World War II Galaxy

[domingojs23]

Sort of what I envision for the "Spacification" of WW II Aircraft - example, Spitfire to Jetfire

https://hushkit.net/2012/06/27/the-ultimate-what-if-the-supermarine-jetfire/

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Sort of what I envision for the "Spacification" of WW II Aircraft - example, Spitfire to Jetfire

https://hushkit.net/2012/06/27/the-ultimate-what-if-the-supermarine-jetfire/

Sure, there are some differences of course. one idea is to insert this galaxy into charted space in the Reft sector or some otherwise empty sector, in this case the technology is identical to the Third Imperium in capability, there is no FTL radio, so each nation will have its x-boats to tie everything together, or maybe it exists in its own universe, and to make it more World War II like, FTL radios exist, they are called hyperwave sets, they are somewhat bulky and fragile like 1940s radios. In this case starships have hyperdrives, see page 66 of Highguard. Hyperdrive 1 is a World War I airplane and Hyperdrive 2 is a World war II airplane this makes the setting tech level 19. There are also Jump Drives, and these are equivalent to 19th century ships, and explains how people got around before the invention of the hyperdrive. I would make these Jump Drives continuous rather like inferior hyperdrives, J-6 takes 6 days to travel 6 parsecs, and J-6 takes 5 days to travel 5 parsecs and the amount of time spend in J-6 Jump space is proportional to how far you travel. Jump Drives are however fuel hogs compared to hyperdrives, so travel was much slower before the invention of the Hyperdrive by the Wright brothers.


The antimatter bomb is what Project Manhattan is trying to develop, The Germans are working on this as well, and so are the Russians and the British. When the first antimatter bomb is successfully tested is when this setting graduates to Tech Level 20.

I'm thinking, why not insert this into Charter Space, it could be fun, and would also explain why the Imperium doesn't get involved. These people have hyperwave sets, the hyperdrive, and are working on the antimatter bomb, that is a scary thing to the Imperium and other nearby stellar nations!

 

[domingojs23]

Hi Tom,

I like the idea of WW2G (WW II Galaxy) being somehow co-existent with the OTU Third Imperium Setting and Tech, but somewhat isolated from the mainstream of the OTU. For me though the most important element is to use the "look" of WWII equipment and uniforms but in a space setting. Overall technology and political dynamics should somehow mirror actual Earth history - but explaining how it came to be would be a bit of a headache. For now, I'd like to say that the region was populated by Solomani migrants who came to the WW2G sectors ages ago, but for various reasons looked to 1940s Earth for political and aesthetic inspiration, and thus the rebirth of a German Reich, Imperial Japan, etc. One thing though that I'd like to incorporate is the Alternative WWII Mecha you find in such settings as Dust, AE-WWII, Gear Krieg, etc, and the air/spacecraft of Uchuu Senkai Yamato, Luftwaffe 1946, Tigers of Terra, Crimson Skies, Rocketship Empires and Hard Vacuum. But the tech would be spacefaring, TL 12 and above ...

Oh, and Garbage too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raRGnueg8Lo

I'd like to also put in some additions - like the idea of a German Civil War, say a Reich split into 3 factions - (a) SS-led Nazis, (b) "Honourables" led by the Wehrmacht, and (c) a German Communist DDR-type group.

Cheers,

Gary

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Hi Tom,

I like the idea of WW2G (WW II Galaxy) being somehow co-existent with the OTU Third Imperium Setting and Tech, but somewhat isolated from the mainstream of the OTU. For me though the most important element is to use the "look" of WWII equipment and uniforms but in a space setting. Overall technology and political dynamics should somehow mirror actual Earth history - but explaining how it came to be would be a bit of a headache. For now, I'd like to say that the region was populated by Solomani migrants who came to the WW2G sectors ages ago, but for various reasons looked to 1940s Earth for political and aesthetic inspiration, and thus the rebirth of a German Reich, Imperial Japan, etc. One thing though that I'd like to incorporate is the Alternative WWII Mecha you find in such settings as Dust, AE-WWII, Gear Krieg, etc, and the air/spacecraft of Uchuu Senkai Yamato, Luftwaffe 1946, Tigers of Terra, Crimson Skies, Rocketship Empires and Hard Vacuum. But the tech would be spacefaring, TL 12 and above ...

