KEA Military Handbook

Foreword

We may be in KAOS but we're not completely disorganised. Sometimes organisation helps and sometimes it's amusing just to have it, so we can call ourselves an army.

Therefore we have the KAOS Expeditionary Army or KEA. Our mascot is the Kea, New Zealand's aggressive alpine parrot whose hobbies include ripping things to bits, stealing shiney things, scavenging anything edible and sliding down tin roofs. As such, it would probably be a better national bird than the small flightless Kiwi, which has as its claim to fame its keen sense of smell and its ability to run like blazes and lay an egg the size of your fist. You can see why we're called KEA.

Officially our motto is "We're having more fun than you!" Unofficially our motto is "Nothing funny you understand, had to keep warm."

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Pacifist Warfare
  • Pacifist Warfare Variations
  • Weapons
    • Infantry Weapons
    • Artillery
    • Remarks
  • Drilling as a Humorous Excercise
    • Chicken Drill
    • Conga Drill
    • Inspection
    • Handshake Charge
    • Emu Parade
• Organisation
  • Uniform, Optional
  • Officers, Flags and Insignia
  • Units, Ad Hoc
  • Non-combatants
• Equipment
  • Making a Paper Sword
  • Making a Foam Sword
  • Other Foam Weapons
  • Constructing a Cardboard Shield
  • Minor Props
  • Major Props
• Other Expeditions
  • Road Trips
• What, How and Why
  • About Rank
  • Calculating Rank
    • Mixed Units
    • General Ranks
  • Regimental Colours
  • Uniforms
  • Other Titles and Awards

Introduction

KEA organises expeditions or "operations" of all kinds. That might mean pacifist warfare, a road trip, or just a trip to the movies or the beach; the important thing is that it be a fun day (or days) out. These are usually given a name like "Operation [Something Incongruous]" e.g. "Operation Creosote" or "Operation Rubber Goose".

That said, most of this handbook is devoted to pacifist warfare because that is the part of our activities that most requires a handbook and because it accounts for most of what KEA does. Other parts of this handbook deal with expeditions, ranks and organisation.

As we have long been "Friends of Democracy" in KAOS, this is naturally organised along feudal or populist lines. For example, in the case of a pacifist warfare battle, any agent being able to muster at least 3 other agents to snigger at them behind their back under their command will be issued the rank of sergeant for that battle; any mustering at least 7 will be commissioned as a lieutenant for the day.

Note that the business of actual rank is temporary (even the regimental staff only last for the year) but the title is yours to keep and boast about to bored younger agents at parties.

Every such unit belongs to a regiment and each unit will have a leader, if you don't know who that is, one will be assigned by your commander (see below)

KEA is divided into Regiments, one per KAOS branch e.g. "The 1st" for Canterbury or "The 5th" (which is an occasional Alumni Regiment). The Colonel of the Regiment is the Dictator (President) of that KAOS branch.

Dictators however would rather get drunk often have important matters of state to attend to and so might appoint a commander (a Lieutenant-Colonel for any decently sized regiment of 8 people or larger) to handle most of the day-to-day organisation and mischief. Whoever is doing the work might have a couple of staff sergeants to assist them.

TL;DR: We've tried to cover everything in this handbook but if you don't care about any of that malarkey and just want to get into running-about-the-park type shenanigans you should:

1. Browse the Pacifist Warfare section.
2. Look up the rank insignia under Organisation so you know who's running the show.
3. [ ... classified ... ]
4. Get a paper or foam sword and KAOS badge and show up. Events will be advertised. Elaborate weapons and outfits are encouraged but we'd rather you turn up without them than sit at home.
5. If you just want to watch, come and do that.
6. See 3.
7. If you just want to do the other stuff, talk to your Commander about that.
8. Have fun.

Pacifist Warfare

Pacifist warfare is essentually massed combat with soft toy weapons. The purpose is not to win, it's to have fun and commit theater, usually for the benefit of the combatants and with the possible bonus of confusing the public. Costumes are not required but are fun and therefore encouraged.

The winner may be pre-determined before the battle even begins but winning isn't really important. As such, it's more important that weapons be flashy than effective. Weapons that are too effective can be unsporting, unless the intention is that everyone die gloriously all at once.

