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Population and percentage in military

Reserves, 2nd line, militia suffer from lack of equipment, leadership, and training. However, they are useful for organizing people, and in labor for disasters, and rescues. In a war, RoE is important, as if a planet is simply going to be burned off, or bombarded into submission, their usefulness is low.
 
One of the items we have failed to mention is the type of government and its level of persuasion. I think that a religious dictatorship like Iran would have a far greater number of conscripts (especially if a jihad is called) than say an Impersonal bureaucracy.
 
1200px-Catch-22_flowchart.svg.png
 
Enoki said:
...Here, you--the government--doesn't have to particularly care if the "colonists" are suitable for this purpose or not. They're surplus to the government's needs and the cheapest way to get rid of them in some useful fashion is to ship them off to some god forsaken, unclaimed, system to colonize it. You could send criminals, religious zealots, revolutionaries, the disgruntled, persons that don't measure up in terms of productivity or intellect, etc., to do this. They succeed, great! They fail, send another ship load and try again.
Click to expand...

Drew said:
One of the items we have failed to mention is the type of government and its level of persuasion. I think that a religious dictatorship like Iran would have a far greater number of conscripts (especially if a jihad is called) than say an Impersonal bureaucracy.
Click to expand...

In Traveller worlds RAW, larger population worlds tend to have more totalitarian governments and higher Law Levels. Though the natives know their way around better than "off worlders", such worlds will still have more deemed undesirable. The increase would be at greater percentages, not just greater absoluter numbers due to larger populations.
 
Enoki said:
On the other hand, given that some worlds in the Traveller setting are definitely overpopulated, and others are headed there, I'd say one of the likely things for conscription would be colonization and expansion of territory by various space fairing polities. Build a basic ship, pack it with your excess population, and send it off to system X that has had just the most basic survey done to know that there's a planet there they can survive on. Wash, rinse, repeat, until the excess population is no more.

Here, you--the government--doesn't have to particularly care if the "colonists" are suitable for this purpose or not. They're surplus to the government's needs and the cheapest way to get rid of them in some useful fashion is to ship them off to some god forsaken, unclaimed, system to colonize it. You could send criminals, religious zealots, revolutionaries, the disgruntled, persons that don't measure up in terms of productivity or intellect, etc., to do this. They succeed, great! They fail, send another ship load and try again.
Click to expand...

You cannot always get rid of your population via colonization.
  • Exporting colonists is fine with a relatively open frontier, like say the 2300 universe French Arm after defeating the Kafers.
  • Not so good for exporting colonists with closed or non-existent frontiers like The Third Imperium. Short of war, Spinward is closed due to the Great Rift, Rimward the Solomani. Coreward and Trailing may have opportunities, but going too far is a problem with Hivers, Vargr and the Kkree.
  • Not so good importing them when there there are more of "them" than you. In TNE, one of the Reformation Coalition's greatest fears was the one balkanized world whose population was TEN TIMES the entire Coalition population of allits various systems. If they got a hold of Jump Drives to reverse engineer, the Coalition feared being overrun. This sort of applies to the Third Imperium as the worlds individually fend for themselves.
 
Nathan Brazil said:
You cannot always get rid of your population via colonization.
  • Exporting colonists is fine with a relatively open frontier, like say the 2300 universe French Arm after defeating the Kafers.
  • Not so good for exporting colonists with closed or non-existent frontiers like The Third Imperium. Short of war, Spinward is closed due to the Great Rift, Rimward the Solomani. Coreward and Trailing may have opportunities, but going too far is a problem with Hivers, Vargr and the Kkree.
  • Not so good importing them when there there are more of "them" than you. In TNE, one of the Reformation Coalition's greatest fears was the one balkanized world whose population was TEN TIMES the entire Coalition population of allits various systems. If they got a hold of Jump Drives to reverse engineer, the Coalition feared being overrun. This sort of applies to the Third Imperium as the worlds individually fend for themselves.
Click to expand...
I wasn't limiting my comments to the 3I.
 
Enoki said:
This is my take on the approximate number of persons a planet / system would have in military service. It's a rough guide for those doing larger scale campaigns and such within Traveller.

Peacetime with few or no threats: .001 to .05%
Peacetime with a potential threat: .01 to 1%
Peacetime with internal strife, guerrilla war, or a serious threat to peace .05 to 2%
Immediate threat of war (mobilization): 1 to 4%
Wartime, full mobilization: 3 to 10%

The percentages tend toward the lower end for larger populations (> 6), open / freer governments, and open economies. They tend towards the higher end for authoritarian (high law level of 9+), totalitarian governments, smaller populations (<6), and closed / centralized economies.
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JTAS#10 Had an article on ground forces component for the FFW. I am sure the extrapolation from that could give you a guide.
 
CT/TCS had those budgets based on peace/war state and government type. Some were militant all the time, some were low peace/high war, with various middling between.
 
Drew said:
Do you know where one can download this JTAS edition for free?
Click to expand...
Where is my soapbox goddammit!

I'm not an admin. I is a grongnard. As such however, FYI @Drew: Certainly not all, but many of the people on these forums are current and former writers of 45 years of Traveller and Cepheus Engine. This includes Marc Miller, Matt Sprange, the "Traveller Inner Circle", John Watts and others.

It is impolitic to ask for such things for free
Here
Of all Places

The lesson is finished.
Via con dios (Go with God)
Anyone need the soapbox now?
 
Nathan Brazil said:
Where is my soapbox goddammit!

I'm not an admin. I is a grongnard. As such however, FYI @Drew: Certainly not all, but many of the people on these forums are current and former writers of 45 years of Traveller and Cepheus Engine. This includes Marc Miller, Matt Sprange, the "Traveller Inner Circle", John Watts and others.

It is impolitic to ask for such things for free
Here
Of all Places

The lesson is finished.
Via con dios (Go with God)
Anyone need the soapbox now?
Click to expand...
I’d like the soap inside please.
 
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