Anyone seen the new Sector Fleet book?

[IanBruntlett]

I was digging through some of my Traveller stuff and did some Interwebz digging too. Isn't the new sector fleet book a rehash of the Grand Fleet book published in 2006? Here's what I pulled off the Traveller Wikia:
<snip>
Retrieved from "http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Fleet"

Well, as someone who doesn't have "Grand Fleet", I'll be buying "Sector Fleet". Its by the same people (MJD) and seems to have more than doubled in size. Whether or not that is a bood thing or not can only be decided once its in play.

 

[PFVA63]

...

What missions does the Navy actually carry out?
Can a Sector Duke legally give orders to a naval Admiral?
How does the Navy recruit and train its personnel?
How many patrol ships are available in a typical subsector?
When the Bridge is shot away, who takes command?
What is the composition of a Sector Fleet?
When is an order illegal? Should it be obeyed anyway?
What jurisdiction does a corporate Route Protector have?
How much does an Able Spacehand get paid?
When a Commodore commands a single-ship force, is the Captain still in command?

Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Grand Fleet of the Third Imperium
Chapter 2: Vessels of the Imperial Navy
Chapter 3: Structure and Organization of the Grand Fleet
Chapter 4: Personnel
Chapter 5: Deployments and Procedures
Chapter 6: Weapons and Equipment
Appendix 1: Opponents and Rivals
Appendix 2: Sector Fleet table of organizations and equipment
Retrieved from "http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Fleet"

Hi,

The info on the back cover and Table of Contents are almost identical to what you listed, though I just noticed that there are two typos in the "Sector Fleet" table of contents where the Headings for Chapter 2 and Chapter 6 appear to actually be missing from the table.

Regards

PF

 

[locarno24]

And imagine the looks on the player characters' faces when a full Fleet, deployed in an emergency, Jumps into their system.

Especially if they happen to be carrying something that may or may not be dodgy at the time*. They don't know it's not there for them...

After the second full squadron of cruisers drops out of jump, some comment along the lines of "this is getting ridiculous" may be expected...




* Briefing from a patron a while back: "Here is MCr 1. A man named Vine will give you a further MCr 2 when you arrive at the highport and give him the crate. Do not open the crate. Do not scan the crate. Do not shake the crate to see if it rattles. Do not insert invasive probes into the crate. Do not speculate on the contents of the crate. Do not, under any circumstances, draw the attention of any Imperial organisation to the existance of the crate. Clear?"

They opened the crate. It didn't end well.

 

[DFW]

They opened the crate. It didn't end well.

They should have purchased a portable Densometer and scanned it.

 

[lastbesthope]

They opened the crate. It didn't end well.

They should have purchased a portable Densometer and scanned it.

But that would constitute scanning the crate which was explicitly forbidden in the instructions.

Rule 3: Never Open The Package

LBH

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

One thing about this thread is it points out how difficult it is for Mongoose to please the buying public. Sector Fleet may well be a bit of a minority interest, but some folk will appreciate the background info. Not all of us have been playing Trav since 1982, those who have come to trav and 3I in recent years can quite appreciate seeing some of the background updated for MGT. This may well be old hat for some, but still of interest to others.

Yes, you could probably say that newer players should trawl ebay and the pdf sites, buy second hand copies of CT, MT whatever and update things ourselves, we certainly can, and if I wasn't employed etc, then would have the time to do that.

However, in the interim, I remain quite interested in MgTs take, even when some of the material may have appeared in the past. Would be quite interested in seeing some of the "classic" adventures talked about regularly on other threads (and this one , "safari" and "chumux plague"?) updated to MgT.

Sector Fleet is not the best or most complete book I have ever bought, but it is still of interest, and will be useful when my Imperial fleet campaign (in Spinward) kicks off (even after I've amended (MTU) the heck out of parts of it!).

Egil

 

[alex_greene]

Still, you can well imagine the player characters feeling a distinct sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in a big way ...

 

[DFW]

But that would constitute scanning the crate which was explicitly forbidden in the instructions.

Well, who would know? FAR better than physically touching it.

 

[alex_greene]

But that would constitute scanning the crate which was explicitly forbidden in the instructions.

Well, who would know? FAR better than physically touching it.

Densitometers are passive scanners. The Patron would never know.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

But that would constitute scanning the crate which was explicitly forbidden in the instructions.

Well, who would know? FAR better than physically touching it.

Densitometers are passive scanners. The Patron would never know.

Quite high tech gear, and moderately expensive, so might not be available.

Of course, even if it is a density image of the contents may simply be a confusing set of images, or one medium holding something (brewer's yeast for Solomani Special Brew, or biological weapon?)

Egil

 

[Treebore]

Well I need this book ASAP now. Talked to my kids about Traveller today and they want me to run a game with them being active duty Navy Pilots, starting after their second term when their third term starts. We will be generating their PC's tonight. So I will be doing a lot of dog fighting for sure!

 

[locarno24]

Densitometers are passive scanners. The Patron would never know.

The patron, no.
The thing inside the crate, on the other hand, would have done. With more or less the same results as if they opened it.

 

[nats]

Well I need this book ASAP now. Talked to my kids about Traveller today and they want me to run a game with them being active duty Navy Pilots, starting after their second term when their third term starts. We will be generating their PC's tonight. So I will be doing a lot of dog fighting for sure!