Pacifist warfare is touch kill; if somebody hits it you lose it. If you get hit in the leg you'll have to hop, in the arm you can't use it and in the chest you're dead. When you're dead wait for some sort of medic to come around and bring you back to life, so you can scamper back to your unit. If there are no medics at the battle (these things are not always organised as well as they might be), lie around for a half minute or so before rising from the dead.

Avoid hitting people in the head or groin. There should be no tackling in pacifist warfare. If you want to play rugby there's plenty of clubs for that.

Pacifist Warfare Variations

Pacifist Warfare mostly takes place in the afternoon in an open field or lightly wooded area (i.e. public parkland). Other types of warfare have been tried however and proven successful. The two most obvious examples of this would be amphibious operations (usually battles at the beach) or naval operations (battles in boats with waterguns and umbrellas). Obviously lying around in the water isn't a practical option, so when you're killed in this type of battle you usually return to some sort of respawn point.

There are probably many types of pacifist warfare that we haven't tried yet; if you've got a good idea, why not talk to your commander?

Weapons

Before fielding a weapon, ask yourself "Is it safe?" Would you want to be hit in the face with it? Would you hit a child with it? Commanders will often inspect weapons before battles.

Infantry Weapons

Infantry weapons should be soft. Even so, almost anything can sting if you hit somebody hard enough with it, so go easy. Again, don't strike at the face or groin of your opponents. Instructions for making some of these items can be found under Equipment. Here are the most common examples.

• Newspaper swords or soft foam rubber swords
• Fun Noodles (i.e. a tubular foam pool toy)
• Inflatable Toys (these can be quite large or elaborate).
• Soft foam weapons (often homemade)
• Water bombs or flour bombs.
• Miscellaneous soft toys (e.g. large plush animals or rubber chickens)

Artillery

• Large water guns (larger than you can easily carry).
• Trebuchets.
• Spud guns (no potatoes!)

Artillery should fire soft shot, ideally biodegradable or easily recovered and not revolting. Past examples include water, flour, coleslaw and baked beans. Direct-fire artillery is usually a bad idea unless it's just water or flour, fire it into the air (ballistically) so that it rains down on your friends and enemies. Never try and fire flour or flour bombs from a spud-gun, unless you want to find out what a powder explosion is like the hard way.

Remarks

• This hasn't been a problem up to now and we've been doing this a long time but if you do something seriously stupid like willfully hurting people, breaking things or causing outrageous offense to the general population then there will probably be legal, academic and social consequences. Being part of a game won't shield you from that. You can play the fool, just don't be an idiot. Don't play rough and if in doubt, consult your commander.
• The term "officer" applies to Sergeants and Sergeant-Majors in KEA, there isn't really a practical distinction for our purposes.
• Water or nerf guns are not an all purpose infantry weapon; waterfights and nerf-battles are jolly good fun but a different game. You can have guns but don't overdo it, we're not trying to win. Guns are more for props like artillery, ships, planes, tanks, martian war machines etc; or for the set-piece annihilation of a futile infantry charge ("Over the top boys and girls!"). Unless of course the weapon is particularly impressive and useless, in which case go for it!
• We're not a traditional pacifist warfare organisation, we don't restrict ourselves to paper swords and historical uniforms. We often have foam swords and costumes.
• KAOS prefers water bombs, while ALFs prefer flour bombs. The combination can get a bit sticky but you can get it off your clothes by soaking them in a bucket of water and dishwashing liquid. Only a maniac would put dishwashing liquid in their washing machine and flood their laundry with bubbles. Unintentionally.

Drilling as a Humorous Excercise

Marching in neat straight lines isn't important to the louche and dissipate troops of KAOS, but staying together on the field is important; it's easier for you to know what's going on. To that end, there are some useful manoeuvres you should know.

Chicken Drill

1. Gather together in your unit. It's important that you identify what you might rally around; your unit leader, any other officers, any props, or your unit's flag.
2. When the signal is given, everyone runs around like headless chickens (i.e. randomly without direction or purpose, flapping). If there's only one unit doing this, you scatter, if there's more than one you scatter and mix yourself up with the others.
3. When the signal is given again, you reform around your rally point (officer etc).

Conga Drill

1. Everyone breaks formation and forms one long conga line behind an officer.
2. When the signal is given, the officer leads the line in a random dance around the field while the commander kills people in the line at random with a sword. The line should reform and carry on when this happens.
3. When the signal is given again the line breaks apart, the dead rise and everyone reforms into their units.

