In deference to James Kundert, I shall only make this one long-winded
refutation to Hans Rancke's response to my 5/27 post, which was in
response to everybody elses posts of the past couple of weeks, etc.
(Yeek! This has been going on for a while)
First - I have a terrible feeling that _Ihatei of Doom_ will soon become
a trademark. I wish I could think of clever things like that. It could be
the second in a string of movies about a famous interstellar archaeologist
wandering the Spinward Marches. In the first feature, Rhylanor James
and the Lost Oytrip, our hero discovers an ancient device designed to
communicate directly with Grandfather, only to have it stolen by the
perfidious Zhodani. The second, Rhylanor James and the Ihatei of Doom
finds our hero saving the Domain of Deneb from a secret cult of Aslan
worshippers, with the help of a somewhat tubby Newt by the name of
Slick Round. The final installment, Rhylanor Jones and the Last
Emperor finds our hero travelling to Usdiki to find the whereabouts of
Strephon's Cloning Machine, with the help of Dr. Quentin James (who is of
course secretly Rhylanor's father). On the way, Rhylanor alienates an
entire army of Emperor worshippers, who do their best to stop our hero
out of a fear that mass production of Strephons will severely lower his
market value.
Sorry, I digress. Long weekends are good for the soul!
There are a few problems with Hans arguments. The most obvious one
(and the least satisfying as this is the source of all the hubbub) is this:
The Aslan conquered Glisten subsector, therefore the Aslan were capable
of conquering Glisten subsector.
This is all well and good, but how? Hans Rancke points out that
>Aslan Ihatei do not have the strenght to stand against even a modes
>Imperial fleet Split up and spread out ... they become even easier to deal
>with.
I was initially inclined to agree with this statement, but it is based on two
assumptions that may not be true:
1. The Imperium had a modest fleet available to stop the Aslan
2. The Aslan fleet was quantitatively and qualitatively weaker than
the local Imperial forces.
Remember, at this point the Domain of Deneb (DD) has been cut off
from the Imperium, and has been fighting a war with large-scale
vargr invasions and pirate raids along the coreward and trailing borders.
This invasion was serious enough to allow the loss of Depot in Deneb
Sector, a major source of IN reserve forces and equipment. These
raids began before the Ihatei invasion, and many forces from the
Trojan Reach area were likely drawn into the conflict coreward, leaving
frontier defenses in that traditionally quiet area severly weakened.
As the ease of spread of the Rebellion has shown, there was significant
discord in the Imperium. It is possible that while the fleets of DD did
not rally to Lucan's or Dulinor's call, many individual waships might
have done so. Others may have seen an opportunity to turn bandit,
join up with the Vilani or Antareans, or left the Imperium altogether.
Significant naval forces would be occupied with internal security duties,
further weakening frontier defenses.
As to the strength of the Ihatei, do not base your assumptions on human
or Imperial norms. The Aslan are a warrior culture. This means the Aslan
will devote significantly greater portions of the GAP (Gross Aslan Product)
to military equipment. A warrior strives for the best weapons he can get,
so much of that money will go to ships. I obviously have no good
historical precedents (not many starships in the middle ages) but I do
point out the relatively large size of military forces in the Germanies in
the 19th Century. I would not be surprised if the Alsan could field a
military two to three times the size of a comparable sized human empire.
As to tech levels; don't assume that a TL12 or 13 society has any real
technological uniformity. As I point out above, the Aslan are a militant
race. The females are likely to be the scientific brains of the region,
but the funding for scientific research will ultimately be controlled
by the various (male) clan heads. While the males will not concern
themselves with financial details, they will expect a useful return on the
investment of clan funds. Picture this scenario: Two female Aslan
scientists, Alwaro and Elwaro, go before the Clan's head, Kytharako,
advised by his cheif finance officer Lyhara, a female.
Alwaro: Honored Sire, I seek funds for a project.
Kytharako (looking bored): What is it now? Another study of (hiss)
Leaf-eaters?
Alwaro (looking abashed): Yes, Honored Sire.
Kytharako: Such talk bores me! Be gone from my presence!
(looking at Elwaro) Another scientist? I suppose you
wish
to study snowflakes?
Elwaro: Your words are true, Honored Sire.
Kytharako: Whay should I give you more than I gave Alwaro?
Lyhara: Honored Sire! Do you not remember? Elwaro presented you
with the new plasma focusing ring last year. She has greatly
enhanced the power of our house!
Kytharako: What has this to do with snowflakes?
Elwaro: Noble Sir, the ways of science are strange. By studying the
crystals of nature, perhaps I can learn to make better laser
mirrors, and increase the range of our clan's strength.
Kytharako: Khhrrr, you are wiser than many would realize. The money
is yours.
What I am trying to get at with this pathetic attempt at virtual roleplay is
that Alsan science will focus on weapons technology as a means of
fiscal survival. I would image Aslan weapons technology might be 1 or
2 levels higher than their general tech level. A TL12 squadron would be
an unequal challenge to a TL15 squadron, but three TL12 squadrons with
TL14 weapons would be easily an equal match to the TL15 squadron.
Supply Lines: The Ihatei are coming to DD to settle and stay. They are
probably expecting to live off the wealth of the new territory rather than
surviving off of a tenuous supply line. Given the rapidity of their conquest
of the Trojan Reach, I am sure they managed to seize a respectable
industrial base; certainly enough to maintain a steady supply of
ammunition.
Food Supplies: While Glisten might be able to raise bulk food supplies
readily enough, there are many trace elements (certain minerals and
vitamins) that do not lend themselves to hydroponic agriculture. Since
I am writing this at TL8, I have no idea if a better method exists at TL15,
but the fragility of these closed ecosystems in Traveller leads me to
beleive this is still a problem. The various laws of entropy make it
clear that a sealed system cannot sustain itself indefinitely. Blockade
running might slow the collapse of the Glisten artificial ecosystem,
but that will end once the Aslan roll up the systems around Glisten. With
no base to mount a releif effort from, the Imperium is not going to be
able to releive Glisten. I think the Rebellion Sourcebook data strongly
infers that the DD was unable to mount effective counterattacks into
Ihatei territory until well after the loss of Glisten. If a counterattack was
impossible (for whatever reason) a releif mission to beseiged Glisten
would be equally wasteful of time and effort.
In your last paragraph, you make your strongest point: the Ihatei have
to hold what they seize. Frankly, I think that is not going to be possible
for the Aslan, due to their small population base. Their only chance is
to win the hearts and minds of humans on occupied worlds, and the
occasional nuclear or biological attack on DD worlds is going to make
that very hard for the Ihatei. Hmmm... maybe we need to start up a new
furor/discussion frenzy on human resistance actions in the occupied
territories.
Thank you for your response, Hans. Despite the hammering above, I
though your arguments were very good. In all honesty, I think the
battle lines in GDW's Rebellion Sourcebook were mostly random, and
intended to add a threat of danger for some complacent old Spinward
Marches campaigns. So please dont think I am picking on you; I am
always this obnoxious after a three-day weekend.
[email removed]
This does not reflect the views of my employers (who say I am
ALWAYS this obnoxious).