Commerce raider

[Malinor]

I've just finished reading Last Flag Down, by John Baldwin and Ron Powers. It details the amazing career of the Civil War commerce raider CSS Shenandoah in 1864-65. It occurred to me the story would make the basis for a great Traveller campaign set within a war situation. A ship crewed by player characters could be sent out to wage war on enemy-flagged commerce, knowing their own side is failing in the struggle. And yet, their actions might just turn the tide. What they do, where they go and how they act/react becomes vital to their cause.

A check with the search engine turned up a lot of material on corsairs and such but not naval-manned commerce raiders. I don't want to reinvent the wheel here, and would appreciate it if anyone could point me to a similar published scenario and/or details of a suitable vessel. Shenandoah was in the 1200 dTon range. In Traveller terms this could be a modified light cruiser? The PCs could then be officers aboard.

 

[sabredog]

Depending on the general background of your campaign what defines a commerce raider would vary a lot. If you use High Guard or CT...small ship game or big ones...would the ship be purpose built by the military (like a Graf Spee kind of thing), or would it be privately financed like a lot of privateers have been (good way to introduce a patron here)....or would the ship be a merchant vessel with pop-up turrets to do the Q-ship thing?

Currently IMTU the players are using a 300 ton commerce raider purpose built by a patron looking to cash in on a trade war and using the players to crew it. They have been doing reasonably well since they are in a primarily private, small ship type of region and since the military is only there to make sure things don't get out of hand they pretty much only have to worry about similar raiders on the other side. As well as a few NPC private mercenary ships who have hired on to do some privateering for the various companies involved.

They are a small group of only 4 players so I had to tailor it to a scale that they could handle, but they still had to hire some extra crew and muscle for boardings and cutting out missions. And since everything is using the CT Book 2 combat system that means even a well armed merchant is dangerous so some of the raiders are just that: heavily armed merchants modified as Q-ships to either attack raiders or capture unsuspecting merchants.

 

[Tellon]

IMTU -- withj no jump drive -- anything interstellar is dicey -- so literally you could have raiders sitting out in the Oort cloud in between systems or hiding amongst the asteroids in-between inner & outer system worlds

and go at it --

example: 'Home' is a 877ADE-A and has plenty of mercs/intel/secret police to deter certain shipping elements and smugglers from other systems.. so Interdiction & anti-smuggling activities are pretty common--Also, they have the resources to so commerce raiding whener the mood hits them. Of course on "legit" cargoes -- those same commerce raiders can then do escort duty .

So for me -- we have a mix of mercs, naval, intel and "police" all doing commerce raiding

Mercs -- usually a fight -- killing the opposing crew -- and taking the cargo -- so staight up piracy. (usually done against far-off worlds with little legal authority)
Naval -- commerce raiders one day, excort duty the next .. lol
Intel -- assassination, insertion/extraction of an agent, Fake "customs" search, and so on
Secret Police -- Intimidation, "fines" &/or jail-time, usually bogus charges; and taking the cargo as "evidence" ...

So for merchants doing business in the "Home" system had best be carefull .. lol

 

[Easterner9504]

Commerce

Rancke might know best if any TRAV based on raiding. Only one I recall was Flight Of The Stag series from Marishal Press
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Guerre de Course http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_raiding
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/g/guerred.htm
http://www.jcs-group.com/military/war1917/guerre.html

Commerce Raiding comes in 3 varieties: Warship, Merchant Raiders and submarines.

The Civil war occured during a transitional period with mixed sail/steam and wood/iron hulls. Mahan predicted Raiding was done and only a decisive clash of fleets would count for sea control as the modern steel ships appeared in early 1890's.

Germany used warships at the start of WW1 they had Admiral Graf Spee's China Squadron that terrorized the pacific, destroyed a British fleet at Coronel then was destroyed by a battlecruiser squadron in the Falklands. Other light cruisers sailed the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A number of liners were armed as raiders too, but these had little success. After 1914 U-boats were the primary raiders though armed merchant cruisers were employed Seeadler was a sailing ship under Felix von Luckner. Late in the war CL's were again employed with some success against convoys whivh the U-boats couldn't handle.

In WW2 Germany again used all 3 types having great success with U-boats and armed raiders and less success with warships which ironically was the most feared by the Allies and efforts to defeat them were all-out. The Graf Spee class armored cruisers were designed as raiders.

The key thing on raiders is U-boats killed all their victims and AMC and warships sometimes captured prizes and returned them home, doable so long as extra crew were embarked as prize crews.

