> From: Hans Rancke-Madsen [email removed]
> Subject: (3419) Hard Times on Terra (Not really)
>
> First a note: I still haven't gotten _Rats&Cats_, so I may lack
> some data available to you.
I haven't had the time to read it thoroughly until last night, so I was just
working from memories and impressions.
> I'd go for a Safe myself. Remember, The Long Night was a slow
> decay, not a catastrophic event. Step 1 of Hard Times hits the
> high-population, good starport worlds hardest, but that's
> because they were specifically targeted.
I interpret the Hard Times rules as that they are to be applied on *all*
worlds inside the bounds of the Imperium. Worlds that are in Safe areas never
touched by the tiniest trace of the war get the same treatment, but without
the Frontier, Outland, Wilds, Warzone, Intense Warzone and Black Warzone DM's.
This leads me to belive that the major effect in Safe areas isn't from
the physical destruction of the starport facilities but more from the
destruction of shipping and markets, leading to the starports going bancrupt
or cutting down on operations if they can't make a profit.
> Try working
> out the defenses of Terra: 10 billion inhabitants @ 500 credits
> gives a yearly budget of 5 trillion credits. The fleet is
> equivalent to 10 times that. Even if you put 99% of those ships
> in ordinary to reflect a depressed economy, you still wind up
> with 500.000 MCr worth of ships. The fleet that can challenge that
> is not a raider fleet, it's a 3rd Imperium fleet.
There is no need to go in the hard way with blazing lasers and all that.
All that is needed is that the threat of piracy is so big that merchants
fear to travel, leading to economic recession and lesser demand for starships
from the yards at the starport, leading to more pirates competing for fewer
merchants, leading to more desperate pirates, leading to more afraid merchants
and so on.
There is no need for this to happen close to Terra. Anywhere within their
economic sphere would be ok. As the merchants begin to neglect high risk
routes the pirates will follow them inwards.
I seem to remember from the COACC book that the defences of Terra when the
Rule of Man set off on it's own were primarily in-system assets. It is of
course possible to build jump-capable ships to patrol the spacelanes, but
the instance the total costs from the trade (including militart escorts) is
greater than the gain of the trade to either the government or the merchants
the trade will cease. And the colonies will be in deep dodo.
[Btw: I'll expect that most of the piracy will cease during a Night as soon
as the trade collapses totally. No sheep -> starving wolves. The time for
this to happen is ofcourse dependent on the rate of decline. As the decline
into the Long Night were rather slow, pirates could have held out hundreds
of years.]
> ROM? What's that?
Rule of Man. Here is, quoted condensed and paraphrazed what Rats&Cats say
about the Long Night:
The Long Night were less hard on the worlds in the Rim than those in the
former ROM. Terra and Friends had relatively self-sufficient economies. At
the center of ROM piracy and plunder were rampant.
Terra and the original confederation worlds (probably about 40 parsecs radius
from Terra) organized into the Terran Mercantile Community which reformed into
a government in -1690. They had to protect their trade from pirates and
renegade naval units from the center of ROM.
As time passes trade dry up except on a subsector level. The TMC fail and
Terra and 'the local community' (say 5 pc radius) organize into the Old
Earth Union in -1110. Now some of the other ex-confederation states in
Dark Nebula, Alpha Crucis, Magyar and Reaver's Deep begin to raid their
neighbours closer to the center (of the Terran Confederation). This ended when
the Aslan arrived and sporadic fighting with the Aslan continued until 380.
Regardless of the direct effect on Terra, the "devastating" raids would have
further destroyed interstellar trade in the Rim area.
> Hans Rancke
- -bertil-
- --
Question to Radio Free Ara Pacis:
Q: Why can't dolphins become members of the Solomani Party?
A: Most people say that it is because they are too smart, but the real
reason is anatomical: they can't wear jackboots.