CT Only: Book 4 Lessons

[Supplement Four]

I've been re-reading David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series lately, and that inspired me to open the old CT box and pull out Book 4.

I haven't look at this thing closely in years.

I haven't played it in longer than that. (And, I'm sure that anything I say here that is "wrong" will be corrected promptly. :rofl: )

Flipping through the book, there are a few things that jump out at me...



USE BOOK 1 ENLISTMENT

A player can't just decide to be a Merc any more than he can decided to be a Marine under Book 1, if playing strictly by the rules.

The process is: Use Book 1 enlistment. IF successful in gaining enlistment into the Army or Marines, the Merc option from Book 4 is open as a choice for those characters.

A player only gets one attempt at enlistment. He must pick to try for the Army or the Marines. If he fails that enlistment roll, he must submit himself to the Draft, per Book 1.

If enlistment for the Army or the Marines (or either of these forces is rolled via the Draft), then the player may select to use Book 1 for character generation or use the Mercenary option of Book 4.





MORE SKILLS = MORE RISK

Book 4 doesn't have an optional Survival rule. If a Mercenary character fails a Survival check, then the character dies. Start over by going back to Book 1 and attempting enlistment with a new character.

Many argue that Advanced Character Generation provides more skills than a character generated under Basic Character Generation. I wonder about that.

Under Book 1, a character rolls once per term--once per four years. The base roll is 6+ for the Marines and 5+ for the Army.

But, under Book 4, the character is subjected to up to four Survival rolls each term, one per year: 4+, 5+, 6+, depending on the character's assignment that year. (Garrison Duty and Training have 100% survival.) The odds are much higher than a Merc character will die in character generation rather than a Book 1 Marine or Army soldier.

So, yeah, a Book 4 Merc might get a few more skills, but there's a higher probability that the character will die (and the player will have to start over, risking that Mercenary might not even be possible).

There's more pressure on a player to quit the career and not attempt re-enlistment, if the player gets a character he likes. With up to 4 Survival Checks a term, some players may even choose to quit the career after one term, like many of our modern day military men.





USING ADVANCED AND BASIC CHARGEN TOGETHER

Given the harder Survival, and the fact that a player can't just pick to be a Book 4 Merc--the player has to roll his way into the option--I don't see any reason at all why Advanced Chargen and Basic Chargen shouldn't be used in the same Classic Traveller game.

 

[Supplement Four]

Then again...

The optional Survival Rule was printed in the 1982 Book 1, 1983's Book 6 Scouts, and 1985's Book 7 Merchant Prince.

Lots of room there for people who argue that the Optional Survival Rule is part of RAW, even with Book 4.

 

[Supplement Four]

Question: What is an MRL? Page 49, Book 4?

Multiple Rocket Launcher?

 

[jec10]

Yes. MRL = multiple rocket launcher.

 

[aramis]

4 rolls @ 4+ is (33/36)^4; 70.6% chance.
1 roll @ 6+ is (26/36)^1; 72% chance.
Pretty close to the same overall survival chances when one figures in the odds of 100% for a few years.

4 @ 4+ is 70.6%
4 @ 5+ is 48.2%
4 @ 6+ is 27.2%

 

[Supplement Four]

4 rolls @ 4+ is (33/36)^4; 70.6% chance.
1 roll @ 6+ is (26/36)^1; 72% chance.
Pretty close to the same overall survival chances when one figures in the odds of 100% for a few years.

4 @ 4+ is 70.6%
4 @ 5+ is 48.2%
4 @ 6+ is 27.2%

Yes, I've mentioned this to you before. And, of course, it is different for Army characters who roll 5+ with Basic.

I think the issue is this: A player gets a Merc and likes what he gets. Does he want to risk Death, then have to try to re-enlist with a new character with no certainty that Merc will be even an option on the next character.

The player could suicide characters until another Merc becomes available. That's the players right, in my view. But, the player is constantly faced with the risk--bird in the hand.

 

[Supplement Four]

Just for fun, I'm going to roll up a Book 4 character, by the book, to see what I get. I'll roll real dice as I write.

I'll use TTB and Book 4.





Age 18.
457776

I don't have a preference, so I'll attempt the Army, needing a 5+. Plus, I get a +2 on Enlistment since I have END 7.

