Supplement Four
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Ever played it?
If so, what are your experiences with it?
If so, what are your experiences with it?
CT Only: The Spinward Marches Campaign
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I've wondered what kind of ship was on the cover.
Supplement Four
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According to TSMC, page 4, it's a gunboat. You can get a sense of scale from the open port and doorway hatch deeper into the vessel. It's not huge. Probably a few hundred tons. I'd guess 200 tons.
Totally missed that, thanks. I could go for as much as 400 tons, Turret top and bottom and 2 torpedo barbettes in the bow. Added to my list of ships to write up.
As to your original question, I've had it for some time and keep perusing it for information but I've never actually played it.
As to your original question, I've had it for some time and keep perusing it for information but I've never actually played it.
Check the tail fin graphic. It's one of the 4518th Lift Infantry's SDBs used for ortillery support.
I did. In fact it was the first campaign I played as referee. I used MT rules (then new, as it was back in latter 80's, I guess), though, but I don't believe it changes anything.
Even years latter some players remembered it as one of the campaigns they have enjoyed more...
Not well laid out as a campaign, but a pretty good sourcebook. Also, looks like it was to be to "big book Traveller" (TTB/ST) as S4 was to littlebook (B1-3)... it reprints the rules (but not pregens) of Sup4...
It combines S3 and S4 into one volume, plus adds a bunch of additional stuff...
Had I been part of GDW at the time, I'd have argued to include the 4p of Ironmongery from B4 as well...
Supplement Four
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It looks like a very vague campaign--lots of details for the Ref to develop.
Played it? No. Plundered it? Yes.
It's a very skimpy campaign, like Imperial Fringe or Memory Alpha skimpy.
As a sourcebook, however, SMC is great.
Like the Kinunir/Norris Warrant, that's one of Traveller's enduring mysteries. There was a collaborative research effort on the TML many years ago which tried to answer the same question.
First, despite the 4518th's crest on the tail fin, the ship is not one of the regiment's ortillery SDBs as it's much too big. Using the size of the open airlock as a starting point, several TML members came up with a size around 1,000 dTons and not the 400 dTons the 4518th's SDBs are said to be.
Second, the combined illustration on the front and back cover depicts scene from the book's campaign. In that scene, sensors indicate a battle taking place in the outer system and a vessel from the Battle Rider squadron is sent to investigate. It finds a badly damaged merchant craft, no attackers, and not much else. Which the cover's illustration fits, once again the ship does not. There's nothing like it listed among the Battle Rider squadron's TO&E.
The TML's general consensus left the ship in the "mystery" category, but no one needs to do that in their game.
IMHO, the ship is an illustration and not a depiction. That is, the artist was told to "Draw a ship doing X..." and not "Draw this specific type of ship doing X..." The same illustration vs depiction quandary can also be seen on the cover of GT:Humaniti.
While that cover illustrate three humans from various races, it doesn't depict three humans from any specific races. People have guessed about which is supposed to be what, but Our Absent Great Old One, Loren Wiseman, flatly stated on several occasions that the three figures on the covers were not meant any human races Major or Minor.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
Wow. Eyeballing that doorway, I don't see 1,000 tons at all. It looks to be the 200-400 ton range to me.
And, Spartan had a good idea counting the hardpoints--leads to a 400 ton hull (I'd say a 300 ton hull, given Spartan's comments, with dorsal, ventral, and bow turrets).
And, Spartan had a good idea counting the hardpoints--leads to a 400 ton hull (I'd say a 300 ton hull, given Spartan's comments, with dorsal, ventral, and bow turrets).
Look at the dorsal superstructure... front end looks to have a row of windows with one more a level up If so, that sets our 3 m distance... and makes that open bay between 7x9 and 10x15 m. (the long depression on the poardside looks to be a long window-bank, too, probably 1m tall.
That's my first clue its a capital ship.
That big turret dorsal-aft is probably a bay-mount.
The aft looks like there are stacked couplers for airlocks, to two engineering decks.
Plus, the 4518th Regiment badge... which makes it one of 6 ships for carrying 7457 tons cargo plus 2400 troops & officers (5656 Td)... she's also TL12+ (regina or better) and thus J3+...
Doing the math, ship's share is 1300 cargo tons and 1000 stateroom tons payload, invert the fractions... T= 2300* (100/( 2 + 4 + 30 + 6 + 3 + 8 + 2 ) = 2300*1.8 = 4182...