Inspection

Commanders may decide to inspect weapons before the battle, especially if two sides haven't fought each other before. This is not complicated. Gather in your units and line up for inspection. Show the inspecting officers your weapons if asked and answer any questions. If you're asked not to use a weapon, leave it on the sidelines.

If officers are more interested in inspecting your uniform or costume, take it as a compliment. They should ask if they want to touch it or get a selfie with you.

Handshake Charge

This may be conducted as a gesture of goodwill at the battle. The sides line up and walk towards each other, hand extended. Handshaking occurs and pleasantries are exchanged.

Emu Parade

This is a necessary part of cleaning up. Performed at the end of a battle, we form a long line across the battlefield and walk slowly along it, picking up any equipment or litter we've left behind

Organisation

This describes how KAOS does things. Other groups will have their own way of doing things but usually have leaders and medics. They may have flags, ceremonial leaders who are non-combatants and uniforms or costumes. Pay attention to who the non-combatants are.

Uniform, Optional

Getting together and wearing similar outfits to a battle is like putting together costumes for a costume party; it's fun and it adds to the event but many people turn up whether they have a costume or not. The KAOS Expeditionary Army was only formed in 2002, and in the 21 years of KAOS preceding that people mostly just wore a KAOS badge or T-shirt and turned up.

Nevertheless uniforms are amusing and they really do add to the event and help define your unit. KAOS is a cartoonishly villainous organisation and we sometimes favour black uniforms but you are encouraged to be imaginative.

Just don't turn up dressed as Nazis or the KKK or something else grossly offensive because your commander will tell you to bugger off.

Formal uniforms do exist and the regulations for those are described at the end of the handbook.

Officers, Flags and Insignia

Combatants and supporting non-combatants such as medics should be given a regimental KEA badge at their first battle. This usually happens but if it doesn't please see your commander. Different regimental badges have different numbers and coloured borders but are otherwise the same.

Unit leaders will be issued badges of rank in the colours of their regiment. Badges for general officers (ranks above colonel) are gold and silver and are only issued to officers elected to direct multiple KAOS regiments in the field.

A Brigadier's badge and all ranks for the 1st (Canterbury) Regiment are shown below. Badges for other regiments are the same except for the colours.

The rank lasts for the duration of the battle, your commander will probably want the coloured rank badges back at the end of the event for use in further battles.

The rank of Sergeant-Major is a special staff-rank, only awarded for service to the regiment or other meritorious acts. It's only awarded once per regiment, per year and in most years not at all. It's been awarded once for a really brilliant prop and once for disaster relief during the 2011 Canterbury quakes.

Black rank badges indicate past (retired) or honorary ranks and are given in recognition of that achievment, they don't indicate that somebody is currently an officer. Usually your commander will give you the relevant badge unless you already have a greater one, although some people ask for and get them anyway because they're collecting the set or something.

Wearing a black rank badge on the battlefield is discouraged but people often do it anyway. Wearing an coloured rank badge for a rank you don't hold is strictly forbidden and will probably get you shot and sent to the naughty corner.

Sometimes we award an honorary rank, usually Captain, to the leader of a significant enemy or allied group. This might for example be the commander of an ALFs regiment (but never another KEA regiment). This is more of a guideline than a rule and regular changes in leadership wouldn't result in repeated awards.

Although it's polite to listen to officers (especially Sergeant-Majors) you don't have to obey their commands if they are not part of your unit, or your commander or their staff, or a general officer or their staff (staff officers may relay commands from senior officers). This is called the chain of command.

The important exception to this principle is if there is some sort of emergency such as an unsafe weapon, medical emergency or cattle stampede. If people start shouting "STOP" or "HOLD", stop. This is unlikely but something like this could happen so use your common sense.

All regiments have flag designs but not all regiments have flags because commanders or dictators sometimes lose these things. They're usually a tricolour (because it's easy to sew) with a black band at the top, the other two bands being university colours. Canterbury's is black, gold and red, There's a list of regimental flags at the end of the handbook for those interested in such details.

Units can have their own flags, assuming they're not offensive, your commander will check. Pirate flags have been used in the past but feel free to be creative. Nazi flags are right out.