Modern pirates and terrorists have adopted high speed small craft for raiding, but not well suited for TRAV campaign as tied to 1 system.

Jeff Hayes reading list. https://kearns.fogbugz.com/default.asp?ahoy.2.693.2
Alexander, Roy. The Cruise of the Raider "Wolf". Yale University Press, 1939: 270.
Brennecke, Hans Joachim. Cruise of the Raider HK-33 [PINGUIN] Binghamton: Thomas Crowell, 1954: 208.
Brice, Martin Hubert. Axis Blockade Runners of World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1981: 159.
Detmers, Theodor. The Raider Kormoran. London: Kimber, 1959: 206
Duffy, James P. Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet: The Deadliest Ships of World War II. Wesport: Praeger, 2001: 248.
Edwards, Bernard. Beware Raiders: German Surface Raiders in the Second World War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2001. 216.
Hoehling, A.A. Lonely Command. [EMDEN] New York: T. Yoseloff, 1957: 191.
Hoyt, Edwin P. The Elusive Seagull [SMS Möwe] London: Leslie Frewin, 1970: 208.
Hoyt, Edwin P. The Germans Who Never Lost. [SMS Konigsberg] London: Frewin, 1969: 1239.
Hoyt, Edwin P. The Last Cruise of the Emden. Guil-ford: The Lyons Press, 2001: 248. (Abridged as Swan of the East)
Hoyt, Edwin P. Raider 16 [ATLANTIS] New York: Avon Books, 1988: 216
Hoyt, Edwin P. Raider Wolf New York: P. S. Eriksson, 1974: 150.
Jennings, John. The Raider: A novel of World War I. [EMDEN] New York: Morrow, 1963: 272.
Lochner, R.K. Last Gentleman-Of-War: Raider Exploits of the Cruiser Emden. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1988: 321.
Mohr, Ulrich; Sellwood, A.V. Phantom Raider [ATLANTIS] Bristol: Cerberus Publishing, 2005: 224
Mohr, Ulrich; Sellwood, A.V. Ship 16. [ATLANTIS] London: John Day, 1956: 255 (See as well other titles: At-lantis, Phantom Raider, Sea Raider Atlantis, and Atlantis-Rattlesnake of the Ocean!)
Mucke, Hellmuth Von. The Emden-Ayesha Adven-ture: German Raiders in the South Seas and Beyond, 1914. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000: 160.
Muggenthaler, August Karl. German Raiders of World War II. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1977, 308.
Nerger, Karl. S.M.S. Wolf. Birkenhead: GTO Printers, 2000: 148.
Ortzen, Len. Stories of Famous Sea Raiders. London: Barker, 1973:
Pardoe, Blaine. The Cruise of the Sea Eagle. [SEEADLER] Guilford: The Lyons Press, 2005: 320.
Rogge, Bernhard; Frank, Wolfgang. GERMAN RAIDER ATLANTIS, New York: Ballantine Books, 1956: 154. (Also printed as: Under Ten Flags)
Schmalenbach, Paul. German Raiders: A History of Auxiliary Cruisers of the German Navy, 1895-1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1979. 144.
Simpson, Colin. The Ship That Hunted Itself. [Cap Trafalgar] New York: Stein & Day, 1981: 207
Slavick, Joseph P. The Cruise of the German Raider Atlantis. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003: 256.
Thomas, Lowell. Count Luckner, the Sea Devil. [SEEADLER] New York: Doubleday, Page & Co, 1927: 308.
Thomas, Lowell. Lauterbach of the China Sea. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930: 302.
Vat, Dan Van Der. Gentlemen of War: The Amazing Story of Commander Karl Von Muller and the S M S Emden. New York: William Morrow, 1984: 205
Walter, John. The Kaiser's Pirates: German Surface Raiders in World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1994: 192
Ward, Herbert T. Flight of the Cormoran. City: Van-tage Press, 1970: 175.
Weyher, Kurt. The Black Raider. [ORION] City: Elek, 1955 Woodward, David. The Secret Raiders. New York: W.W. Norton, 1955: 288.

 

[sabredog]

The key thing on raiders is U-boats killed all their victims and AMC and warships sometimes captured prizes and returned them home, doable so long as extra crew were embarked as prize crews.

This brings up another twist to the question of a commerce raiding campaign: prizes need prize crews...now IMTU right now the players have been using low berths to carry a couple of prize crews without having to sacrifice space for seized cargo or the large M-drives they have to catch prizes with (or to run for safety if they have to). They grab a prize, they thaw out a crew and send them home.