Roll 2D +2 for 5+ = 6

I enlisted in the Army, and I choose the Merc option.



Choice of Arm: Cavalry. Well, Air-Mobile. Those boys just couldn't sit still.



Year 1: Basic Training
SMG-1. I figure I might try to boost my DEX 1 point to meet the required DEX. Plus, SMG (or Pistol) makes sense for Cavalry and being around and in vehicles. Plus, if I don't get the DEX increase, at least I get two attacks for the full auto.

Year 1: Advanced Training
VRF Gauss Gun-1. Homeworld is TL 12+.

Story: Looks like he's a Combat Car gunner. This is fun!

Rank: E1 Private



Year 2: Grav Vehicle Training
Survival: Auto
Decoration: No.
Promotion: E2 Lance Corporal
Skill: Grav Vehicle-1

Story: Looks like our boy here did well in Basic and Advanced training as he was moved on to be a driver, and he nabbed a new stripe, too. Officially, he's a combat car pilot, but he's trained on the cabin's VRF Gauss Gun, it's main weapon. He's second in command in the car--Car Commander, then driver, then cabin gunner. Bigger combat cars have more guns, but this guy is in a scout vehicle. The other two gauss guns were removed for extra fuel, water, supplies, and detection gear for the car.

I just named him, too: Lance Corporal Odam Toebahjo of Peck's Mercenary Company, Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches.



Year 3: Aramanx Police Action
Survival: Rolled 5 exactly. Wounded.
Decoration: Awarded Purple Heart
Promotion: E-3 Corporal
Skill: VRF Gauss Gun-2

Story: Well, things really dropped in the pot for young Odam this year. Colonel Peck sent his unit on a ticket to Aramanx. Odam's scout car got shot up real bad. Odam was wounded, but he'll be OK. The car's commander was shot, too, and it looks like his Merc days are over. Odam is now eligible to take over command of the car--he's a Non-Com now, but Colonel Peck likes to have his scout cars commanded by full sergeant E-5's. Maybe Odam will get command of a different type of car. More than likely, though, he'll be second in command of his current car.

Now that Odam as an MOS skill at 2+, he gets a bonus for Survival. Now, I need to raise DEX by one point to get rid of the SMG penalty.



Year 4: Aramanx Police Action.
Survival: Yes.
Decoration: MCUF
Promotion: E4 Lance Sergeant.
Skill: Gambling-1 I went with the Army Life table hoping to get an increase to DEX (or to STR).




Story: Well, Odam was not pulled off Aramanx. Peck is getting paid for another year and decided to keep Odam's unit there, though Odam was pulled to the rear for some R&R.

Odam got in the thick of it again. I actually rolled a straight 5 for Surival, which would have him wounded again, but the new +1 modifier got him out of that. The dice tell me that the fire fight was hairy, and Odam saw a few close calls.

I speculate that Odam lost another crew member. Things on Aramanx must be hot, at least for the Scout unit. Maybe Colonel Peck is using his Scouts as light probe actions. That could be hairy.

Odam is a rising star among Peck's Company. He's made Lance Sergeant in four years. He's now just 22 years old.



Age 22. Lance Corporal Odam Toebahjo of Peck's Mercenary Company, Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches.
457776
VRF Gauss Gun-2, SMG-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Gambling-1







Story: Odam can't leave his buddies on Aramanx. When the recruiter came around, Odam signed for another four years.

In his off-time at the firebase, it looks like Odam has discovered Gambling. Maybe his R&R trips into town support this habit, too.

Re-enlistment: Rolled 10, needed 5+. Peck's Company is glad that he re-upped.



Year 5. Electronics Specialist School
Skill: Electronics-1



Story: So, the Company may have bribed Sgt. Toebahjo with this specialist school if he re-upped. My guess is Odam's car was shot up so bad during that last tour on Aramanx, that the power went out. With the car commander immobilized, Odam--without knowing much (INT 7, EDU 7) more than the average man--fixed the car's circuit. This must have lead to his MCUF. He got the car mobile again and was able to get him and his crew back to the firebase safely.

The recruiter came around with a promotion, a medal, a new contract, and a smile on his face.

Odam signed and was transited back to Aramis for training as his decimated unit was merged with another.



Year 6. Aramis Garrison Duty.
Survival: Yes.
Decoration: No.
Promotion: No.
Skills: None.

