Can anyone advise on what they put in their Formation abbreviations ( if anything ) . I started with such as ARBG ( which stands for Armoured Battalion Garrison ) but find that the more varied units that I build , letter abbreviations start having to become repetitive .
What do people use to make a varied non repetitive list that can identify formations ( if anything at all ).
DavidR
Here’s a list of mine. There’s more but those are mostly utility/support.
Type - Level - Subtype/Specialization notation.
For example:
“G4L”
G - Garrison unit
4 - 4th level (Regimental, for this type)
L - Low-Grav spec
“Q5H”
Q - Heeadquarters
5 - 5th level (Brigade)
H - Heavy Vehicles
So I typically do 3/4 letter abbreviations.
First letter refers to the type of formation (I - Infantry, A - Armored, X - Xeno/Geo Survey, S - Support [Catch-all for construction, supplies, and artillery], M - Marines, G - Garrison, W - Walker [Typically my super/ultra heavies], etc.)
Next 3 letters refer to the size of the formation (PLT - Platoon (marines only), COM - Company, BAT - Battalion, BRG - Brigade, DIV - Division, etc)
Typically by the time I hit DIV the abbreviation drops to 3 letters as it’s no longer meaningful to talk about the type of division, instead I opt to make DIV formations customizable by swapping out BRGs for the task at hand (A garrison DIV will most likely consist of GBRGs and IBRGs rather than containing ABRGs for example, and a DIV meant for invasions might have more ABRGs than a general purpose DIV)
I currently use 2/2 letter abbreviations. The first two letters are the type, the other the size. But it is not very consistent. I think I’ll adopt Serger’s naming style. (Thank you!)
Examples:
TDBG - Tank brigade with desert capability
HIBT - Heavy infantry battalion
CADV - Combined arms division
OKBT - STO (Orbital) battalion equipped with railguns (kinetics)
BOA - boarding
STO - STO
PANZ - Heavy Vehicle
ARM - Armata Infantry
DIV - Division Infantry
XENO - Xenoarcheology
CON - Constructors
PUNT - Direction Fire Units
STU - Sturmtruppen Brigata
GEO - Geology team
For sorting purposes I start with a letter indicating either size or ‘HQ for this size’, like C for company, A for army, R for regiment or D for division. If I have both Brigades and Battalions, Brigade gets an X (which I believe is historically correct?).
Then, if is an HQ for the size, it just gets e.g. DHQ for division headquarters, if I only use one for the size. Otherwise the Q would be something else.
Otherwise it depends on settings. One time military lorewise started on a shared planet, so the army was the Territorial Defense Force, and thus all forces just had to have a “T” middle letter, and then following G for guard, or S for assault etc. . An infantry scouting regiment in that setting would have been RTS (on).
But normally it is first letter = size,
second letter = A/M-armor/vehicle, I-infantry, C-civil, F-fortification, O- anti-orbital,
third letter = specialization like B-artillery, F/V air-force (always used light or medium vehicles for that), A-assault, G/D guard/defense, E/X/G engineers/xeno/geo for civils etcetc. .
“X” is a Brigade amplifier for NATO standard map signs. It isn’t a 1-letter notation, though, and the Battalion amplifier in this system is “II”.
I only use the abbreviations to describe formation level/size. For example, the Allied Earth Nations of the People’s Democratic Republic has the following abbreviations:
SUCO - supply column (they deploy separately from the usual OOB)
BN - Battalion
RGT - Regiment
BRG - Brigade
DIV - Division
The full name then explains the purpose of the formation. Again, for the PDR:
DIV - 1st Gun Division ‘Zenith Guard’
BRG - 2nd Gun Brigade, AS
RGT - 5th Gun Regiment, Laser
BRG - Armour Brigade 1
RGT - 1st Armour Regiment
BN - Armour Battalion I/1.