Bruce:
>Just purchased David Brin's STARTIDE RISING and UPLIFT WAR. Only a
>couple of chapters in so far but its good.
>Any other books in the series?
"Sundiver" (the first one chronologically). I understand that "Sooners"
is coming real soon now...
>2. In a real fleet engagement are we going to see "line up and shoot"
>sort of combat from HIGHGUARD/TCS or is the whole thing going to
>degrade into "one (or many) on one" dogfight combat or is it going to
>be massive formations ala DOC SMITH or is it just an uncoordinated
>"free for all" as in STAR WARS?
It WON'T be "line up and shoot". In my TCS campaign, about half the
players who have specified use "massive formations", the rest use "one
(or many) on one dogfight combat". No-one uses "free for all", and
no-one is really depending on line of battle. Not after Amondiage
attacked Neubayern, ignored casualties long enough to drive THROUGH
Neubayern's defensive line, and bombed the starport off the map...
>3. Once the melee starts and the nukes are a firing away, what sort of
>command control is going to be left. The LENSMAN series has their
>"tanks" showing all the multi-coloured dots representing ships in
>battle etc. What sort of command control would you expect in a "REAL"
>hundred (thousand) ship a side slugfest?
Large Holo Displays would provide wonderful "tanks". I personally
expect that in a major fleet action, you would have a flagship like the
Terrans used in "People of the Wind" - big and tough enough that no-one
would willingly fight it. It didn't even TRY to fight, it just acted as
an impregnable command post for coordinating the other ships of the
fleet in a battel that lasted days, and was spread all over a solar
system...
>I like the old HIGHGUARD/TCS methods but would like to hear what your
>thoughts and experiences have been. I personally competed in some
>strategic level Traveller/HighGuard/TCS campaigns and the "rocks"
>almost always came out on top in a defencive roll but whenever the
>lines of supply were a bit teuous they ran into all sorts of problems.
>These campaigns were for the military minded and not in the Traveller
>Universe (I hope).
There are ways to protect your planets from "dinosaur killers". Not
many, but a few. My experience has been that offensive operations were
EXTREMELY difficult, except with the most limited objectives. Defensive
operations are easy, unless the enemy is content to render your planet
uninhabitable in passing. Then they are next to impossible. However,
offensive operations do NOT become easier when sterilizing planets along
the way - you are still a LONG way from repairs/reinforcements even if
every world between here and there glows in the dark...
>4. How do you take a planet from a determined enemy on the ground?
>From experience and observation of various strategic campaigns I've
>seen massive armies obliterated, atmospheres stripped, viral plagues
>applied, radiated rock balls, cometary collisions and simple surrender.
You either sterilize the planet, or don't take it without mind-boggling
casualties. In my campaign, two worlds have planetary defenses that
make assaults suicidal - they can be destroyed, but not conquered.
Fortunately for one of them, he came to his senses before committing his
planetary assault forces to an invasion of the other...
The other worlds SHOULD have defenses like that. Some are trying to
build them, some are betting on their fleets. Previous experience tells
me that the fleets won't be able to do it alone, but one of these bright
young lads might surprise me again...
>Anybody out there played in some Strategic level HighGuard/TCS
>campaigns?
I have run two before this one. I have played (many years ago) in a few
campaigns of limited scope (a year or so game time)...
---Steve