What, in summary, are people in the military generally in charge of, based on rank?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kirona
  • Start date Start date
K

Kirona

Guest
I'm trying to get a general idea of military command structure for a fantasy novel I'm working on, and I want it to at least *resemble* realistic military command structure. I know enough to have a General in charge of the military (or a few generals in charge of big chunks and the nation's leader in charge overall), and that a Private has about as much authority as a potato. Beyond that, I don't know how it all works.

A lot of fantasy novels have Captains bouncing about with every five soldiers, while others make it seem like a Captain is only a few steps down from a General, so I can't really use them as a guideline - this is one of my problems. Is a Captain in charge of three or four people, or is he in charge of several hundred?

I've cut some ranks entirely from my list, since I don't see myself using them (specialist, for example). Still, if it seems they're important based on answers I get, they may be added back in. Others might end up being cut out if they seem useless for my purposes.

In short, I need a basic military structure for use with what is, in essence, a medieval military. I am using magic in the novel, but I can add in a few special pseudo-ranks once I know what I have to work with.
 
depends on which service.

For the Army or Marines.

2nd LT - Platoon leader - 30 to 40
1st Lt -Platoon leader, or company XO

Capt. - Company commander - 2 or 3 platoons. 80 to 120

Major - staff officer

Lt. Col - batallion commander - 3 to 4 companies - 500 people.

Colonel - brigade commander - 3 or 4 batalliuons, 3,500 people.

Brig general - staff office

Major general - Division Commander - 4 to 6 brigades 10.000 to 20,000
 
How many people a rank is in charge of varies wildly from service to service and from branch to branch. An E-4 in the Infantry in the Marines could be in charge of twelve people. In the Army's military intelligence, the equivalent of a potato. :) On the officer side, in the Navy, a Captain is in charge of an entire ship - which for big ships, is a helluva lot of people. In the Army, Captain is several ranks lower and would be in charge of a Company - anywhere from 40 to 150 people.

So is your medieval military naval or ground forces? I'm assuming ground forces.

Medieval militaries would probably not have as many ranks as modern miltiaries do. You'd probably have the equivalent of a private, a sergeant, a senior sergeant, then on the officer level, lieutenant, captain, colonel, and general. Depending on the SIZE of your little Army, you might not have both colonels and generals. Maybe skip one of those if it's tiny.

Just to be simple,
A. Put a sergeant in charge of about eight to twelve privates (a squad)
B. Put a senior sergeant in charge of three or four of those squads (forming a platoon), with a lieutenant as his commander actually running things (medieval and third world armies rely on their junior officers to run things, the U.S. and its allies are somewhat unique in letting sergeants run as many things as we do.)
C. Put a captain in charge of three or four of those platoons, forming a company.
D. Put a colonel in charge of three or four of those, forming a regiment or Battalion.
E. Put a general in charge of three of those, forming a brigade or call it your army, if it's a little one.

Here's a link detailing the whole history of rank. Feel free to borrow from their rank names or structures, since it's fantasy. Just thought I'd give you a basic idea of the structure of ground forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_rank
 
How many people a rank is in charge of varies wildly from service to service and from branch to branch. An E-4 in the Infantry in the Marines could be in charge of twelve people. In the Army's military intelligence, the equivalent of a potato. :) On the officer side, in the Navy, a Captain is in charge of an entire ship - which for big ships, is a helluva lot of people. In the Army, Captain is several ranks lower and would be in charge of a Company - anywhere from 40 to 150 people.

So is your medieval military naval or ground forces? I'm assuming ground forces.

Medieval militaries would probably not have as many ranks as modern miltiaries do. You'd probably have the equivalent of a private, a sergeant, a senior sergeant, then on the officer level, lieutenant, captain, colonel, and general. Depending on the SIZE of your little Army, you might not have both colonels and generals. Maybe skip one of those if it's tiny.