Units, Ad Hoc

All KEA units on the field will belong to a regiment such as "The 1st", or "The 5th". Each will have a commander so pay attention to who that is, especially if you're leading a unit. If the regiment is fighting itself each side will have a commander. If there are two or more KEA regiments fighting on the same side and the regiments are large enough there may be a general officer such as a Brigadier to co-ordinate the regiments. Usually that officer will be informally elected from amongst the commanders and an acting commander may be appointed to fill the vacated spot.

A unit is defined by its members wearing similar uniform or themed costumes in the field. Your commander will count the number of people and props in the unit and apply a rank to your leader accordingly. There is a system for this which is described at the end of the handbook if you're interested but in general the more people or props the higher the rank of your officer.

If you can't easily answer the question "Who is the leader here?", your commander will probably single out the person who seems most to blame.

Combatants without a uniform or costume will be included. They may be attached to a unit or organised into units of "militia" if there are a lot of them, according to arbitrary criteria such as t-shirt or hair colour by the commander

Try and stick with your officer in the field, that way you'll be just as confused as the people in charge.

Non-combatants

Support staff are very important to an operation and should not be overlooked. Press, drivers, porters, caterers, and in the case of Pacifist Warfare "Medical Staff" (e.g. Nurses, Necromancers, Technicians etc) to raise the dead are always desirable.

Equipment

This section describes equipment in (mostly) decreasing order of necessity and increasing order of style and craftiness. There are instructions for making the more important stuff. You're most likely to need a paper or foam sword, you can get by without the other things although a shield is very useful.

Making a Paper Sword

Although KAOS employs weapons other than the traditional paper sword, it has the advantage of being cheap and easy to construct at the last minute. Newspapers can still be bought at most supermarkets and some dairies, along with the necessary tape. This means it's still commonly used.

A paper sword is not just a rolled up newspaper, wrapped in plastic and fresh from your Grandad's front lawn. Such a weapon is way too hard.

These instructions are for the now more common half-size (tabloid) newspaper, roughly A2 when open and A3 on the newspaper rack. If you're using full-sized (broadsheet) newsprint, use 2 sheets per layer instead of 4.

1. Lay out 4 sheets of newspaper each overlapping at the edges by about 5cm
2. Add more layers, each of 4 overlapping sheets until you have 5 layers (20 sheets) total
3. Roll the newspapers up diagonally (and tightly) so that you have a roll about a meter long and tape the loose edges in the middle
4. Roll one end up over your hand and tape it down, making a hand guard and you're good to go.

You then have something that looks roughly like a sabre or cutlass. Used as a foil, (i.e. as a pointed thrusting weapon), you are less likely to hurt your opponent than if you use it as a slashing weapon, or club; keep it low and away from the face. Papers swords sometimes disintergrate in battle, especially if you get them wet, so it helps to bring spares.

Making a Foam Sword

You can just buy foam swords from $2 shops, repairing them with duct tape and cheap urethane glue when the handle falls off or the foam tears.

Pool noodles, being made of open cell foam are also an option as a foam sword. You can cut them in half, trim down one end with a steak knife and wrap that end in masking tape to make a more comfortable grip.

Other Foam Weapons

Foam weapons can have non-foam parts and coverings like cloth or duct tape so long as the business end remains soft and pliable. A steak knife is good for cutting and carving the foam and you will probably want to glue pieces of foam together to get the right shape.

The foam chainsaw shown below is made of foam, duct tape (red and silver), garden hose stiffened and secured through the body with 3mm wire and incidental plastic parts. Importantly the business end remains pliable.

Open cell foam is usually bought in slabs from retailers such as Para Rubber or as cheap foam mattresses from any number of places. You may be able to get recycled foam from places like the EcoStore.

Constructing a Cardboard Shield

You can get cardboard boxes from recycling and straps from cutting up $2 shop/Op-shop belts.

4-6 layers of corrugated box cardboard, glued together, will make a light and strong shield (provided you spread the glue right across the cardboard between layers). PVA glue is sufficient.

Press the stacked cardboard under something heavy while it dries, trim the edges, edge it in masking tape, and paint it. Use the cleanest piece of cardboard for the front.

You can cut corrugated cardboard easily with a cheap steak knife, avoiding the need to cut yourself with a craft knife. It doesn't matter if the edges are a little rough, as you're going to tape over them.

You can paint the shield or print a design on paper and stick it to the front of your shield. A3 is a good size although harder to find a printer for, so you might want to split the design over two sheets of A4.

