Too Good to pass up

J Roberson [email removed] writes:

>No offense meant to any of those groups, of course. Besides, I don't play
>*any* form of Traveller; I just hang out here for the sci-fi. ;)

INFIDEL!!!!!!!  :)


Cynthia Higginbotham [email removed] writes:

[many very useful comments on deep-space refueling deleted]

>I also venture to add that Impy merchants consider deep-space jumping
>as risky a practice as burning unrefined fuel in your jump drive, and
>discourage it.  So do their insurers.  Someone else can explain why
>the Imperial Navy and Zho Navy don't do it very often...

To illuminate why merchants would find deep space jumping dangerous,
consider this.  When you jump into a deep-space hex, you have no
"landmarks" to orient by -- normally, in a stellar system, you have a
nearby star and some planets to fix your location, but for a deep space
station, you are dependent on an accurate jump and the station's
radio beacon/radar reflector.  On _Brilliant Lances_ scale, a ship
jumping 100 diameters from a size-8 world is a bit over 40 hexes away
from target.  Finding a lone station at even that close a range could
be tricky.  And if the station isn't where you think it is or your
calculations are substantially off, you and your ship may be waiting a
long time to be found.

My guess as to why the IN and ZN don't seem to use deep space refueling
much is two-fold.  First, it may be tricky to maintain fuel levels in
the cache without tying up too many fleet tankers, especially if it
is in a forward area.  Cynthia, what's your experience with this?  It
may also be that we just don't hear much about them -- our usual source
of info is the TNS, and such bases would usually be secret installations.

I think that such stations have been used -- my interpretation of the
4FW "Battle of Two Suns" which was "midway between Yres and Menorb"
as depicted in the CT adventure _The Kinunir_ sounds a lot like a
fight over a fueling and resupply base in deep space.  It would explain
why the fates of Efate, Yres, and Menorb hung in the balance over the
outcome, and why afterward the Zhodani supply lines were too long.
It would also explain why the battlefield may still have ships from which
parts could be salvaged.

  Steve Bonneville
  [email removed]

Chuck Hamilton writes:

> However, how are a planet's big system defense fleets and large planetary
> defense batteries perceived by its Larger Political Entity (Imperium or Con-
> sulate)?  I think they do not like them at all.  First I'll give some
> Traveller facts and then I'll do some interpretation.

You will forgive me, I hope, if I dispute with some of your facts...

> Fact 1: Planetary defense forts are not covered in Traveller literature.  The
> closest thing is "planetary defense battalions" from the boardgame "Invasion:
> Earth", which are not that effective.

Since it is getting late, and I don't want to root through my pile of
Traveller stuff just before going to bed, I won't try to cite page numbers.
However, we do know that "deep meson gun sites" are the preferred method
of ground-based planetary defense, and that these are supplemented by
ground-based missiles and lasers.  I agree that these devices do not show
up in 5FW, which I _do_ have in front of me as I type.

> Fact 2: System defense boats are the accepted mechanism for system defense.
> But, the quantities for these seem very low.  I think a Traveller News
> Service brief from the JTAS "War" issue read something like "the ten heavy
> SDBs in the Regina system were sent to defend the system gas giant, which
> would be the first priority of an attacking fleet."  This seems like a
> very small number for a world at the edge of the Imperium.

Regina has only 10 SDBs, according to the 5FW map.  However, the numbers of
boats are strongly dependent on population, and Regina is not a high-population
world.  Jewell has 120 TL12 boats, Efate 150 at TL13, Rhylanor has 200 at
TL15, Zivije 120 at TL11, Louzy _500_ at TL8, Rethe has another 500, and
Porozlo has 1000 SDBs at TL10. 5FW does not distinguish between TLs for SDB
efficiency, so those 1000 Porozlo boats are quite a menace to any invading
Zho fleet.  Checking the population levels produces the following:

Population A: 500-1000 SDBs
           9: 100-200
           8: 10-12
           7: 1
          6-: 0

Note that some of the worlds in the population 8 or higher category also
contribute local jump-capable squadrons to the Imperial forces in 5FW.

I don't really think that the Imperium (as depicted) is all that hostile
to local forces.

This reminds me--someone posted a few weeks ago that they didn't think that
the Imperium allowed multi-planet governmental bodies.  Go back and check
Adventure 7: Broadsword, for an example of a world (Garda Vilis) ruled from
the neighboring world (Vilis).  Also, there are quite a few type 6 governments
in the Spinward Marches.  I play that _some_ of these may be under direct
Imperial control, but the majority are in situations like that of Garda
Vilis.

Rob Dean
(creaky oldtimer making special guest appearance)