Oh, and Garbage too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raRGnueg8Lo

I'd like to also put in some additions - like the idea of a German Civil War, say a Reich split into 3 factions - (a) SS-led Nazis, (b) "Honourables" led by the Wehrmacht, and (c) a German Communist DDR-type group.

Cheers,

Gary

TL 12 is fine I suppose, but we do need something better than the Jump Drive to give it that World War II feel, we also need an FTL radio, which I call a hyperwave set. Hyperwave at this time is mostly audio, and morse code, there is some experimental work in hypervision, but nothing that has reached the mass market yet. the weapons and maneuver drive could be tech level 12. The antimatter bomb is a superweapon that is being worked on in serveral countries.

how does that sound?


By the way, how could Germany have a civil war and also wage war on other countries? There were some German partisans fighting the Hitler regime, but I don't know if that counts as a civil war. I kind of want to do World War II, that means the Germans are mostly fighting non-Germans under a unified command, some Germans were part of the resistance, but they were a minority, certain ethnic groups were targeted for extermination, some of those fought, but mostly they hid or were captured and then employed as slave labor or were killed.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Focke-Wulf
TL Tons Cost

hull hull points = 13; -30.282 Cr 1,514,100
streamlined Cr 302,820
Chrystaliron armor = +1 0.378525 Cr 75,705
heat shielding Cr 3,028,200
radiation shielding Cr 757,050
reflect armor = +3 vs lasers Cr 3,028,200
maneuver 4 power = -12.1128 1.21128 Cr 2,422,560
hyperdrive 2 power = -3.63384 3.63384 Cr 7,267,680
Basic Ship Systems power =-6.0564
fusion power plant power = 34 1.7 Cr 3,400,000
fuel 1
bridge (cockpit) 1.5 Cr 10,000
computer/35 Cr 30,000,000
sensors advanced DM +2 5 Cr 5,300,000
fixed mount Cr 100,000
pulse lasers (2) power = 6 Cr 2,000,000
range Close damage 2D
range Close damage 2D
missile rack range special damage 4D Cr 750,000
4 missiles (standard) Cr 1,000,000
acceleration seat 0.5 Cr 30,000
cargo 15
Totals 0 Cr 60,986,315

 

[domingojs23]

Hi Tom,

Re my comment on TL 12, I meant to say TL 12 is a minimum, and certainly expect to see higher TLs.

Re German Civil War - it's the focus of my current solo miniatures gaming project which I'd like to port over somehow. It's assuming an alternative history timeline wherein Germany was victorious in WWII and/or an early removal of Hitler - then the Civil Conflict ensues. I'm actually most keen on "Alternative WW III" - entailing use of real-world Cold War 1960s-80s tanks and aircraft. Outside of Traveller (and OGRE/GEV and Starfleet Battles, which in turn were part of my old High School Traveller gaming), the most gaming I've done is with GDW's old Assault and Third World War boardgames, then adapting Assault for use with 1/72-87-HO scale armour and infantry minis. I'd get a big kick out of seeing Wehrmacht vs SS vs Nationale Volksarmee units on the same gaming table.

So, I'm thinking of starting, at least on my side, a WW2G scenario covering just one subsector, which has these three German factions at war with each other, perhaps confined to just one or two systems.

Cheers,

Gary

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Hi Tom,

Re my comment on TL 12, I meant to say TL 12 is a minimum, and certainly expect to see higher TLs.