Spray varnish is recommended to prevent such designs from getting ripped or soiled, remember to leave time for the varnish to dry between coats and don't use too much varnish in the initial coats as it may cause some paints or inks to run if used in excess.

Straps (to hold the shield by) can be bolted, zip-tied or sewn to the back of a shield. Sewing has been proven to work very well. You'll need a screwdriver, drill, awl or other spiky impliment to punch through the straps and cardboard.

• If using zip-ties you want several of the sturdiest you can find.
• If using bolts, use washers and double-nuts and saw off any protruding lengths of bolt with a hacksaw.
• If sewing, use heavy waxed thread or fishing line.

Putting flat coat-buttons on the front of the shield and sewing or zipping through them can prevent straps tearing away from the back of the shield.

You can inset the buttons in the front of the shield by drawing around them with a pen and cutting a disk out of the top layer of cardboard; you can then cover it with paper or another layer of cardboard.

Remember, your shield is not a weapon. Don't hit people with it, it's supposed to stop them hitting you.

Minor Props

A minor prop is some decorative object (not a weapon) used for dramatic effect. It might be a sign or a vuvuzela or a batmobile or a cardboard TV hurled accross a field by a black-metal musician before a battle. Let your imagination run amok.

A batmobile would be very cool but obviously you can't take a car onto a battlefield, relegating it to the sidelines.

Major Props

Major props are awesome and definately encouraged unless they're dangerous or offensive. Also, the presence of a major prop in a unit may indicate a higher rank for the unit leader and leading prop operator. An impressive prop can be a unit all on its own!

Major Props like beasts, war-machines, artillery or monsters can operate as part of a larger unit or independently. There is a grey line between an eleborate costume and a prop but if it's got two or more people in it or is at least twice the size of a person then it's definately a major prop.

Don't feel you have to equal the largest, most impressive props in KAOS history. For example, a cardboard biplane, robot or pantomime warhorse is a worthwhile prop and probably less of a pain to build, transport, store and dispose of than something the size of a hatchback.

Major props need to be lightweight enough not to endanger people by running into or over them. Mechanical transport such as bicycles, scooters or cars shouldn't be mixed with infantry for safetly reasons. Tricycle-biplanes with water guns could be cool.

Boats are not major props unless you built it yourself.

Other Expeditions

KEA doesn't have to be just about Pacifist Warfare, although that's the popular choice. Usually we don't bother to organise things if other people are doing it anyway, but if we felt bored we could organise games of laserstrike or paintball, a trip to the ballet or a rock concert, a mountaineering expedition, a game of Artificial Elephant Polo, or just about anything that isn't supposed to be organised by somebody else (e.g. Stunts, Rounds or Parties). Of course, some of these examples are absurd and are unlikely to happen, unless people think it's a good idea.

Road Trips

Historically the most common kind of other action, these are usually organised (when they're organised) when agents want to visit an event held by some other group in another town or city. This is often a party, battle or short round. Now that KAOS Otago is defunct these aren't as common as they were but we might still get invited to something.

Obviously, this is something that a few people can usually organise for themselves. The larger the group the more disorganised they become however, so in those circumstances it helps to have a few staff officers to talk to people and make lists.

If you're the host group, and you're expecting visitors overnight, you should consider where they're going to sleep. Staff officers can make themselves useful in finding billets (spare bedrooms, sofas, and even garages in summer). If billets arn't desired or are thin on the ground, you can compile a list of camp-grounds (or friendly lawns), hotels and backpackers hostals.

Once an expeditions target is beyond the range of public transport, you should consider making arangements for getting there (if it isn't beyond the range of public transport then it still helps to mention useful bus routes or train lines). Where possible, car-pooling is a useful way of transporting people over long distances Staff officers can be useful here by compiling lists of people with cars and people needing a ride. Fuel costs for all vehicals should be split between the occupants.

In general, having phone numbers for all the people involved is useful.

Regardless of the method of transport, it's important for each agent or group of agents travelling together to have the following.

• A phone.
• Times and addresses for planned events in the target area.
• A contact number for the expedition-leader.
• Contact numbers for hosts
• Printed maps (if there is no cellular coverage at the destination).

What, How and Why

This is the section where all the details that were skipped over in the rest of the handbook have been placed for your reference.