Story. Fresh out of Electronics skill, Odam was a soldier without a unit. His old unit was folded into another on Aramanx. From the reports, the action there seemed to be winding down, and Peck's ticket was not continued. The locals took over. The Company had done its job.

Odam found himself victim to Army red-tape as he was rotated to Garrison Duty. Which, Odam found, he actually needed. The two tours on Aramanx had taken more out of him than he had thought. Odam had been burning a candle at both ends since joining the outfit. He was 24 years old now, and a year in the rear was just what the doctor ordered.

Odam found out later that his unit counselor had kept an eye on him and arranged for the the ground duty.



Year 7. Protected Forces Training.
Skills: Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1

Story: The Navy Base on Aramis is known for its Zero-G training program, otherwise known as Protected Forces Training. Peck's Company has a contract with the Navy to send its Mercs to that school. Odam learned about this during his year down-side and applied. He was accepted into the next open class.



Year 8. Internal Base Security, Aramis.
Survival: Yes. Rolled exactly. Odam wounded.
Promotion: E5 Sergeant
Skills: No.

Story: Odam's new orders were a surprise to him. He had been on base perimiter patrol using a grav-jeep the year before his Protected Forces Training. Word was that things were heating up on Pysadi, which is a small world with a tainted atmosphere and a surface gravity somewhere around 0.5 G Standard. Odam was surprised that he was not sent there, having just completed PFT.

The surprise was Odam being assigned to Internal Security there at the base on Aramis. He learned later that Peck had not yet secured the Pysadi contract. And, that basically meant that Odam was still in limbo.

Internal Security is a step above standard Garrison Duty. Plus, by now, Odam had made quite a few contacts with the locals. The step made sense, even if Odam didn't see it, or even push for it, at first.

There was a pretty heavy scrape where Odam was wounded again. He was cut with a knife while doing some undercover work on the trail of illegal stims being shifted to destinations via Peck's transports. No Purple Heart was awarded this time because Internal Security is not considered combat duty, but Odam's efforts were, again, noticed by his superiors. And, Odam finally made full Sergeant as an E-5. He was now of rank to command scout combat cars.



Mandatory Re-enlistment? No.



Story: It came as a shock to the Company that Odam decided to muster out of the Merc's. Odam career was running full tilt with steady promotion and several options available to him as Scout Car Commander, or sent somewhere to take advantage of his PF Training, and, even now, a new opportunity in his career path had opened for him in internal security.

But, Odam had enough. He was now 26 years old. He's been in the thick of it on Aramanx. He'd been trained well. But, his last assignment in Internal Security had opened his eyes to something--something where he could earn more than five lifetimes serving in Peck's Company.

He'd almost gotten killed over it.

But, they'd made him an offer. And, that officer was backed by a lot of credits.

Odam Toebahjo could not turn it down.

if he kept going, he might find himself lying dead on some hell hole of a world, head half flat in a muddy ditch, with the rain falling down and his arms clutched around his mid-section to keep in his entrails.

That view of his old car commander on Aramanx swam back into his head.

Odam didn't want that. Not when there was opportunity to do more.

So, in spite of their offers and promises and mouths agape, Odam mustered out.



Muster 1: Cash Table: 10,000Cr
Muster 2: Cash Table: 10,000Cr

Odam Toebahjo
2 Terms: E-5 Sergant, Peck's Company, Age 26.
Homeworld: Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches

457776
VRF Gauss Gun-2, SMG-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Gambling-1, Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1, Electronics-1

20,000Cr.

Purple Heart (Odam was wounded twice, but only once in combat)
MCUF

Training/School/Education:
Basic Training, Peck's Company. 3 mos.
MOS: Cavalry
Advanced Cavalry Training: Scout Car Cabin Gunner. 9 mos.

Electronics Specialist Training. 1 year.

Imperial Navy Protected Forces Training - Aramis. 1 year.

 

[aramis]

The above shows several nifty points...

1) Bk 4 is an excellent solo gaming opportunity
2) Bk 4 is great as a springboard for backstory
3) Bk 4 characters tend to be heavy on weapon skills, often ones that won't be legal most places.
4) Bk 4 characters tend to have high skills in short times - Bk1, maximum for a
5) S4 has a good amount of time on his hands to be writing this up this way.

