 September 26, 2013 - 5:15pm | There is another source of beingpower and ships which has not been addressed here or in the books. That is the Reserves. Typically these are ships and beings who are financed by the UPF but do not serve in an active capacity. Likewise their equipment is typical held in storage or put to other uses until they and it are needed. Contrary to popular belief they do not often find themselves on the frontlines. Mostly they are used to fill out active ships and to take over duties the active ships must abandon such as piracy patrolling and a quarantine enforcement. Some ships will be called to the front but we would see more support vessels and secondary warships such as destroyers and frigates. There would not be any all reserve cruisers and battleships unless outdated ships were pressed into service. An exception would be fighters and their pilots. As these positions require intensive training but also suffer higher losses then other naval positions reserve replacements would be a necessity. Any thoughts? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 September 27, 2013 - 1:27am | I do not think the concept has been thought of in the UPF. That is an idea from the Rim Coalition. Ships are outfitted with military grade wepaons and defenses, the Captain receives a commision and rank, then they are allowed to go about their business; as traders for example. If the need arises, they are called to active duty. The UPF relies on 1) Spacefleet 2) Militias and 3) volunteers - as in SWI. Ratt, you are taking an American concept and trying to place it here but, you have to think abstract. I mean A Human from Theseus might think "Why in the deep black, would I want to join the Reserves? It's like have two bosses. What if I'm busy and they call me up? It's better to join the Theseus Militia or worse, Spacefleet." Another factor is that a Militia is a form of Reserve. |
September 28, 2013 - 5:11pm | Ratt, you are taking an American concept and trying to place it here but, you have to think abstract. I mean A Interesting? A system in use by dozens of countries around the Earth which basically got its start when the nobility told their serfs you have to train one day a month in warfare in case I need you for cannon fodder long before they invented cannons or even Europeans figured out where America was is an American concept. Maybe you were thinking of the Minute Men of the American Revolution but since they were around for about 100 years before the Revolution and were considered British citizens that wouldn't count either. On 12 hour days for a couple more days will expand more when I get the chance. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 28, 2013 - 10:59pm | The point is 3 of the 4 races is not human. You are relieing on the past to explain this but, as a human. What I am saying is to think outside the box! Did Vrusk or Dralasite have serfs? Probably not so, this concept is alien to them. Yazirian are warlike but religious in nature - they most likely did have something like this. You are looking at this from a human perspective. Trying to imagine and extrapolite - create something new and different and not use history for the future. |
 September 28, 2013 - 11:20pm | We have never discussed how dralasites stereotyped who would be in the military. We have discussed a little about how the vrusk stereotyped who is in the military. I am using stereotyped intentionally here. In our past discussions I recall the vursk hive system having a soldier cast that was born to fight and the remainder of the population only fought when the hive was invaded. Then we postulated a transition to military companies that contracted to the others for military duties. Maybe this colony has not had the market demand for a large vrusk military corporation presence. For dralasites I would say that it all falls back to debate. They feel it is better to debate than to fight. When they need to fight they spend a long time debating before the society commits to a military course. The mixture of the races has caused them to be lead to military service by the other races when left to their own debates they would take much longer to get there. Perhaps the vrusk are the ones persuading the dralasites to commit resources and personnel to maintaining a "security" force because the system has not traditionally had the "market" demand for a larger military force. With not yazirians or humans in the politics of the worlds they do not over build and may even tend to under build this security force. -iggy |
 October 2, 2013 - 4:39am | I think the vrusk persuasion of dralasites for military duty hold s some water as Terledrom is a mash up government of elected dralasites and vrusk businesses. When military action is required to stem the loses on the bottom line the vrusk certainly push. However, in the other dralasite system you have a situation that reaults in inter-planetary war so I have to wonder if the dralasites of inner reach are all that slow to take nilitary action. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 2, 2013 - 4:56am | When it comes to dealing with the Outer Reach - certainly not. The Dralasites are quick to fight. They are an unusual point to the Dralasite way for thinking but, then again - their neighbor is a holdout for pirates and villany scum. Imagine if Inner Reach knew what Ixiol came from and where it was made? I believe they would use every resource to bring Outer Reach to it's knees. It would be up there with Laco's War. |
October 2, 2013 - 5:17am | I think thats the point that because there have been or will be 4 Dramune wars that the dralasites of Inner Reach will have become the most "hawk-ish" of all dralasites in the Frontier. Combine that with their propensity for painting themselves with washable dyes to show mood and you get an image of a dralasite with his "war paint". They will be highly patriotic and dralasites in military service anywhere will perhaps have the highest concentration come from Inner Reach. Dralasites from Terledrom will have more of a percieved liberal cast to them but the truth is that they are every bit as determined to fight once the debate is ended- its just getting thru the rounds of debate that is so frustrating for the rest of the beings of the Frontier. There is no doubting that a dralasite can make a tough customer based on the natural ability modifiers and this perhaps creates a stereotype of the dralasite in military service and no doubt most beings in the Frontier count themselves lucky to have a dralasite backing them in a bar fight. Before you comment on a dralasite debating the merits of an arguement in a bar I would remind you that it probably goes like this: yazirian takes offense at a dralasite, words exchange and while the dralasite would happily engage in more words, the yazirian loses his cool and throws a punch- fights on! I can see dralasites being near the epicenter of many bar fights despite their easy going, humorous and lets debate philosophy stereotypes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 2, 2013 - 5:33am | Add a drunk Dralasite and a "Hey why did the monkey cross the road?" joke and yes, the fight would be on in 1.25 seconds. Nice one Jed. Good article. |
October 2, 2013 - 6:13am | The point is 3 of the 4 races is not human. You are relieing on the past to explain this but, as a human. What I am saying is to think outside the box!