Puts it in the 4K to 5K range
Supplement Four
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Compared to that doorway, though, those are very, very small windows--portholes about the size of a man's head. Those two housings on the dorsal section are probably the bridge--just one deck. The first housing, with the low oblong ports is probably the ship's military sensor equipment.
Besides, the section in the text describes a gunboat--that fits the doorway and 200-400 tons.
I think that's a laser turret dorsal. There's probably a similar one ventral. And the bow probably has a missile launcher.
I'm still going with a gunboat--probably 300 tons.
You're making an assumption that that's the doorway, and not the fighter bay...
The textual evidence relegates it to being a bay of some kind, not the airlock door.
Just for my own amusement I'm going with a 400Td SDB that happens to look like a much larger ship:
Modified for my own house rules but still recognizable.
Code:
Mongoose Traveller High Guard 2e Modified
Hawk Class System Defense Boat
Built to Tech Level 15 standards
dTons Power MCr
- 20.0 Hull: 400 dTons, Hull points = 160
- 40.0 Advantages: Reinforced x3, Hull + 32, total = 208
- 4.0 Configuration: Streamlined
48 24.0 Armor: Bonded Superdense rating 15
34 6.8 Armored Bulkheads, all systems
- - Self Sealing (Included)
- 40.0 Heat Shielding
- 10.0 Radiation Shielding (Total 7,500 Rads)
- 400.0 Superior Stealth-15
8 16.0 Emissions Absorption Grid
- 4 60.0 Holographic Hull, 4 power, Hardened
- 100.0 Thermal Dispersion Coating
- 64 - Basic Ship Systems: 64 power, Hardened
36 108.0 M Drive: 9-G, 360 base power, Hardened
- 180 54.0 Advantages: Energy Efficient x2, 180 power
14.5 43.5 Powerplant, Fusion-15, output 290, Max Load = 289 power, Hardened
8.5 - Fuel, Powerplant: 23 weeks, 3 days, 8 minutes duration
- - Fuel Scoops: Included
3 3 0.45 Fuel Processor: 3 dTons, 2.5 tons/hour, 3 power, Hardened
20 2.5 Bridge: Hardened, Holographic
- 195.0 Computer Core/100fib, Hardened
3 6 7.95 Electronics: Advanced Sensors, 6 power, Hardened
2 2 12.0 Enhanced Signal Processing, Hardened
15 2 42.0 Military Countermeasures Suite, Hardened
4 4.0 Extension Net
Weapons
2 2 3.0 Triple Turret x2, power 2, Hardened
- 4.5 Beam Laser x6, base power 24, Hardened
- 18 2.25 Advantages Energy Efficient, V. High Yield, power 18
10 4 9.0 Torpedo Barbette x2, Hardened, 6 Torpedoes
- 4.5 Advantages Resilient, V. High Yield
100 - Ammunition: 300 Torpedoes (50 reloads)
48 6.0 Staterooms: 12
12 1.2 Common Area
0 - Ships Locker
3 0.75 Armory x3
4 1 3.0 Medical Bay (5 patients) 1 power, Hardened
3 3 4.5 Frozen Watch x3, 12 Marines, Hardened
6 0.9 Workshop
[U]16 - Cargo (Spare parts)[/U]
400 289 1229.8 MCr
Qualifies for 20% discount
Construction time: 38 weeks.
Down Payment: Cr 196,768,000
Payments: Cr 4,241,735 every 4 weeks
Total Yearly Maintenance: Cr 983,840
Overhaul Cost (Annual): Cr 737,880
Set aside Cr 29,516 every 2 weeks except for during overhaul
Maintenance Cost (2 weeks) Cr 9,839 every 2 weeks except for during overhaul.
Maximum Life Support Unit (LSU) capacity: 576
Max capacity standard: 24+12 Emergency capacity: 48+12
Computer programs: Bandwidth: 100 Cost: MCr Note:
Maneuver/0 0 Included
Library 0 Included
Security/0 0 Included Difficulty 8 to hack, Integrated
Advanced Fire Control/3 0 Included +3 DM to all Attacks, Integrated
Evade/3 25 3.0 -3 DM to incoming attacks
Launch Solution/3 15 16.0 +3 DM all missile attacks
Electronic Warfare/3 20 24.0 +3 Electronic Warfare DM
Point Defense/2 15 12.0 able to defend ships in close range
Battle System/3 15 36.0 +3 DM to Tactics (Naval)
Anti-Hijack/3 10 10.0 -6 DM to intrusion/access attempts
101.0 MCr
Crew: Captain, Pilot, Astrogator, 2x Sensor Operator,
2x Engineer, Medic, 4x gunners, 12x MarinesModified for my own house rules but still recognizable.
