[FH] IF, PAU, FSE and ESU (was RE: [OT] Frog Bashing)

G'day,

> I dunno. John makes some really good points. Militarily the french 
> don't have anything to really brag about. 

If we constrain our thinking somewhat (I do seem to recall mention of
the
English being kicked quite soundly by the French a few times over the
last
thousand years... wasn't William the Conqueror from the "wrong side of
the
channel"?) always a danger when dealing with history let alone fiction
;)

Thinking back to the IF (which was where this all started before I
opened my
big mouth and mentioned Napoleon...) in typical GZG style there is very
little explicit detail and you could argue that around 2130 at least the
IF
at large may not have been exceedingly extreme given extremists wish to
break away from it. There is the coup of 2163, but even that's 20 years
before the xenowars where the FBs are set, plenty could happen in that
time.
The Sulmani IV incident speaks of less than pleasant tactics, but
doesn't
shout extremism. Similarly there is so little on the PAU you can't
really
say what's what there. Given the resources and potential population of
these
areas I think there's plenty of room for some very neat stuff with these
guys. Considering that the UK went from Catholic to civil war to
Protestant
in a human lifetime (or there abouts), which marks one of the greatest
changes in its history, I don't think its impossible that the IF and PAU
could be rich and thriving cultures by 2180s (population modellers see
the
relevant countries of the real world being potentially quite powerful by
then). 

By the same token I think the FSE is a lot more than just the French and
it
would be good to explore this mix more. I know there are some out there
that
have gone for Italian, Spanish etc themes to their FSE fleets, has
anyone
done that for DS/SG too or do you think they would be more integrated
than
that?

Another area I think could make a good campaign setting is the
sub-continent. Why has it remained part of the ESU (if it has)?

Cheers

Beth