XI Corps (Star League)

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Template:InfoBoxStateUnit XI Corps (or the Eleventh Corps) was one of the seventy-two Corps that made up the Star League Defense Force. Prior to the collapse of the Star League XI Corps was a large corps consisting of 6 divisions and 4 independent regiments.[1]

History

Reunification War

General Amalthia Kincaid was responsible for the formation of XI Corps, when she formed it as the first of a new kind of SLDF corps when she took command of Operation BULL RUN, the conquest of the Taurian Concordat, in 2582. Initially formed at just two divisions in strength, XI Corps was mustered using five striker regiments, replacement troops, and battalions taken wholesale from I Corps and III Corps. In contrast with the other SLDF corps of the time, Kincaid organized XI Corps' BattleMech, armor and infantry regiments into full brigades, rather than making each brigade a mix of the three types. Kincaid's successor during the campaign expanded XI Corps by forming a third division, although by the end of the war XI Corps would still lack a Royal brigade or division.[2]

After the battle for New Vandenberg, General Lord Damien Onaga used XI Corps to conquer Brockway and Midale in 2590. Both worlds were spared the immense death toll and destruction that many other Taurian worlds suffered during the War; this was due to Onaga changing the strategy employed on Operation BULL RUN, taking a very different approach to that ordered by the previous theatre commander, Field Marshal Amos Forlough. Onaga's approach to conquering the systems saw him deliberately rotating troops in and out of battle, giving them an opportunity to blood themselves, while limiting his campaign to purely military targets, rather than cities and civilian infrastructure. This made the conquest of Midale a slower campaign than many previous planetary assaults, but inflicted far less damage, and with much of the planetary garrisons having already been stripped away by the Taurian Defense Force to fight in other systems during earlier years of the war, the battle for Brockway was over by the end of November and the battle for Midale was over by the end of December 2590.[3] XI Corps was only two divisions strong at the time of the attacks, and deployed the Thirty-first Division alongside I Corps on Brockway, where they destroyed the Seventy-fourth Concordat Chasseurs, while the Thirty-second Division deployed alongside III Corps to seize Midale.[4]

Star League Era

In 2764 XI Corps was part of the 16th Army assigned to District 3 of the Draconis Combine Military Region. There they faced the lion's share of the small cross border conflicts sponsored by the Lyran Commonwealth and Rim Worlds Republic against the Draconis Combine. In 2765 they had been facing these conflicts for two decades, and the constant low level fighting was beginning to affect morale. The DCMS claimed poverty and lack of resources, forcing the SLDF to step into the gap.[1]

The commander of XI Corps was agitating for the increased speed of unit rotations, trying to get his burnt-out and depressed soldiers into an area where they could rest and recuperate. The use of SLDF troops to repress Combine citizens was a particularly sensitive issue, and the General had informed the Warlord of Rasalhague that his troops wouldn't engage in those activities in the future. Only individuals who were engaged in overt violent activity against civilian populations or Star League member states would be engaged by members of XI Corps.[1]

When the simmering violence and rebellion building in the Periphery erupted with the New Vandenberg Uprising and subsequent Periphery-wide uprising in 2765 XI Corps was deployed into into the Periphery Military Region along with the rest of the 16th Army.[5]

XI Corps lost fewer units in the Periphery Uprising than the other corps within the Sixteenth Army; the New Delhi Grenadiers were destroyed in 2765, while the Sixty-sixth Mechanized Infantry Division took heavy casualties and was disbanded, although some elements joined the Draconis Combine. In 2766 the Epsilon Indi Division was destroyed and XI Corps were embroiled soon after in the Hegemony Campaign. Three full divisions were destroyed during the 12-year long conflict;[5] XI Corps also lost the Nineteenth Striker Regiment, destroyed in an ambush on Amity.[6]

When General Aleksandr Kerensky ordered the Exodus in 2784 the three intact divisions within XI Corps all elected to follow him; however, the three surviving independent regiments elected to remain in the Inner Sphere,[5] forming the noted Eridani Light Horse mercenary unit.[6]

Officers

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the XI Corps (Star League)

Tactics

Unknown.

Composition History

2582

2765

Divisions
Independent Regiments
Notes: All four independent regiments of the corps formed the 3rd Regimental Combat Team. [1]

Rules

Reunification War

  • Apply a +2 bonus to Experience Rolls when generating XI Corps forces.[8]
  • Apply a -2 penalty when rolling to determine the lance weight of XI Corps forces.[8]
  • XI Corps units may utilize Off-Map Movement.[8]
  • XI Corps units may Overrun Combat.[8]
  • When XI Corps units are the attacker, the XI Corps player may select up to 25% of the maps for the scenario.[8]
  • When XI Corps units are the attacker, the XI Corps player may choose his or her starting edge.[8]
  • When rolling randomly to determine the composition of Light Horse units, the XI Corps player may choose to re-roll any selection that results in a 'Mech or Vehicle with a walk/cruise speed of 4 or less. The re-roll must be against the same weight class, and must be kept.[8]
    • If after generating a Light Horse lance using any re-rolls as granted above the result is a lance where at least half of the units within the lance do not have a walk/cruise speed of 5 or higher or jump movement, the controlling player may discard one unit and randomly roll for another one of the same kind and weight class.[8]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Field Manual: SLDF, p. 190
  2. Historical: Reunification War, p. 31, "XI Corps"
  3. Historical: Reunification War, p. 91, "Cleanup"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 142-143, "Taurian Concordat Front"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Star League, p. 149
  6. 6.0 6.1 Mercenary's Handbook, p. 68
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Field Manual: SLDF, p. 191
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Historical: Reunification War, p. 181, "The Star League"

Bibliography