Just to be simple,
A. Put a sergeant in charge of about eight to twelve privates (a squad)
B. Put a senior sergeant in charge of three or four of those squads (forming a platoon), with a lieutenant as his commander actually running things (medieval and third world armies rely on their junior officers to run things, the U.S. and its allies are somewhat unique in letting sergeants run as many things as we do.)
C. Put a captain in charge of three or four of those platoons, forming a company.
D. Put a colonel in charge of three or four of those, forming a regiment or Battalion.
E. Put a general in charge of three of those, forming a brigade or call it your army, if it's a little one.

Here's a link detailing the whole history of rank. Feel free to borrow from their rank names or structures, since it's fantasy. Just thought I'd give you a basic idea of the structure of ground forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_rank
 
You have to realize each branch has different rank structure so all I can offer is Army.
Sergeants are in charge of 5-10 soldiers, Staff Sergeants are in charge of 20-30. Sereant First Class is in charge of up to 50 soldiers, while First Sergeants are in charge of up to hundres. Sergeant Majors can be in charge of 300 soldiers or in charge of entire divisions depending on their rank.
Now for officers, 2Lt have about 30, 1Lt have like 50, Captains have entire companies so up to a hundred or so. Majors and Lt Col have up to 500 or 1000 soldiers, Cols can have brigades so 5000 and then a division would go to a one star Gen while more stars= more soldiers.
 
Well I'm just give you a quick break down of the ranks (Army ranks) and their jobs in todays military and you can run with it from there. I'll start with Corporal the first NCO rank that is above Privat First Class.

Cpl- Entry NCO isnt really in charge of anything but will some times serve as an assistant squad leader. NOTE a squad is about 6-9 guys.

Sergeant- Is typically the rank of a Fire Team leader, in a squad their are usually 2 fireteams each consisting of about 4 men.

Staff Sergeant- Leads a squad of typically of 9 guys

Sgt. 1st Class- Typically is the rank of a Platoon Sergeant in other words he advises the Platoon Leader and basically acts as his assistant. A Platoon consists of about 3-4 squads so roughly 30 guys.

skip a few ranks

2nd Lieutenant- Your entry level Officer, they typically lead a Platoon.

1st Lietenant- Can lead a platoon but is usually the Company Executive Officer acting as the Company Commanders assistant, thought they may also hold a staff position.

Captain- Alright these guys lead Companies, A Company consists of about 3-4 Platoons so around 100+ guys. Not a lot but not small either, so no a Captain isnt going to be sloshing around with 4 guys in combat they will be way more back from the combat Commanding the men. However if we're talking Special Forces then they would be right in the thick of it.

Major- Typically is the Battalion Executive Officer or holds some kind of staff position, Note a Battalion consists of a couple Companies. At this point I'm sure you can do the Math.

Lieutenant Colnel- Leads the Battalion. So about 300-1000 troops.

Colonel- Leads a Brigade, which is a couple Battalions so we're talking 1000-3000

Brigadier General- Usually serves as Executive Officer of a Division.

Major General- Usually leades a Division so we're talking huge numbers of Tens of thoudsands of men.

Lietenant General- Commands a Corps which is around 30,000-50,000 men.

General- Then you got your top dog Four-star General who is in charge of whole theatres of operations. So your talking Someone like Gen. Petraues whom is the US CENTCOM Commander so he's incharge of basically all of the Middle East and more.
 
Make sure you separate your officers from your enlisted. Junior officers will lead groups of 30-50 people along with their senior NCOs (Lieutenants, Ensigns, Captains, Commanders, Generals, Admirals, Majors... in no particular order, those are some officer ranks). NCOs (sergeants, corporals, and petty officers) all lead groups of the junior enlisted men (platoon and squad sized level), and they rose through the enlisted ranks to become NCOs. The lowest officer is still above the highest NCO though, regardless of experience.

Btw, in the Army/Air Force/Marine Corps, Captain is O-3 and they can be very much in the thick of things. In the Navy and Coast Guard, Captain is O-6 and one step below Rear Admiral. Go figure.
 
Back
Top