I use GT: Ground Forces as my model for Imperial ground troops. Here are the high points in re: the Marines
- The Marines are the Imperium's surgical strike team. They are the Pros from Mora, Personal Violence made manifest. Marine doctrine stresses aggression over finesse and applies that aggression at the fulcrum of the problem. Marines take very few prisoners because when they're done with what they do, there's very few bad guys left to surrender.
- Marine doctrine is as a striking force in raids. It is long on teeth and short on tail. It has fewer artillery battalions and MUCH fewer vehicles. Most combat service support personnel [engineers, medical, chaplains, logistics, etc.] are Navy.
- Marines use a three battalion regiment model. Each battalion has 4 companies and a small HQ element. This will occasionally be augmented by a company of grav tanks from a Marine Armored Regiment. In standard rotation, one battalion is ashore providing garrisons, training, on leave, and available for emergency deployment, the second battalion is deployed on capital ships [either en masse aboard the squadron flagship or in companies divided among the ships of the squadron] and the third is broken up as ship's troops detachments on cruisers and the patrol vessels of the Reserve Fleets. These unit assignments change on an annual rotation basis.
- The Marines are equipped with the absolute best equipment that is available. That means TL 13-14 Battle Dress and Plasma Guns for the line Marines supported by several in TL 15 Battle Dress with Fusion Guns as support.
- All Marines are drop- and protected forces trained by definition, however they much prefer to deploy in Astrin GAPCs.
- The Marine Regiment is a combat formation and is designed to be deployed together.
- There are no Marine Divisions. The largest Marine unit deployed is the Marine Brigade, a group of two entire regiments with a battalion from Marine Armored. In a Bad War situation, the Marines are mostly deployed as battalions or regiments.
I use CT/MegaTRav/TNE as my model for the Imperial Army, Imperial Marines and local troops/colonial troops.
It is explicitly different as a construct than that created by Doug for the GURPS Traveller Alternate Universe in his "Ground Forces". Doug essentially riffed off 19th/20th Earth, moving it forward to the 57th Century. For some reason he ignored the vehicles already specified in the OTU (see below) for the Marines, and instead decreed they used the Trepida tank and Astrin APC (which in the OTU are Imperial Army vehicles and which are only TL14 and not TL15).
In CT the Marines are detailed beginning with the chargen in the LBBs and Book 4: Mercenary; then in the article by Loren in JTAS #12 (which Mongoose has replicated in its own JTAS issue; and in Adventure 1: Kinunir we see a shipboard unit detailed; while in CT/Striker Book 3 we see the Imperial Marine Grav APC (TL15) detailed; in 5FW boardgame we see the disposition of the Imperial Marines in the Marches (with Imperial Marine Regiments being elite units on a scale of about 1 per subsector in this part of the Imperium, with an IN BatRon or CruRon able to carry a Marine Regt.); while in Invasion: Earth boardgame we see that for temporary duty an Imperial Marine division-sized unit was formed during the Solomani Rim War.
In MegaTrav we see in 101 Vehicles that the Imperial Marine Grav APC from Striker has a name (the Empress).
In TNE Regency Sourcebook and Regency Combat Vehicle Guide we see the disposition of Marine Regiments across the Spinward Marches after the 5FW, and the vehicles they use are detailed extremely comprehensively.
The OTU Marines are organised in Regiments but operate in Task Forces. A Marine regiment has three task force HQs. Subordinate companies of the regiment and any attached troops, are task assigned to HQs as is required for the mission, such as interdiction of a world: "it is not unknown for them to be apart for years".
A marine regiment has a total of nine line marine companies available (a line company has an HQ and four platoons in APCs - unless ships troops). It also has five batteries of meson guns. It has two lift cavalry companies and one grav tank company.
The organisations of all units at company and below are constant and remain the same regardless of assignment.
All marine line troops are jump trained, and are issued jump capsules if the mission warrants. Marines are equipped to TL15 standards, including Battle Dress and FGMP-14s.
... but black sunburst?? Hmm.. this murican male meathead but Italian trained fashionista would naturally ask... and just did to the better half who has more style in her pinkie than my 160 pounds of bones... hey darling!!! What colors looks best with Olive Green? Bright colors!!! Yeah I could see that. I'd say orange would make that color pop and sizzle... or better yet.. let's go 21st century and get back in touch with our pastel loving retro 80's Miami Vice sides... salmon pink!!!