The text explicitly refers to the squadron's gunboat, as in the 154th Battle Rider Squadron. The PCs have been traveling with the 154th since saving the commodore from a mugging on Biter and are now at Garda-Vilis.
The party investigates the wreck aboard one of the 154th Battle RiderSquadron's gunboats yet the ship in the illustration has the 4518th Huscarles crest on it's tail fin.
Beginning to see the problem? It's not the only one.
- The only gunboats listed in the 154th's TO&E are the classic 50 dTon modular cutters. The ship on the cover is not a 50 dTon modular cutter.
- The 4518th has a flight section consisting of ten heavy duty fighters (one of which is assigned to HQ in a courier/recon role) and three 400 dTon SDBs. The ship sporting the Huscarles crest on the cover is too big to be a fighter and doesn't resemble any of the canonical 400 dTon SDBs.
- The 4518th doesn't have organic transportation assets. Instead, a transport squadron can be attached to "... the flight wing to carry the regiment interstellar." Why would attached jump transports be wearing the 4518th's crest?
- The route of the 154th is explicitly said to be from Biter, through the new Border Worlds Confederation, to Garda-Vilis where the campaign starts. The 4518th is explicitly said to have operated on Forboldn, Efate, Alell, and Victoria, none of which are near the 154th's route.
Wil's already neatly covered the various size conundrums. Good arguments can be made for the ship to range in size from 1K to 4K dTons in size.
That's your call.
A lot of people on the TML wrestled with this and couldn't come up with any real solution. In the end you either had to accept the "Illustration vs Depiction" explanation or handwave away several facts in the sourcebook concerning both the 154th and 4518th so as to claim the ship on the cover is somehow a IN squadron's gunboat with a Colonial regimental crest.
Believe me, everyone's mileage varies with this one!
Supplement Four
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And, if you could see the starboard side of the starboard tail fin, then you'd see the crest for the 154th, designating a 154th gunboat carrying Huscarles Marines!
But...to me, it's obvious that the scene depicted on the covers is the scene described on page 4 of the adventure. There's the gas giant. There's the wrecked merchant vessel (also a non-standard design). And, there's the two dude going over to check it out.
The ship must be the gunboat spoken of.
There's the doorway (a wonky fighter bay opening, if that's what it is--there looks to be a lighted panel above the door, probably with caution instructions). There's the hardpoints. There's the turret, which doesn't look like a bay weapon to me at all. It looks like a laser turret.
The ship is streamlined, and it has fins! This indicates that it is less than 1,000 tons.
I see a lot of evidence that it is a gunboat, in the 200-400 ton range, no matter if the artist screwed up and made up new stuff--of if he's showing us new versions of gunboats.
Except it can't be if the rest of the sourcebook is also telling the truth.
Is the entire description about traveling to the wrecked freighter wrong? Is the entire description and TO&E of the 154th wrong? Is the entire description and TO&E of the 4518th wrong? Because all those things have to be wrong in order for that single illustration to be right.
What's worth more? All that text or one illustration? They both cannot be true at the same time.
The only solution, S4, is a meta-game one. The artist was asked to produce an illustration of a ship near a gas giant with a damaged ship nearby. The artist was not given detailed instructions to produce a depiction of the type of gunboat the 154th carries near a gas giant with a damaged ship nearby.
And, if you could see the starboard side of the starboard tail fin, then you'd see the crest for the 154th, designating a 154th gunboat carrying Huscarles Marines!
But...to me, it's obvious that the scene depicted on the covers is the scene described on page 4 of the adventure. There's the gas giant. There's the wrecked merchant vessel (also a non-standard design). And, there's the two dude going over to check it out.
The ship must be the gunboat spoken of.
There's the doorway (a wonky fighter bay opening, if that's what it is--there looks to be a lighted panel above the door, probably with caution instructions). There's the hardpoints. There's the turret, which doesn't look like a bay weapon to me at all. It looks like a laser turret.
The ship is streamlined, and it has fins! This indicates that it is less than 1,000 tons.
I see a lot of evidence that it is a gunboat, in the 200-400 ton range, no matter if the artist screwed up and made up new stuff--of if he's showing us new versions of gunboats.
I allow up to 5,000-ton ships to land. but having said that, I... am an idiot. I just now opened my copy to show front and back together. As one whole picture. Umm, yeah, that's an airlock to me, based on the relative size of the just jumped boarding party. I still stand by 400Td though. I'll just rename it a Hawk class Gunboat
PS Maybe the SDB's are referred to as Gunboats?
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