Guide to the Grand Army (Insider #84)

Okay, Insider #84 is landing on doormats even as we speak. Let the brawling/interrogation about the GAR feature commence.

Ryan and I are ready.

 

If only...

 

Okay, Insider #84 is landing on doormats even as we speak.
[image=http://www.doormatters.com/images/welcome-mat.jpg]
Not mine.

Oh wait a minute...































[image=http://ecolandscape.com/Ecology2003/Images/Mailbox.jpg]

(PS. It's only the 17'th, and the magazine isn't in your hands until the 26'th.)

 

Someone scan me the article, quick! I dont have an Insider subscription and I am not waiting a whole week to get thsi at newsstands.

 

A regular poster on my LJ blog has already read their copy and commented...which is why I kicked this off. It mails mid-month. So?

 

Blast that I live where things aren't relsased early!

 

Also, it comes out on the 24th, not 26th I believe But this blog thing sonfuses me. Where is this comment and why must I be so inept at finding it?

 

LJ = Live Journal and there's a link to it in Karen's signature.

 

They mail to subscribers mid-month, two weeks before the newsstand date.

 

Newsstands. Subscribers get it before then.

 

Whoops. Boy, I'm in a rush today. When will this week be over!

 

I have one word to say about it: badass. This issue is easily the best by the new publisher.

 

I'll be grabbing this issue for certain, the first one I've bought since... oh, 1998 or so. All solely because of my need to read this Grand Army Guide.

 

OMG... I just looked at the article about this issue on the OS, and it actualy looks...good

 

ThrawnRocks posted on 9/17/05 8:38pm

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OMG... I just looked at the article about this issue on the OS, and it actualy looks...[i]good[/i] [face_worried] [hr][/blockquote]

Of [i]course[/i] it'll be good. Look who the two authors they have writing the Guide to the Grand Army are. ;)

 

Do you have a link to the article on the OS? Perhaps I should cough up the money and subscribe again. I'll wait and see this new issue first...

 

I've seen much book and comic material that tells me the Republic had nothing in the way anything before the Clone War. And this is what I need explained to me, so I can see the prequel in more than a superficially proud show.

Clone army. Clone intelligence. Clone navy.

How could a galaxywide hegemony not have its own Republic Intelligence branch in prior existence? It did have a navy---it was closely coordinated with the Judicial forces, who are the police of the starlanes. It may not have been large, but some comics have showed them (armed Consular cruisers and Consular variants, aside from Dreadnoughts). They must certainly have had special forces and operatives, unless you mean to suggest any Frodo can take some ministers hostage and only Jedi and Jedi alone can take action.

Unless they do have all that, just no material is saying it in favour of clone this and clone that.

 

Here's the article

Not only does the Grand Army article look and sound great, but I really want to see that Holonet News...

 

Excellence, the Republic Judicial Forces handled all galactic security matters in the time prior to the Clone Wars. They were like an amalgamation of the National Guard, the Coast Guard, and the FBI into one organization. Fleet wise, however, they were limited to police actions, carried out by star frigates like Dreadnaught-class cruisers or older ships like Invincible-class Dreadnoughts. There had not been a major crisis in 1000 years, so the Republic probably never saw a need to make anything other than Dreadnaught-class starships for decades or even centuries. After the Katana Fleet debacle, support for a stronger and centralized galactic navy would have likely plumetted.

Rich systems relied on their own homegrown forces to deal with local uprisings and insurgencies. Kuat, Humbarine, and Corellia built vast local navies, and commercial entities like the Trade Federation, Techno Union, and IBC were allowed to build small navies for self-defence.

The Grand Army was like the chain that linked the decentralized private navies of the galaxy into one coherent force for the Republic. The Clone Wars also allowed the CIS free reign to combine their assets into a single starfleet. The Judicial Forces were turned into the vital command elements of the new navy and army, and the clones would fill in for infantry as well as bolster the starfighter corps. Judicial Forces investigators would have likely become the directors of Clone Intelligence, and many would have become deep-cover agents (as clones would be a poor choice for undercover missions).

 

And over here in the UK...



Really looking to (eventually) getting my grubby mitts on this one. From the various tidbits Ryan has dropped at the ARC thread, it seems we'll have retcons-a-plenty.

 

Wasn't Armand Isard already in charge of the proto Intelligence pre Naboo?

 

Yes, the Senate Bureau of Intelligence

 

It did have a navy---it was closely coordinated with the Judicial forces, who are the police of the starlanes.

No, it didn't. That was retconned away after AoTC. There were a large number of planetary and sector forces. Many of those worked together in interlocking and overlapping networks of alliances like the Outland Regions Security Force or the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty, which essentially formed ad-hoc regional navies. However, there was no single Republic military in the era between Ruusan and Geonosis.

It may not have been large, but some comics have showed them (armed Consular cruisers and Consular variants, aside from Dreadnoughts).

Those are now understood retroactively to have been Judicial ships, I believe.

Unless you mean to suggest any Frodo can take some ministers hostage and only Jedi and Jedi alone can take action

No, the regional and local militaries or Judicial would also be available to handle situations like those.

 

Umm, if there wasn't a unified quasi military of sorts, then who paid for the Katana fleet and who was it procured for?

 

The Katana fleet was comissioned by the Republic, for Republic use. IT was sort of an experiments, sort of a show the flag exercise. But the Republic Navy before the Clone Wars were more akin to the US Coast Guard in scale and jurisdiction than the US Navy.