Of the various hull types and mission variants which would be required in order to bring any of the currently-published Omega Octant empires - let alone those "Omega's Lost Futures" factions currently in playtest, or still waiting to be offered as such - up to campaign compatible standards, one key topic would be to consider what, if any, commando ships a given Omega empire might field - as well as what, if any, SFB Module M/Star Fleet Marines data might be required in order to represent the Marine battalions to be deployed from such hulls.

So, I wanted to use this thread to take a look at this topic in more detail.

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At this time of typing, there are relatively few commando/troop units in print for any of the Omega Octant empires - and even fewer Module M/SFM data points for such units.

The Mæsrons have a light troop pod in Captain's Log #20; the Iridani have a commando/troop module for their Quest ships in Module Omega #3; while a number of Omega empires - the Mæsrons, Koligahr, Trobrin, Vari, Probr, Drex, Loriyill, Iridani, Worb, FRA, and Qixa - have commando PF variants in Module Omega #5.

Meanwhile, the Federal Republic "update" file in Captain's Log #53 notes that the Aurorans lean heavily towards the Marine force organization they inherited from the United Federation of Planets - with certain adjustments based on the various Orion, Klingon, Lyran, and ISC arrivals to show up later in the timeline. That said, the home fleet of the Auroran Navy doubles as a "military police" force - not least in terms of screening ships in FRA space for any signs of Sigvirion infection. However, the only FRA commando hull currently in print is their aforementioned (and conjectural) commando PF.

And since the Souldra do not use boarding parties of any kind, they do not need any commando hulls or Marine battalions. Of course, one still needs to take grave care of the threat posed to any "living" Marine units by Souldra Black Shards.

So, that leaves a lot to consider, in terms of those empires which do make use of Marines, and in how they might in fact make use of them.

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For example: as is the case or the Federation and for the Inter-Stellar Concordium over in the Alpha Octant, it is likely that the Tazol, Wallimi, and Vulpa had their own Marine organizations they used prior to the formation of the Mæsron Alliance. Indeed, even then, such differences might persist across the eight Cycles of Omega history - not least given the impact of the Mæsron Civil War and Collapse.

As in, one might see a number of Marine battalion types in Mæsron space: a "unified" battalion organization intended to be used by all member worlds (and perhaps used as a default by the various minor species which joined the Alliance over time, biological constraints permitting), plus distinct battalion types for the "big three" species.

As to what that might look like: might the scientifically-minded Tazol lean heavily towards fielding combat engineers? Might the bat-like Wallimi instead prefer an "armoured cavalry" approach, with a heavy emphasis on mobility? And might the wolf-like Vulpa favour the use of commando units - both during their time as a Mæsron member species, and in the "post-Mæsron" Vulpa Insurgency and Vulpa Confederacy?

So even if the "unified" Mæsron ship designs were to use a common set of commando variants, the way in which each sub-set of Mæsron happens to use them might vary significantly - even before one considers what kind of modifications the "post-Mæsron" Vulpa might make to their own commando ships.

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Actually, there is one empire for which a range of commando ships might go a long way towards explaining hem in terms of combat doctrine: the Vari Combine.

In-universe, the Vari are notorious for going on "blood raids", particularly as they find the blood of the mammalian Mæsron species to be a particular delicacy. The First Great War was sparked by such raids, as was a later war between the Vriss-led Vari and the Vulpa Confederacy.

Yet one might wonder how this is so, based on what we know of Vari starship design. For one thing, most Vari SSDs currently in print have fewer than average numbers of Marine squads - fewer even than their Mæsron counterpart designs. They have no great numbers of transporter boxes, nor large shuttle complements, nor the capacity to land on planets (save for the Vari commando PF). When comparing this to other species which historically favour boarding party operations, this appears to be a counter-productive set of design choices.

To off-set this, I might argue that the Vari - or rather, those individual cells within the Combine at large which are within striking range of "edible" target species - deploy much larger than average numbers of commando variants. If one assumes these are "mission variants" of existing Vari base hulls, this would still prevent them from landing on planets directly, yet might make deployments from orbit via shuttle or transporter more viable.

Alas, this might be a problem for those same cells during the Sixth Cycle, as they would be obliged to convert those hulls into "line" variants to use against the Andromedans and Souldra. Which might be one reason why the Vriss cell made it out of the Invasions relatively intact: being close to the Drex border, the Vriss might have had proportionally fewer commando ships in service (due to the robotic Drex being themselves inedible, and due to the Drex successes in keeping the Vari at a distance from the Drexari home colonies), and thus had more combat variants ready to fight against these invaders.

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Beyond those, there are plenty of unique circumstances which would need to be addressed as one goes through the list of Omega empires.

The aquatic Koligahr would likely favour battles fought underwater - to the chagrin of any land-based species fighting them in such conditions.

The silicate Trobrin appear to be more flexible than the Tholians, in terms of the range of environments in which they can "naturally" operate. Even so, it's likely that any silicon-based ecosystems in which the Trobrin as a species would be most comfortable might be decidedly less so for carbon-based opponents daring to launch Marine actions against such worlds.

The Chlorophons might be limited by their reluctance to put their Keepers in danger (and by the Keepers' own dependence on Phon tree sap as their sole food source). Unless they later recruit Marines from their Mæsron and Probr "exile colonies" to help pursue such options?

The Sigvirions would see Marine activity as their primary vector for infecting new host bodies - yet even they have to account for certain opponents, such as the Trobrin or Drex, who are immune to Sig infection, and thus would have to be fought in a more "traditional" manner.

The Worb Technocracy might see their use of Marine battalions sub-divided based on inter-caste rivalries. For example: might the Broad Worb, who insist on using phaser-armed ships and fighters (and, in my view, PFs also), refuse to use any non-phaser weapons (such as rocket launchers or transporter artillery) in their Marine forces?

The two "living ship" empires, the Alunda and Branthodons, might have bespoke challenges and opportunities of their own, in terms of leveraging their respective host beings to such ends. If one was a Marine from a rival Omega empire, one might want to keep one's distance from the claws of a "landed" Dragonship...

And might a future "update" file see the Paravians of Omega lean into the same kind of commando hulls and Marine battalions seen for their "lost empire" counterparts over in SFB Module C6 - and to what extent might this change once they begin recruiting Ymatrians for use as ground troops during the Seventh Cycle?

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So there is plenty of scope for new commando units and new Marine battalion organizations to be added to the Omega setting.

Actually, even while waiting to see what most Omega empires' tugs and transports might look like, there could still be scope for the Bolosco to deploy large and/or small commando/troop pods: both for mercenary service and for defending their home space from the likes of the Zosman Marauders.

Are there any ideas you might have, in terms of how certain Omega empires approach the concept of commando hulls and Marine organizations?