All Things Vargr

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

A. The word "barque" entered English via the French term, which in turn came from the Latin barca by way of Occitan, Catalan, Spanish, or Italian.

B. Bark could be the hull configuration most optimal for trade in Vargrspace.

C. Corsair, by itself, is more descriptive of function, rather than a boat type.

D. Three hundred tonnes seems a pointless compromise, so we'll keep the legacy four hundred tonnes.

E. Five hundred tonnes seems to turn up in Adventure Class Ships, not sure why.

F. Six hundred tonnes, due to engineering compatibility, seems more suitable.

 

[Grav_Moped]

8. Manoeuvre drive probably varies, depending how important acceleration becomes.

It's likely to be as much M-drive as can plausibly fit, for bragging rights if nothing else.

 

[Condottiere]

It's more if they fear, or anticipate, being a predator, or prey.

I think the hotrods will be smallcraft.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. The word brig has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a two-masted vessel with foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail, square topsails and possibly topgallant sails).

H. Due to their speed and maneuverability they were popular among pirates (though they were rare among American and Caribbean pirates).[4][8]

I. In the early 19th century the brig was a standard cargo ship.

J. It was seen as "fast and well sailing", but required a large crew to handle its rigging.[10]

K. The candidate for eight hundred tonne hull.

 

[TamsinP]

From my rough calculations of various Napoleonic era ship sizes, 600 to 800 dTons is about right for a Royal Navy gun-brig (commanded by a Lieutenant), which would have been about the same size as a civilian brig. The larger brig-sloops ("sloops of war", commanded by a Commander; brig-rigged, not sloop-rigged - sloop-rigged vessels were designated as schooners) work out as about 1400 to 2000 dTons.

 

[kilemall]

Tonnage looks a bit high to me- HMS Victory is 3500 tons which roughly translates to 600 plus tons.

Freelance Traveller - The Shipyard - What is Tonnage?

 

[Condottiere]

The naming scheme is for dual usage vessels, if possible, with some connection to raiding and piracy.

Didn't want to make it a complete Scandinavian smorgasbord, since that's the Sword Worlds' thing.

Now, personally, I believe that Vargr prefer to build their own vehicles, if they didn't find it was just easier to buy one off the lot.

Or hijack it.

They could order one, in which case it would be built to their specifications, or go to a dealer, who likely has available three basic types: new, preowned, and junkers.

The new ones are likely built to certain common standards, since the bottleneck is going to be engineering, as well as replacement parts that fit.

The Vargr can build their starships to any size they like, but do they have the patience to wait that long, and the need to man and maintain them?

Knarr, brig, and bark, are general categories, but are somewhat more precisely standardized if they are built for retail.

 

[TamsinP]

Tonnage looks a bit high to me- HMS Victory is 3500 tons which roughly translates to 600 plus tons.

Freelance Traveller - The Shipyard - What is Tonnage?

Aaaaarghh! I see what I did - I forgot to convert the dimensions from feet to metres when calculating the volume. It was a while ago and I forgot to check the formula I had used.

btw, the 3500 long tons is the displacement, not the volume. HMS Victory is 2142 tons burthen (bm; builders old measurement). 1 bm is approximately 100 cubic feet (2.8 m^3) of internal carrying capacity, so dividing the bm by 5 gives the internal dTons.

Thinking about it, I might have deliberately taken the dimensions in feet as metres to work out approximate sizes for starships in a campaign setting, allowing much more volume per person.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

L. These ships were easy to produce and were cheap, and thus nearly every corsair captain (Raïs) had at least one xebec in his fleet.

M. It was used mostly for trading.

N. Alternative spelling zebec.

O. Candidate for six hundred tonnes.

P. And that, should complete the set.

 

[whulorigan]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. The word brig has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a two-masted vessel with foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail, square topsails and possibly topgallant sails).

There is a difference; it is not an abbreviation. The Brigantine is as you described. The Brig evolved from the Brigantine and was square rigged on both masts (with a possible additional gaff-rigged sail on the main mast for maneuverability). A snow brig has a fore and mainmast, and a ketch-brig had a main and mizzenmast.

For 3 masts, cf Barque and Barkentine (or Barquentine - there are some great names for Vargr vessels) vs. a Full-rigged Ship.

 

[Condottiere]

Well, I also tried to keep it to one syllable.