Another point to consider is that prizes sent off to home ports might run into trouble on the way and get recaptured by the enemy...that's an important consideration in Traveller, as it was in real life like during the Napoleonic Wars and the early American Naval days against the French and British with both privateers and Naval frigates.

If you want a good rule of thumb to build your raider think about these two things: how does it capture a prize and how does it escape if it gets in a jam? The first tells you if it will capture by boarding (need a lot of extra hands) or by pounding the enemy into submission at a distance (weapons and armor), and the second tells you if it needs to rely on speed or firepower/armor to survive fights with the escorts or raider hunters.

Historically either way was used and worked. The Graf Spee (among others) had speed and firepower, frigates and corvettes in the 17-1800's had large crews for boarding as well as speed to outrun ships they couldn't handle. Subs and Q-ships used stealth and surprise to hunt and evade.

 

[Whipsnade]

Gents,

I've posted an old TML essay of mine in the File Library here that discusses this very topic. You can find the file here. It's a Word document approximately 85kb in size.

The scope and nature of the essay are explained in the linked post.

Touching on a few topics already in play here...

Commerce "raiding" is best referred to as commerce "destruction/damage". This is primarily due to the specific technologies in play within the Traveller. Boarding and seizing control of a star/space ship in the Traveller setting is a time consuming process and a process which is fraught with danger for the raider.

Every point raised in the innumerable piracy threads regarding interception and boarding applies equally to commerce raiding crews. Putting a prize crew aboard one 57th Century starship from another starship is going to happen about as often as putting a prize crew aboard a WW2 merchantmen from a submarine did: i.e. Extremely Rarely.

There's no way around the technologies involved. Commerce raiding in the Traveller universe is going to entail destroying or damaging merchant shipping and other economic assets.

Oddly enough, that actually makes it easier to insert your players into the picture.


Regards,
Bill

 

[rancke]

State-sponsored commerce raiding has one big advantage over piracy and privateering: The need to make a profit does not apply. You've got a treasury to fund your repairs and, almost equally important, you're expected to get your ship shot up a bit, as long as you do more damage to the enemy. With pirates and privateers, every bit of damage you do to your prey and every bit of damage it does to you is a net loss. With commerce raiders, you get medals and promotions if you present a decent butcher's bill.


Hans

 

[Malinor]

Thanks for your responses, gentlemen. There's plenty of food for thought there.

Shenandoah's actions nearly always resulted in the destruction by burning of the prize vessel or vessels concerned. She was operating away from friendly ports most of the time and was almost perennially short-handed. Sending prize crews aboard each capture was not an option. The exception occurred in the Barents Sea when several Yankee whaling ships were taken and one or two retained for sending prisoners away to the nearest port. In every case prize ships were stripped of all usable supplies and cordage before disposal. Captured crews were given the choice of joining the Shenandoah ship's company or spending their time in irons. Not surprisingly many opted for the former! Those few female passengers taken were treated with every courtesy.

This all translates well for a Traveller campaign. Ships can be stripped of spare parts and supplies, etc before being destroyed by gunfire or demolition charges. It's doubtful the prize's fusion plant would be used for the purpose considering the huge EM signature it produces. Prisoners can be kept aboard or sent in a captured vessel to the nearest habitable world. As Whipsnade points out, it makes for an easy way to insert players into the picture.

 

[sabredog]

Sounds like my kind of campaign.

 

[Tellon]

Oddly enough, that actually makes it easier to insert your players into the picture.

Agreed

on my 400 ton SDB, not only do I have an "interrogation" room -- lol, hey the crew has to have 'some' fun with the prisoners .. lol -- but also low-berths to put them on "ice" -- and a smal cargo hold to grab 'valuables'

oh say -- software, rare gems, money, company stocks/bonds, Govt bonds, illicit drugs, and so on --- even mail can be 'borrowed' ..

hense the need to "interrogate" prisoners before putting them on ice, so one knows just what to steal -- umm, I mean "borrow".

And remember -- the crew doesn't HAVE to declare all thier booty -- they can keep a few things (so long as the ships political officer doesn't find out .. lol)

---

Aslo a small state for "visiting" govt officials (political officers); or Intel agents for some spook-work -- and so on

===

So yeah, players can be inserted easily --

 

[Brian Smaller]

I ran a long running campaign where the players ended up commerce raiding in teh Far Frontiers sector against Zhodani ships and interests in the Fifth Frontier War. It was great fun. Especially when they blew up a freighter carrying a hundred Zho Tech 13 Grav tanks destined for one of their clients in the region. All that potential money....they couldn't get the ship going before it's escorts showed up.