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All Things Vargr

Why not? The Ancients must have had many iterations of Vargr, and the ones we know of during the Golden Age of Traveller and beyond (with the teeth & claws) are the ones who survived or were the ones not destroyed after all of the tests & experiments were completed. Could be some other reason altogether!

Could be the teeth & claws were made to be viable personal weapons to compensate for being made physically weaker than those furless humans. Would the wolves Vargr are genetically engineered from actually be physically stronger than the average Human when uplifted?
At that size? Not sure on raw strength, but they don't appear to have the skeletal structure for heavy lifting.
 
I was sort of lukewarm whether the Vargr developed swords.

I think shortswords, mostly for thrusting through chainmail and padding, or through weak points in platemail.

Reminding me about biting, the countermeasure would be a wooden club, or an iron mace.

I don't think they have the discipline for a phalanx, though that's where being part of a citizenship militia would seem to be a requirement.


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Spears tend to be regarded as the most useful pre modern battlefield weapon system, at least for melee.

I don't think that the Vargr had the strength and endurance to develop pikes, and we don't know if Lair had the critters to breed cavalry mounts.

Spear blocks certainly would discourage Highland charges, but what happens if the defending Vargr are in a dispersed formation?

That's why I think that the club, or clubesque hand weapons, would be preferred to connect with charging Vargr's head.


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Reason I don't think that the Vargr would have bothered to use standard default swords, is that being weaker, it wouldn't have gained them the same benefit as humans, being a somewhat general purpose secondary sidearm.

Weighting the business end, gives them more damage on impact, essentially giving them a potential killing shot, or an incapacitating one.

Humans have that, too, but our greater strength and endurance allows extended polearms, such as halberds.

Exceptionally, I think rapiers, which are thrusting weapons.


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Vargr: Military Organization

V. A modern Vargr charge would be with a bayonetted assault rifle.

W. Continual disruption with automatic fire.

X. Morale check by the defender.

Y. If succeeded, and range closes to dogfight, possible spear thrust.

Z. Or clubbing, with rifle butt.
 
Doesn't make sense for a physically weak race to be charging in to melee range to beat on adversaries with the rifle butt of a 10/22, with a composite stock.
 
Vargr: Military Organization

1. Large scale logistics would be a weak point for any Vargr endeavour.

2. But Vargr are great scroungers, which tends to work out for small units.

3. Neighbouring polities would become quite alarmed, once their intelligence agencies identify hoarding of strategic materials, and not so strategic goods.

4. Especially, organizing support troops.

5. A Vargr defender's primary objective would be to stalemate the advance of an attacker, until the attacker ran out of supplies.

6. The attacker would want to force a quick and decisive confrontation, even if it costs him excessive resources and casualties.

7. The rationale being, it would cost a lot more if the armed conflict was allowed to drag on.

8. Third parties, including corsairs, could take advantage of the continued distraction, and take bites out of the attacking polity.

9. And, these might not even be allied with the defender.
 
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Vargr: Military Organization

A. Seen from the general morale angle, a stalemate would look almost as bad as a quick defeat, for the attacker.

B. Better to have a quick decision, and then be able to assess the fallout from a defeat, and rectify it.

C. The Furrer can then devote the time and resources to pacify his populace, rather than be distracted by an external affair.

D. Defenders would consider a stalemate success.

E. Public perception affects their opinion of the Furrer.

F. And the public opinion has an effect on the Furrer's public charisma score.
 
Vargr: Military Organization

G. The band is a semi informal grouping of Vargr packs, usually paramilitary, under somewhat unified leadership.

H. The Hundred is the term usually a formal, standardized, military administrative and field formation.

I. You could say that it's the Vargr equivalent of the Roman legion subunit, the century.

J. Most human administrative military formations tend to be below establishment.

K. Vargr Hundreds, at least initially, tend to be oversubscribed.
 
Vargr: Military Organization

L. Light infantry Vargr troops are sometimes referred to as Poochers.

M. It might be hard to sometimes differentiate regular Poocher units from corsair packs.

N. At a minimum, they have to wear a uniform, to identify their regularity and allegiance.

O. Over the years, the precise definition has drifted, to include other infantry based troops and units.

P. Specialist variants include Mountainpoochers, Parachutepoochers, and Fieldpoochers.
 
Furrer - supreme military and civilian Vargr polity leader

Doge - Vargr (city) state Vargr leader

Khanine - Vargr horde leader

Banner leader - leader of a banner

Hundreder - leader of a Hundred

(War) chief - leader of a (war) band

Pack leader - leader of a pack

Sub pack leader - leader of a sub pack
 
It is a military rank, and I think it evolved into a quartermaster function.

The issue I had with it, was, that I didn't know if the Vargr had developed cavalry on Lair, or even had bred local livestock into beasts of burden.

By the time they had interstellarized, they probably preferred mechanized transport, if they didn't have equine equivalents.
 
Vargr: Military Organization

L. Leadership, can and could be divided into types.

M. Commissioned equivalent would be an externally recognized, and imposed, supposedly trained, junior commander.

N. Non commissioned equivalent, an experienced and organically risen through the ranks, leader.

O. Warrant equivalent, technically competent expert.

P. Political officer, appointed liaison.
 
Have not seriously dug into Vargr, but wouldn’t they have big litters?
Not particularly. Maximum of 8, as that's the carnivoran standard for nipple count.
The illos imply maybe 4 functional, so probably mode of 3-4.
Also, canon (TD article on children) doesn't give large litters.
 
Sub packs

Clique - female focussed grouping

Posse - male focussed grouping

Gang - legally challenged grouping

Crew - professionally focussed grouping

Team - task orientated grouping

Cell - closely coordinated task orientated grouping

Cabal - faction of pack leaders
 
Not particularly. Maximum of 8, as that's the carnivoran standard for nipple count.
The illos imply maybe 4 functional, so probably mode of 3-4.
Also, canon (TD article on children) doesn't give large litters.
IMTU I posit that the Uplift modifications included suppressing the abdominal and inguinal teats, leaving only the four thoracic teats. Subspecies with significant probability of nonviable or marginally viable pups* tend towards greater multiple births, accompanied by expression of the formerly suppressed teats.

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* Specifically the Roth Thokken, as IMTU they have the "Lethal White" gene (two copies of the merle coloration gene) which causes blindness and albinism -- and, inferred from canon, the merle coloration gene is strongly linked to psionic ability in Vargr. This also may occur due to environmental triggers on worlds with high ambient radiation levels, and in some cases also on worlds with tainted atmospheres where the local TL or customs constrain the use of necessary personal protective equipment.
 
Vargr: Military Organization

Q. Odds are, Vargr aren't great as a baseball pitcher, with minus two on strength.

R. Though, plus one dexterity means that the ball is likely to go in the direction intended.

S. And that means that a hand grenade thrown by a Vargr is likely to land where it's supposed to, just not that far away.

T. An obvious solution to that, would be to lower the explosive force of the hand grenade.

U. To shrink the killing range.
 
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