Solomani Rim War

[stofsk]

I wanted to ask if there was a timeline available, perhaps online, of the Solomani Rim War. From war's start to war's end (maybe a bit before and after).

Or any information would be useful, to be honest. Major battles, major figures, an idea on the scale of the conflict, how long it lasted, and so on.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I don't recall off the top of my head, but I think there was something listed in the Invasion Earth rules.

 

[mike wightman]

Yep, the Invasion Earth game includes a page and a half summary of the war.

CT Alien Module 6, DGP's Solomani and Aslan, and GT Rim if Fire all have quite a bit of info on the subject, although a bit of it is duplicate.

CT Supplement 10 The Solomani Rim has a few bits and pieces hidden in the subsector descriptions, as well as the write up at the beginning of the war proper.

Then there's CT Supplement 11 Library Data(N-Z).

You may find this link of some use:

http://www.mega-traveller.com/beowulf/libframe.htm

Look under S for the Solomani Rim War entry.

 

[Golan2072]

Azhanti High Lightning has, on pp.27-30 of its rulebook, a scenario set in The Battle of Kagukhasaggan 2, in 1002 during the Rim War.

 

[kafka47]

Here is a candidate for a Traveller's Aide, if we could see a consolidation of that information (sadly, not even I have all the items mentioned) along with a couple of Sector Maps replete with an adventure. Perhaps, the story of a war journalist, an Imperial deserter, and a Solomani aid worker transversing across the battlefields in order to find transport home. Much like the Civil War in the United States, I see the Solomani War in OTU as a gut wretching affair that is dividing the Imperium, as much as uniting it to fight.

 

[mike wightman]

The Traveller Library Data site I posted the link to also includes a MT update of the Solomani Rim War, so it's pretty comprehensive.

I'd like to see QLI come up with more background for the war, and your suggestions are interesting kafka.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

The Spica Sourcebook may well include some of this info...

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Well, from the sources I have here at home, this is what I've been able to scrap together. My primary sources were MT: Imperial Encyclopedia and GT: Ground Forces.


704 - Pro-Solomani nobles in the Imperial Court prevail upon Empress Margaret I to create the Solomani Autonomous Region, an area of space encompassing all worlds (Imperial and Non-Imperial) within 50 parsecs of Terra. For the next 250 years, the Imperial Court ignores the Rimward frontier, concentrating instead on threats on the Corward/Spinward Frontiers.

940 - Solomani oppression of non-humans and non-Solomani humans within the SAR (aka the Solomani Sphere) comes to the attention of Empress Margaret II. She revokes the Solomani Sphere's charter and begins the process of reabsorbing the Sphere into the mainstream of the Imperium. This was vehemously resisted by the Solomani leadership.

989 - An Imperial succession crisis begins as Emperor Styrx is forced to abdicate after his mismanagement of the Third Frontier War. By the time of the elevation of Emperor Gavin, the Solomani declare their sessession from the Third Imperium.

990 - The Solomani Rim War begins with Solomani assaults into Daibei, Diaspora, and Old Expanses sectors, in an attempt to retake the worlds that had been reabsorbed by Imperium in the period 940-989.

993 - To date, Solomani Confederation forces have met with extraordinary success, even taking worlds that were never members of the Solomani Sphere. However, in 993 a large invasion force in Old Expanses sector was routed in a pitched year-long campaign that expended the Solomani iniative.

993-998 - This is a period of intense stalemate. Worlds are still holding out behind Solomani lines, and the Imperium's industrial weight is slowly coming to bear. However, the front has become a meat-grinder, cosuming army corps and fleets with equal appitite as the admirals on each side try to gain a decisive advantage.

998 - The Imperium begins a concentrated offensive on a dual axis (sp!) aimed directly at Terra. Solomani politicians insist on holding each world in the path of the invasion forces to the death and expend large forces attempting to reinforce beseiged worlds that have been bypassed the main Imperial thrusts.