Re German Civil War - it's the focus of my current solo miniatures gaming project which I'd like to port over somehow. It's assuming an alternative history timeline wherein Germany was victorious in WWII and/or an early removal of Hitler - then the Civil Conflict ensues. I'm actually most keen on "Alternative WW III" - entailing use of real-world Cold War 1960s-80s tanks and aircraft. Outside of Traveller (and OGRE/GEV and Starfleet Battles, which in turn were part of my old High School Traveller gaming), the most gaming I've done is with GDW's old Assault and Third World War boardgames, then adapting Assault for use with 1/72-87-HO scale armour and infantry minis. I'd get a big kick out of seeing Wehrmacht vs SS vs Nationale Volksarmee units on the same gaming table.

So, I'm thinking of starting, at least on my side, a WW2G scenario covering just one subsector, which has these three German factions at war with each other, perhaps confined to just one or two systems.

Cheers,

Gary

Ever read the book Fatherland by Robert Harris?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland_%28novel%29
Maybe that is a good scenario for a victorious Third Reich.
The world in 1964, according to the en:alternate history of en:Robert Harris's novel Fatherland. Keys: Red: Nazi Germany; Dark Red: German sphere of influence (European Community); Light Blue: USA and territories; Dark Blue: US allies and partners; Yellow: Republic of China; Grey: Not discussed. NB: The exact status of the European empires is unclear; the empires may have broken apart, may still exist, or may exist in a smaller/larger form than in our timeline.

And this is my map of the World War II Galaxy.

If we go with the Fatherland Scenario, the tech level of this setting would now be 20, each nation would have an arsenal of antimatter weapons, military ships would be powered by antimatter reactors, while most others would be powered by fusion reactors.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I already did some work on World War II. and I don't want to change the setting and throw out all of that work. It is weird enough that its happening in space, adding another twist where the Germans have already won, just makes it more confusing, plus I don't know what weapon systems would be developed from which to create their science fiction analogs. Anyway, I want a war, not a Cold War, which is what the Robert Harris Fatherland setting would be about. A civil war in a Germany armed with nuclear weapons would either destroy that empire completely, or it would come about peacefully such as in the collapse of the Soviet Union. World War II was the last total war between the Great Powers, after that we just have proxy wars.

 

[steve98052]

Although the Traveller technology scale places antimatter beyond the reach of the technology described in any rules (which tops out at TL15, except for naming a few things beyond that level), it doesn't need to be a TL20 technology. It could be that it's at the limit of available technology for your setting, even if that's only TL12.

For an analogy, note that the gravitic technology in GURPS Traveller is four GURPS technology levels earlier than it is in other GURPS technology scales.

Another way to look at it is that the Traveller technology scale places antimatter at TL20 for the specific purpose of powering jump drives, but it's readily available for other uses (such as bombs) well before that.

My point is that if you make antimatter the energy source for the setting's super-bomb, you can introduce it early so that you can use everything else in the rules as written, and write your own only for the specific mechanics of the super-bomb.

So what does an antimatter bomb do? It does a lot of things just like a nuclear bomb, but with much greater yield per mass of bomb core. (But the antimatter containment bottle is really bulky in early models.) It always explodes; neither a point defense hit nor a nuclear damper can prevent the blast. So to defeat it, point defense needs to shoot at at a greater range than usual.

In game mechanics, treat a base-model antimatter bomb as a nuclear bomb that needs to be hit by point defense fire at increased range (a die modifier that makes it two to four times more difficult to hit). But if the point defense fire at increased range fails, last-moment point defense can be attempted (without a die modifier), but a hit by point defense fire results in a reduced damage detonation, rather than destruction of the bomb with no harm to the target. At greater cost, bigger antimatter bombs can be built up to a hundred times more damage than a base-model antimatter bomb.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I'm treating the antimatter bomb as an analog to the fission bomb developed in the Manhattan project, along with that comes the antimatter reactor, which is basically a means of obtaining useful energy through the controlled annihilation of matter with antimatter, a bomb is somewhat easier to make, as that is simply the uncontrolled release of such energy, the hard part is making all of that antimatter in the first place, and containing that antimatter until such time as you don't want it contained In the World War II analogy, antimatter is analogous to fission. A fission reactor was developed slightly earlier than the atomic bomb. In the post atomic bomb world, fission reactors were used to power military ships such as aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. In the analogous world I'm developing antimatter will power spacecraft carriers, and other large scale military starships, smaller ships will still be powered by fusion reactors.

