Milieux, Differentiation of

[robject]

My latest fad is to picture Milieux as variant settings, different from the Classic Milieu in specific ways but still fit into the "history" which includes the Imperium, and still operates according to core rules (in my case, 'core rules' is eclectic, so do I even need to say YMMV?).


pick a corresponding Terran era and find where it fits...

Grandfather's Children

Terran Analogue: World War II.

• TL28+
• Portals are in wide use.
• Shields (white globes) are Trek-like.
• Ambushes.
• There's no line of battle. Portals allow ships to pop into a skirmish at any point, and get out as easily.
• Ortillery Seiges.
• The central goal is holding planets hostage and killing planets when necessary.
• The response is heavy system patrols / SDBs.
• Submarines and destroyers: snipers and planet-killers.
• Kamikaze pilots.
• Gunboats can kill large ships.

(Proto-)Ziru Sirka

Terran Analogue: brutal Assyrians basically crushing the vanquished.

• TL9
• Weapons are superior to defenses.
• Jump-capable ships are in the thousands of tons, not hundreds.
• The ZS is the pioneer of the Battle Rider and Carrier concepts.
• Fighters and gunboats dominate insystem battles -- assuming the ZS faces any resistance.
• Fighter Carrier/ Swarms of Fighters Environment
• Fighter swarms clash... the victor basically forces the loser to vacate
• A Fighter can kill a Carrier.
• Implies Heavy Fighters and Light Fighters and a whole mix of fighter types (and gunboats).
• PCs in their gunboat can turn the tide of battle.

Notes from G. K. Anderson:

A couple of weeks back I began toying with the idea of fleshing out the Empire of Gashikan, for the point of developing Gashikan (and maybe even Trenchans) Sector(s) as a Classic Era milieu.

I decided that I needed to more fully understand the back history of the region, so, taking inspiration from someone's old HIWG project, I began running a series of settlement/exploration pattern "simulations" using the Charted Space dotmaps in order to better see how the Vilani, Geonee, Suerrat, et al., of the pre-Ziru Sirka era (c. 9800-4045 PI) moved out, contacted, and conflicted, with each other. Right now I'm up to four fairly complete maps (9000, 8300, 7000, and 6000 PI), and I'm currently working on one for 5400 PI (the eve of the Consolidation Wars).

It's been an eye-opener for me. If the maps are any guide, the Geonee were a force to be reckoned with in those days, and the Vilani must have been nightmarishly genocidal in their determination to bring "stability" to the galaxy in order to knock the Geonee down to where they are today. It's also fairly apparent that a lot of the races that received jump drive from those so-called "Vilani traders" of yore that we hear so much about actually got them from the Geonee.

To kinda get back to the question at hand: Ilelish and Verge Sectors circa 6000 PI looks like a pretty intriguing location for a Traveller milieu. There's a solid (but probably fairly insular) Suerrat state taking up a couple of subsectors, the Geonee are grabbing what they can along the coreward rim (along the "shores" of the Great Reft), the Vilani are methodically pushing in colonies down a main to rimward, and there's probably drifting caravans of privateering Loeskalth, yankee-trading Dishaan, and who-knows-what-they're-up-to Lancians to contend with as well.

Both the Suerrat and Geonee would have been able to provide ample resistance in the early days. The Geonee had been drifting into TL12 for over 1500 years by the time the Consolidation Wars broke out. There are a couple of ship technologies at that level (nuclear dampers, for instance) that might dramatically effect the outcome of a battle with an unprepared TL11 fleet. Massilia/Delphi Sectors in the 6th millenium PI would make for a fun and competitive series of TCS campaigns.

Rule of Man

Terran Analogue: WWII Russia

• TL10,11,12
• Life is cheap, guns are expensive.
• Cheap fighters and throwaway pilots.
• Weapons and defenses are roughly equal.
• A gunboat can kill a cruiser.

Xaheydemo (Milieu Zero)

The Quarantine Era.

• TL12
• Bypassing worlds that won't join the Imperium and isolating them so they cannot benefit from the vigourous interstellar trade that the Imperium brings.
• Quarantine patrols.
• Limited diplomatic contacts.
• Smuggling of ordinary household goods.
• Characters from isolated worlds venturing to the stars, hiding their true origins, and gawking at the big bustling planets they visit.
• Maybe engineering a scheme to bring their homeworld into the Empire (with themselves as Marquises). Sound like a job for a Rogue.
• Weapons and defenses are roughly equal.
• A gunboat probably cannot kill a cruiser.

Barracks Emperors (M600)

Terran Analogue: Cold War

• TL13
• Propaganda wars between fleets trying to convince ships to defect (rather than fleet battles (which do still happen)))
• Defenses have an edge over weapons.
• A fighter cannot kill a cruiser.

Maghiz Milieu

Terran Analogue: Norman Conquest

• TL16
• Beam-Heavy Missile-Poor environment.
• A fighter can kill a cruiser.

Classic Milieu

Terran Analogue: Age of Sail

• TL14
• Defenses are stronger than weapons.
• A fighter cannot kill a cruiser.

Rebellion/Hard Times

Terran Analogue: Squabbling Greek city-states.

• TL16
• Hi tech doesn't work reliably. But when it works, it works great.
• A fighter might be able to kill a cruiser.

Machine Milieu

Terran Analogue: U.S. raids on Afghanistan?

• TL20
• Central Controlling ships and robot or remote controlled outriders.
• Central ship is stealthed. Outriders are what take the hits.

Behemoth Milieu

Terran Analogue: World War I

• TL24
• Heavy Armored Lumbering Capital Ships
• The final Kill has to be Contact Nukes or Boarding parties

 

[kafka47]

Interesting analogies if that is what Marc has on his mind. I always pictured them somewhat differently. Take the Rule of Man, postwar pre-intra ethnic Yugoslavia or Austro-Hungary come to mind. The Rebellion era more like the Colonial Wars, alliances constantly shifting with the ultimate outcome United States Against the Virus (USAV). But, clearly Marc is taking a wargamer approach to the history of the Imperium and I prefer the socio-politio-economic models.

 

[DonM]

I don't think that's Marc. I think that's Rob.

 

[robject]

Yes, it's plainly me. I'm only quoting my own deranged mind. I was trying to come to grips with how space combat can be different from milieu to milieu while still being Traveller.