06-05, 12:57

Okay, force structure of the TSAB.

We know (from the manga) that "everybody" starts off in the Ground Forces. This is not actually true - certainly, Nanoha and Fate didn't start there - but we can assume that it's the normal point of entry for an enlistee.

So what do we know about them? What we've seen isn't all that impressive. Whatever unit size they're constituted as (I've seen battalions in the fansub, but I don't trust it to be accurate for things like that), they don't actually have all that much magical potential - Nakajima's unit was seriously augmented by Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate swinging by while on vacation.

This makes sense if you take into account that mages who reach A rank (often? always?) move into the Air Forces. So we would expect the Ground Forces to include a lot of trainees and low-potential mages. They're not that mobile. We can assume they have access to mechanized transport and possibly air transport, but we haven't actually seen anything like an APC. They're not the mages that get deployed to extra-dimensional work, anyway...

So your average officer in the Ground Forces can be assumed to have been promoted because of seniority, not pure potential; or else they're just an odd duck who refused transfer into the Air Forces.

The Air Forces are... well, we don't really know. About all that we know about these guys is that they can fly, and that they aren't fast-responders - they relieved Nakajima at the airport disaster only after Hayate and friends had essentially taken care of everything. We can presume that they're generally better-equipped and more powerful fighting formations than the Ground Forces. We can also assume they're not as numerous (just not that many mages at that rank), and that their command structure is a bit ponderous - if they were really quick on the draw, Hayate wouldn't have been impelled to set up her little Delta Force on the side. ;p

Finally, we have the enforcers. These guys are an odd little category - they seem to be the folks who get deployed externally, kind of like Marines in a way, but with more of an emphasis on individual action than anything you'd find in a modern military unit. There's a wide range of abilities here - you get crowds of them finished off by Precia and they don't even slow down the knights in A's, but on the other hand, Chrono and Fate are both enforcers, so presumably it's not totally unknown for them to have access to a few big guns. Can't say much more about 'em...

So yeah, Hayate's Div 6 is definitely filling the niche of a special-forces unit. We can assume that, because they're so -bad- at the whole training aspect, that there aren't actually any other special forces units in the TSAB hierarchy.

2007-06-05, 12:57	Link #18
Avatar_notADV Once and Current Subber Join Date: Dec 2005	Okay, force structure of the TSAB. We know (from the manga) that "everybody" starts off in the Ground Forces. This is not actually true - certainly, Nanoha and Fate didn't start there - but we can assume that it's the normal point of entry for an enlistee. So what do we know about them? What we've seen isn't all that impressive. Whatever unit size they're constituted as (I've seen battalions in the fansub, but I don't trust it to be accurate for things like that), they don't actually have all that much magical potential - Nakajima's unit was seriously augmented by Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate swinging by while on vacation. This makes sense if you take into account that mages who reach A rank (often? always?) move into the Air Forces. So we would expect the Ground Forces to include a lot of trainees and low-potential mages. They're not that mobile. We can assume they have access to mechanized transport and possibly air transport, but we haven't actually seen anything like an APC. They're not the mages that get deployed to extra-dimensional work, anyway... So your average officer in the Ground Forces can be assumed to have been promoted because of seniority, not pure potential; or else they're just an odd duck who refused transfer into the Air Forces. The Air Forces are... well, we don't really know. About all that we know about these guys is that they can fly, and that they aren't fast-responders - they relieved Nakajima at the airport disaster only after Hayate and friends had essentially taken care of everything. We can presume that they're generally better-equipped and more powerful fighting formations than the Ground Forces. We can also assume they're not as numerous (just not that many mages at that rank), and that their command structure is a bit ponderous - if they were really quick on the draw, Hayate wouldn't have been impelled to set up her little Delta Force on the side. ;p Finally, we have the enforcers. These guys are an odd little category - they seem to be the folks who get deployed externally, kind of like Marines in a way, but with more of an emphasis on individual action than anything you'd find in a modern military unit. There's a wide range of abilities here - you get crowds of them finished off by Precia and they don't even slow down the knights in A's, but on the other hand, Chrono and Fate are both enforcers, so presumably it's not totally unknown for them to have access to a few big guns. Can't say much more about 'em... So yeah, Hayate's Div 6 is definitely filling the niche of a special-forces unit. We can assume that, because they're so -bad- at the whole training aspect, that there aren't actually any other special forces units in the TSAB hierarchy.