Solomani Confederation (Military)

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Confederation Navy: Standard Docking Clamps

Type Alpha docking clamp - 0.5 tonnes, 0.25 megastarbux
attached ship tonnage - half a tonne to fifteen tonnes

Type Beta docking clamp - 1.75 tonnes, 0.875 megastarbux
attached ship tonnage - one and three quarters tonnes to fifty two and a half tonnes

Type Gamma docking clamp - 7 tonnes, 1.5 megastarbux
attached ship tonnage - seventy tonnes to two hundred ten tonnes

Type Delta docking clamp - 20 tonnes, 4.0 megastarbux
attached ship tonnage - three hundred one tonnes to two kilotonnes

Type Omega - 50 tonnes, 8.0 megastarbux
attached ship tonnage - two kilotonnes infinity and beyond!

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Political and Cultural Movements

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1. Corporate lobbyists.

2. Alpha Hawks - continuous counter insurgency to keep Imperium occupation unsettled; agitate liberation movements, increased military spending, and build up along the border.

3. Anti Solomani Activists - truth and reconciliation commissioned.

4. Gulag.

5. Never really viewed Vilani as nation statists.

6. Sanctions.

7. Asteroid Miners of Alphas Crucis - populists versus racketeers.

8. The Authentic Movement - sparking joy.

9. Goop.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Political and Cultural Movements

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10. Dolphin Embracers - slimy dolphinists/limey Delphinist.

11. Free Monitors - Anonymous.

12. Infovists.

13. Imperial Solomani Parties - Parochialism.

14. Han Solo Appreciation Society.

15. Big tent.

16. Subvert political institutions.

17. Make Solomani Great Again.

18. ManFirst Party - actively carnivorous.

19. Man's True Nation.

20. The Proud Men.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Political and Cultural Movements

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21. Pan Galactic Friends of Life - do it PanGFoLi, or not at all.

22. Purists - Purimans.

23. Partymantarians, Realists and Selenanters; Welfare Genes.

24. Realists - status quoters.

25. Rimward Expansionists - Manifest Destinationists.

26. Society of Sovereignty of Man Over Machine - SOSMOM.

27. Society for the protection of Terra - perpetual wars.

28. Solomani Freedom Party - socialists.

29. Jacobin Club.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Political and Cultural Movements

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30. Solomani Inter Faith Development Partnership of Alpha Crucis - ideology is religion.

31. The Vegan Truth - we're actually omnivores.

32. The truth is outed there.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Criminal, Paramilitary and Insurgent Groups

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1. Probably with an eye closed.

2. Black Phoenix - it's possible they went underground; it's also possible they're getting extensive external support.

3. Isazii Feruu Guaankarundn - underground railroad; though you'd think the Confederation would be happy to let (my Vilani) people go.

4. Kidashi Liberation Front - must be a security nightmare.

5. Knights of the First Cross - they need an outlet and meet a need.

6. That requires clear commitment.

7. Jardin Syndicate - Mafia.

8. That's tough to cover up in the long run.

9. If you want long term stability in the recipient society; though there should be pioneer and frontier planets.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Criminal, Paramilitary and Insurgent Groups

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10. Mercenaries - human centric, of course.

11. That one's a little tough, probably easier through an established military with actual historic ties, not mercenaries; aspirational.

12. Pick a side.

13. Probably more of an issue with Confederation entities, who seem to appreciate political purity; critical mass seems important, or at least it does to me, which is why I, years ago, picked three hundred as the trigger.

14. Maybe the Zhodani are less inclined to meddle in the Spinward Marches; I think there's a difference between Imperium interests, and actual Imperium military intervention. Fighting it out in deep space may be preferred in the Confederation.

15. Phoenix Project - depending on the source, may have been a deliberate sacrificial lamb, to allow the actual insurgency to exist in the open unnoticed.

16. Pirates of the Rim - Privateering, corsairing, you usually need some form of government sponsorship for long term viability.

17. Heavy naval presence, extensive patrolling, tends to do that.

18. This paragraph is all kinds contradictory: we're back to concentrated Fleet Squadrons, and holes in patrolling and coverage.

19. Seems like the wild west; yippee ki yay, Imperial sucker.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Criminal, Paramilitary and Insurgent Groups

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20. Solomani Freedom Army - could be more of a recruiting and filtering tool of Solomani Security.

21. Solomani Liberation Front - so they are targetting elite collaborators, and maybe aiming to destabilize inexperienced Imperium aristocracy.

