Re: Stategic Thrust - Pirates, mercs, and Letters of Marque

On Thu, 4 Sep 1997 TEHughes@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 97-09-03 21:28:15 EDT, you write:
> 
> << > In other words, if a spin-off group doesn't have any starships or
the
>  > means to manufacture and/or maintain starships, then what relevance
do
>  > they have in Full Thrust?
>  > 
>  > StarGrunt is a different story -- assault rifles are cheap and
plentiful
>  > (from the point of view of a splinter faction, anyway), and you
could also
>  > make a case for Dirtside II, but I really don't see how the Free
People's
>  > Republic of Madison, Wisconsin is going to get into space.
>  
>  Little relevance to FT, esp. brand new colonies. But older or rebel
>  splinters could have ships, good for small fleet actions.
>><snip> 
> 
> My thought is that a look at the naval situation in the 18th and 19th
> Centuries where letters of marque were issued by all sorts of powers (
even
> some land locked ones I'm told!!) One doesn't have to be a pirate, one
could
> cover onesself with the figleaf of legality by obtaining a letter of
marque
> from some splinter colony with more grudge than brains (besides, a
letter of
> marque generally involves giving a percent of the loot to the issuer
of the
> letter!!!) Next posit a mercenary company who solicits letters to keep
itself
> in business. I could see a light cruiser, several destroyers, and
merchantmen
> coverted to carriers in their fleets. This might not appeal to the big
gun
> boys ( my superduper dreadnaught can beat your regular super
dreadnaught!!)
> but I can see a lot of cutting out actions using SGII on spacestations
and
> ground actions. Squadron level fleet actions & convoy actions with
Q-ships in
> FTII. 
> 
> Let's see "John Teach, Inc." or "Blackbeard, Ltd." with the ship
designation
> LM (Letter of Marque.) Do you think the head of the company would call
> himself Admiral Naismith, or would that be too much of a steal? Oh
yeah, that
> causes me to think of another reason for the merc companies, plausible
> deniablity! This is how the merc companies gain access to ship class
weapons,
> but I would suspect there is a real size limit to the weapons sold by
the
> major powers (no capital vessel weapons!) On ground actions I suspect
that a
> merc co. would be no larger than a reinforced co. but a fleet might
hire a
> couple to form a composite battalion for larger actions. This sort of
> scenerio would be good for a campaign or RPG players. 
> 
> The mission parameters of the merc's would be quite interesting, just
how far
> could they go before their Issuer of Letter would pull their letter
and
> declare their action piracy? They would have to get a certain amount
of loot
> or they would loose, military ordinance is verry expensive!!
> 
> Anyway I thought a little political background for the small scale
warfare
> going in the fringe areas might help.
> 
> Admiral Hughes
> Fleets R Us, Inc.
> 
This is getting a bit long, but here's more from me...

The leters of marque idea sounds really good, and given the sheer size
of
space, there could be a lot of stuff going on -- privateers, mercs,
flat-out pirates, and on and on.

I have to agree that no sane government is going to allow capital class
weapons into private hands (eg A batts), and even B Batts would be
controlled. I'd say there'd be lots of Escort class, a smattering of
Cruiser class, and converted merchant vessels for the rest, as 'Adm.
Hughes' has said. There could be a fair number of fighter groups in merc
fleets however, operating off those converted merchant ships - which
would
also hold ground units, supplies, surplus equipment, you name it...

On a similar but related idea, how about space nomads? Fleets of ragged
small ships, mostly merchants, roaming around the edges of society,
living
by small trading, smuggling, salvage, the odd bit of asteroid mining,
and
odd jobs. There's been some sf books on this sort of thing -- Heinlein's
'Citizen of the Galaxy' comes to mind. That could be good RPG material,
or just senario ideas. A clash between nomad clans over good mining
asteroids, say, or something like that...

Okies in space, anyone? (US history, 1930's depression. look it up...)

Brian.