Steve Charlton:
>OK, Glisten... A couple of people were surprised that Glisten with its
>umpteen billions of population and lots of SDBs would have fallen
>to the Ihatei.
Wrong verb. Incredulous is the one you're looking for.
>I imagine the Aslan did not really invade Glisten so much
>as capture all of the surrounding agricultural worlds. I'm sure Glisten
>had hydroponics and carniculture plants as internal food sources, but
>there would have been some form of dependence on supplemental outside
>food sources. Basically, reprocessed algae might keep you
>alive, but probably would not keep you overly happy or healthy. The
>Ihatei probably waited a few months and then suggested a small change
>in alliegence in exchange for some non-artificial food. The humans would
>get to stay alive, retain their property and eat a good meal, while the Aslan
>would gain a high-tech industrial base in the Spinward Marches.
>
>What do you think, sirs?
1) The economics of building and running starships as set forth in various
CT and MegaT products makes it impossible for a high-population world to
base it's food supply on imports; the available trade fleet is simply not
big enough to import a significant amount of food. (A low or medium
population world can do it if it relies on the trade fleet of a nearby
high-population world). (Possiby things have changed with TNE, but if so
I'd like to see some figures.) Glisten MUST produce nearly all of it's
own food (And why do you think that a TL 15 society will have to make
do with processed algae?)
2) History has shown that people can stand quite a long siege on low rations.
Even if Glisten imported, say, 10% of it's food, and even if those 10%
meant the difference between just getting by and slow starvation, Glisten
could hold out for a long time. Time enough for the Imperium to free the
aforementioned food-supplying worlds. And, of course, Glisten could
always import food from worlds farther away; it would cost more, but
Glisten is one of the four richest systems in the Spinward Marches. Not
to mention one of the four most important systems to the Imperial Navy.
3) Glisten is 20-30 parsec from the nearest substantial Aslan world. It
will be incredible easy for the Imperium to disrupt their supply lines.
4) Aslan ihatei do not have the strength to stand angainst even a modest
Imperial fleet. Split up and spread out across all these agricultural
worlds they become even easier to deal with.
[About the strength of Aslan ihatei: It cost money to outfit ihatei fleets,
money that the clan must deduct from it's naval budget. Outfit too many
and you friendly neighbouring rival clan will jump your clan holdings at
home. Ihatei fleets consist of roughly 50% fighting ships and 50% transport
ships (the cost of their scout ships is negligible in comparison to the other
two ship types). This cuts their fighting strength in half. Ihatei fleets
are outfitted with obsolescent clan vessels, making the typical ihatei
fleet TL 12 and jump-3, worse even than Imperial subsector forces, let
alone Imperial regulars. Strategically there runs a broad starless gap of
more than 3 parsecs' width through the Trojan Reach from the Great Rift to
Beyond. Only in two places can jump-3 ships cross this gap without using
drop tanks or deep space fuel depots. Given a half-decent spy network a
reasonably competent Imperial admiral coud garrison the two choke points
and patrol the rest of the far side to seriously hinder the buildup of drop
tanks and the laying of fuel depots. Politically the ihatei come from 29
major and scores of minor clans. The biggest clan can hardly represent more
than 5% of the total Aslan strength. If they act independently their fleets
will be small enough to be threathened even by individual Imperial squadrons,
and if they cooperate they have to work out whose ships goes where in any
fleet action (What clan admiral will consent to having his ships blown up to
destroy an Imperial fleet so that the othert clans can reap the reward?)]
(Then there's the problem of defending your wives and cubs once you've
managed to settle them somewhere. Remember the world where all the humans
died of a mysterious disease which didn't bother the Aslans? Yeah, right!
If that really happened that world would be glowing in the dark a few
months later).
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