22. Rule of Terra - they appear to have developed a specific strategy, that either want to over emphasize their reach and influence, or deliberately want to draw Imperium attention to themselves, not just public perception.

23. Seems a pretty ambitious list of potential targets, and apparently more at the practical annoyance level, than an actual threat, at least in my analysis.

24. Student radicals, might be the key description here, being more for the romantically inclined, being kept alive at minimum investment by likely Solomani Security through back alley channels.

25. Lashing out at, I assume, Confederation targets, over critique, may serve some form of purpose, that eventually allows some form of strategic terrorist act or atrocity, that the Confederation can disavow.

 

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Solomani Confederation: The Solomani Rim

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1. Terristan.

2. Germani; Sararimani.

3. I'm going to skip ahead here: I think that the Imperium has consciously or unconsciously set up the Vegan Autonomous District as the bloodiest battlefield in the next conflict, not in the sense that they wanted a buffer state, which they probably do, but more in the sense that neither the Confederation nor the Imperium care if the Vegan worlds get glassed.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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1. It's in the neighbourhood.

2. The Rim Main - line of conflict, likely.

3. Probably, but again, I think economics in Traveller is likely wrong.

4. The Rimward Gap - convenient.

5. The Dingir Sparse - I'm not sure how it complicates naval operations, since cutting down avenues of approach would rather simplify it.

6. The Confederation might grab Terra, but they'll continue to push the front as far and as fast as they can, until either resistance stiffens, or their logisticians start getting antsy.

7. A History of the Solomani Rim - the Solomani Rim is rich, but it doesn't matter.

8. Might want to look for anal probes.

9. Bases - I like to think that the Confederation Navy has one or more systems completely reserved for them.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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10. Rise and Fall of the Vegans - so they bought jump technology from Geonee.

11. Slow expansion.

12. Vilani aggressive trade policy.

13. The Vegans are supposed to suck at ground combat, but make up for that with morale and defence in depth.

14. The Vilani Rim Province - depends on their assumptions, and I will assume this was at the ass end of the Empire.

15. Year -2551 is supposed 1969, so -4300 would two hundred twenty before Christ.

16. So two and a half centuries later (Tiberius?) the area gets regularized into a province.

17. The Empire consolidates; basically, they probably wanted to see some returns on their investment.

18. Dissidents establish a colony on the doorstep of Terra; Dark Ages?

19. The mavericks are roped back in.

20. Apparently, this happens during the Middle Ages, and by -2424, we jump to the Barnard system.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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21. Interstellar Wars - settlers and Indians.

22. What doesn't kill us.

23. That's always been a surprise that Terra could progress to technological level twelve that fast; eleven they could reverse engineer.

24. Perpetual war.

25. The burden falls on the frontier worlds, while the home worlds enjoy the fruits of victory.

26. To be fair, they should have mostly emptied Rome and settled the proletariat evenly throughout the Roman Empire.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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27. The Rule of Man - civilian oversight.

28. According to Pournelle, that never turns out well.

29. History passes them by.

30. I would have gone with Solomoni.

31. Population control no longer being an issue.

32. Alexander and the Macedonians.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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33. The Long Night - chewable, but not swallowable.

34. Couldn't afford to maintain the fleet, reminds me of Foundation.

35. Since I'm fond of puns, I always thought that Terminus was Terra.

36. Vegans, sacred cows of sovereignty.

37. Starships are comparatively cheap, and intellectual property is free, unless Disney took over.

38. Triplanetary/Smithian/pulp.

39. Vikings.

40. Byzantium?

41. Camelot.

42. Space control.

43. Sort of obvious, but I think that Terra would be the elephant in the room, able to leverage what one assumes is accumulated wealth and overwhelming demographics to overly influence any alliance.

44. Angevin Empire?

45. American Colonies?

46. Can't think of an analogue, but for the fun of it, Scandinavia.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Sloops of War

1. So the Confederation Navy needs cheap and cheerful patrol ships in Mongoose Second, presumably for the same reason as in Mongoose First.

2. According to the Royal Navy, the difference between a sloop and a corvette, at least a century ago, is that a sloop is built to military standards, and a corvette to civilian ones.

3. Historically, a sloop wasn't a rated warship, but it's still a warship.

4. So doing a little research, they seemed to like them between a thousand and thirteen hundred tonnes, or around six hundred.

