Hard times in the Domain (really?)

Robert S. Dean writes:

> Could someone out there with the computer files at hand see how many worlds
> in the Spinward Marches are "failing" or "doomed" by Hard Times standards
> before everything comes apart?

Always remembering that the two enemies that threathen the Domain would _not_
target high-population worlds for destruction. Aslan _ihatei_ wants land, so
they would concentrate on low-population worlds (IMO the attack on Aki is
completely implausible). Besides, their methods are mostly peaceful. Certainly
they would not use either nuclear or bacterial weapons (Yes, I know they've
been reported to use both, but think about it. Nuclear weapons are obviously
ridiculous. Aslan motives is to acquire land. Killing humans (if necessary) is
incidental. So who's going to kill humans by nuking and render the land
uninhabitable? Silly notion. Bacterological weapons seems more reasonable
at first, but would an _ihatei_ fleet really risk starting a biowar with
humans? How long could they expect to keep their new land? If the aslans
really did try bioweapons then there may indeed be a couple of new glowing
planets in the Domain, but otherwise, no.) (So what are the Wilds and the
Outlands between the Domain and the aslans doing there? Beats me.)

Incidentally, would anybody care to calculate the economics of _ihatei_
fleets? How big a percentage of _ihatei_ can each aslan generation afford
to send off? How many ships would the Domain need to beat off a century's
accumulated _ihatei_, assuming that every single one went across the Great
Rift instead of some of them going rimwards? How many would they need,
if they can play off one clan against another? How many ships would they have
in their rimward subsectors even if they sent all the regular ships coreward
to deal with the vargr and just left the subsector forces?
I'd be interested to compare your findings to mine.

As for the vargr raiders, they want loot. They _need_ loot to maintain
their fleet. They do _not_ need to get the fleet shot to bits in the
process of acquiring the loot. Now, what targets are they going to select,
low and medium population worlds with reasonable defenses or high-population
worlds with defenses equivalent to a couple of trillion credit squadrons?

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "Come all brother spacemen that travel along.
         Oh, pray come and tell me where the trade is all gone.
         Long time have I travelled, and I cannot find none."
         Ch: "And sing: All the hard times of the Empire.
              In the Empire are very hard times."
                                Traditional song.