About Rank

The term staff officer refers to people like the Dictator, Regimental Commander and their assistants if any (who're usually sergeants). They usually hold their rank for the year and may be members of the Poliburo (club executive).

A field officer means a person granted rank for an event because they're the leader of a group of people or they're operating a major prop. These officers hold their rank for the duration of the event.

Staff officers often assume an alias (a nom de guerre) that sounds amusing like "Colonel Panic".

Officers get a badge if appropriate but sometimes it isn't and rank is applied another way. Officers may just have already applied the appropriate insignia to their outfit. For example, in one case a major cyborg prop had sergeant's stripes painted on before the battle after consultation with the regimental commander.

There are two ranks above Brigadier in case we ever need them, that of General and Field Marshal. These have never been awarded because these ranks are intended for people commanding multiple regiments and there have never been enough KAOS regiments together in the field to justify issuing the last two. Only field officers hold these ranks.

Usually the Dictator of a KAOS branch is a Colonel but this only applies if they have a regiment and it actually does something while they're Dictator. Their regimental commander, if they delegate that job, is usally a Lieutenant-Colonel. However if the regiment is particularly small (i.e. less than 8 people including commanders) a lesser rank like Lieutenant Colonel or Major is more appropriate.

Of course, A Dictator can call themselves whatever they like, they're a Dictator. They can call themselves Marshal or Generalissimo or Executive Producer. It doesn't mean others will though, after or elsewhere.

Dictators who lead KAOS in battle before KEA was formed are assumed to hold the honorary rank of colonel, it's only fair

All rank in KEA is temporary, whether it lasts for a year or a day. This may seem odd but was a deliberate choice as we wanted to avoid having a system with no room for imaginative new agents, run by people who may have become inactive or complacent.

As mentioned previously you do however get to keep the title, refered to as your retired rank e.g. Colonel Panic (ret). A person's retired rank is the highest actual rank they've previously held, although some people prefer to use a lesser title for a varity of reasons. Maybe they just like the sound of it.

It's worth noting that some retired ranks are oddly more prestigious than other higher ranks. Somebody who attained the rank of Captain or Major as a field officer must have organised something special and a Sergeant-Major must have done something really special. As Dictators only hold office for a year there are a lot of retired Colonels. However, good Lieutenant-Colonels tend to get recycled a bit so there's relatively few retired Lieutenant-Colonels.

Our system of ranks and insignia is loosely inspired by British and U.S. ranks. We pronounce Lieutenant "Loo-tenant" to offend the British sensibilities of ALFs. The bird on Colonel and Brigadiers insignia is supposed to represent a kea rather than an eagle as you might think.

Calculating Rank

To calulate the rank of a unit's leader you need to count the infantry and minimum prop operators in the unit.

Infantry units have a minimum of 4 people including the leader. Less than that and the unit will probably be amalgamated with another unit. 4 people warrants a leader of sergeants rank and every time the number of infantry doubles after that the officer goes up a rank; a lieutenant at 8, a captain at 16, a major at 32. This is expressed in the table on the right.

The unit also gets an additional officer two ranks lower than the leader if applicable; a captain gets a sergeant, a major gets a lieutenant.

With major props a different system is used. Consider each prop seperately, count the minimum number of operators required to operate it correctly and refer to the table on the left. That will tell you the rank of the lead operator of that prop.

Note that the minimum operator count is used to prevent lead operators treating their prop like a clown car to inflate their rank. Also note that this means the minimum rank for a lead operator is sergeant, even if they're the sole operator.

A group of props (without infantry) is called a squadron and the leader of that squadron a squadron leader. When calculating the rank of the squadron leader, count the minimum number of operators required to operate all the major props in the group (including lead operators). Find the rank in the major props table above that matches that total, e.g. a total of 12 is a Captain. That's the rank of the squadron leader.

If a squadron leader is a major then another one of the lead operators becomes a lieutenant, if one isn't already, the same way that an infantry major gets a lieutenant to assist them with their unit.

Example A:

There are 3 operators in a squadron of 3 props, 1 in each prop. All are sole operators and sergeants. 3 operators equals a sergent so one of the operators becomes squadron leader but all remain sergeants.

Example B:

There are 6 operators in a squadron of 3 props, 1 in one prop, 2 in another prop and 3 in the last prop. 6 operators equals a lieutenant so one lead operator becomes a lieutenant and the others remain sergeants.

