In this post, we’ll look at the basics of building an army for the Independent Lapine Republic or ILR for short. This follows on from the post about building an EDF army and, as usual, there’s a lot more information in the impeccably well written sourcebook, which my bank manager reminds you, you should absolutely buy.

Origins Of The ILR

During the second wave of expansion, one system was settled by a group of rabbits – or Lapines as we call them. They did this because they were all a bit ‘species specific’ in the sense that they only trusted rabbits. If you weren’t a rabbit your place in society was a bit constrained. In fact, as their influence grew and their ‘zone of friendship’ began to be expanded to other systems; your place was likely to be very constrained, usually by of razor wire and leg irons.

The Republic was able to grow their friendship zone because they were early adopters of military force.

If we recall that the initial critter population was born on the same day in SD0 on the home planet of Arras Charka, it says something about the ILR that while everyone else was developing peaceful applications for technology, they were developing military weapons and tactics. It’s no accident that the comic definitely portrays the ILR as ‘the baddies’.

In terms of the game, this early development is demonstrated by the fact that the organisation and armament of early war forces is quite mature. In fact, it doesn’t change much during the course of the war. As a player, this is good news, because you might need to collect less metal.

Building An ILR Army

OK, that last sentence was a bit of a fib. This is because Lapines, being light framed critters, can’t carry the same amount as an EDF trooper. Their weapons and ammunition are lighter, so to get the same weight of firepower, they need more critters. It’s not easy being the baddies!

The basic unit of the ILR army is a fireteam. It consists of seven critters, including a team leader and a heavy weapons critter.

Two fireteams make a squad. From the sourcebook:

The first team is led by a junior officer or senior
NCO – the “Squad Leader”. It has a machine gun
team of two rabbits, serving an MG 189/2 light
machine gun. Four rifle shooters complete the team.
The second team is led by a junior NCO. One
rabbit is armed with an AW191 assault rifle, with
underslung grenade launcher. The rest of the team
carries the standard rifle.

Of course, the ‘rifle’ is actually more of a carbine. It fires rapidly and uses small calibre caseless ammunition. Éarly war squads don’t have the grenade launcher. The point of this is that an ILR squad can lay down a lot of firepower across a broad front. In a later article we will examine the different tactics that suit each faction.

In the early war, this formation was the ILR. They dropped in to planets on commercial transports, quickly invested the spaceport, and then commandeered local transport to exploit out and capture key infrastructure. They were able to repeat this formula because of the communications delay enforced by the fact that nothing moves faster than light.

This organisation card shows the Planetary Assault Group Platoon for Phase II. Three of these, (plus a support platoon,) form a company.

Developing Your ILR Force

The ILR high command had a problem, however. The scale of their initial successes forced them to confront the need to keep control of what they had taken. This saw the evolution of a different type of force, the ILR Garrison Troops.

Garrison troops are basically the same as Skirmish troops. However, they are more likely to be green, because they spend a lot of time being police or jailers. For easy identification, we’ve given them a different type of hat. Technically, they are a motorised infantry platoon:

The command section has a 4×4 to run about in, while the troopers ride in comfort in massive wheeled APC. These P-69 miniatures are pretty impressive! In fact, the word ‘miniature’ doesn’t really convey their bigness. But they have to fit 14 critters inside, plus a driver. Exit is via rear doors or, if you’re really ‘gung ho’, via the roof hatches.

Later War Forces

This basic squad setup will see you well for nearly any engagement in ACP164. As the war progressed, the ILR leaders introduced scout vehicles to protect recon troops. The leadership also issued a turreted variant of the APC. After Beii, The ILR introduced Air Assault teams, using LARC rotorcraft in an attempt to offset the EDF AirMobile units. Heavy Assault teams formed, better armed and armoured to combat the EDF firepower more evenly.

We will explore these in a subsequent article – mostly because to talk about them in detail will use more space!

Summary

In this article, I’ve looked at the origins of the ILR and how to build basic squads, using the miniatures available from Sally 4th. I’ve not looked at the support options, and will save that for another article. You can absolutely play a fun game using the forces detailed here.

In the next part of this series, I’ll talk about the HomeGuard and why they may be the best force option for collectors. See you then!