You are looking at this from a human perspective. Trying to imagine and extrapolite - create something new and different and not use history for the future. Well let's look at this race statement. As just mentioned Dralasites, while supposed to be the comic relief of the game are ready to fight. At least in the Dramune System a ready to fight force must be maintained so reserve forces are necessary. Outer Reach clearly keeps pirate vessels as reserves. Dralasites are on the reserve list. Yazirians are the warrior group. They are also clannish. Going back to the good ole days of clan life you have the village lookout yelling "Here come those guys who want to take all our stuff. Call out only the warriors because we as the honor filled, battle raged fueled race with honor blades would not call out everyone to defend us but only the active warriors." Yazirians are obviously the ones who suggested reserves to the other races. Their make up means they are ready to fight no matter their occupation. Vrusk will take a minute. First Vrusk are NOT hive creatures with a warrior caste. Start here: http://insects.about.com/od/behaviorcommunication/a/Social-Insects.htm For those who do not read much to sum up is to be a social insect requires three things:
Since Vrusk do not fall meet these they are more closely communal insects. This works well with the idea of Trade Houses. Since Trade Houses are small groups cooperating together to compete with other small groups and are not a planet wide system like the Zuraqquor have this speaks of alot of competition between groups. This competition in the early days would have bred some warfare. Given the total devotion Vrusk have for their Trade Houses and a quote from a recent movie "If your boss needs you to take a beating, you go out take the beating, come back and ask do you need me to do it again?" Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 2, 2013 - 6:33am | Point of clarification: I aggree that vrusk fit the communal insect model better but through other races misunderstanding or simply not caring if they got things right the term hive has entered the lexicon of Pan Gal in reference to a period of time before the rise of trade houses. Since it got used in the beginning of interspecies relations it tends to persist. Academic tend to make a comment on "the hive period" not really being accurate since it wasn't a true hive but the word persists. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 2, 2013 - 6:36am | Oh there is another need for reserves which should be thrown in here to. Since the militia forces are subject to go away at any moment, some force would be needed to take their place. Think of Gollywog with no Royal Marines to stop all that smuggling. The CRMs might get back from the Sathar war and find Streel in charge. In the US (yes an American example but wasn't started here) there are the State Guards. Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Defense_Forces Their job is to take over from the National Guard when they get called up and sent away. In SF there would probably be either system ships or armed civilian vessels held into reserves. The owners of these vessels might be compensated with some maintainence discounts at dockyards. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 2, 2013 - 8:39am | Ok so there is the UPF and then each system has a Militia. There was a previous discussion about a System Defense Force. So would the Reserves be: 1) UPF Reserves 2) System Reserves or Homeguard Units 3) both Also, the SDF did not get fleshed out. I believe this would be a version of the Militia but, it has system craft and cannot be activated by the UPF. So Task Force Cassadine goes to Theseus and activates the Theseus Militia. The Theseus SDF maintains their defense duties but, now needs to cover for customs, immigration, etc; because the Militia is gone. TheTheseus Homeguard then gets activated to augment the SDF units AND Homeguard units are also activated. How's that? Any points Rat and Jed? |
October 2, 2013 - 12:27pm | I would simply have them all be militia and the issue with activation is that only interstellar craft can be activated for duty outside the system, boarding shuttles, and fighters are not considered interstellar craft and these would be part of the militia, getting command of an assault scout is a big step up from a boarding shuttle. the regular militia ships can be activated and a plethora of fighters and shuttles remain behind for home defense. I just dont see the need for two forces with the same job other than something like The Royal Marines and The Royal Guard. as the differences in mission are a matter of kind even though they both are effectively militia in the eyes of the UPF they just function in different spheres. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 2, 2013 - 4:15pm | Ok so you have a Militia and a Militia Reserve, which expands the Active Militia. What about a UPF Reserves? |
October 3, 2013 - 3:39am | Ok so you have a Militia and a Militia Reserve, which expands the Active Militia.
Clearly, Land Fleet wont maintain a large standing army but rather have a training cadre that they can use to expand the army rapidly in time of war. Note there are decades between SW1 & SW2, I believe its six decades. A Federation wont pay for a huge standing army for that long with nothing for it to do. One benefit Land Fleet has is that the KHs stasis screen (which isnt properly describe) could be used to preserve hardware in bunkers so that it doesnt deteriorate over time. Land Fleet will likely have storage depots on many key worlds (heavy to medium population worlds) where they can expect to draw recruits from in the next sathar war. You probably do have reserve units staffed by beings taking the incentives and inducements in exchange for one weekend a month and two weeks a year. As the decades draw on and it looks like the sathar are not coming back you'll get people joining Land Fleet reserve because its a good deal and "You'll never have to fight the sathar, its been sixty years, they aint coming back."What about a UPF Reserves? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2013 - 3:47am | Space Fleet maintains a highly trained and dedicated officer corp based on the Russian model. Where an officer would do the maintenace as opposed to an enlisted man in the American Air Force. The space fleet enlisted, as per the book and much like the Russian air force are not considered the backbone of the service. If space fleet has spent and invested so much in developing an officer they are very likely to try to hang on to he/she/it. So I imagine that they do have a healthy reserve program. Probably with older model assault scouts in stasis or a desert bone yard. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 4, 2013 - 8:31am | Ok, when I signed on with the Army it was for 3 years. But, the fine print was 5 years Active or Inactive. Every contract was for 8 years. Could UPF do that? After the Gollwin Academy, the officers sign on for 2, 3 or 4 years Active. They need to do 6, 5 or 4 more years in Active or Reserve status. How's that? |