Example C:

There are 8 operators in a squadron of 2 props, 4 in each prop. Both are lead by lieutenants. 8 operators equals a captain so one lead operator beomes a captain and the other remains a lieutenant.

Example D:

There are 18 operators in a squadron of 9 props, 2 in each prop. All props are lead by sergeants. 18 operators equals a major so one lead operator becomes a major, another a lieutenant and all the other remain sergeants.

Example E:

There are 7 operators in a squadron of 3 props, 1 in the first prop, 2 in the next and 4 in the last prop. The first two have by sergeants and the last a lieutenant. 7 operators equals a lieutenant so the lieutenant becomes the squadron leader and nobody gets promoted.

Mixed Units

A mixed unit contains both infanty and major props. Such units recieve rank bonuses and to prevent abuse of this system can't be created by amalgamating disparate infantry and prop units on the day; they have to have be built around a coherant theme. A commander who isn't satisfied this has been done will treat both parts as separate units.

Assuming it is a coherant mixed unit, there are two ways of calculating rank. The unit gets to choose which to use.

Prop Commanded

If the unit intends the major props to be their "officers", then the combined total of infantry and minimum prop operators is calculated. The rank of the squadron leader is calculated from the infantry unit table and then increased by one, this is called the prop bonus. All the other props become sergeants by default. If the squadron leader is a major then one of the other lead operators becomes a lieutenant.

So a unit with 2 single-person props and 5 infantry would be counted as a unit with 7 infantry which usually would be lead by a sergeant. Because of the prop bonus the squadron leader becomes a lieutenant (the other prop operator remains a sergeant).

This method allows a unit to create extra imposing officers. Remember however that a major prop is more than an imposing costume, it's a construct.
 

Infantry Lead

In this case the infantry leader commands the unit. Infantry and squadron ranks are first calculated separately. Then if the rank of the infantry leader is less than or equal to the squadron leader they are promoted to the rank above the squadron leader. This is called the infantry bonus. If their rank is then captain or major they can create an infantry officer two ranks below them (a sergeant or lieutenant respectively).

For example a unit with 3 infantry and 1 two-person prop would have a squadron leader with the rank of sergeant. Normally the infantry part would be under-strength but because of the infantry bonus their leader becomes a lieutenant.

This method allows a squadron to be directed from outside the props, which is handy if visibility from the inside is poor.

The intent of both these rank bonuses is to encourage infantry to build and integrate major props into their units. Note that in both cases all lead operators are at least sergeants.

General Ranks

Ranks above colonel are calculated by the number of allied KAOS regiments the officer is elected to command. Only KAOS regiments on the same side are counted! Such officers should have at least one staff sergeant per regiment to carry messages between them and the regimental commanders.

Regimental Colours

Each regiment has colours assigned to it that appear on flags, rank badges and sometimes uniforms. Most regiments are inactive or defunct but could be resurrected.

The colours consist of black (for KAOS), another colour (for the regiment) and a "metal". Metals are gold (yellow) or silver (white).

Rank badges will be in the regimental colour with the insignia in the regimental metal.

Ranks above colonel don't belong to a particular regiment so the badges are silver with gold insignia outlined in black (no regiment uses gold and silver). Retired or Honorary rank badges are black because that colour is common to all KAOS regiments, with gold insignia (the most common metal).

All regimental flags were or are a tricolour, the top band being black, the middle band the regimental metal and the bottom band the regimental colour. For example the 2nd (Otago) Regiment's colours were blue and gold so their flag was black, gold and blue.

Uniforms

They're not as common now but for a while uniforms were all the rage. These were black coats or jackets with metal buttons, black pants and shoes or boots. Sometimes a big black hat was included but they were rare. Epaulettes, hatbands, trouser-stripes, collars and cuffs use the regimental color while aiguillettes, buttons, rivets and buckles use the regimental metal.

Other Titles and Awards

KEA issues no medals, espcially not campaign medals. We thought it might give older agents who might have done little for years an undue air of authority when talking to younger agents. Although all real armies have hierarchies we didn't want the perception of of hierarchy to stiffle innovation in our unreal army. There are retired ranks but these are not current by design.

The title of Warlord has previously been used as an honour and plot device. During Operation Warlord, 4 Warlords fought to become the next Dictator of KAOS in a battle with a pre-determined outcome. The Wizard of Christchurch also holds this title. It comes with a lion badge in black and gold.