When I began studying MgT1e (mostly HG) I realized it implied several paradigm changes. One of the main ones, IMHO, was that it shifted the main ship killer in large ship combat from the missiles, queens of the battle in CT and MT (the previous versions I’ve played) to the beam bays and turrets, be them PB at lower TLs or Fusion/MG at higher ones.
I also find the Spinals (mostly the PA ones) to be too easily stopped by armor, making them also quite inefficient weapons (see this post for my assertions about effects on missiles and PA spinals).
This lead me to reconsider the history of Interstellar Wars as it has been told to now, as I keep believing (and have stated already many times, something I know some of you don’t agree) that the history narrative should be understandable from the rules POV in a setting that is derived from a game (and so, its rules). I tried to keep the main historical lines but not so sure about GT:IW (as I don’t own it) and surely not too compatible with Imperium game.
Background:
When the Terrans contacted the Vilani Empire it has reigned for several millennia and has not faced a serious space thread for most of them. This has lead its fleet to become mostly a planet threat tool, concentrating most its offensive power on missiles as they were the main ortillery weapons, and to a dismiss of the beam ones (lasers excluded, as they can be used as PD), that were relegated to TL 10, mostly as spinals, as they could not be exchanged by missiles and where quite scaring and impressive (though they being TL 11, their ships were limited to 50 kdton, and only the largest ones carried them).
OTOH, the Terrans, having no space combat experience, assumed the Vilani had more of it and so their designs would be better and copied this trend on their military ships, making them quite missile heavy in their offensive powers. Even the spinals where ignored, as their ships were smaller (due to their lower TL).
The first Clashes:
When the first Interstellar War began, both sides confronted their heavily armored and missile armed sips, leading to many inconclusive duels. Even the large Vilani PA spinals where largely ineffective against the heavy armored ships, while the missiles, though some devastating salvoes could destroy or heavily damage an enemy ship, where mostly stopped by the PDs or negated by armor, while they were consumed at unexpected high rate.
The Terrans also faced the problem of having a poor supply train, as most of their shipbuilding capacity was dedicated to military ships, so the dwindling missiles supply quickly degraded the offensive capacity of any fleet as they went farther from Earth.
This, of course, gave some advantage to the Vilani, whose supply ships and missile production capacity were plentiful and had larger ships, as they still held a small TL advantage…
The neglected nations:
Earth, so was in serious trouble. To the factors told we must add Earth was not yet united, being a Balkanized world, and the standardization, both in material, languages, training and other factors (not to forget national agendas, despite all problems they shared) was far from total.
Then one unexpected factor entered in the equation.
Due to Earth history and internal politics among their nations, some of its shipbuilding nations had no nuclear weapons capacity (most important of them being Germany and Japan, but also Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Scandinavic countries and some Latin American nations among others), and they have dedicated their shipbuilding capacity to beam armed ships, leading to the development of the PB, both as turrets and bays.
Those ships, being considered not usable in set battles due to their lack of the main ship killing weapon (the nuclear missile), have been relegated to secondary roles, such as planetary defenses or freight escort until Terran losses and lack of supplies forced them to confront the Vilani in set battle, to an amazing effect.
The tide turns:
The Terrans soon realized their unexpected usefulness in battle, and the owning nations made sure their contribution and beams development were widely known among the Terran Naval high brass, beginning what was a true design policy change among the Terran shipbuilding, eased by the fact Terran fleet was small and easily refitted, while their shipbuilding facilities were not yet fully set up, making retooling them easy too.
The Vilani also saw it, but they were reluctant to accept what had worked for centuries (if not millennia) would not work anymore, and they were still more reluctant to a full change on their design policies (that should have to be approved by Vland Council, unaware of those facts, in any case) that would have forced them to retool all their shipbuilding industry, with the problems this would have meant for the maintenance of their already large fleet.
By the time the Vilani began to accept the unavoidable conclusion, after having lost several important battles to the PB armed Terran ships, and began the transition this needed, the Terrans have already won important territory (and industrial base), and their PB developing was leading to the first MG spinals (and soon after bays).
