Solomani666 said:
I personally don't see how the K'kree could possibly be a threat to the Imperium militarily.
Granted they can be a serious force to contend with on the ground,
but in order to attack another system they need to travel through space first to get there.
While this thread has veered quite a bit from its original topic, I've thought about the K'kree problem as well.
I think the assumption is that the K'kree are "meant to fail" by the writers as not to compete with we humans and our smug ideas of superiority (GURPS K'kree materials are a great illustration of this). However, it's an interesting thought exercise to imagine how the K'kree might tackle such problems. If we assume K'kree are more than just some Traveller writer's half-joke race, we would assume they're intelligent and perceptive (in fact, as a rule, as herd animals and herbivores, K'kree would be vastly more perceptive than humans). This means they'd be aware of their shortcomings and strive to overcome them once they met an opponent that made them aware of their shortcomings. ("It appears these humans can tolerate confinement in these small spaces for long periods of time. As disgusting as the idea is, it means they can build their ships smaller and cheaper than ours...")
I could imagine the K'kree organizing their fleets around the idea of "herdships" which would be the equivalent of Battle Riders. These would be enormous, ponderous, and vulnerable ships. The K'kree would be well aware of this and strive to keep them out of combat. They'd carry the enormous herds of non-combatant dependents as well as the serving members of the fleet. Several of these would make the core of the fleet. Like aircraft carriers today, they would not actually do the fighting.
The fighting would be conducted by smaller ships, the equivalent of destroyers or corvettes and up. They would be fast, reasonably well-protected, but their primary need would be to carry weapons for their task. Some would be expected shoot down enemy missiles or fighters. Others to tangle with enemy destroyers and cruisers. The largest would be designed with weapons that would hurt a battleship. They'd have sufficient crew so that a K'kree would not feel isolated but small enough so that the loss of the ship would be acceptable to the fleet's strength. The trick is, despite their size, they are not independent ships. They are more like "K'kree fighters" and have missions of relatively short duration. They would have limited life support duration and no jump drives. They would be launched from the herdship for some purpose, be it combat patrol, strike, or whatever then would return once that job is done. They're considered cramped and uncomfortable, but acceptable for missions of relatively short duration.
These smaller ships do not have a lot of the features you'd expect of a human starship. It's pointed out that K'kree have less of a sense that individuals need to be protected; most are perfectly fine with being the one who "takes a hit for the herd." This is practical acceptance of reality would be a large advantage K'kree have over humans. For instance, on these battle riders, the crew compartment of the ship would have some protection, but the interior would be communal. A good hit to the compartment would cause a blowout that would kill all of the crew; there's no "escape pods" or vacc suits. Combat is dangerous and such losses are considered just part of war (in fact, K'kree might have a herbivore fear of crippling injury over death - they'd rather die than to linger on with a broken limb, left behind by the herd).
Tactically you'd see this sort of thing as well. The herdships would not fight. If the enemy managed to break through in sufficient numbers to hurt the herdships, they'd simply jump out (they'd be designed with fuel tankage to perform two jumps on a single fueling). The battle riders that couldn't get back to the herdships would simply be left behind; again to the K'kree this is acceptable. The warriors in their battle riders would seek out glorious deaths. This tactic would be noticed and exploited by foes, so perhaps the K'kree mix it up. A large herdfleet "double bunks" its battle riders onto half of the herdfleet, which jumps to a destination. A day later, the other half jumps. In the destination system, the first herdfleet shows up, deploys battle riders and immediately jumps out. A day later, the second herdfleet shows up to pick up survivors.
