A very interesting thread with the usual great posts from the usual thoughtful(1) posters...
Now my 0.02 CrImps:
- The wretched(2) MT product Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium lists a few tanker and 'dromedary' designs. However, since most Traveller warship designs - including the official ones - ignore cargo provisions, I think it safe to say that logistical concerns weren't on anybody's mind when our tiny peek at the Imperial Navy slowly accreted over 25 years.
There's an old saying that goes something like: 'Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.' Very few wargames deal with logistics except in the most cursory way and RPGs don't deal with logistics much better. Except when the plot demanded it, when was the last time you made your PCs actually count man-rations?
The 'lack' of a supply network, like the 'lack' of a detailed Imperial budget, is one of those places where the simulationist aspect of Traveller fades behind the gamist aspect of Our Olde Game. And that's a good thing too!
- Auxiliary assets are canonical as these few examples will illustrate. A 'Marches Auxiliary Naval Service' exists and is referred to in a few materials. Planetary governments and groups of governments routinely subsidize the operation of small, under 500dTon, merchantmen that can be pressed into government service at a moment's notice. Oberlindes jump started its expansion into a sector-wide line through the purchase of surplus 'naval transports'. The examples abound.
While, as Fly points out, the scheduling and marshalling difficulties these assets bring with them are real, the IN seems to use civilian call-ups in the Marches. Keep in mind too that the Marches are one of the Imperium's few 'hot' borders.
- Walt Smith at the 'ct starships' Yahoo group posted some logistical rules a few years ago. IIRC, he based them on Beltstrike and other references. I don't recall the precise details, but I do recall they 'fit' my view of things. The materials even took into account 'supply heavy' weapons like missiles. Sadly, the link I have to Walt's pages is dead. Google may be able to resurrect the material though.
- For all our emphasis on underway replenishment, we must remember that it is a fairly recent practice; WW2, and is not one that many navies; the USN primarily with a few NATO allies using USN ideas, equipment, and assets, can perform or attempt to perform. There are training issues (can the crew handle it?), equipment issues (do they have the tools? are the ships set up fo it?), and shipping issues (do you have the specially designed and dedicated supply vessels?). Even within the USN, un-repping is not the norm. My last ship, California, only 'un-repped' for training. We needed no bunker fuel; the MAJOR reason for un-reps, never needed to fill our magazines, and our food/mail/movies needs could be met by a bi-monthly helo.
We should also remember that, for all the fleet train tonnage and air transport capacity the US military enjoys, USN vessels still routinely purchase food stuffs, various sundries, and even POL in the ports they visit. Not in all ports to be sure. My ship SUP-O bought nothing at Karachi for example, but did make heavy purchases at Singapore.
- The Imperial Navy seems to rely on bases much in the same manner that the Royal Navy did up through WW2. When the RN joined the USN in the Pacific after VE Day, they found they could not keep up with the USN's task forces because they did not have a 'fleet train' of their own and their vessels could not 'plug into' the USN fleet train due to various training/equipment issues. While USN carriers and escorts ranged for months off the coast of Japan, RN carriers and escorts needed to return to protected anchorages for resupply after only a week or two of operations.
A look at the number of bases the IN can rely on in a typical subsector is illuminating. In Mora/Spinward Marches - not a border subsector by any stretch of the imagination - the IN has bases at Mercury, Moran, Mora, and Hexos. Adding to this list are IISS scout bases; where the IN enjoys reciprocal basing rights, at Nadrin, Dojodo, Mercury, Mora, Meleto, and Mainz. That is a total of 10 bases among eight systems in a subsector of only 26 worlds.
Given those base numbers, given the fact that IN vessels can purchase life support needs, and given the fact that fuel processors mean that fuel is essentially 'free' for warships in Traveller, how many tons of jump-capable, 'fleet train', supply-the-warships-directly vessels does the Imperial Navy actually need? How much of that tonnage does the IN rely on? How much does it plan to rely on?
- Other than the Rim War; which was an oddity in so many ways, the Imperial Navy hasn't engaged in extended offensive operations beyond the Imperium's borders in centuries. There has been no 57th Century version of the 'Plan Orange - Drive Across The Pacific' that demanded the development of the USN's current un-rep capabilities.
The IN fights at home and not at the end of a multi-month long supply chain. To be sure, there are the occasional 'deep strikes'; SMC mentions a few against Zho worlds in Chronor, but the IN normally fights at home from an established network of bases.
IMHO, for the most part, IN supply ships are in-system lighters transferring material from bases, supply dumps, and depots to warships. IMHO, a jump capable 'dromedary' travelling with the fleet and dispensing reloads is quite rare in the IN. IMHO, what is seen more often is a temporary supply depot consisting of auxiliary container ships, a security force, and oddles of small craft buzzing about at 6gees to resupply the CruRon just rotated back from the front.
YMM and should V.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Not stroke any egos here, but if I see a thread with certain names in it - and you all know who you are - I always read it no matter what the topic.
2 - Almost all of which are broken with regards to their own design system hence the alternate title Shattered Ships of the Fighting Imperium.
(edited for spelling and prose - WRC)