The rest is history…
(now ducking my head against the canonsits shooting
)
I also find the Spinals (mostly the PA ones) to be too easily stopped by armor, making them also quite inefficient weapons (see this post for my assertions about effects on missiles and PA spinals).
This lead me to reconsider the history of Interstellar Wars as it has been told to now, as I keep believing (and have stated already many times, something I know some of you don’t agree) that the history narrative should be understandable from the rules POV in a setting that is derived from a game (and so, its rules). I tried to keep the main historical lines but not so sure about GT:IW (as I don’t own it) and surely not too compatible with Imperium game.
Background:
When the Terrans contacted the Vilani Empire it has reigned for several millennia and has not faced a serious space thread for most of them. This has lead its fleet to become mostly a planet threat tool, concentrating most its offensive power on missiles as they were the main ortillery weapons, and to a dismiss of the beam ones (lasers excluded, as they can be used as PD), that were relegated to TL 10, mostly as spinals, as they could not be exchanged by missiles and where quite scaring and impressive (though they being TL 11, their ships were limited to 50 kdton, and only the largest ones carried them).
OTOH, the Terrans, having no space combat experience, assumed the Vilani had more of it and so their designs would be better and copied this trend on their military ships, making them quite missile heavy in their offensive powers. Even the spinals where ignored, as their ships were smaller (due to their lower TL).
The first Clashes:
When the first Interstellar War began, both sides confronted their heavily armored and missile armed sips, leading to many inconclusive duels. Even the large Vilani PA spinals where largely ineffective against the heavy armored ships, while the missiles, though some devastating salvoes could destroy or heavily damage an enemy ship, where mostly stopped by the PDs or negated by armor, while they were consumed at unexpected high rate.
The Terrans also faced the problem of having a poor supply train, as most of their shipbuilding capacity was dedicated to military ships, so the dwindling missiles supply quickly degraded the offensive capacity of any fleet as they went farther from Earth.
This, of course, gave some advantage to the Vilani, whose supply ships and missile production capacity were plentiful and had larger ships, as they still held a small TL advantage…
The neglected nations:
Earth, so was in serious trouble. To the factors told we must add Earth was not yet united, being a Balkanized world, and the standardization, both in material, languages, training and other factors (not to forget national agendas, despite all problems they shared) was far from total.
Then one unexpected factor entered in the equation.
Due to Earth history and internal politics among their nations, some of its shipbuilding nations had no nuclear weapons capacity (most important of them being Germany and Japan, but also Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Scandinavic countries and some Latin American nations among others), and they have dedicated their shipbuilding capacity to beam armed ships, leading to the development of the PB, both as turrets and bays.
Those ships, being considered not usable in set battles due to their lack of the main ship killing weapon (the nuclear missile), have been relegated to secondary roles, such as planetary defenses or freight escort until Terran losses and lack of supplies forced them to confront the Vilani in set battle, to an amazing effect.
The tide turns:
The Terrans soon realized their unexpected usefulness in battle, and the owning nations made sure their contribution and beams development were widely known among the Terran Naval high brass, beginning what was a true design policy change among the Terran shipbuilding, eased by the fact Terran fleet was small and easily refitted, while their shipbuilding facilities were not yet fully set up, making retooling them easy too.
The Vilani also saw it, but they were reluctant to accept what had worked for centuries (if not millennia) would not work anymore, and they were still more reluctant to a full change on their design policies (that should have to be approved by Vland Council, unaware of those facts, in any case) that would have forced them to retool all their shipbuilding industry, with the problems this would have meant for the maintenance of their already large fleet.
By the time the Vilani began to accept the unavoidable conclusion, after having lost several important battles to the PB armed Terran ships, and began the transition this needed, the Terrans have already won important territory (and industrial base), and their PB developing was leading to the first MG spinals (and soon after bays).
The rest is history…
(now ducking my head against the canonsits shooting
)
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