Cold War along the Spinward Marches

[Enoff]

For a long while I've been thinking about what a campaign might look like based on a "Cold War" idea in the Spinward Marches before the Fifth Frontier War. All this Summer and Fall I've been reading about World War 2 and the solving of the German Enigma coding machine. Being able to read the enemies encoded messages would obviously have great advantages in war.

The history of how this was accomplished is pretty fascinating. From Polish cryptanalysts basically reconstructing the Enigma machine through code analysis to Alan Turing's "Bombe" which was a machine to decode another machine. I enjoyed "The Imitation Game" with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley which recently came out about Bletchley Park and Turing's "Bombe."

There was a documentary that I also recently watched about the "Dieppe" raid during WW2. It has long been considered a fiasco because it was a disaster and a lot of soldiers were killed or capture. Recently a Canadian historian was doing research on the raid and after looking at a lot of the information that until recently had been classified came to the conclusion that the "raid" had been to disguise an attempt to acquire one of the German Enigma machines and its code books.

The unit that was tasked with this operation was the 30 Assault Commandos. A unit commanded by none other than Ian Fleming, the later author of the James Bond series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._30_Commando

This gave me the idea of the Duke of Regina forming a similar unit to perform intelligence operations before and during the Fifth Frontier War against the Zhodani and their allies.

 

[Enoff]

I just think there are so many adventures you can have with the Spinward Marches and the Fifth Frontier War. Taking an idea from the British Commando raid on St. Nazaire, you could have Imperial Commando's raiding a Zhodani spaceport with capabilities to repair capital ships as their target.

Another pre-5th Frontier War adventure might be the rescue of a Donosev class survey scout vessel crew imprisoned on Arden (The ship was being used as a Spy/EW by ISA, Imperial Security Agency) sort of a USS Pueblo Incident.

 

[ian54]

The issue of psionics will certainly play a part, Imperial undercover agents will have to be trained to survive in the Zhondani Empire. I've always thought about putting Adventure 6 "Expedition to Zhondane" in a pre-war setting. This is worth reading for the information on Zhodani anyway.

 

[Timerover51]

For a long while I've been thinking about what a campaign might look like based on a "Cold War" idea in the Spinward Marches before the Fifth Frontier War. All this Summer and Fall I've been reading about World War 2 and the solving of the German Enigma coding machine. Being able to read the enemies encoded messages would obviously have great advantages in war.

The history of how this was accomplished is pretty fascinating. From Polish cryptanalysts basically reconstructing the Enigma machine through code analysis to Alan Turing's "Bombe" which was a machine to decode another machine. I enjoyed "The Imitation Game" with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley which recently came out about Bletchley Park and Turing's "Bombe."

There was a documentary that I also recently watched about the "Dieppe" raid during WW2. It has long been considered a fiasco because it was a disaster and a lot of soldiers were killed or capture. Recently a Canadian historian was doing research on the raid and after looking at a lot of the information that until recently had been classified came to the conclusion that the "raid" had been to disguise an attempt to acquire one of the German Enigma machines and its code books.

The unit that was tasked with this operation was the 30 Assault Commandos. A unit commanded by none other than Ian Fleming, the later author of the James Bond series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._30_Commando

This gave me the idea of the Duke of Regina forming a similar unit to perform intelligence operations before and during the Fifth Frontier War against the Zhodani and their allies.

The Dieppe Raid was more of a demonstration, albeit an expensive one, by the British to show the amateur Americans that they were in no condition to try a direct invasion of Europe in the fall of 1942. Considering the chaos of the Operation Torch, the British were completely correct, and Marshall and the American command were out of their minds.

 

[salochin999]

One aspect to that is during the cold war there were lots of secret and/or proxy wars fought among neutrals so as well as direct Imperium/Zhodani espionage and counter-espionage you have all those systems in between the two. For example the Vilis/Arden could be like Vienna in films like the "Third Man" or Berlin in later movies with spies and agents from both sides trying to influence the local government.

http://travellermap.com/?scale=45.2578125&x=-104.322&y=68.24

 

[RandyB]

This would put a spotlight on the Federation of Arden, IMO. Much adventuring goodness there.

 

[BlackBat242]

For a long while I've been thinking about what a campaign might look like based on a "Cold War" idea in the Spinward Marches before the Fifth Frontier War. All this Summer and Fall I've been reading about World War 2 and the solving of the German Enigma coding machine. Being able to read the enemies encoded messages would obviously have great advantages in war.

The history of how this was accomplished is pretty fascinating. From Polish cryptanalysts basically reconstructing the Enigma machine through code analysis to Alan Turing's "Bombe" which was a machine to decode another machine. I enjoyed "The Imitation Game" with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley which recently came out about Bletchley Park and Turing's "Bombe."

