The Latimer Hunting Force

The Latimer Hunting Force officially is a large group of big game hunters, owned and led by Emmett Pleasant Latimer. Their primary base is Deepwood Fortress, but they also own and protect five heavily fortified settlements inside the Rainforest. They take hunting and scouting trips to other settlements, to reduce the risk that any of these settlements are ambushed by agressive predators.
In truth the Latimer Hunting Force is the only military force of The Grayfolk. Covertly supplied by the Exploration Alliance, and owned by the Industrialists, the Hunting Force employs the hostile jungle to prepare an expedition army. If ever an expedition encounters hostile forces, or any reach Grayburn, the Latimer Hunting Force is trained to try to protect people. However, due to the lack of human opposition, it is unclear how well they would really fare against enemies.

Composition

Manpower

The Latimer Hunting Force consists of 3600 dedicated troops, eleven commanding members, several hundred reserve troops stationed at various settlements, and a few dozen retired troops involved as teachers. The Hunting Force gets most of their supplies from Deepwood Fortress and the settlements they protect, however those are not considered part of the Hunting Force itself.

---

Weaponry

• Airgun¹
• Sword
• Crossbow²
• Longbow²
• Knife
• Pike³
• Air Rifle^{3, 4}
• Tower Shield³
• Air Cannon⁵

1. Each Airgun comes with 3 spare ammo tubes of 20 rounds each, and 3 spare air reservoirs, for a total of 80 rounds.
2. Each Day carries either a crossbow or a longbow as backup weapon, with 20 bolts/arrows.
3. Each Week carries 3 Tower Shields, 3 Pikes and 3 Air Rifles, distributed equally over its nine Days.
4. Each Air Rifle comes with 4 spare ammo tubes and 2 spare air reservoirs, for a total of 100 rounds.
5. Air Cannons are only used as defensive weaponry, at any settlement the Hunting Force protects.

---

Vehicles

The Hunting Force owns a total of 50 armored Steamcarriages, which are equally divided over the 10 Years. These are used for escorting trade caravans, and long-duration scouting trips into the rainforest. For uncharted terrains, they will be equipped with tracks, decreasing their velocity from 10 miles per hour to 3.

---

Structure

Individual troops are called Days. Nine Days form a Week, eight Weeks form a Season, five Seasons form a Year. In total the Hunting Force contains ten Years.
Each Week has a single rifle-user as leader. Each Season has one supervisor, member of a normal Week, with title Captain. The Years are each officially led by a Counselor, a member of the Industrialists, trained but not frequently present. The main Commander is Emmett Pleasant Latimer, who prefers to lead by example and spends over half his time among the troops.

---

Tactics

A Seasonal formation consists of one Week in the front, one in the back, two on each side and two in the center. Unified formations are used normally, if a group formation breaks each Week falls back into an individual circular formation. In these, Swords and Airguns are used, and Shields might be dropped if proving too cumbersome.
Defensive group formations in the rainforest employs a Tower Shield formation with pikes. The shields and pikes are used for intercepting predator attacks, while the Rifle users will fire airguns. In open areas, a frontal shield wall will be employed instead, with the shields braced on the ground. Air Rifles are only employed in these open areas, due to being too unwieldy in close quarters.

---

Training

Each recruit has to be an experienced hunter or guard first, familiar with the threats of the rainforest. Troops go through three steps of training before joining the official or reserve force.

1. Physical Endurance & Airgun Shooting
2. Semi-controlled Hunting
3. Rainforest Scouting

---

History

At the age of twelve, Emmett Pleasant Latimer already was recruiting hunters to teach him all about the rainforest. When he and his sister, Isabell Patience Latimer, came into power, they also started training a larger force. Snatching up technological developments here and there, they soon started supplying the hunting force with innovative airguns. By 323 SY, they finally made the Latimer Hunting Force official. In the years since, the Hunting Force has grown and matured, and now can be considered a small army.
Conventionalists treat the Hunting Force with contempt, considering it nothing but a child's hobby. Their true skills are well-known at Deepwood Fortress, though the Conventionalists are unaware due to their abhorration of the rainforest, keeping far away. If anyone realised the Hunting Force is a big deal, none of them have bothered telling any member of Grayburn's upper class.

Type

Infantry

Founding

323 SY

Overall training Level

Semi-professional

Used by

• Exploration Alliance

Formal Leader

Emmett Pleasant Latimer

Primary base

Deepwood Fortress