Irregular

Irregular is a subclass of the Rifleman class in Centaura. It appears on Route 23 and Downtown Talona on the Aquilan side.

Description[]

Irregulars are civilian volunteers and policemen who were called up in their country's hour of need. Due to the haphazard and rapid mobilization, they do not have standardized equipment or uniforms, and carry a variety of self-owned or captured firearms and wear anything from civilian coats and hats to police uniforms. As a subclass of the Rifleman, they have a 50% chance of replacing a regular Rifleman when the player spawns in.

Strategy[]

Depending on the weapon issued, sniping and fast close-quarters combat are the two viable strategies for the Irregular.
- Irregulars can carry standard issue rifles with bayonets if the player has selected a rifle made available through an achievement, as Irregulars are a subclass of the Rifleman. They receive a Hatchet instead of a Club.
Some of the Civil Guard clothing is black, which, from a far distance, can be mistaken for Antarean uniforms. This allows Civil Guard players to sneak by Antarean soldiers and potentially be more effective at harassing the enemy.
- However, attentive players will not be fooled due to the hats used rather than helmets (unless you are playing as the police officer as their hat is somewhat identical to Antarean officer) and their armbands.
  - Alternatively, to identify friend and foe, use the crosshair. If it turns green while hovering over a player, they are friendly. The crosshair will not change color if it is an enemy.
    - Note that this method does not work when aiming in first person, as the crosshair is not visible.
    - If you are on mobile, you can use auto fire to identify friend or foe. If the weapon does not fire, it is a friendly.

Lore[]

Civil Guard[]

The Civil Guard (CG) was a national militia formed in the 1800s to complement the Aquilan Army. This consisted mostly of hunters and farmers who owned firearms, and though they were technically not part of any official military formation, they were expected to work alongside the Aquilan Army in the event of a conflict.

Members of the Civil Guard were expected to file a report to the government about the weapons they owned and their conditions every month. This ensured that a CG member was ready for combat. However, they did not receive proper military training, as these were mostly everyday civilians with the ability to assist the Army when needed. Owning a gun meant you had proper gun training, which was good enough for combat.

During the Aquilan campaign of the Centauran Wars, the Civil Guard played an important role in defending vast farmlands and fields. They were successful to some degree, but since civilians did not typically own explosives or cannons, they were soon overpowered by Antarean armored vehicles. The Civil Guard was only most effective fighting with alongside Aquilan Army rather than fighting independently.

The Civil Guard saw more success in urban warfare, where materials found in homes made it easy to create makeshift bombs or incendiary explosives. Oil lamps, alcohol, fertilizer, and whatever materials were flammable were used extensively to deal with armored vehicles.

Unfortunately, due to members of the Civil Guard being dressed in normal civilian clothes as they fought, it caused the Antareans to become more hostile to Aquilan civilians and in some cases, shooting them on sight.

Trivia[]

The Civil Guard of Talona is comprised of volunteer Talona Police Department officers, white-collar workers, and blue-collar workers such as bakers.
- Curiously, this differs from the lore post above which states that the majority of the Civil Guard was made up of farmers and hunters. It is possible that the Civil Guard units in Talona simply grabbed any volunteers or conscripted citizens regardless of their firearms experience. It is also possible that by 1912, the latter statement was no longer the case, and essentially anyone with a gun was considered Civil Guard material.
- Even though they're often colloquially referred by players as partisans or resistance fighters, they're not technically partisans (as this implies they're fighting for a state that is occupied by another and/or doesn't legally exist) and definitely not resistance fighters. They are a national militia force, which is, by definition, "a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency".
  - The confusion may be because of their lack of uniformity, which is commonly associated with partisans.
The Civil Guard in Talona sport armbands with Aquila's colors (black and blue) to denote their allegiance.
The Civil Guard shares many similarities with its counterparts drawn from real life:
- They greatly resemble the various colonial militias and minutemen of the Thirteen Colonies, primarily because both determined any male with a gun to be a part of the militia and had a profound lack of uniformity. Additionally, both were century old formations and were effective irregular forces.
- The Civil Guard also additionally mirror the creation of the French-based Francs-tireurs (transl. "free shooters").
  - The franc-tireurs originated in the 1800s (1867) and served as irregular units alongside the French Army during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and were also hastily mobilized, leading to little if none of the appliance of military apparatus/discipline onto its members. They also participated in battles while wearing civilian attire as a result of the lack of uniformity.
  - They initially drew manpower from sections of the French civil society that had familiarities with firearms, (in this case, shooting clubs and unofficial military societies).
  - The franc-tireurs also showed a higher proficiency in modern urban warfare than in open battle as depicted in the Battle of Bazeilles during the 1870 war, where tactics of the French Marines and irregulars involved using the urban landscape (i.e houses) to shoot at the invading Prussian-affiliated Bavarian troops. A familiar sight could be seen in the game as Aquilan players regularly use buildings as ad-hoc defensive positions seen on Point E in Route 23 and during the Battle of Downtown Talona.
  - The arsenal of the franc-tireurs feature military-issued single-shot breechloading rifles, as they used the contemporary French standard-issued Chassepot 1866 rifle. The CG has the former Aquilan Army-issued mid-1850s Albus-Graham No. 4 rifle.
  - The existence of the franc-tireurs caused its opposing forces to be more hostile to the unaffiliated French populace as German troops would shoot/execute civilians on accusations of being unlawful combatants during the 1870 war and later on in WWI. Antarean troops would hold similarly hostile views against Aquilan civilians due to the activities undertaken by the CG.
- Another resemblance players may see are with the Volkssturm, which were the last-stand militias of Nazi Germany from 1944 to 1945. They were used heavily in urban cities against allied forces, particularly in the Battle of Berlin (similar to the Civil Guard in Talona), and were mostly poorly equipped and uniformed, merely putting on armbands to signify they were Volkssturm and using a variety of weapons, many dating before WW1.
  - Compared to the previous examples, there are several differences to this resemblance, such as that the Civil Guard were already a century old military formation by the time of the Aquilan Campaign and were effective irregular forces, while the Volkssturm were hastily formed in desperation and in general had a very poor combat performance, not being as enthusiastic to fight as a whole.
Before Update 3.5.2 on November 12, 2024, the Civil Guard spawned with Double Barrel Shotguns and M88s as temporary weapons until the two single shot rifles and the Decima Shotgun were made (though they did coexist for a short period of time). As a result, the Irregular class was similar to the Sweeper class but without a melee weapon.
If a player equips a Civil Guard gun (Barton, Albus, or Decima) via the Weapons menu, then they will always spawn with that gun (rather than a random one) if they are an Irregular.