I got this mini-module yesterday, and it turns out to be reasonably good
value for the money. The outline on the back cover of the drearily familiar
Subsidized Liner nearly persuaded me to keep my money, but fortunately my
store allows their customers to look inside the merchandize before buying.
The liner turns out to be converted to a StarMerc cruiser; quite useful.
Unfortunately GDW persists in their wilful disregard of common sense when
it comes to the effects of the hard times. The subsector (Promise,
L/Diaspora, just spinward of one of the subsectors in 'Hard Times')
contains a world with a population of 5 billion that has been bombed
down from Starport A, TL F to Starport B, TL D. This still leaves them
capable of supporting more than 24 Trillion Credit Squadrons. Despite
this their fleet consists of six _Gazelles_, six 400 T SDBs, four armed
Far Traders, three Patrol Cruisers, one armed Yacht, a _Broadsword_ and a
Corsair (plus 40+ small craft). I haven't bothered to figure out how much
of the naval budget there's left after maintaining this impressive fleet[1],
but we are told that the conversion of the aforementioned Subsidized Liner
to a military vessel were suspended in 1123 due to lack of funds...
Apparently GDW sees no paradox in having a TL D starport that can build
spaceships, but not starships. IMO during the Hard Times any world with
a TL above 8 will either have a Starport E-C (if someone bombed the
hell out of the yards recently) or A. The only place where type B
starports makes sense is on worlds with TL 6-8.
Incidentally, someone still seems to be enforcing interdictions.
[1] We are told that this is 'a considerable force by post-Rebellion
standards'.
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir
(Things don't change much, do they? ;-)