In the World War II Galaxy setting, the antimatter bomb hasn't been successfully tested yet. There are teams of scientists and engineers working together in a number of super secret projects to develop means of manufacturing large amounts of antimatter, containing that antimatter, and releasing that containment in a controlled and uncontrolled manner. a chief scientist named Heisenberg is working for the Germans to develop this technology, Robert Oppenheimer is on the American side heading up the Manhattan project to develop an antimatter bomb and also antimatter reactors and antimatter factories to produce the fuel they run on. There is a great deal of espionage concerning these projects, with spies trying to steal secrets. Werner Von Braun is developing hyperspace missiles, these are hyperspace-3 capable, currently for manned spacecraft the limit on hyperspace engines is hyperspace-2, which means a spaceship propelled by one of these can travel through hyperspace at the equivalent velocity of 2 parsecs per hour. Also there is no lower limit on the size of these hyperspace engines. For instance fighter spacecraft are equipped with them, and since the travel time is 1 parsec per hour, it is just fine for the pilot to simply sit in his cockpit while his fighter spacecraft is traveling through hyperspace. There is still the 100 diameter limit concerning activation of the hyperspace drive, and ships in hyperspace will fall out of hyperspace when they go deeply enough within the gravitational well of massive planets. It is in normal space where combat occurs. It is impossible to conduct combat or intercept another ship while in hyperspace.


The largest ships that have hyperdrives are bombers and cargo transports, about the size of the equivalent bombers and cargo aircraft during World War II. Ships larger than that are the equivalent of naval vessels and they have Jump Drives instead. Jump Drives are an older technology and large ship, such as battleships and aircraft carriers use Jump Drives of various sorts. A new invention the hyperwave radio allows instantaneous communication between ships in hyperspace, Jumpspace, and normal space with other ships and with planets and space stations, although there are range limitations. More powerful hyperwave radios have longer ranges. Hyperwave is not just used for communication between military ships either, it is also used for entertainment, and for a new invention called hyperwave radar, which can detect ships in Jump Space, Hyperspace, and in Normal space, what is detected are hyperdrives and jump drives, if those are turned off, then hyperwave radar can't detect them. Of course if you turn off your hyperdrive while in hyperspace, you fall back into normal space, so there is a downside to doing that. Hyperwave radar can also detect hyperwave transmitters that are turned on. So sometimes to sneak up on enemy hyperwave radar, it is important to maintain "hyperwave silence".

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is a write-up of a German single seat fighter.

 

[Reynard]

For some inspiration, try looking at Iron Sky if only for the spaceships.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

For some inspiration, try looking at Iron Sky if only for the spaceships.

Yep, mine is a more serious treatment of them however, the Nazis in this setting are just as evil as in actual history. Basically here I am working on hardware. I've updated the sheet for the fighter in my previous post. There are basically two kinds of spaceships. Capital ships which use Jump Drives, and the smaller aircraft types of ships which have hyperdrives. Hyperdrives are fast! the Hyperdrive 1 can travel 1 parsec an hour, compared with the Jump 1 drive which can travel 1 parsec in about 5 days, so that is about 120 times faster. The engineers have had trouble scaling up the hyperdrive for capital ships. My second fighter is a smaller German one, it has a maneuver drive 3 and a hyperdrive 3, so it can accelerate at 3-g and travel 3 parsecs per hour when beyond the 100 diameter limit. Since smallcraft can be starships and because hyperdrives are so fast, a fighter pilot can travel from one star system to the next in his cockpit, he doesn't need a stateroom, his flight suit is also a spacesuit, so if he ejects while in space, he can survive for a time until he is rescued, I'll say his ejector seat has a hose connecting to his spacesuit which allows him to survive in the vacuum of space for up to 48 hours, if also comes with a parachute if he ejects within a planetary atmosphere.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is my latest iteration of the World War II fighter

This one has a hyperdrive that consumes fuel so the range is limited.