But it neglects to account for half of the book.

and as for the probabilities, many others won't intuit the math, or won't think to do the math. it gives a basepoint for others. Somewhere, I've got it all matrixed out for averaged survival chances per term, by odds of a given assignment and odds of survival of that assignment...

Bk 4, however, even if one completely ignores the front half, has several other virtues, especially for military-minded Refs and players.

First, it fully doubles the number of weapons available in the game rules. Both with good descriptions, and with full game stats for Book 1 Combat. (Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium (the book just to be clear), adds some primitive weapons - bows, and such. Those are repeated in The Spinward Marches Campaign. And Snapshot, at least in later printings, consolidates all three sources - B1, B4, and S4 - into one table on two pages...) So, not indispensible for the ironmongery, but still quite useful.

Secondly, it provides an idealized unit structure - essentially the 1970-1975 US Army model. That's only a couple pages. But, for the era, if one wasn't in the military, the information wasn't all that easily found, so it was a great tool. Even for those in Cadet Programs, it was a useful bit, because it was more clear than the TraDoc and USNA Press materials...

Thirdly, it provides a quite playable ref+1p or solo play unit management game, especially suited for Officers generated by the advanced char gen. Still, it's playable with Bk 1 characters. For group use, it provides a way to resolve being cadre without actually playing out the whole combat in Bk1/snapshot or AHL/Striker. And a way to establish contracts for Merc play.

 

[mike wightman]

I like your back story there is just one thing wrong with it from a rules as written stand point.

During your prior-career history - the bit you are generating with dice throws - your character is still enlisted in Imperial or Planetary service.

He/she doesn't become a mercenary until they muster out of their prior career.

 

[Supplement Four]

The above shows several nifty points...

1) Bk 4 is an excellent solo gaming opportunity
2) Bk 4 is great as a springboard for backstory

I use Book 1 the same way, with the story background stuff.

That's why I was so amazed at everybody going wild over the story stuff in Mongoose chargen. I've been doing that for almost as long as I've been playing Traveller.

We all did that--make up a story as the character was generated. I thought that most people did that.

It puts a lot of context on the character.

3) Bk 4 characters tend to be heavy on weapon skills, often ones that won't be legal most places.

Aren't Book 4 characters meant to be Mercenaries? Not usual adventuring characters.

The first paragraph of the Book 4 character generation chapter speaks to that:

While Traveller Book 1 provides a character generation system suitable to generating general adventurer characters, it intentionally neglects many of the specialized skills needed by professionals such as mercenaries.

What you speak to is by design. Book 4 is intended to create Mercenaries for mercenary style campaigns. It's not really intended for the general Traveller adventurer role.

The book is about creating merc characters, recruiting NPC mercs, and fighting merc tickets.

So, grab yourself a Merc Cruiser. Use Book 4 to populate the Mercs. Then have your games see them go into combat, Hammers Slammers style, on some Hell Hole on the frontier.

5) S4 has a good amount of time on his hands to be writing this up this way.

LOL. :coffeesip: Well, maybe. I'll say that I stopped at Term 2 with the character because I was done. I found a good place to stop generating.

I started writing it because I wanted to see the system in action. I haven't seen that in a while.

I enjoyed the exercise. It was fun.

 

[Supplement Four]

I like your back story there is just one thing wrong with it from a rules as written stand point.

During your prior-career history - the bit you are generating with dice throws - your character is still enlisted in Imperial or Planetary service.

He/she doesn't become a mercenary until they muster out of their prior career.

Hmm. That's an interesting take, Sigg. I was thinking that the book hired Mercs and trained them. I probably got that from my recent Hammer's Slammers readings. The first story I read in the collection was just about that--a new recruit being taken on by the Slammers.

So, I came at the chargen like that--a young man joining a merc outfit.

You're saying that, more like real life, the book is supposed to have the character in a real Army somewhere, where he gets experience, and then becomes a merc in his post career.

You're probably more correct, though I obviously wasn't thinking that way last night when I was writing up the story.

I supposed the book could be used either way--the way I used it, and the way you say.

Good point, though.

 

[Supplement Four]

Odam Toebahjo
2 Terms: E-5 Sergant, Peck's Company, Age 26.
Homeworld: Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches

457776
VRF Gauss Gun-2, SMG-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Gambling-1, Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1, Electronics-1

20,000Cr.

