As for the Vilani issue, just make it a planet occupied by another race (human or otherwise) within the former Vilani sphere of influence.

And as for reinforcements, the original Imperium boardgame illustrated a great pattern to apply. Yes, the occupying commander can ask for reinforcements -- but that will bring shame, and eventual replacement if things go too badly. Fleet command estimated that the forces allocated were more than sufficient -- so if things are going wrong, it's obviously the occupying commander's fault. This provides a powerful motivation for that commander to work with the forces already allocated rather than calling for help.

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 9:46 AM, Joseph Paul <xxxxxx@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

So - anyone familiar with Mr. Turtledove's AltHistory Worldwar series?

The set up is that in 1942 Earth is invaded by a species that has interstellar cold sleep travel and armaments much like our own modern forces - MBTs, supersonic jet aircraft, assault rifles, counter battery fire, and yes H-bombs.

The species is lizardoid, small, and has a unified culture and language and a long history of imperial rule that the males of the species dedicate their lives to. Slow to make technical or social progress themselves, they are astounded to learn that what their probes reported Earth was like 800 years ago is nothing like it is now. They brought the wrong gun to the planet wide conflict.

Their stuff is much better but they only have so much of it and they are having problems getting production going to make replacements. Locals don't want to help. Locals get pissed and are hard to cow in to submission. The only reinforcements for the invaders is the much larger colonizing fleet that is twenty years behind them.

All in all this sounds like a great early Traveller back ground. Terrans show up with nifty new gadgets but 3 billion Vilani with lower tech equipment is still quite a handful. I understand the canon that spells out the collapse of the Vilani but I wonder if there is room for any exceptions? The big difference is in the speed of interstellar travel - in Traveller something would need to be done to cripple the Terran invaders ability to flee or get reinforcements.

--
Joseph Paul
By My Hand Designs LLC
4221 N Park Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46205
317-931-0561

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