There was a documentary that I also recently watched about the "Dieppe" raid during WW2. It has long been considered a fiasco because it was a disaster and a lot of soldiers were killed or capture. Recently a Canadian historian was doing research on the raid and after looking at a lot of the information that until recently had been classified came to the conclusion that the "raid" had been to disguise an attempt to acquire one of the German Enigma machines and its code books.

The unit that was tasked with this operation was the 30 Assault Commandos. A unit commanded by none other than Ian Fleming, the later author of the James Bond series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._30_Commando

This gave me the idea of the Duke of Regina forming a similar unit to perform intelligence operations before and during the Fifth Frontier War against the Zhodani and their allies.

The Dieppe Raid was more of a demonstration, albeit an expensive one, by the British to show the amateur Americans that they were in no condition to try a direct invasion of Europe in the fall of 1942. Considering the chaos of the Operation Torch, the British were completely correct, and Marshall and the American command were out of their minds.

There were multiple sub-missions within the overall Dieppe plan - seizing German radar equipment and tech manuals, freeing French Resistance members from a nearby Gestapo holding facility, as well as the Enigma part.

The original, much larger Dieppe plan had been canceled, and the smaller one was only revived because of the hidden sub-missions. Without them it would not have gone forward.

And as for that book - what is it with the current fad for taking subjects that have been the subject of books and movies for decades, and coming out with a new book with the sensationalist (and false) claim of "for the first time ever the story can be told"?

The story of the hidden sub-missions of the Dieppe raid (Operation Jubilee) was first told to the general public in the 1976 book A Man Called Intrepid, written about, and with the full cooperation of, Sir William Stephenson, head of the WW2 BSC (British Security Coordination) - a British special-ops group headquartered in New York City, with the mission of getting the US, British, and Canadian secret ops groups working together. It was set up before the US entered the war officially (in 1940), and Sir William was intimately aware of ALL the facets of Jubilee, and the raid, its purposes, and the intelligence gathered, are covered on Chapter 41 of A Man Called Intrepid.

Yes, I'm sure this book tells the story in much greater detail and scope - but it is hardly a previously-untold story.

 

[Enoff]

ALL the facets of Jubilee, and the raid, its purposes, and the intelligence gathered, are covered on Chapter 41 of A Man Called Intrepid.

I didn't know that BlackBat, I had read that book a long time ago, I'll have to reread it at some time, at least that chapter, thanks for mentioning it!!

 

[Enoff]

The issue of psionics will certainly play a part, Imperial undercover agents will have to be trained to survive in the Zhondani Empire. I've always thought about putting Adventure 6 "Expedition to Zhondane" in a pre-war setting. This is worth reading for the information on Zhodani anyway.

That is an interesting idea with the psionics. What comes to my mind right away, is how interested the Imperial would be in the Zhodani psionic robot control mechanism.

 

[Enoff]

This would put a spotlight on the Federation of Arden, IMO. Much adventuring goodness there.

One aspect to that is during the cold war there were lots of secret and/or proxy wars fought among neutrals so as well as direct Imperium/Zhodani espionage and counter-espionage you have all those systems in between the two. For example the Vilis/Arden could be like Vienna in films like the "Third Man" or Berlin in later movies with spies and agents from both sides trying to influence the local government.

http://travellermap.com/?scale=45.2578125&x=-104.322&y=68.24

Yes! exactly!

 

[GypsyComet]

I think I read some years ago that this was the reasoning behind the Federation of Arden at the time. You could also use the Border Worlds the same way.

 

[rancke]

I think I read some years ago that this was the reasoning behind the Federation of Arden at the time. You could also use the Border Worlds the same way.

Once they've been created, yes.



Hans

 

[Enoff]

I envision a lot of "shadow" activity on Regina itself, being so close to the border, black market shady deals in the "Chiba" side of Star town (Regnl spaceport?), brokering mercenary contracts for worlds, plus lots of clandestine intelligence and counter-intelligence going on. I have the map of Regina extracted from the DGP World Builder's book. I get all kinds of ideas from looking at it. A murder of a foreign agent on the maglev train line between the city of Credo, its starport and the islands of Reyna and Caranda. A hidden Zhodani transmitter on Berg island, north of the continent of Queenland, looks within the arctic circle of Regina on the opposite side of the planet from Regnl (which I assume is the capital).

 

[GypsyComet]

Once they've been created, yes.

The set of worlds that would become the Border Worlds and the spinward edge of Lunion probably serve that purpose well before the 5th Frontier War, as do the back country worlds of Vilis. The Marches map has plenty of Casablancas even in 1105.

 

[Murph]

I have used a unit in my Traveller games of days past the Imperial Navy 1073rd Special Purpose Squadron. Made up of military and commercial ships, it had Marine Commandos, and Intelligence officers assigned and its purpose was "Black Ops" along the Zhodani, and Aslan borders of the Marches. One of my players commanded one of the ships in the squadron.