Let's be clear: the Vargr can and have built starships as to what they like.

The results would not be precise as human examples, tonnage likely fractalizing into parts of hundreds, rather than neatly being dead on the tonnage.

These would be built in batches, for when, I suspect, spaceyards are idle, so conform to standard types and categories, that Vargr would prefer.

I saw the design for a bloody expensive stealthed scout, and that would be a one off; questionable as to who could afford it.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

Q. Opposing our nice new set of four streamlined dual use starship models, we have the junker(s).

R. Junkers are unique spacecraft, consisting of salvaged and/or scavenged hulls and working components, available and accessible to their builder.

S. Rules say that welding these parts together make them dispersed configuration.

T. In theory, that would make the hull half default cost.

U. In practice, I rather suspect the actual cost be would be close to scrap.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

V. Planetoids seem an obvious way to short cut the acquisition process.

W. But, I think this ties in with my belief that spacecraft drives is the bottleneck, which obviously includes starship jump drives.

X. Wasted space means that for a given tonnage, performance drops by a fifth.

Y. Or, to maintain it, drives scale up by a quarter.

Z. And, if you include the gas, might be less of a bargain for Vargr.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

1. I was started wondering who protected the Vargr farmers.

2. You could install factories onboard starships, and hide in empty hexes, moving around while supplies are jumped in.

3. Agriculture tends to be rather more static.

4. You could hire corsair packs to act as security against other corsair packs.

5. And then I remembered.

6. That's the plot of Shichinin no Samurai.

7. I figured that the most effective way to govern, would be cease control of a large metropolis, and concentrate everything there.

8. Decentralization would require supervision, and dilution of resources.

9. In the meantime, grab all essential and economically viable outlying districts.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

A. Considering how the game mechanics allow Vargr to change careers without penalty, being corsair could be considered a phase.

B. Which leaves authorities the choice, as to whether segregate them, or integrate them into their society.

C. You don't get paid well by joining the military.

D. As a mercenary, your leaders should be more induced to get financial compensation, and generally look after their primary asset, mainly you.

E. I'm starting to think we could cover the Elizabethan era, the Renaissance, and the Byzantium Empire.

F. And, at the other end, Greek city states.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. If we take a step back, it would seem the most logical Vargr polity would be the city state.

H. The capital city soaks up all the regional net domestic product(s).

I. Within it's borders, no other rival metropolis would be tolerated.

J. All settlements are drastically smaller than the capital, and usually are specifically purposed.

K. Strategic areas are garrisoned and fortified, but not to the extent that they would be a military threat to the capital, nor that capital forces couldn't recover them, if lost.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

K. A rival metropolis would require garrisoning, and incur administrative costs.

M. Even if the guy sent to govern it is absolutely loyal, and trustworthy, his successor might be more independently minded.

N. This would be the case with any expansion, which, after costs for the conflict, also requires occupation expenses.

O. At some point, some might have figured out that hard imperialism would require eventual integration of the occupied populace.

P. And Vargr aren't that keen to extend electoral franchises.

 

[kilemall]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. If we take a step back, it would seem the most logical Vargr polity would be the city state.

H. The capital city soaks up all the regional net domestic product(s).

I. Within it's borders, no other rival metropolis would be tolerated.

J. All settlements are drastically smaller than the capital, and usually are specifically purposed.

K. Strategic areas are garrisoned and fortified, but not to the extent that they would be a military threat to the capital, nor that capital forces couldn't recover them, if lost.

Wouldn’t that be city pack, or pack state?

 

[Condottiere]

The manipulation may involve "cracking" (diluting the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) or "packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts).[3] Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins, a professor at Morgan State University, describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.[4]

...

"Packing" is the practice of concentrating a large number of similar voters into a single district, thereby limiting their influence in other districts. This approach can sometimes be used to ensure representation for a community, such as by creating a majority-minority district.[24] However, it can also be used to diminish a group's overall electoral impact. When the party in control of redistricting holds a statewide minority, packing may be used strategically to concede a few districts while maintaining greater control over the remaining ones.[25][26]

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

Q. How separate Vargr polities govern tends to vary widely.

R. When they go through the city state phase, it's reached equilibrium.

S. That isn't a static state, and at some point, will evolve into something else, usually due to both internal and external pressures.

T. Internal dynamics vary.

U. And/but, not all Vargr are born equal.