Campaign:Vargr Incursions/Designer's Notes

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Scope of the Battlespace

The Battlespace depicted in this game was selected as a result of my interest in Corridor and the Rebellion and of the COTI Message Board's discussion thread "Attn: Historians of the Rebellion Era (1116-1248)". As a consequence, all of the Corridor Sector's Subsectors adjacent to the Vargr Extents had to be included. The question then arose as to where the Spinward, Coreward and Trailing boundaries should fall. (The Rimward boundary was naturally dictated by the Great Rift.)

This wiki, and the various publications about the Rebellion only sparsely records the history of the region. Khouth Subsector had many notes by Peter Gray and the information available indicated that the United Followers of Augurgh were Neutral and the Million Subsector and Atsah Subsector were raided anyway. This gave a natural pivot with the UFA acting as the corner. At the New Ziru Sirka end the question of how much of the Voskhod Subsector was needed was answered by the maps published in the rebellion Sourcebook and Survival Margin which implied that the Ngath Confederation was also Neutral - and then the very edge of the New Ziru Sirka became all that was needed. There was no serious competition between forces moved into the Corridor Sector and those protecting the New Ziru Sirka's Vargr Border.

Selection of the Political Groupings

Imperial

The Imperium has exploded and the Corridor Fleet has gone. What is left? The Domain of Deneb and what is to be come the New Ziru Sirka are obvious parties, and the Traveller Canon indicates that these clash over the resources near Durima so these are clearly not the same groups. The Sector Duke for Corridor Sector is described as setting up the Corsair Alliance[1] - So clearly he isn't supporting or supported by the New Ziru Sirka.

Vargr

There are 5 definite groupings of Vargr:

But there are many smaller ones.

These smaller forces fall into 4 main categories:

  • Those who are acting as raiders and will work for any Vargr State that can offer them loot (or the Corsair Alliance)
  • The members of the Church of the Chosen Ones who are effectively at war with the Irrgh Manifest and all the Human States
  • Independents who want to defend their home
  • Out-and-out Mercenaries

Other

Other groups fall into specific categories

  • Droyne
  • Independents who want to defend their home
  • Various populations that will side with anyone who passes
  • Out-and-out Mercenaries

None of these is a playable state as such and so these have been treated as counters that interact with the main political groups in various ways.

Special Circumstances

Vargr Arms Factory

see Rules

It is noted in the Wiki that the Vargr have a major arms factory, the destruction of which severely limits the ongoing activities of the Vargr Corsairs in the Corridor Sector. I have chosen to model this as a counter (that can be destroyed by Troop Action or Bombardment) and by giving the holder of the factory a bonus in combat.

Serk

see Rules

Khukish

MegaTraveller Journal 02 describes Kaasu as a place where the power struggles of the Imperial Nobility - the House Rehman - result in the world effectively becoming a base for whoever is present with the largest force{{Page cite|name=Megatraveller Journal 2|page=47. So the garrison has been set up as Mercenary with Alliance Guerrillas.

Ngath Confederation

see Rules

Depot and other Imperial storage facilities

see Rules

Droyne

The Droyne appear in three ways:

Church of the Chosen Ones

see Rules

The Church of the Chosen Ones is an organisation that sees the Vargr as the pinnacle of the Ancients design. I have thus depicted their troops as fanatics that fight particularly effectively when attacking worlds that hold/held Droyne, Chirpers or Ancient Ruins. As fanatics, there aren't many of them - but they are effective in certain circumstances. Given that church doctrine is part of the underlying split between the Glory of Taarskoerzn and the Irrgh Manifest, I have assumed that their fanatics would not be welcome in the Irrgh Manifest armies.

Vargr Adventurers

"The Vargr Extents supplies an infinite number of adventurers" was the first thing I had to get to grips with. And it turned out not to be true for all states. The Irrgh Manifest and Glory of Taarskoerzn are all back up by the Windhorn Rift which blocks any independents arriving from the extents. The same is partly true for the Dzarrgh Federate too. The Ngath Confederation is not welcoming of Adventurers and also has the Windhorn Rift to its back - and there are plenty of other attractions for this type further along the border. So this is not really a major sources of reinforcements until much later.

Which left the Gvegh Vargr and the Dzarrgh Federate. The Gvegh Vargr have two options - to raid via the Assemblage of 1116 or travel across the Windhorn Pact of Two and the United Followers of Augurgh to get to corridor. The raiding via the Assemblage of 1116 option appears to me to be likely to draw the majority of more distant potential reinforcements from Spinward. The Dzarrgh Federate is a relatively deep state and adventurers setting off to raid in Corridor would need to cross that entire state to do so - or come from within it - or come via the United Followers of Augurgh. These are all affected by the topography of space which requires a J3 capable transport (for the federate) or J2 capable transport (for the UFA) for progress. These restrictions are what gave rise to the "Box" concept for off-map movement.

Sources and Contributors

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.
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