J3 Evyn MacDude (25 Dec 2018 19:34 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (25 Dec 2018 21:34 UTC)
RE: [TML] J3 Frank Filz (29 Dec 2018 06:29 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Evyn MacDude (31 Dec 2018 02:43 UTC)
RE: [TML] J3 Frank Filz (02 Jan 2019 17:55 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Ethan McKinney (02 Jan 2019 19:42 UTC)
RE: [TML] J3 Frank Filz (02 Jan 2019 21:14 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Kurt Feltenberger (03 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (03 Jan 2019 00:31 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Evyn MacDude (04 Jan 2019 00:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Greg Nokes (04 Jan 2019 01:55 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Kurt Feltenberger (04 Jan 2019 02:11 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Cian Witherspoon (04 Jan 2019 03:08 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (04 Jan 2019 04:40 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (04 Jan 2019 08:52 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (04 Jan 2019 04:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (04 Jan 2019 08:50 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Evyn MacDude (04 Jan 2019 09:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (04 Jan 2019 22:32 UTC)
RE: [TML] J3 Frank Filz (04 Jan 2019 15:54 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (05 Jan 2019 06:36 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (05 Jan 2019 18:21 UTC)
Economics [was] J3 Evyn MacDude (05 Jan 2019 23:55 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Catherine Berry (08 Jan 2019 20:39 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Phil Pugliese (08 Jan 2019 20:58 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Catherine Berry (08 Jan 2019 21:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 evyn.macdude (08 Jan 2019 23:39 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Phil Pugliese (09 Jan 2019 00:51 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Greg Nokes (09 Jan 2019 00:53 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Rupert Boleyn (09 Jan 2019 00:55 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Richard Aiken (09 Jan 2019 04:49 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 evyn.macdude (09 Jan 2019 04:41 UTC)
Re: [TML] Economics [was] J3 Bruce Johnson (09 Jan 2019 18:51 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Bruce Johnson (06 Jan 2019 18:52 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (06 Jan 2019 20:27 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (06 Jan 2019 23:56 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (04 Jan 2019 03:53 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Evyn MacDude (04 Jan 2019 07:26 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (04 Jan 2019 08:36 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Rupert Boleyn (04 Jan 2019 03:00 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (07 Jan 2019 20:32 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Rupert Boleyn (07 Jan 2019 21:36 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (08 Jan 2019 01:04 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Richard Aiken (08 Jan 2019 02:14 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (08 Jan 2019 20:46 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (08 Jan 2019 21:04 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (09 Jan 2019 00:46 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 00:57 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Rupert Boleyn (09 Jan 2019 01:06 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Vareck Bostrom (09 Jan 2019 03:05 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Richard Aiken (09 Jan 2019 04:42 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 17:53 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 shadow@xxxxxx (18 Jan 2019 07:20 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 17:51 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Sudnadja (09 Jan 2019 18:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 18:34 UTC)
Off topic request for info; Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (10 Jan 2019 01:20 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 shadow@xxxxxx (18 Jan 2019 07:20 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (18 Jan 2019 08:00 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Phil Pugliese (18 Jan 2019 09:29 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Tim (18 Jan 2019 13:03 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Sudnadja (09 Jan 2019 18:14 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 18:37 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Bruce Johnson (09 Jan 2019 19:01 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Catherine Berry (09 Jan 2019 19:20 UTC)
Re: [TML] J3 Ethan McKinney (02 Jan 2019 19:46 UTC)

Re: [TML] J3 Tim 04 Jan 2019 03:52 UTC

On Thu, Jan 03, 2019 at 05:55:43PM -0800, Greg Nokes wrote:
> I’d love for some non-economic reason for a small ship/CT77
> universe. But at the scale of the imperium I’m not sure it really
> makes sense.
>
> Even if you hand-wave jump drive as the limiter it makes attacking
> impossible, as I will just build a huge station or monitor, and your
> small ship attack force will die a quick death.
>
> So convince me! :)

As I see it, fleets in Traveller are effectively unable to force
engagements with other fleets.  If any major power decided to send a
fleet to Capital, the first thing that the Imperium would know would
be the detection of a massive number of jump flashes in the system.
If they wanted the planet destroyed, it would be.  Then they could
leave before engaging any defenders.

So large military fleets are effective weapons of mutually assured
destruction, not just ordinary power projection.  One possible
consequence would be universal treaties limiting the sizes and
compositions of military fleets, at least those in open use.

You may build huge non-jump stations and monitors, but what are you
getting for your expenditure?  If someone breaks the treaties, you
still can't defeat a large fleet.  It does mean that you can defeat a
small one, but you can't make them stay long enough to be engaged, and
can't really limit destruction should they choose to directly launch
attacks against civilian settlements or facilities before leaving.

Your best chance of actually defeating a treaty-abiding fleet is to
openly display a small to moderate military capability (enough to
frighten away rabble like raiders), while having a larger secret
reserve than they expect, and deploying it after they've committed.

So that's what you see: relatively small numbers of ships in modest
numbers, typically small enough to not threaten destruction of any
high-pop world.  Behind the scenes there may be larger reserves of
system defences, and there may even be some huge secret jump-capable
fleets where nobody will ever see them.

- Tim