Just get out some recent Battlestar Galactica/Babylon 5 dvds and use those for material. And check out High Guard with vector movement. Cant see this Fleet book being useful at all for that kind of scenario where the characters are fighter pilots - its all about the theory of large scale fleet maneouvers.

Problem you have is how to interestingly engage them in various fighter combat battle scenarios - probably best picking some standard missions such as explore planet based pirate bases, scout out asteroids ahead of the fleet due to jump in, rescue downed pilots, head off a strike fleet of bombers, investigate an unknown alien ship presence etc etc and then make a few small scenarios around those perhaps using a bit of vector movement for the battles and a few house rules based around High Guard/Starship operations rules along with a few interesting things happening during the off duty lounging around (Zhondani boarding? alien technology found? Rumours? Patrons? Gambling and debt? Falling out/making enemy/rival? etc).

 

[phavoc]

If you are interested in knowing more about the stuff behind the scenes of going to war, check out Jim Dunnigan's How to Make War. It's a hefty volume but chock full of statistics and such that will help you calculate logistics and other boring but essential aspects of warmongering.

 

[phavoc]

Depends on if you like to get down to the nitty gritty of logistics. Like you have some PC's playing a small detachment of mercs. How much food/water/ammunition do they need just to hang out? What about when the increase the temp of their operations, how much more will they consume?

It's not a tactical guide, but more of a behind-the-scenes guide. I'm sure it would have been of some use to the German High Command on the other front.

Though I'm not sure anyone would have paid attention to the bold Do Not Invade Russia In the Winter!. Ah well...

 

[Treebore]

Well I need this book ASAP now. Talked to my kids about Traveller today and they want me to run a game with them being active duty Navy Pilots, starting after their second term when their third term starts. We will be generating their PC's tonight. So I will be doing a lot of dog fighting for sure!

Sound like one of the ship books (HG/FS/TaG) might be more useful here. From the reviews so far "Sector Fleet" is more an expanded and canonized "Grand Fleet"(1). So the stuff is more about organisations, logistics and fleet size. Wartime vs. Peacetime strength etc. Interesting and (speaking from Grand Fleet) far better/detailed than the stuff in MT "Fighting ships" (and more my liking fleetsize-wise) but not the Space:2063 style stuff you seem to plan. More like reading Keegans "The Price of Admiralty" or Montgomereys "A History of Warfare"(2)


(1) That alone makes the book important, Grand Fleet never was "fully official" only "approved for", the new Sector Fleet product, even if the same internally (Like CSC and "Guns and Butter") changes that since Mongoose stuff is "official"

(2) Impressive stuff. And he manages to talk about WWII without using the P***** word once!

I only needed the Core, High Guard, and the CSC last night, but I will need the fleet book, because there will be fleet maneuvers done in conjunction with their fighting and I want to accurately reflect how that will work.

Since this book won't be in my hands in time I will have to break out my Starships 101 and other fleet resource books to do it with. Which will work just fine, since Mongoose probably used these as resources for the new book anyways. Plus it is largely backwards compatible anyways.

 

[steelbrok]

I've followed this thread with interest but still wonder whether it is a good buy for me as I already posess Grand Fleet. I lied that product but wonder how much extra I would be getting.

 

[phavoc]

I scanned through the book earlier this evening and found a few interesting things.

For one the book refers to the old-style concept of jumping. Ships charge their jump grids, then when they get ready to jump they begin burning their jump fuel to generate power and activate the jump grid. And during their time in jumpspace, the power plant is required to maintain a charge on the jump grid, or else the ship is destroyed in jump space.

They also talked about missiles (the standard, non-nuclear kind) being multi-warheads and splitting into multiple warheads prior to attacking, becoming plasma penetrators upon impact.

I didn't have much time to completely review it, but already it's appearing that it (also) did not get a thorough review to ensure the old reference were correctly updated/altered to fit the changes within the new canon.

I will probably buy it in the end, to add to my collection. And there is some interesting background information for people who wonder about command and shipboard life. But as much as I hope things are getting better with MgT and their publishing standards, it would appear that they are only staying the same.

And that does suck.

 

[kristof65]

I didn't have much time to completely review it, but already it's appearing that it (also) did not get a thorough review to ensure the old reference were correctly updated/altered to fit the changes within the new canon.

Or more likely was a victim of the completely chaotic way Traveller canon is established and maintained.

Somewhere around here is a thread where one of the well known Traveller authors stated they will no longer be doing Traveller material precisely for the reasons of trying to deal with the circle of people surrounding Marc and their interference with the process.

 

[Treebore]

I didn't have much time to completely review it, but already it's appearing that it (also) did not get a thorough review to ensure the old reference were correctly updated/altered to fit the changes within the new canon.

Or more likely was a victim of the completely chaotic way Traveller canon is established and maintained.

Somewhere around here is a thread where one of the well known Traveller authors stated they will no longer be doing Traveller material precisely for the reasons of trying to deal with the circle of people surrounding Marc and their interference with the process.

Yeah, I read that thread too.

Besides, I am not particularly worried about such correct references. My games are based on Canon, but do not even follow it closely enough for me to worry about such things.