Purple Heart (Odam was wounded twice, but only once in combat)
MCUF

Training/School/Education:
Basic Training, Peck's Company. 3 mos.
MOS: Cavalry
Advanced Cavalry Training: Scout Car Cabin Gunner. 9 mos.

Electronics Specialist Training. 1 year.

Imperial Navy Protected Forces Training - Aramis. 1 year.

The first thing that Odam is going to try to do is use the Experience System in TTB to get that DEX raised so that he meets Min Req for the SMG.

 

[GypsyComet]

During your prior-career history - the bit you are generating with dice throws - your character is still enlisted in Imperial or Planetary service.

He/she doesn't become a mercenary until they muster out of their prior career.

Not necessarily. While the book (and Books 5-7) marinates in the organized military details, it is easily interpreted as being in *an army*, not necessarily in *The Army*. This is less true of the Marines side, but switching from the Imperial Marines to The Duke of Regina's Own Huscarles to Firelle's Fire Eaters over the course of four terms in "the marines" is not out of line with the general attitude toward careers. They represent what you do and what you learn, not *necessarily* who you work for.

 

[mike wightman]

While I agree with the sentiment that the character could be a career mercenary and the book can be used to generate him/her as such there are a few things as per the rules as written that point to the enlistment in the regular army or marines and then becoming a merc during play.

1. Traveller characters by default have mustered out of their original career before they enter play.
2. A quote:

The stock in trade of the mercenary is experience, and the regular army is the
best source of experience available.

and another:

The armed forces of major worlds in Traveller are divided into three major branches: The Navy, Marines, and Army. Mercenaries will generally be from either the Marines or Army. The Army is divided into three major force commands: Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command, Nautical Force Command (the wet navy) and Ground Force Command. Only the last of these three will be considered in this book.

and another:

once a character has entered either the Army or Marines

this particular bit along with what follows

Upon enlistment, a character embarks on a term of service
lasting four years.

makes it clear to me that the character is enlisting in the army or marine force of a polity.
3. I find it highly improbable that any merc force can offer commando school, intelligence school, protected forces training and military attache/aide - a couple of them may be options for specialised merc outfits, but all of them?
4. The decorations system heavily imply a polity service.

All of that out of the way, as I said at the start of this post I agree that LBB:4 can be used to generate characters who served in merc units as a prior career, I did so myself a long time ago when I wanted to rip off the Dorsai, but S:4 stated he wanted to use the book as written, and as written it has characters enlist via the LBB:1 paradigm (polity service) and at no point mentions the character moving into a merc unit until play begins post mustering out.

I find myself arguing with myself here because in a MTU setting or even in a frontier sector of the Imperium such as the Spinward marches I would definitely go with what S:4 and you are suggesting - the ref is free to interpret the rules as they see fit after all
I think it adds a lot of additional choice and flavour to the game. I am all in favour.

Final point, there should be space based mercs as presented in MT Hard Times: Assignment Vigilante as an additional option...

 

[nobby-w]

[ . . . ]
Aren't Book 4 characters meant to be Mercenaries? Not usual adventuring characters.

There's nothing to preclude you from using extended character generation systems for adventurers, and plenty of folks do. The High Guard character generation system was not intended just to generate crews for Trillion Credit Squadron. Book 6 and 7 characters really have no use apart from adventuring.

Where the wheels come off is when you try to mix and match the extended systems with the basic character generation systems in Book1/Supplement 4. Characters done with extended systems will have significantly more skills.

Megatraveller characters get an extra skill per term over Book 1, so they're a bit more even with extended characters. If you're worried about skill spam then you can limit the number of terms to (say) 3 or 4. I've used MT character generation with CT before - a bit of mapping tames the granular skill proliferation. That also gives the older classes (army, navy, marines etc.) access to the same skills as stuff from later publications.

There are also a few other services in the JTAS - skyport authority, police, doctors, journalists, scientists, spooks IIRC.

 

[Supplement Four]

There's nothing to preclude you from using extended character generation systems for adventurers, and plenty of folks do.

True. I won't argue that.

But as Aramis stated--and his point comes at this sideways--some of the skills a character gets in Book 4 are not very useful for a general adventurer.

