From: [email removed] (David Johnson)
>There are no clear rules (with the exception of possible *Trillion Credit
>Squadron*, which I don't have) tying naval forces to any sort of UWP data.
>Based upon the `1000 ships per sector' mentioned in the *Rebellion
>Sourcebook* we get an `average' of 62.5 ships per subsector. Based upon the
What we get from TCS is an annual naval budget, based on UWP, and
shipyard capacity, based on starport type and UWP (specifically,
population). I don't have TCS handy right now; Hans, Ken, someone
care to fill in the numbers?
>Thus, the entire Confederate Navy consists of 42 ships. The
>Confederate Army consists of something around seven armies. These
>figures seem a little low
A LOT low, unless you are talking about capital ships only. I might
believe that the Sword Worlds has only 42 active-duty Battleships, but
given the naval budgets and yard capacities of even Tizon or Sting
(let alone Narsil - ohmigawd!), I cannot believe that the Sword Worlds
has only 42 total battleships, cruisers, carriers and escorts. Sting
alone should have that many.
Remember, the Confederation has been in the habit of taking on the
Imperium; I suspect they run a much larger navy in proportion to their
population than the Imperium does. Compared to the Navies of
independent single worlds, the Imperium has an incredibly low (factor
of 100 or more) naval strength in proportion to its population (based
on my experience playing TCS).
From: Rob Dean [email removed]
>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.
I know we had a long-running thread about the pros and cons of deep
meson gun sites a few years back, and I don't intend to resurrect that
thread, BUT-- experience playing TCS has shown one not-so-minor defect
of those "deep meson gun sites" that Impy planets are so fond of:
they are shorter ranged than missiles. A fleet can stand off and
bombard your starport, industries, surface installations and troops
out of existance without your meson guns being able to reach it.
>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
I assume that the SDBs mentioned in FFW are more like Mora's
multi-hundred thousand ton planetoid monitor than like those 200-ton
fighters-on-steroids that are listed as SDBs in the various Traveller
books. I would be hard put to imagine that a world with Regina's yard
capacity and budget was restricted to 10 overgrown fighters, or that
10 oversized fighters would pose a serious threat to an invading
fleet.
>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
This is a contradiction that has been around since Classic Traveller
and never been explained. Several places it has been explicitly
stated (no, I don't have it in front of me now) that the Imperium
does not allow multi-stellar member nations. I believe it was
mentioned in one of the Solomani supplements, to contrast it with the
Solomani Confederation which was made up of multi-stellar member
nations. Yet, we have always had those Type 6 governments, some of
which were described as having Imperial military governors (like
Terra), most of which are described as colonies of some neighboring
system. Go figure.
-- Cynthia Higginbotham
"Q: What is the difference between the BATF and the Gestapo?"
"A: BATF agents speak English."