Early 1002 - The Battle of Kagukhasaggan. A minor Solomani tactical victory on the flank of the main thrusts. Noted as the textbook case for how to make and resist boarding attempts on major warships.

Early 1002 - The Nth Battle of Dingir. Solomani Admiral Wolfe's Terran Combined Fleet is soundly defeated by the Imperium's two Grand Fleets. Scattered, they are the last major naval obstacle before Terra.

095-1002 - The Imperium invades Terra in Operation Prodigal Son. After two weeks of intense orbital combat, the Imperial 4554th Marines raises the Sunburst over Phoenix-Mesa Starport, allowing follow-on forces to begin major ground combat. This is brutal campaign, with suicide bombings, resistance warfare, and large collateral casualties. Very few Army or Marine personnel who went into Terra survived without being wounded in the melee, but by the end of the year Terra was in Imperial hands. On 312-1002, the last organized resistance was defeated at Mt. Farallon.

This battle exhausted both participants, however, and a cease fire was cautiously declared.
(Insert your TU timeline here).


Is that close enough?

 

[stofsk]

That's sorta what I was looking for, both that and the link to the website.

Basically though, what I want is what Kafka said: a Traveller's Aide on the subject, which would be awesome. I've entertained the notion of writing on the subject myself, but it would have to be an alternate TU because I don't have all the resources that the canon universe demands (fluff from CT, MT, GURPS, etc), so I'd just be making shit up as I go along.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Well, Sto, if might be just a smidge difficult to write a TA if you don't have the source material...

I tried that in college once, and it didn't do so well!

But a TA on the War is a great idea. It would be nice to gather all the various referenced information in one cohesive whole. For example, when I was writing my reply I wondered where Mt Farallon was (the site of the last organized resistance). After an hour-long search on the 'net, I finally gave up and wrote to Loren Wiseman over at SJG. He said that of the choices I had found he thought the 'Mt Farallon' referred to was in Antarctica, though he couldn't remember exactly, since he didn't work on the product.

So, it would be nice to have a source for stuff like that. Especially given that the T20 setting in right in the middle of the period.

 

[Klaus]

There isn't that much canon out there on this. G O'F's summary is more or less it, as far as I can see.

Andrew, Sigg, we really do need to incorporate some of this into Spica, but it does deserve it's own supplement.

Kafka's idea is nice for an adventure series: makes a change being refugees rather than the nasty men with guns creating them.

Most of us seem to be armchair historians of one sort or another, and there's alot of our own dubious history we can use for inspiration.

Revolutionary wars: War of Independence, French Revolutionary wars, Russian civil war, Spanish civil war. - Solomani grievances would run the whole gamut of political stripes. IMHO they're not all proto-Nazis; some might have honourable objectives akin to Jeffersonian democracy.

Meat-grinders: lots of these - the Somme, Verdun, Borodino, Stalingrad, Berlin, Okinawa, et al.

Desperate defences: Stalingrad, Battle of Britain, Korea, etc

Amphibious/aerial assaults: Gallipoli, Operation Torch, Anzio, Normandy, Crete, Arnhem, Iwo Jima,

Guerilla campaigns: Boer War, the Maqui, Russian partizans, Chindits, Borneo, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc.

Fleet actions: actually we don't have much here, as the world's navies seem to have been loath to commit to battle.
Battle of the Nile, Trafalgar, Battle of Tsushima, Falklands, Jutland, North Cape, Midway, plus running down commerce raiders, River Plate, Bismark, or shoring up defenses/retreats, Guadalacanal, Dunkirk.

If we look beyond the military details, and take into account the political ramifications, we could probably cobble together a rough account just using real world examples, then have fun embellishing it with sci-fi goodness.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Hmm..."The Solomani Rim Campaign". I like it.

 

[Pickles]

As long as it's not "Rim of Fire". Sounds like a bad curry ... ouch!