How Many Ships?

A thread of 2 messages, 19 July 1991 to 22 July 1991, in the order they were sent.

#2636 How Many Ships?

Steve Higginbotham posted a rebuttal of the planetary invasion concept based
on the Striker budgetary levels.  Well, let's face it--Striker does not
correspond well with our only other 'official' data point, which is the
Fifth Frontier War game and the battalion counts derived from it which are
published in the Rebeliion Sourcebook.  We've seen the same problem with
regard to numbers of merchant ships in existence.

What can I say?  I'm completely puzzled, and I'm open to any suggestions
on either of these matters that anyone would like to make.  Metlay?

Rob Dean

#2658 Striker vs. Fifth Frontier War

"Robert S. Dean" [email removed] writes:
> Steve Higginbotham posted a rebuttal of the planetary invasion concept based
> on the Striker budgetary levels.  Well, let's face it--Striker does not
> correspond well with our only other 'official' data point, which is the
> Fifth Frontier War game and the battalion counts derived from it which are
> published in the Rebeliion Sourcebook.

The Fifth Frontier War game also doesn't correspond too well with the
"official" history, in that it doesn't take long enough.  In "reality",
the war lasted about 4 years (1107-1111), and ended in a negotiated peace
with little shifting of borders from their pre-war positions.  In the
game (at least, whenever I play it), a big reinforcement fleet appears on
turn 6 (Rimward reinforcements, or something like that - a whole lot of
colonial-grade squadrons and troop units).  Shortly after that, the Sword
Worlds gets flattened.  The Imperials get their reinforcements in small
lots which build up somewhere safe until they reach a suitable size, then
go looking for something big and blue to clobber.  The war tends not to last
long after turn 52; if the Zhodani haven't won a complete victory by then,
they get completely defeated instead.

As for battalion sizes; perhaps the Imperium subsidises some worlds to
create larger defence forces, or penalises some worlds for having too
large forces.  I don't know what the discrepancies are, but a creative
referee should be able to figure plenty of excuses.

- - --
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