Hello all,
While we are playing in a tank-centric RPG right now (I need to Update that thread, reminder to self) I have been thinking about setting a campaign in a periphery area. And well, I have been thinking how it would be to model that after the Greece of the Peloponnesian and Persian wars. So here come my random musings. Suggestions and your own ideas more than welcome :)
MODEL: In the Double Blind book I read a few weeks ago, we find Astrokaszy, a planet with a series of cities ruled by local tyrants and desert tribes. Each city and desert tribe has a few mechs, between 2 and 8, and heavy walls in their central fortress (the cities). That works well for what I am envisioning here, a poor system with several city states in a pair of planets or 3. I plan on having somewhat larger forces, but not by much, sothe idea is to have a mech company per city or less.
In terms of power, I envision that a power will have roughly 1 mechs per 5.000 warriors. So a force of 40.000 hoplites are 8 mechs. Most cities will be able to field a mech lance. Hoplites would be medium and heavy mechs, while peltasts would be light mechs and psiloi vehicles. Cavalry would be heavier vehicles. More or less, this is not a hard rule.
There will be a fair use of tanks and hovercraft since mechs will not be numerous.
PLANETS
In order (and satellites):
Apollo (sun) - Etna - Peloponesus (Istmus) - Aegean (asteroids + Boetia) - Olympus (Delphi Station) - Hades
PELOPONNESUS: the second planet of the system, the first being Etna. A terran planet, the richest of the System in natural resources. Hotter than Aegeus and its surrounding moons. Dominated by Sparta and the lower power of Argos. Messenia and Mantinea are also important powers in the planet controlling large parts of its surface.
ISTMUS is Peloponnesus’ moon. An ore rich location with 2 local powers, Corinth and Megara. They are more spacefaring than the ones in Peloponnesus.
AEGEAN. A blue gas giant and the third planet of the system. It is near enough of Apollo, the system’s star, that some of its larger moons are habitable. It has a large ring of asteroid belts. Its most important moon is Boetia, but a lot of minor satellites and large asteroids (not clear igf they are asteroids or satellites) also house human habitation. Aegean is the heart of the system more than Peloponnesus, and a lot of commerce and industry is located in its many rings.
BOETIA: The largest moon of Aegeus. Cold and rainy. 2 powers. Thebes and Athens. Thebes tends to exploit the planet the most, while Athens has concentrated in exploiting the asteroid belt of Aegeus and is a strong spacefaring nation with the largest Galley fleet in the system.
DELPHI STATION is a space station orbiting Olympus, the 4th planet of the system. Olympus is a tectonically active planet with very hard storms that make it unusable by humans. Delphi Station is the nearest point of habitation to the System’s jump point, and acts as a mercenary hiring hall for the system as well as a trade point for all the powers that be, since Delphi and Olympus have a neural ground status. It also has the system’s only HPG station.
MILITARY
ATHENS produces aerospace fighters and small monitors called Galleys. Uses medium mechs.
THEBES is supposed to have a few assaults, but relies in medium mechs as well. Nobody is sure about the Assaults rumor since they have never used them. Yet.
SPARTA uses heavy mechs, some medium mechs and hovercraft run by slaves.
Other powers use medium mechs.
The large asteroids and small moons of Aegeus tend to have Galleys (monitors) and fighters, but not mechs, even if some have them as well in small numbers.
WARFARE relies a lot in mercenaries. Most mercenary commands tend to sport between 1 and 4 mechs and some armor.
OTHER POWERS
MACEDONIA. Nearby system. Fairly poor.
THRACE is a nearby system. Less develped system. they train good mech jocks and produce hovercraft that are used extensively as mercenaries. They raid Aegean as well from time to time.
PERSIA. Nearby multisystem power. Uses a lot of armor and light mechs. It controls 4 Systems and tends to skirmish/raid 2 nearby Aegean-influenced systems (Ionia and Aeolia)
WEAPONS PRODUCERS:
THESSALY AUTOMOTIVES. Hovercraft and VTOLS. Located in Thessaly, one of the smaller satellites of Aegean. Their production plant is underground to stand up to the cold climate of the thin atmosphere.
PHALANX INC. A small mech builder. It has a production centre in Peloponnese. Builds some medium and heavy mechs at a rate of less than 15 per year. The small production runs of heavy mechs are contractually dedicated to Sparta. They also build tracked vehicles and have experimented with a tracked mech called TROJAN, but the prototype was destroyed in dubious circumstances and the experiment has not been repeated.
HOPLITE WEAPONS. The second mech builder in the system, this one is located in Boetia. It tends to sell to the local powers, but is also willing to sell abroad, including the other satellites of Aegean and even powers of Peloponnesus and Istmus. Can assemble a few light and medium mechs at a slow rate of less than 10 per year.
No power produces assalts in the System, but there are rumors that Thebes got some. Type is unknown.
PHYRAEUS AEROSPACE. Builds fighters, and transport ships. Located in Athens.
AEGEUS AEROSPACE and other minor powers also build aerospace fighters and bulk carriers.
the mechs builts are limited in number, in the models available and in tech base. More 3025 than anything. Same for the aerospace fighters. I am unsure about allowing mechs to be built in system. One one hand it explains how they *do* have the mechs they have, but it looks somewhat over the top to have mechs production lines and be a backwater...
There are also the Galleys, a kind of small system monitors that resembles an enlarged fighter design with a crew of around 20 and limited transport capacity. To foreigners they look like oversized Leopards with a more sleek design. The powers around Aegeus use these a lot to protect themselves from the depredations of the planetside powers with mechs. Still, Athens is the largest user of Galleys, and that puts them in a dominant position to control the trade in the system.
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I am considering some weird rules regarding warfare, like transport ships being considered untargetable in order to prevent aerospace fighter to rule the wars between the powers with mechs being irrelevant.
Suggestions welcome. I am not sure about putting all that in a single system, it it also has some appeal being self contained instead of a whole 10-system thing.
Cheers,
Xavi