How useful is having VRF Gauss Gun-2, like Odam has, if the character is to be used as a general adventurer? And, that's Odam's highest skill.

As an adventurer, Odam would be better served to have those two points put into SMG or some other useful skill for typical Traveller adventurers.





That's another point about Advanced Characters. Yes, they have more skills, but some of the skills are specific rather than general.

Here is Odam:

457776
VRF Gauss Gun-2, SMG-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Gambling-1, Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1, Electronics-1


Skills Generally Useful to a typical Traveller adventurer:

SMG-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Gambling-1, Vacc Suit-1, Electronics-1



More specific skills more useful to a Mercenary focused character:

VRF Gauss Gun-2, Zero-G Combat-1*



*Zero-G Combat could be useful to a typical Traveller adventurer, but, for all practical purposes, the Vacc Suit skill will do just as well.





This is another compatibility issue with Basic and Advanced characters. You can think of Advanced characters as Basic character with additional, specific skills that speak to the advanced focus.

 

[Supplement Four]

NEXT MOVE:

As stated up thread, Odam's next move, straight out of Chargen, will be to use the Experience Rules to go into a physical improvement program to hopefully increase that DEX by a point. That way, he's not penalized using the SMG. As it stands now, with DEX 5, he doesn't meet the required DEX to use that weapon.



ONLY TWO TERMS?

I'll also note that I stopped Odam's character generation on purpose. I strongly wanted to go one more term with him, but he had almost failed Survival twice. Once , he rolled Survival exactly, ended up getting wounded and a Purple Heart.

The second time, he actually failed Survival on the base Survival throw, but he got a +1 modifier from having a MOS skill at level-2 or higher. The +1 DM made the Survival check meet the throw exactly, which meant that the character was wounded again.

Given those two near misses (one more pip lower, and the character would be dead--and I liked this character--didn't want to lose him) influenced me to count my Blessings and stop while I was ahead. Who knows what would have happened in a third term.

 

[Supplement Four]

Question: The VRF Gauss Gun doesn't have required and advantageous DEX?

No, because it's a turret mounted weapon?

Or, does it use the standard Gauss Rifle modifiers?

It is confusing because the VRF has its own line int eh Weapons Matrix and Range Matrix but doesn't seem to be on the Dexterity requirements chart (unless the standard Gauss Rifle is to be used).

Was it omitted from page 51?

 

[Supplement Four]

Another Question: I've never played with ortillery or the ship artillery from Book 4.

Artillery seems to be a Ref's tool. The Ref just picks the spot where the artillery hits, and those within the radius are rolled against (with most weapons) to see if they are hit.

Is this how you see the Artillery weapons in Book 4?





So...

If I've got NPCs using mortars, let's say...as Ref, I describe the mortal barrage that starts to hum around the PCs. The NPCs mortar operator rolls 7+ to all within the burst radius, using the 4 cm RAM HE grenade to-hit DMs, and the NPCs get to attack each character within the radius 5 times*, doing 6D damage when it hits.

*This is for a Lt. Mortar, and after three minutes, the ROF decreases to 5 per minute (instead of combat round).

I guess if the players are using the mortar, they just designate where they want to hit, and I figure out the radius from there.



The book speaks about corrective fire. I'm surprised that there's no Forward Observer roll to move the target spot. It seems as if there should be some type of roll to see if the artillery hits where directed, but I don't see that in the book.

Anyone know about this?

 

[Timerover51]

I really never bought into the Mercenary rules in Book 4 at all. I have a very hard time visualizing the Imperium allowing private military units with very High Tech levels of equipment to exist. I can see too many Imperial Nobles looking at the local mercenary unit and realizing that they could put every one of his household troops in body bags without breaking a sweat or loosing a man.

If you want to play a futuristic miniature wargame campaign, I can see it as an advanced version of Striker, which I was never thrilled with either, but it does give that option.

The second thing is that given the number of worlds in the Imperium, I can easily visualize a mercenary unit deciding to take over one of the less-populated ones and turn it into their home base, without being terribly careful as to the collateral damage caused to the local populace. Italy during the Condottieri Period comes to mind. An ambitious noble with his own force of private mercenaries might make all of his neighbors very, very nervous, and Capital is a long way away, and the Sector and Sub-sector dukes are not noted for military intervention. It does cost a lot of their money.