TCS vs. 5FW

David Johnson writes:
>*I'm* certainly the last person to argue over rules (I generally throw
>them *all* out) but I don't think it's this cut and dried.  The `1000
>ships per sector' and `50-200 ships per numbered [subsector] fleet'
>figures are from the *Rebellion Sourcebook*, a MegaTraveller reference.
>It was these numbers that I used to estimate the Sword Worlds naval
>forces at 42 ships.
>
>The distinction seems to be more of `strategic' focus (fleet compostion
>and such per *5FW* and *RS*) versus `tactical' focus (ship tonnages and
>the like per *HG*, *TCS* and *TNE*).  I believe this is where the
>actual inconsistencies are.

And:
>This is fine with me.  So what do we do now?  What is the rationale for
>accepting the *TCS* or other `tactical' part of the canon *over* the *RS*
>or other `strategic' part of the canon?

Analyse the economic strength of the 30 billion people in the Sword Worlds.
Assign what you think is a reasonable sum of money per citizen for them to
spend on their yearly naval budget (assume 1 credit hasthe buying power of
a US $). Now see how many naval vessels you can buy for that. Decide what
part of the initial purchase price it will cost to operate a ship. 1/20th?
1/10th? 1/5th? Whatever you decide, multiply the number of ships in the
fleet by the inverse number. Now match the figure you arrive at against
the figure TCS gives you and against the 42 battleships _RS_ gives you.
Which is closest? By how many orders of magnitude?

>Steve ??? [email removed] writes:

Welcome back, Steve. You've been missed.

>>	More thinly populated???  The SW have around 30 gigapeople in them,
>>all reasonably high tech. Regina subsector can only claim about 7
>>gigapeople, Rhylanor about 25, Vilis less than 10...

Just a side note: I checked the numbers for Regina just today and they work
out at roughly 77 billion.

>> 	Plus, of course, the 50-200 ships per subsector is ridiculously low
>>BY TCS STANDARDS.
>
>We've already established this.  Again, what is the rationale for
>accepting `tactical' figures from places like *TCS* over `strategic'
>figures from *RS* and the like?

They fit better.

>What I'm asking is why you choose to accept *TCS* data over *RS* data?

They make more sense.

>You're "mixing apples and orange".  Why would I choose to have a *TCS*-
>generated aggressor fight a *5FW*-generated defender?

If you accept the rationale that _5FW_ is a board game with other priorities
than _TCS_ then you certainly needen't. If you try to fit them all into a
coherent whole you need to address these discrepancies. GDW claims that
BOTH_TCS_ and _5FW_ are based on the same reality. A few simple calculations
show that that can't be true. Now what?

>What do we have here?  The Cult of the Trillion Credit Squadron?  :-)
>I'm not trying to argue what *TCS* says.  What I want to know is *why* I
>should ignore *5FW* and *RS* in favor of *HG* and *TCS*?

They seem more likely.

>> 	Faced with defeat by Ihatei?!?   What a concept!!!  I suppose
>>Regina's ten 400T SDBs might be faced with defeat by Ihatei, if the
>>Ihatei could get in that far, but I find it hard to believe that any
>>_important_ Impy force could be defeated by the Ihatei...
>
>More Cult dogma?  The *Rebellion Sourcebook* clearly indicates that most
>of Glisten subsector as well as portions of District 268 and Trin's Veil
>subsector fell at one point to the *ihatei*.

And you just the other day agreed with me that the only faintly reasonable
explanation for this is that the Imperials blundered massively and didn't
fight the ihatei with anything approaching an important Impy force. (And
even then I just can't accept the defeat of Tobia).

>Once again we see that the
>`strategic' viewpoint conflicts with a `tactical' one.  How do we choose,
>rationally, between the two?  Can we reconcile them at all?

Both tactically and strategically the ihatei are in deep shit if they poke
their furry muzzles across the 4-5 parsec gap that seperates the spinward
3/4th of Trojan Reaches from the coreward 1/4th.


      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