5. Six hundred doesn't suit me, and twelve hundred is to reminiscent of the Kinunir.

6. So, time to look into the Naval Treaties.

7. There was always this strange exception, in that any paramilitary ship below two kilotonnes, doesn't have more than four guns between three to six inches, can't launch torpedoes or mines, doesn't have armour plating, isn't faster than twenty knots, and more or less can't have more than three aircraft.

8. The two kilotonne clause is a coincidence.

9. So is another clause dealing with six hundred tonnes and below ships being exempt from any limitations.

 

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Solomani Confederation: Astrography of the Rim

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47. Dawn on the Rim - The Booteans are canny laddies.

48. Rome absorbing Greece and Troy.

49. Low hanging fruit.

50. Scepticism, combined with expansionist self interest.

51. The Solomani Movement might have been a distinct attempt to find an encompassing ideology to unite disparate polities in the Rim in resistance to Imperium imperialism.

52. Seems to indicate that at the current technological level, the Imperium over reached.

53. Civil Wars - so why didn't the Spinward Marches military get support?

54. Disillusionment joins scepticism.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Sloops of War

10. Ironically, the two kilotonne exemption was based on French designs and requirements.

11. The Americans appear to have made a half hearted attempt to capitalize on it, resulting in the two ship Erie class, though they appear to have cheated on the armour plating aspect.

12. I'm not quite sure how the twenty knot limitation came about, though I suspect it has to do with preventing these paramilitary ships to becoming destroyer alternatives.

13. Principally, these Confederation Navy patrol ships have to be cheap to acquire, and inexpensive to operate.

14. Two kilotonnish in order to hit certain checkmarks.

15. It has to be big enough, not necessarily to impress, but to make it's presence felt.

16. Spinal mounts can't target anything below two kilotonnes, if it's moving.

17. Bay weapons are penalized by minus two against two kilotonne and below targets.

18. They're also not subject to large bay shotgun bonus against three kilotonne and above targets.

19. Ships larger than two kilotonnes ignore critical hits from turrets and barbettes.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Sloops of War

20. Now, while I principally disagree with the new interpretations of the Confederation Navy, it does have to be taken into account.

21. Patrol vessels are likely to have a maximum strategic range of two parsecs.

22. That means that jump drives can be manufactured at technological level eleven default, or you can have the souped up versions at technological level fourteen.

23. Five percent of two kilotonnes is a hundred and five tonnes, default.

24. Coincidentally, this is exactly the standard size of Confederation Navy jump medium sized modules.

25. Budgetted variant would decrease the cost by a quarter, at the expense of requiring thirty percent more energy to activate.

26. There are two options, increasing fuel efficiency, or decreasing size.

27. Fuel efficiency creates thirty tonnes extra internal capacity per jump factor.

28. Thirty percent size reduction increases four parsec kilotonnes to 5'714.285714285714 parsec tonnes.

29. That's 857.142857142857 tonnes external cargo.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Sloops of War

30. How relevant is that twenty knots in relation to Traveller in general, and the Confederation Navy specifically?

31. The fastest modern corvette is around sixty knots, a fast battleship is thirty plus knots, and dreadnoughts around twenty one knots.

32. So let's put dreadnoughts at acceleration five.

33. Interestingly enough, acceleration five is five percent volume.

34. So, another technological level eleven one hundred five tonne module, at default.

35. Budgetted variant would reduce the price by twenty five percent.

36. The options would be either an increased size or energy inefficiency.

37. If you use increased size, you basically drop an acceleration factor to four.

38. Highly technologized variants would be either reduced size (pointless in this case), and seventy five percent reduction in energy cost.

39. 2'857.00 tonnes would have an acceleration of factor 2.940147.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Sloops of War

40. So we start off with a basic hull of two kilotonnes.

41. Add two pop up turrets, and raise the tonnage to two thousand and one tonnes.

42. De pop the turrets, and volume becomes either nineteen hundred and ninety nine tonnes, or exactly two kilotonnes.

43. This allows optimal target evasion against various weapon systems, and gives the option to ignore critical hits from turrets and barbettes.

44. The cheapest option is the nickel iron planetoid, with pre installed artificial gravity, at four kilostarbux per tonne, though twenty percent wasted volume.

45. Honeycomb the hull to lighten it and lose ten percent structural points, but your cost is now three kilostarbux per tonne.

46. Construct it at a technological level nine spaceyard, and it's now self sealing.

47. Fast forward to technological level fourteen, and you can really cheapily install twelve factors of bonded superdense.

48. So it becomes a cost befeit analysis, how that ten percent can be usefully employed.

49. That's why we now add external cargo, smallcraft and/or modules externally.